SCS a Disappointment?

[GoASU 0]

Do you think SimNothing would make the top ten. A game where you just simulate nothing?

[purpledaddy 6]

Like a SimSeinfeld? 

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

And what's the deal with expansion packs? I mean how many times do we need to expand?

Going back to what ManagerJosh said, he's got a point about the article. Yes, SCS was a disappointment, but we all we know is the CFO wasn't happy with something about SCS... it could really be anything from sales to the reviews to the reaction from gamers. If the CFO decided to go into detail about the game, then we'll know.

[Joesocwork 4]

^It would be intriguing to see what, if any, public word leaks out immediately after the holiday season.

[spa 968]

Originally posted by: Karybdis You do, but if you get upset enough anywhere, they'll give you your money back so they don't have to deal with it.quote>

 

Off topic but yeah it's the truth. Wal-Mart will take anything back if you scream loud enough and drop the head office threat. They don't look things over too much either. My brother worked there for a while and he once opened up a box that was sitting on the shelf for a customer (it was power generator and the customer wanted to see it before he bought). Imagine their surprise when instead of a power generator inside there was nothing but a giant rock. Turns out that the generator had been bought previously and then returned. When it was returned no one looked inside to confirm that the generator and not a rock was in the box!

[mrbombit 1]

Too funny

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

By the way, Simtropolis and its subsidiaries don't condone placing small rocks in packages of SimCity Societies and returning them to Wal-Mart or any retail store.

[baertooth 330]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6222232.html

This is an article with Rod Humble, the man who is responsible for Societies, about The Sims 2, but touches on Societies.

Here are the relevant parts...

"And while the new SimCity hasn't gotten quite the reception the company might have liked, Humble and his team are still riding an almost unprecedented wave of success and gamer good will that should allow them to continue doing what they're doing and getting the budgets they need for the foreseeable future."

This tells me that even if Societies fails and kills Simcity, they have enough push from the Sims they can write off this mistake.

"Since SimCity and The Sims, there's been lot of competing games in the genre. How do you keep The Sims on top?

Humble: No. 1 is listening to our community. Number two is learning from our mistakes. So if our competitors do things that our players respond to, don't be too proud. And I think listen to your customers and make changes accordingly. It's very important that the customer's always right and you can't let your own internal design religion get ahead of the customer. So that's the answer. Steal ideas where appropriate."

I believe he's talking about stealing ideas from the Wii, as in trying to program for the casual gaming dollar.

"Tell us about SimCity Societies?

Humble: We wanted to follow a similar strategy that we did with The Sims 2, which is, "Hey how can we broaden this? How can we make it less challenging, easier to use, and make it more into a creativity tool?" We've just launched, and we've had a series of really mixed reviews. Our job now is to deliver to our customers who are giving us feedback (and we're giving them) free updates to make sure they get what they want. We're going to stand by them and add that challenge that they're looking for and add that extra depth. We got the (general) accessibility bit down and now we need to address their concerns, "Hey, I want more push back. I want more challenge." It's usually been the opposite: "Hey, your game's too complicated. Make it easier." "

The Wii-ification of Simcity. And I'm not sure if I'm reading from what he says they are hunkering down, even tho the game has had a generally poor reception, and forging on or they think it's been a partial success and they just need to polish it. Either way, it's telling me they are resistant to the idea of returning to RCI.

[erikfloan 1]

I expected a better sort of graphics... The current ones in SCS is so - uhh - "plastic" and looks too animated.

[doodlea21 31]

I'm sure that 'The Sims 2: This game will break your CD drive' would be a bestseller!

[mrwalker21 0]

This game has been a huge disappointment for me. I haven't played it in over 3 weeks and actually only played it about 10-12 times since I bought it. To me it's not even Sim City. I was looking for a game that took SC4 and built from that. I want regions and real city building. The only two things I like about the game is the views from the angles they have on there (you can see your city from a ground perspective, as if you were standing looking at it) and the freedom to plop all buildings. Get Maxis back on it!

[titaniumnutz 1]

Chief Financial Officer said that?

I don't know whether this is good new or not.

if they start to worry even more about profit, they sure will succumb to the disgusting current game trends(nintendo, wii you know, cartoony interface and graphics) even faster, not giving a hoot about the loyal simcity fans.

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

I wouldn't simply blame the casualization of games for SCS. SimCity has always been primarily a PC game, and PC gamers are a different breed... definitely more hardcore and looking for complexity and challenges. The casual gaming trend isn't the problem.

[panthersimcity4 162]

Sims 2: Barbie's Bratz Magical Pony Land Fashion Makeup Hollister Palooza Expansion pack... now that'd be a hit... lol

[purpledaddy 6]

Might work for my daughter!

[MrCinatit 30]

Originally posted by: panthersimcity4 Sims 2: Barbie's Bratz Magical Pony Land Fashion Makeup Hollister Palooza Expansion pack... now that'd be a hit... lol

quote>

Now With Sparkles!

[lurix 0]

its wierd. SC has had an exeptional long life without hundreds of expansion-packs. surely they must have rocognized thats cause of all fans modding and adding? what kind of surveys did they do? WHO wanted SCS????

Of course it would be great if, someday, The Sims could be played together with Sim City. But the thing is that it wont happen. In The Sims the approach is childish, simplyfied and not realistic at all (like flushing the tiolet takes 20 min!). I

[negative352 1]

I haven't played this game yet (I don't think it is out for Mac yet though), so my input is pretty limited here. I've only seen a few of the screenshots. However, having been an avid SC fan for over a decade now, I'm disappointed that the game appears to have taken a wrong turn. With earlier versions of the game, it was obvious that technology restricted the possibilities for an extremely complex game. Nevertheless, I feel that Maxis generally took the game in a positive direction, making each successive version more realistic and inspiring than the last, all the while keeping the series' classic sense of humor and playfulness.

Still, I think were some positive steps made. I am fascinated by the idea of having differing types of societies. This was an issue in SC4 and previous verisons, because the game assumed a pretty capitalist system. There was little option for a more authoritarian style of building, if one wished to build one. I also feel SC4 abandoned some key aspects of real cities that serve as a metric for a city's health, such as unemployment and other economic factors. I wished SC4 had something like a GDP, to sort of summarize the health of the city's economy. Of course, a GDP is probably more subjective than something as straight forward as unemployment, but still.

Based on what others have said, my guess is I will simply continue playing SC4 and let EA think about this for awhile. It seems like EA has largely abandoned the wishes millions of SC fans. I realize the SC community is a diverse bunch, and it really shows in the city journals. There is a lot of fantasy and a lot of realism. But my guess is that the majority wanted the game to remain challenging, gritty, and all the more realistic. I'm not totally writing this SCS game off, but unlike when I was previewing SC4, I don't get the same excited vibe. Personally, I have built cities to make them realistic, not to replicate existing cities, but so I could imagine my own cities as having similar shades of issues and their own characteristics. I want to compare my cities with the likes of New York or Tokyo or Sydney, not a cartoon version. For now, I can only hope that there will be a SC5 that transcends SC4 and doesn't regress to a more cartoonish state.

[USA_Pride 49]

I didn't buy SCS, thank goodness.

I've been a hardcore SimCity fan ever since SimCity 2000. Some of you will remember me from the official SimCity boards when SC4 was released. I posted under this name and "PatchMeUpScotty".

I still play SC4, about 4 times a year I'll pop the CD back in and make half a region. SC4 is still fun and I was really hoping for an SC5 that will take all the good elements of all SimCities and tie it all together with updated graphics and a couple new features.

I watched the demo videos for Societies. What a train wreck. Here I am, a huge SimCity fan and I won't even consider buying Societies. The graphics are horrible. The gameplay is such a departure from the SimCity series that it should not be called SimCity, that was just a marketing ploy.

I'm so dissapointed about what EA did to SC4 and with Societies. Even SimCity 4 was stripped of awesome features like a random terrian generator and randomly occuring disasters, and inspite of the fact that EA messed up SC4, it was still fun, because it's SimCity. Well, Societies isn't SimCity and it doesn't look to be any fun. They tried to inject "The Sims" into Simcity and they got a steaming pile of....

Special thanks to this community for the mods I use on SC4, if it wasn't for Simtropolis I wouldn't be playing SC4 today. Time for EA to wake up and realize that by trying to maximize profit they've actually only exploited a loyal (and profitiable) fanbase. Societies is the game that will force people not to blindly buy "SimCity" games.

/end of rant

[Ntq€310 1]

... and they just realized this now????

[Spinmaster 75]

Originally posted by: The_Dalai_Llama By the way, Simtropolis and its subsidiaries don't condone placing small rocks in packages of SimCity Societies and returning them to Wal-Mart or any retail store.quote>

If I had bought it, I wouldn't do that... it would be a waste of small rocks, which I find more useful and interesting than SC:S anyway.

[Ntq€310 1]

i would compact some of the fruit cakes i got during the holidays and put as much as i can in the box, it's a win win for me

[Maxis92 11]

I'm glad I didn't buy SimCity Societies. I was at a GameStop in the mall and I spotted the game. I was DEBATING ALL DAY whether or not I should purchase the game. I also wanted to purchase gifts for a few other people. Luckily, my cheap behind and the highway robbing price turned me off from it, and I'm happy for that.

Thanks everyone for the "good" reviews. I'll make sure not to purchase this game.

All the monopolies can go to hell! EA is like the Viacom of Video Games!

[wir3d 2]

well i thought it be very fun to play. i got the game from a friend, he gave it to me for free and now i wanna give it back to him! Scs sucks so bad . It is not very fun to play at all. I advise you NOT to buy this game!!!

i wonder how good the city life will be?

[wir3d 2]

george bush is not a bad guy.  just because he is christian dosnt mean u have to hate on him.

[DisneyKrayzie 1]

wow, this game is terrible. I just spent an hour installing it, and 30 minutes playing it before I gave up on it. Has to be the worst 30 minutes of gaming I ever played.

[zygnoda 0]

I think your looking too deep on the whole cfo thing.  The guy is the chief money man.  He was talking about the lack of sales.  He is saying that the game flopped...       The focus of the article is sales (the paragraphs before it were about sales).   The rest of the article is your clue.

I'm really familar with the Motley Fool and I love that site. 

[Maxis92 11]

Not to mention that it's a Stock Market Site.

[zygnoda 0]

yeah i avoided saying that specifically

[ianpaschal 77]

I actually feel pretty bad for TiltedMills. After talking with them prior to the SCS release, they mentioned they were quite proud of what they had made, regardless of what it actually was. I suspect part of that had to do with salesmanship ("We don't actually like our own product," doesn't really sell) so some part of it was probably necessary to support it. On the other hand I still feel rather guilty about putting down SCS which I have no doubt they did work hard on.

At the end of the day however, they did really botch the job, and that's too bad. I'm not terribly confident Maxis would have done much better, but probably somewhat. I'm trying to think what studios I would really like to do it, possibly Cyan Worlds since they put a lot of work into their games.

I guess I just don't care for anything released under EA like I do for something released under UbiSoft or such a company that routinely puts out high quality games.