Author Topic: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You  (Read 2815 times)

Offline Zoologic

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Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« on: 10-03-2013, 15:03:46 »
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-update-2

Quote
And to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.

I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.

So that's what EA did for us, who pre-ordered their stuff.

I was kinda a bit annoyed, but feel no need to go on full rage against them. But then again, I'm really appalled by their decision of going the Persistent Online Authentication DRM way. Why the fuchs?

Offline Fuchs

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #1 on: 10-03-2013, 15:03:45 »
I don't know, I have nothing to do with this.
"Force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death.
To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without thought or doubt."

Offline THeTA0123

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #2 on: 10-03-2013, 15:03:18 »
I bet it will be a free EA game "Under this amount and nothing recent"
-i am fairly sure that if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left and it would be called bring back the porn "Perry cox, Scrubs.

Offline Hjaldrgud

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #3 on: 10-03-2013, 16:03:03 »
EA can kiss my ass. Worst company ever. I really hope they got abit scared and realize they cant just fist their customers as much as they want and expect us to just take it

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Offline luftwaffe.be

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #4 on: 10-03-2013, 18:03:02 »
currently waiting for a cracked version.

Offline Musti

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #5 on: 10-03-2013, 18:03:16 »
You know something has gone wrong with gaming when pirates are the ones providing superior gaming experience.
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Offline Dukat

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #6 on: 10-03-2013, 21:03:22 »
currently waiting for a cracked version.

I don't see that coming. They swept some basic game calculations to their online servers. Without the online server doing some basic math for your client, all you got is a pile of broken shards. If this will be cracked, you'll be limited to playing only a region or even district without connection to the outside world. The problem might already start when moving the first citizen to your district which, of course, comes from the outside world.

I usually imagine my own sounds with it, like `tjunk, tupdieyupdiedee` aaa enemy spotted, ratatatataboom

Offline Thorondor123

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #7 on: 10-03-2013, 23:03:20 »
You know something has gone wrong with gaming when pirates are the ones providing superior gaming experience.
In this case, they aren't. As Dukat said, a large portion of Sim City is actually server side, so it will take much longer to crack it. So don't try the current "cracks", there are many scams and phising sites claiming they have a working product, but all they will do is steal your log in information.
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Offline luftwaffe.be

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #8 on: 10-03-2013, 23:03:30 »
yes it's true. But it seems they're working on a crack right now but say it could take several months to crack it down ..

Offline Musti

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #9 on: 11-03-2013, 01:03:54 »
You know something has gone wrong with gaming when pirates are the ones providing superior gaming experience.
In this case, they aren't. As Dukat said, a large portion of Sim City is actually server side, so it will take much longer to crack it. So don't try the current "cracks", there are many scams and phising sites claiming they have a working product, but all they will do is steal your log in information.
Oh I won't be using any of them, I'm not interested in the game that much, it was more of a general statement
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Offline Zoologic

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #10 on: 11-03-2013, 02:03:52 »
Once the system is cracked, all that investment in those expensive servers and all that infrastructure is gone. The cracker needs to by pass the region simulation system, the global market for trading resources (your coal for coal power plant comes from it, if you don't have coal mine nearby).

However, that server queue is really annoying right now. Saving your city in the cloud isn't that genius either. You basically needs to get to the previous server you are playing in to get your cities back, when that server is full and you have to play in another, then you are screwed, because you need to get back from scratch.

Offline Flippy Warbear

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #11 on: 11-03-2013, 07:03:20 »
From what I've been following this game, I have two gifs to explain the DRM so everyone understands what it is all about:





And it is such a shame too. Originally I was looking forward to this. Not because I'd be a SimCity veteran (which I am not, mind you), but because I wanted similar to my beloved Tropico-series. This seemed suitable and it was coming out soonish. Was following it quite closely and then they started to drop bombs on us, the more and more they revealed of how the system works and what are the limitations, the more it put me off the game. :(

Then in the end I decided not to bother with it. Shame about how this DRM is in a way really good solution to counter pirates... but then again it is also completely bonkers. As we've seen with how "stable" the server's are, this launch has been a total disaster and imho rightfully so since it's EA we are talking about.

Offline Zoologic

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #12 on: 11-03-2013, 09:03:05 »
DRM does just more than hurt customers.

It actually has a lot of negatives than positives, much like un-needed feature, just because some incompetent people got overly paranoid over things they don't understand.

DRM serves to hackers as:

A challenge: hackers love to overcome things, because it is some sort of achievement to break something notoriously designed to be difficult.
More rewarding targets: hackers will receive a lot of fame for successfully breaking more difficult DRM, especially from pirates and haters alike.

DRM serves to developer/publisher as:

Insurance: while, there are no proven method of getting rid of pirates, DRM seems to be an acceptable assurance for old farts who never play game at the executive level or investors who don't know jack shit about computer. It is all to ensure them that all precautions against piracy has been implemented according to "industrial standard."
Extra cost: hackers will race in time to break the DRM as soon as possible, completely reversing all the investment in DRM. The return of investment (ROI) in DRM will be 0 by the time it is cracked. They turned blind eye, because of "insurance" reason.
Extra work: Some DRMs require developers to alter the design or the architecture of the game processing significantly, causing some issues and the game to break in previously unexpected areas.

DRM serves to customers as:

Extra burden: DRM takes more processing resources, be it data media reading speed, internet connection, and ultimately, electricity to adds nothing to the whole experience.
Extra cost: The cost of implementing the DRM is paid by the customer.
Potential problem: false positives and degradation of performance normally occurs with DRM. It can lead to loss of personal data (like save games, achievements/trophies, online account, etc)

I am suspecting DRM lobbyist is getting stronger and stronger. We never really needed DRM, because pirates will never buy the game anyway, and they are always succeeding. Their industry should die, they drain resources to contribute nothing to real economy. Kinda like professional ass-wiper, hired by old farts who never actually needed them when you got diapers.

Offline THeTA0123

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #13 on: 11-03-2013, 19:03:47 »
EA is an infection that is festering more and more. There game quality decreases, there respect for there clients is decreasing, EA stock owners are very upset with EA and especialy the very unstable stocks.

And whats worse, more and more publishers are taking EA's model over.

-i am fairly sure that if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left and it would be called bring back the porn "Perry cox, Scrubs.

Offline Born2Kill 007

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Re: Screwed by SimCity? Here's A Present For You
« Reply #14 on: 12-03-2013, 00:03:36 »
it saddens me... i got BF3 since July and i didn't even play it for a second, just because EA made it that i have to install their spyware before i could be able to play it, and i can't return the box since it's opened...
Oh well, i won't buy any new EA game now
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