Sim City 5 (2013) - Sim<parameter: string>

[safer]

Reading all these comments and reviews online I'm a bit bummed out about this all. I was really looking forward to playing but I don't think I'll end up getting it now, the excitement has died off.
I still want to get my fix so what are people's opinions on SimCity 3 vs 4? I've only played 2000 before but want to try one of these two newer ones.

[Necronus]

A lot of people earlier were talking about Polygon lowering their score for the game (I guess game sites refuse to adjust to post release differences) ... so I guess its worth posting they lowered it again to a 4.0

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

[Tajin]

Buuuu I wanted to play this . Guess I'll go find my sc2000 zip

[Waraji]

This seems like the biggest publisher fallout in a while, or just hyper sensationalism. Hardly doubt this will change anything though, they'll just add more server equipment and everyone will shrug it off and actually despite the shitty situation.

[Necronus]

I'm sure people will quickly call me out if I'm wrong, but I don't recall the fallout from Diablo 3 being this bad. Don't get me wrong, people were enraged and gaming sites ran articles about the failures .... but the backlash this time is pretty epic. And some sadistic part of myself is rejoicing this failure because it has a chance to right future wrongs involving DRM and yet the other part of me is weeping in the fetal position at the sight of a series I love so much failing on such an epic level.

[Waraji]

I'm sure people will quickly call me out if I'm wrong, but I don't recall the fallout from Diablo 3 being this bad.

Well, if you analyze it a bit, you'd realize that it couldn't have been too bad. Diablo 2 success was largely part of its online play, fact that they maintained the feature in 3 was a misnomer. Single Player in D2 was a small part of of its appeal, too small in my opinion. The larger amount of fallout towards D3 I believe was how shitty the game was as compared to its predecessor. The features we loved of D2 weren't there in D3. Often times things were simplified to the point of it being dumbed down, and partly useless, (Magic Items, Rares). The emphasis on the crafting system instead of loot farming I think really fked the game. I haven't played since a month or 2 after launch, but I can't think they've really made much ground on changes to these core features.

On the other hand, SimCitys long standing appeal was its single player. It wasn't until recently that they began subtly pushing community integration. Take that structural pillar away from the game, and a lot of people are going to be angered and confused.

[Necronus]

Well, if you analyze it a bit, you'd realize that it couldn't have been too bad. Diablo 2 success was largely part of its online play, fact that they maintained the feature in 3 was a misnomer. Single Player in D2 was a small part of of its appeal, too small in my opinion. The larger amount of fallout towards D3 I believe was how shitty the game was as compared to its predecessor. The features we loved of D2 weren't there in D3. Often times things were simplified to the point of it being dumbed down, and partly useless, (Magic Items, Rares). The emphasis on the crafting system instead of loot farming I think really fked the game. I haven't played since a month or 2 after launch, but I can't think they've really made much ground on changes to these core features.

On the other hand, SimCitys long standing appeal was its single player. It wasn't until recently that they began subtly pushing community integration. Take that structural pillar away from the game, and a lot of people are going to be angered and confused.

D2 in the long term definitely was mostly an online multiplayer game, but that's only because that mode was the only one with long term longevity. At release, I'd venture to say that the population starts at 60% SP, Only and 40% BNET users ... then over time shifted more and more as single player people were "done". I myself was a SP only D2 player, MP had no appeal to me. Same for D3 really ... just because they forced me online doesn't mean I didn't stick to SP. The only difference with D3 was that for me and all the "SP only" people I knew is that because we were forced online, we'd occasionally open up games to others or join theirs if we were feeling lazy. That is something I didn't do in D2, because it took effort and you had to want to play MP ... but i did in D3 "because it was there" and it took 0 effort. In addition, this also got us to use the AH.

Annnnndd therein lies the rub ... people like me are the EXACT reason Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, and others are forcing SP games into MP only environments ... because the odds of people like me using online features that generate revenue or simply bump up the online user count (which goes a long way to keeping a game alive of course) go from some miniscule percentage to a tangible number. If D3 had offline, I'd never make an online character and I'd never shift goods across the AH and Blizzard wouldn't get its small cut. In addition, us enabling MP only occasionally makes the real MP players feel like the community is more alive. If I could have a single player SimCity they couldn't ram new content in my face in an attempt to get me to buy it. Not that I would, but some normally SP people might spend more than they normally would ... cause lets face it, advertising does work. Blizz/Ubi/EA/etc are sick of not being able to dangle shit in front of SP players trying to lure even a few of us into more purchases.

Look at our beloved SimCity 4 ... alive and extremely well for what? 10 years now? That's an amazing achievement for a game ... but as far as EA has been concerned that game has been dead since Rush Hour was released. Sure, I'm sure extra copies sell on Steam over the years, but that's just the CEO's afternoon coffee money. In addition, it being alive this long is BAD for EA ... just think, if SimCity 2013 revenue turns into a trickle, they flip a big switch and BAM "Please insert $80 to continue in SimCity 2016!". I bet if there was a button that could disable every copy of SimCity 4, the CEO would be dancing on it right now. In addition, making new full expansions simply isn't as profitable for them as a pile of microtransaction buildings/skins will. Just look at the Sims 3, beyond all the $20-$30 normal expansions there's literally hundreds if not thousands of dollars of single purchase items. I saw a stat online someone showed me once about how the average Sims 3 Base Game / Add-On each have a tenth the number of clothes/hair/furniture/etc as they did in Sims 2 ... because that's all DLC now.

[Jaybar]

I feel for you guys, I really do. I loved playing the beta even if it was just limited access and I needed this simulation game. Thankfully I had no money to spend on this game yet, and now I don't think I ever will until there are some drastic changes to it's software (like, take out always-on perhaps)

Also, I found SC4 to be superior to SC3. I still play it every so often, trying to build a really strong 8-city region supporting a large super region.

[Necronus]

Oh and it probably doesn't need to be said, but to continue my prior posts thought process, I forgot to add that this MP only model will let them be able to forever avoid the Terraforming and Modding demands. With modding, who would buy EA's Eiffel Tower if we could just make our own ... and who would buy some DLC map of real life locations if someone on Simtropolis can upload a better one.

[kuronosan]

Welcome to gaming of the new millennia people. No one cares about modding anymore when you can make money off of crap content.

[Tajin]

Fwiw Diablo 3 launch wasnt as bad and to be honest (at launch) normal to A1 inferno was fun. I consider my 60 bux well spent.

Inferno on the other hand, massive suck...@

[noblemountain]

Civ 5 has a healthy modding community despite them releasing packs with new wonders/civs. I don't see why this couldn't do the same.

[Kisamoo]

Civ 5 was a natural evolution of the series and a fantastic addition. Sim City is another EA cash grab. You use mods with Origin games, they assume you're hacking then you're banned.

Also, relevant:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic

[Insanecyclone]

IGN actually made a good article...

[nope]

[Azull]

That is.. pretty much spot on. The game itself is wonderful...the russian roulette minigame to try to play the game isnt.

[vrumpt]

The game looks fucking amazing when I see it being played and would gladly pay money for it if there was no DRM BS going on. If EA had just left DRM alone they would have had a quality product on their shelves, but nope.

[Ratatapa]

http://www.explosion.com/23768/ea-no...nds-to-buyers/

[kuronosan]

Like I said... big-time publishers are fucking up the gaming industry like big-time labels are fucking up the music and entertainment industries. They think they know what a customer wants so instead of providing a product their customers will buy, they provide a product they *want* their customers to buy, force it down their throats, and then get mad when (surprise) customers don't want to buy it or want their money back.

I hope this is a wake-up call to EA to stop going the way of Activision, otherwise they will go the way of THQ. It's sad, really; Maxis has an amazing legacy and this may very well fuck up the future of what was a great franchise all because EA decided to be retarded.

[Ratatapa]

I remember when EA said Customers wants Micro Transactions

yeah right

[Hank]

Is there a trick to sharing resources between cities? My one is flooded with power but I can't seem to be able to choose to buy any for my second city.