The Reviews on Amazon.com are trickling in...

[bipolarzebra 23]

 

41 out of 54 negative reviews,

If more people leave reviews like this on big name websites, maybe someone at EA will realize what they did......

 

EDIT: March 6th 2013 10:03 PM CST : There are now 513 reviews on amazon, 447 1 star ratings!

[Spatzimaus 77]

Or maybe it's a simple confirmation bias, where the people who review on day one about a game are those who like to complain, while the folks who actually like the game so far will wait until they've had a more complete experience before writing a review?  Nah, that can't be right...

[SirChick 184]

Or maybe it's a simple confirmation bias, where the people who review on day one about a game are those who like to complain, while the folks who actually like the game so far will wait until they've had a more complete experience before writing a review?  Nah, that can't be right...

 

Lots of us have had time to play it before it was out on the BETAs. We all know what to expect. Some of the 1 voters are because they can't even play the game. So no amount of experience will ever happen for them.

[Charizard 284]

Can't say I didn't see this coming >_>... All I can say is grab the popcorn and enjoy the show.

[SirChick 184]

Can't say I didn't see this coming >_>... All I can say is grab the popcorn and enjoy the show.

Salted popcorn ?

[Dr. Boom 37]

Usually the most vocal people are also the most critical.

[Charizard 284]

Can't say I didn't see this coming >_>... All I can say is grab the popcorn and enjoy the show.

Salted popcorn ?

Salted AND buttered

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

What do you expect? Forced online that makes peoples games unplayable, limited build space and  less options.....

[wags13604 11]

Wow that's funny. And I'm not offering any sophisticated explanations I think the reviews are pretty telling.

[Micah 16]

Yeaaa... that's cause the people actually playing the game are enjoying themselves too much to have time to rate the game. So far, I've seen two people in my Computer Science department play this and it looks absolutely gorgeous. They were playing it for hours in the CS lab and it was fun to watch them play. I can't wait to get the game this Thursday.

[jacksunny 741]

Because reviews on Amazon are completely reliable, right?

[cirugo 1,889]

Because reviews on Amazon are completely reliable, right?

just as reliable as anywhere else i suppose.

[jacksunny 741]

Quite frankly, I don't base my decisions on whether to buy or not to buy a product on reviews anyway. Too much bias, especially in the video game world.

[Charizard 284]

Because reviews on Amazon are completely reliable, right?

 

Yeah and other sites that review the game are reliable (i.e. the ones that review the game favorably)? User/independent reviews tend to be the most honest and revealing since they warn potential customers about serious issues related to the game. Plus they can't really be bought like how some gaming site reviews are bought (directly or indirectly through ad revenue). Yes reviews in the gaming industry are bought. It's been revealed many times by former employees/leaks.

[Xenocity 343]

Because reviews on Amazon are completely reliable, right?

just as reliable as anywhere else i suppose. Like most retailers you can rate/review a product without owning/buying it.

All you need to do is create an account to review any product you want.

this is why Xbox 360 has higher reviews than PS3 and Wii.

[Wiimeiser 452]

I give TS3:WA 7/10 but with the Door/Collision/Pathing update introduced in Pets that renders six tombs and one France mission unwinnable it gets a 0/10. Haven't got the new SC yet but I'd give it a 7/10 if it was offline. Online it gets 2/10.

[The Avatar 1,089]

The game has been out for only a day, and the sample size of data you have provided is too small to make any generalizations. Most of the negative reviews are probably due to the overloaded servers not allowing people to play the game. If these people bought SimCity, they obviously had some belief that they would enjoy it, and once more people have time to actually play the game, I think there will be more balance between positive and negative reviews. Of course, bias does play a large role. A lot of core fans dislike the game because it is not what they expected from the next SimCity installment, but I think people new to the series will like it.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Amazon allows people who have not purchased the product on Amazon to leave reviews but when the person bought the product on Amazon, there is a little icon that says they do. If it was not getting late, I would look to see what amount of negative reviews are coming from those that have purchased the game.

Personally, I base my decisions on purchasing games on a combination of player/purchaser reviews and Let's Play recordings. If the reviews are overwhelmingly negative except for a few shills and lackeys, and the game does not look appealing from Let's Plays, I won't purchase the game. If however, the Let's Plays look appealing (which they do for SC2013), I will wait until the bugs are fixed AND the price decreases.

--Ocram

[ifurkend 0]

I don't think the compulsory online DRM is that bad. I live in Asia and connected to East EU server, I didn't have a single instance of being booted due to network connection after started playing for hours.

[SirChick 184]

Not being funny but:

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I just checked a few verified purchases reviews of SimCity that were voted helpful and even those were overwhelmingly negative. The most helpful positive review was 4 stars and mentioned the frustration from the server downtime/queue.

--Ocram

[jacksunny 741]

People shouldn't be giving the game a 1 just because the servers were down. I guarantee some of the "1" reviews were from people who haven't even played the game yet, and never plan on playing it.

[bipolarzebra 23]

Update: not even 24 hours after I posted the first reviews on amazon, the reviews have gone up to 246, about 100 shy of simcity 4 reviews on the same website. I have created an image of what i found, and as i was making it, another negative review was posted. I included arrows of the # of reviews in response to a post about sample size, which made a good point.

 

[r00n83 12]

Despite all those bad reviews it is the best seller. Preorders maybe?

[nats 99]

A lot of those 'reviews' are definitely by people who havent bought the game and are just making a point about the DRM. But there are definitely far too many negative reviews to all be DRM haters. Ah well glad I held off buying it. Maybe this will send another message to developers who are intent on getting into this particular constant DRM model.

 

I wouldnt care but I so nearly bought it - in fact I preordered it and then cancelled it. I am so glad I did now. I hope everyone who took my advice to wait for a few weeks is feeling better. Very poor new game release yet again. Like I say, NEVER EVER buy a new game on release day anymore.

 

Me I am spending that money on ARMA2 Operation Arrowhead and some ARMA2 expansions instead - that I will certainly get lots more play out of.

[SirChick 184]

Despite all those bad reviews it is the best seller. Preorders maybe?

 

Yup. But not really important cos everyone is getting refunds.

[emperorpinguino 4]

I installed and played it a bit yesterday, and was pretty satisfied. This morning? Servers appear to be caput and I cannot even launch the game (it briefly says "servers are down" and then hangs on "checking for updates" indefinitely. So yeah, I left a very negative review. The fact that it's unplayable right now because of the stupid DRM system is enraging. I don't know how you can even defend it. If it's playing fine for you, great. That doesn't mean it's working for others. I'm baffled that some of you seem to be asserting that people are just making this stuff up. I can assure you, we aren't! If you just bought a game and then found it unplayable because of a totally unnecessary DRM scheme, you'd be pretty mad, too. So don't discount all those bad reviews.

 

Reliability trumps all. If you had a new Ferrari that suddenly wouldn't start, you wouldn't think "this is still a great car." You'd be cursing and calling the dealership.

 

You don't get a chance to make another first impression. EA/Maxis clearly released this before it was ready for prime-time, and customers are responding. I hope everything gets fixed quickly, because the game was great for the couple of hours I was able to play it. Right now, I feel like I wasted my money.

[LillySatou 117]

I installed and played it a bit yesterday, and was pretty satisfied. This morning? Servers appear to be caput and I cannot even launch the game (it briefly says "servers are down" and then hangs on "checking for updates" indefinitely. So yeah, I left a very negative review. The fact that it's unplayable right now because of the stupid DRM system is enraging. I don't know how you can even defend it. If it's playing fine for you, great. That doesn't mean it's working for others. I'm baffled that some of you seem to be asserting that people are just making this stuff up. I can assure you, we aren't! If you just bought a game and then found it unplayable because of a totally unnecessary DRM scheme, you'd be pretty mad, too. So don't discount all those bad reviews.

 

Reliability trumps all. If you had a new Ferrari that suddenly wouldn't start, you wouldn't think "this is still a great car." You'd be cursing and calling the dealership.

 

You don't get a chance to make another first impression. EA/Maxis clearly released this before it was ready for prime-time, and customers are responding. I hope everything gets fixed quickly, because the game was great for the couple of hours I was able to play it. Right now, I feel like I wasted my money.

couldn't have said it better myself. if there was one thing EA/Maxis should have done right, it was the launch. that time has come and gone and this game will forever be marred by its launch. the gaming world was watching and what it saw was ugly. the only thing they can do now to save face is learn from their mistakes and either fix SC2013 or get the next one right.

[bipolarzebra 23]

A lot of those 'reviews' are definitely by people who havent bought the game and are just making a point about the DRM. But there are definitely far too many negative reviews to all be DRM haters. Ah well glad I held off buying it. Maybe this will send another message to developers who are intent on getting into this particular constant DRM model.

 

I wouldnt care but I so nearly bought it - in fact I preordered it and then cancelled it. I am so glad I did now. I hope everyone who took my advice to wait for a few weeks is feeling better. Very poor new game release yet again. Like I say, NEVER EVER buy a new game on release day anymore.

 

Me I am spending that money on ARMA2 Operation Arrowhead and some ARMA2 expansions instead - that I will certainly get lots more play out of.

I did the same thing- when i heard it was availible for preorder (as a long time SC fan) i had the payment screen open about to buy it. I came here to see what people were saying about it and watched very closely the weeks following. I thank everyone here at Simtropolis for saving me the money and time!

[Arclight615 7]

At least Amazon has excellent fast return/refunds.