I think Mrs B nailed it about indies, kickstarters, and the rest. As for Dragon Ages and Mass Effects, well, is that what we really want? Churned out IPs? They are good games, but good games can be made without all this BS.

Aside from that, we have entered the world of digital distribution. These power house publishers should not hold the power they once did. Sure, it still costs a lot of money to host the content, etc. But I can't believe, with games being such a major money business now, that other investors cannot be found.

So yes, it is a war of attrition. If developers get caught in the cross fire then they need to pick the right side. I don't know about you, but I don't continue to support a company or service that treats me like shit. Even if my close friends would be effected by my loss of business. Get off the ship, change its course, or go down with it.

they need to pick the right side.

Precisely.

 

May not be easy and it may mean suffering for awhile, but you'll always maintain your integrity and know you did the right thing. I left a well paying job at age 25, solely based on how upper management treated their managers. They were blessed with great management, but still felt the need to belittle or threaten them. It was a poisonous atmosphere and I had to get out fast. Upper management, if left alone to run the place, would have run it into the ground. They only knew the numbers and had no clue how things worked in production or on the line itself.

 

That's how I view EA's relationship with their developers and studios. A grumpy, cigar chomping fatcat bellowing impossible orders to get more numbers to look at.

So on a side note are there any regions set up for us to play together?

I think Nick is the only one here who has got the game to work.

I'd be willing to set up a region a few of us can play. You can invite a few of your friends too if you have any that bought the game. I have one who I regularly play with and one who I bought the game for. 

 

My Origin ID is YellerBelly. 

My ID is RedRush220 what server you on?

I have been playing on Europe West 2 due to the NA servers being shit. But I'm going to be switching over to one of the NA servers soon. I'll keep you posted when I get in touch with my buddy. 

Of course, the irony here is thick. EA and Maxis are shutting down
gameplay features in order to make sure that a title doesn’t really
*need* to be online, can remain online anyway to keep the DRM component
in place.

 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/07/we-built-this-simcity-on-a-shaky-foundation-of-drm/

 

Also, Amazon has ceased selling digital copies of SimCity.

They stopped selling digital copies and they put a warning about the servers for the physical copy. 

Hey, SolRush. Me and a buddy got into US East 2 and we have a map. We'd love for you to join. Next time you're in game, look on your friends list and if I'm playing you can click me and join!

Polygon has edited their review score two times since their initial review score. It goes as follows 9.5 > 8.0 > 4.0.

http://www.polygon.com/game/simcity-2013/2630

 

I'm glad they did this. EA was asking reviewers to base their scores on gameplay done at their offices, on their reserved, private server. It's not the same experience one would have once they played that same game at home. My belief is, EA didn't want their metacritic score to be tainted at launch. If reviewers followed EA's instructions, that review would be high. If the reviewers had waited to play it at home (they were given codes), that score would surely be much lower.

 

Kudos to Polygon, I say. It may damage their ability to receive swag and invitations from EA in the future, but they can feel good in knowing they did the right thing.

Talk about a landside launch... EA can't just keep treating their customers like crap...

Good on Polygon.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/7/4076570/ea-not-offering-simcity-refunds

 

That made my decision to never buy anything on Origin so much simpler.

Petition for an offline mode

http://www.examiner.com/article/simcity-gamers-make-a-petition-to-to-ea-to-create-an-offline-mode

Pretty crappy of them not to do refunds.

OOPS!!!

 

EA suspends SimCity marketing campaigns, asks affiliates to 'stop actively promoting' game

http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/8/4079894/ea-suspends-simcity-marketing-campaigns-asks-affiliates-to-stop

Awesome 5 star reviews at Amazon. haha

http://www.amazon.com/SimCity-Limited-Edition-Pc/product-reviews/B007FTE2VW/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_5?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFiveStar&showViewpoints=0

Haven't had any problems today, really. Logged right on, my city is going well. 

Is cheetah mode and other things still turned off?

I think the negativity has finally paid off for SimCity players.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/8/4081678/simcity-creators-offer-update-on-server-issues-promise-free-ea-game

 

Free game in the future.

Who the fuck cares? Oh boy, I get Fifa 2008 and Deer Hunter instead of my $60 back. WHOOOOOOOPIE.

 

EA can blow it out their ass.

FIFA08 is a fantastic game, thank you very much!

So from this I have learned...

 

• EA still sucks
• EA still values their wallets more than the consumer
• EA support is trying to compete with Comcast for worst customer service ever
• EA really didn't seem to have any recovery plan in place for something like this, also horrible PR
• EA would rather remove game features instead of giving what everyone else wants... No DRM
• I'm never buying anything directly though Origin (unless it is dirt cheap)
• Always online DRM is still the stupidest idea to come to game publishers (Ubisoft is also guilty of this)
• What could have been, and likely still is a great game, has been crippled by DRM that eventually won't stop pirates anyway
• My hope for the Sim franchise has been crippled
• I'm not going to buy any games at release from EA
• Even if I love the developer, if they partner with EA, they are dead to me (Who they choose to partner with is really their choice anyway, this is exactly what happened to BioWare IMO)

 

Congratz EA!