EA Employee Chastises Company Over SimCity in Public Letter

[WangChung]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...public-letter/

What you?ve demonstrated with this launch is that our corporate management does not believe in our core values. They are for the unwashed masses, not for the important people who forced this anti-consumer DRM onto the Sim City team. This DRM scheme is not about the consumers or even about piracy. It?s about covering your own asses. It allows you to hand-wave weak sales or bad reviews and blame outside factors like pirates or server failures in the event the game struggles. You are protecting your own jobs at the expense of consumers. I think this violates the Act With Integrity value I?m looking at on my own coffee mug right now.

I pre-ordered the game for my GF through Amazon. On launch day the reviews started coming in, and in addition to the "Always online" I was none too please that the game was yet another DLC money vacuum. I had her refuse the package and got a refund. I am done with EA for good.

Oh, and this Amazon review depicts perfectly the issue with both the game and EA
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3HI7AM...ore=videogames

[Kallenator]

Have to be a bit honest here, after seeing people playing the game on various streams and Total Biscuit commenting on it on his youtube-channel. I actually bought it (Got a 50% voucher from another distributer than Origin), despite all the knowledge I had about server issues and significant game mechanic nerfs which actually worries me more in hindsight.
Fact is that it's still a fun game (unless you really like SimCity 4), and if you bought it late like me, you likely will not have any issues with servers nor tremendous game-bugs.

I think it's great that we see internal debacle at EA about this, hopefully this finally! will lead to change within this corporation.

Now that is said, I am not especially proud of having sponsored this spectacle given the amount of issues and the extreme DRM. But hey, at least I was not stupid enough to buy Colonial Marines

[kromosto]

sim city lost me with 59.99 euro price at the beginning.

[zir_blazer]

Nothing more ridiculous that a Single Player game that requieres a permanent online connection. This is the sort of game I used to play for hours when my ISP has connectivity issues. Not anymore.

[El Mano]

I think it's great that we see internal debacle at EA about this, hopefully this finally! will lead to change within this corporation.

Why would there be any change when you are supporting their actual business model?
Perhaps if you didn't buy the game...

[Kallenator]

Why would there be any change when you are supporting their actual business model?
Perhaps if you didn't buy the game...

Because I am single person and a small Origin customer, but I think you meant "you and other people".

What you say is of course true, we as a market force need to set standards and completely refuse any such unreasonable attempt.

On the other hand I got:
1. What I paid for, at half the price.
2. No server issues nor game crippling bugs.
3. Seriously quick download time.
4. Multi-Player feature that I will use while playing with friends.

So a part of me would have to be a bit unreasonable to not acknowledge it's success for me personally in terms of both distribution and game-play.

[Manicdan]

the concept of the "region" and the ability to play with friends and use the servers to share a world is pretty cool

not going above and beyond on servers at launch time was a total mistake
and not offering an offline single player mode is also one. as much as i like uploading to the cloud to play on any machine, not being able to play at all is no excuse.

great game, great concept, horrible implementation.
however we are getting a free game next week for our troubles.

[god_43]

Why would there be any change when you are supporting their actual business model?
Perhaps if you didn't buy the game...

unfortunately the whole "vote with your wallet" thing; is lost on most ppl.

this nerfing of game mechanics to appeal to casual gamers is ty (civ 5 vs civ 4). new engines are welcome but if you dont take advantage of it; then why bother.


tl/dr: no simcity 5 for me, rocking sm 2000 / sm 4

[STEvil]

I was kind of bored so I made this.

Its nonsensical in units, but meh.

http://imgur.com/7eb0WV1

[Tao~]

this nerfing of game mechanics to appeal to casual gamers is ty (civ 5 vs civ 4). new engines are welcome but if you dont take advantage of it

OT
Civ 5 has definitely NOT been nerfed for appealing to casual gamers, it has introduced a lot of new features while cutting back some other aspects. Comparing vanilla civ 5 to civ 4 + expansions leads to the idea that Civ 5 is very limited, the expansion GnK adds more game mechanics and possibly another expansion will bring it over Civ 4 . That and the fact that it's a visual spectacle (which is where the new game engine shines)
/OT

[El Mano]

Perhaps this was EA's idea from the beginning: to sell you two games for the price of one. Probably you were not going to buy that second game anyway, and they managed to lure you into Origin with it.

[kromosto]

Perhaps this was EA's idea from the beginning: to sell you two games for the price of one. Probably you were not going to buy that second game anyway, and they managed to lure you into Origin with it.

i am not sure if they thought this from the beginning but i absolutely agree with the other part.

[Aberration]

Good God. What a bunch of whiners and babies.

I have had no real problems with the game. Some connection issues, some queues.... and what? Being a DLC money soak has been the business model for decades... hello Civilizations?

Anyways, this whole societal problem of everyone wanting everything to be how they want in every single way is getting old.

Its a great game. No your are not a special snow flake.

[sin0822]

yea the game doesn't seem that fun, i love SimCity4, i think ill stick with that. Too bad EA, the new one looked cool, but from what i hear not only about DRm and online, i don't care about that much, i care about the game play. There are like very little amount of reviews out there on the game, and i watched some videos EA made and it looked really cool(not that cool. i don't like being at street level so much), and then i heard you have only small city plots? I mean WTF is up with that, i hate small city plots b/c you can never make a good profit to fund projects like highways and high-tech industry.

So guy above me, you enjoy having small plots? I hear you have to share resources with other cities just to do anything decent? I like playing SimCity because I don't have to play with other people, doesn't EA get that? This isn't THE SIMs, its SimCity, you build a city and run it, i don't want a sim city where i have to play with other people just to do things.

Here is my view on how to get a game to be less pirated. Require a key and then activation, just like windows. Sure some people will hack it, but then a lot of people will just give up, or heck they will pirate it and then play it for 30 days until they have to activate, if they like it enough then they will buy it, if not then they will give up. I am not taking a crappy activation system like Photoshops(that one is a joke) but like windows.

[STEvil]

Guy above you likes his pay-for-replayability model

[WangChung]

Good God. What a bunch of whiners and babies.

I have had no real problems with the game. Some connection issues, some queues.... and what? Being a DLC money soak has been the business model for decades... hello Civilizations?

Anyways, this whole societal problem of everyone wanting everything to be how they want in every single way is getting old.

Its a great game. No your are not a special snow flake.

1. Having a queue for what is supposed to be a single player game is a joke.
2. "Always online" DRM is a completely broken model for this type of game. Not everyone has a reliable connection (I've had a borked Fios connection for over a month before) or always has access when they want to play a game like this. Playing on a train/plane, or at the office killing some time on your own laptop between tickets; now no longer an option.
3. Steam somehow manages to have both an offline mode AND curb the "scourge of piracy."

Their model is trying to make their customer conform their lifestyle in order to play their game, rather than putting the customer first. But thanks for your condescending tone.

[Iconyu]

Good God. What a bunch of whiners and babies.

I have had no real problems with the game. Some connection issues, some queues.... and what? Being a DLC money soak has been the business model for decades... hello Civilizations?

Anyways, this whole societal problem of everyone wanting everything to be how they want in every single way is getting old.

Its a great game. No your are not a special snow flake.

You've had no problems yet for some reason EA have removed working features for a single player game so it's online DRM can cope. As paying customers we have the right to complain if the issues are real and as annoying as these are, the fact it's a good game makes it worse as piracy isn't an issue when you obviously can't cope with demand. EA have not learnt from Valve on this front.

[kromosto]

imo this always online thing makes pirated copies more popular.

[Kallenator]

True, Origin is not even nearly as developed nor distributed as the Steam monolith. Steam has had quite a lot of time on its back and driven by developers not mudded down by corporate dinosaurs. And yet, when it came out we hated it even more than Origin at it's launch.

OT-Flavour:
Do not be mistaken by my feeble attempts to neutralize myself in discussions where Valve is included, I am a Valve fanboy. And on this note I feel that Valve with the Steam distribution tool have not been kind to it's customers either regarding "Aliens: Colonial Marines", to a worse or equal extent compared to EA with the failed SimCity launch. Customers where not inhibited from playing the game, but they where outright lied to by grossly fabricated market material.
This of course is again something we as customers have the full power to control by not buying, but it becomes a bit more entangled when products even fail to reach minimum amount of customer appreciation.
Other people might disagree with this, but I feel people who bought SimCity of Origin got a better deal than people who bought Aliens: Colonial Marines of Steam. Yet Valve seems to get of the hook quicker, yes they did not publish the game, but that does not relieve them of responsibility given their market domination in digital releases.

[Iconyu]

How is Aliens somehow Valves fault? It wasn't pushed any harder than any big budget title, and as far as I know Sim City isn't a direct Origin issue. Valve don't push pre-orders as hard as retailers as they don't hold stock. Steam pre-order bonus for this game was a silly gun, compared to tomb raider and bioshock that bonus wasn't strong enough to make that game Valves problem.

[Kallenator]

Nowhere do I imply that this is Valves fault, what I am trying to say is that they have responsibility for the games they distribute, attributed by their market dominance and general sales ethics. This relates to their refund policy which is granted globally in special scenarios or else is done on a case to case basis which makes it hard to refund a game on "byers remorse".
If you bought Aliens: Colonial Marines on launch or as a preorder, then you got completely screwed over. This does make Valve an "accomplice" given that they sold it to you under the false pretense they where served by the game's developer/publisher which could easily be informed to the potential buyers by simple quality control.

[Manicdan]

even starcraft 2 offered an offline option for a very similar online only model. its a shame that if EA did this there would have been almost no complaints from the launch, AND they would have not needed to offer us a free game to apologize. funny how DRM cost them money.

[himaro]

adding to the fire that EA is trying its best to put out
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...not-necessary/
as many people suspect and many people want, the always online stuff we're being fed appears to be crap.
even the devs are saying it's a bit BS

[Kallenator]

even starcraft 2 offered an offline option for a very similar online only model. its a shame that if EA did this there would have been almost no complaints from the launch, AND they would have not needed to offer us a free game to apologize. funny how DRM cost them money.

It's even funnier/sader when you consider the amount of issues Blizzard has had with high profile tournaments (Even on Blizzcon) where the Battlenet servers have lagged out causing matches to be replayed. Not having some kind of LAN support has really shown some bad light on the SC2 franchise.

Still looking forward to continuing on the HOTS-Campaign and ladder though

adding to the fire that EA is trying its best to put out
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...not-necessary/
as many people suspect and many people want, the always online stuff we're being fed appears to be crap.
even the devs are saying it's a bit BS

I really don't think anyone truly fell for that without some hint of skepticism. (Oops, redundant comment from me.)

Let me add something to the fire about bad shortcuts in the game mechanics that damages the integrity of the game on a whole and a link to the Reddit Maxis AMA:
http://answers.ea.com/t5/Miscellaneo...en/td-p/737060 this topic as an easy to understand video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=WH-CdkSqDSs

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment...om_maxis_amaa/

[paulbagz]

I still can't beliece there's no Subways (until DLC probably).

-PB