This is utter heartbreaking.

[Daekano 2]

I understand the disappointment in launch problems. I've been through many of them, and still get worked up. I've been a part of every World of Warcraft release (including most content patches) as well as the Diablo 3 launch and believe me, it took a long time to get things fixed up for each and every release. This is day 1 (I count zero), give it a little time.

 

Personally I am not a fan of the always-on requirement for people who just want to play by themselves. But the die has been cast, and technical issues will clear up soon. In my experience, anyways.

[croxis 150]

This is nothing new. Civilization 2 v 1.0 was unplayable for many people. Microprose had weekly patches for it for quite some time before it became stable.

 

It still isn't right, but having broken games at launch is nothing new.

[reReticulated Spline 69]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

[SirChick 184]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

 

 

They did stress tests with the public twice a month before the game launch. Battlefield didn't have these issues... so your logic is wrong here. They were just unprepared.

 

they know how many people pre-ordered and from what country, bit of maths can tell you how much demand will occur.

[GenXisT 127]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

 

Sorry mate, this is bogus.  This game has been SINGLE PLAYER for 24+ years. The mistake was making it an online multi-player game. It was doomed from jump.

[Arclight615 7]

Bought SC2013 DVD at Amazon. No off-line single-player mode. Returned for refund. Will stay with SC4/Rush Hour.

[Vlasky 1,803]

I say they should be slammed with tons of lawsuits!! Sue them all!! All of the people cheated into buying should sue for fraud! Go team SC4!!!

 

No, seriously, you are right to expect a game you just bought to work and all to be fine. But if we disregard all of our complaints about city size and graphics and connectivity, modding and all, they are embarrassing themselves with all the bugs and malfunction of game and servers alike. Very very embarrassing and disrespectful to customers and fans of the franchise.

[SirChick 184]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

 

Sorry mate, this is bogus.  This game has been SINGLE PLAYER for 24+ years.  The mistake was making it an online multi-player game. It was doomed from jump.

 

 

Actually SC4 did and i think previous ones have multiplayer too but the core difference was it wasn't mandatory. Because half the people don't want it.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

There was no need for this game to be a server based game. Also many games launch fine, Guild wars 2, way bigger then simcity had a pain free launch, and that was an mmo, this isn't, this is just DRM.. Its day 2 and people still cannot use a preduct they paid for, if you like bending over and taking it fine, most with standards do not.

 

BEcause it has happened before, doesnt make it right.

[snowhawk04 22]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

 

Sorry mate, this is bogus.  This game has been SINGLE PLAYER for 24+ years. The mistake was making it an online multi-player game. It was doomed from jump.

 

It hasn't been that long since SC2K Network Edition

[Vihzel 9]

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

There was no need for this game to be a server based game. Also many games launch fine, Guild wars 2, way bigger then simcity had a pain free launch, and that was an mmo, this isn't, this is just DRM.. Its day 2 and people still cannot use a preduct they paid for, if you like bending over and taking it fine, most with standards do not.

 

BEcause it has happened before, doesnt make it right.

 

As someone who has been with Guild Wars 2 since beta and was there on launch day, it was not pain free at all whatsoever. You must have not been there on launch day and the next few days following it. 

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

 

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

There was no need for this game to be a server based game. Also many games launch fine, Guild wars 2, way bigger then simcity had a pain free launch, and that was an mmo, this isn't, this is just DRM.. Its day 2 and people still cannot use a preduct they paid for, if you like bending over and taking it fine, most with standards do not.

 

BEcause it has happened before, doesnt make it right.

 

As someone who has been with Guild Wars 2 since beta and was there on launch day, it was not pain free at all whatsoever. You must have not been there on launch day and the next few days following it. 

I was there on launch and no, the launch was nearly pain free, the biggest issue was going into overflow............. Even so thats a massive MMO, this is DRM for 2 days causing a bad mess of a product, thats even worse.

[GenXisT 127]

 

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

 

Sorry mate, this is bogus.  This game has been SINGLE PLAYER for 24+ years.  The mistake was making it an online multi-player game. It was doomed from jump.

 

It hasn't been that long since SC2K Network Edition

 

Nitpicking is fine and dandy.  That's typically the response of a very weak defense.  Everyone that plays Sim City and has historically knows full well that it is a Single Player game.

 

Everything loaded, saved and run on a local machine.

 

Pac-Man can be claimed to be "multiplayer" too since everyone can post their high scores on the same screen (if they make it).

However, you're not going to sit here and claim Pac-Man is multiplayer because that would be right daft... 

[Vihzel 9]

 

 

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

More sheep, there was no need for this game to be a server based game. Also many games launch fine, Guild wars 2, way bigger then simcity had a pain free launch, and that was an mmo, this isn't, this is just DRM.. Its day 2 and people still cannot use a preduct they paid for, if you like bending over and taking it fine, most with standards do not.

 

BEcause it has happened before, doesnt make it right.

 

As someone who has been with Guild Wars 2 since beta and was there on launch day, it was not pain free at all whatsoever. You must have not been there on launch day and the next few days following it. 

I was there on launch and no, the launch was nearly pain free, the biggest issue was going into overflow............. Even so thats a massive MMO, this is DRM for 2 days causing a bad mess of a product, thats even worse.

 

You must have not seen the forums and the mass of reports of crashing, slowdowns, connection errors on the launcher, and server downtimes that ArenaNet had to do several times because the lag was becoming 5-7 second delays. 

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

Yes because forums is an accurate depiction of the entire fanbase...The forums still look like that they are forums, where people go to whine, less then 1% of the game population posts on forums, thats like using a blog as an editorial, LMAO. The forums still are full of complaints for wow after 10 years I gues that means that game doesnt work either?

[MINIggy03 227]

Nitpicking is fine and dandy.  That's typically the response of a very weak defense.  Everyone that plays Sim City and has historically knows full well that it is a Single Player game.

 

Everything loaded, saved and run on a local machine.

 

Pac-Man can be claimed to be "multiplayer" too since everyone can post their high scores on the same screen (if they make it).

However, you're not going to sit here and claim Pac-Man is multiplayer because that would be right daft... 

 

So once a single player game, ALWAYS a single player game?  Yeah right, times change.  The fact that they even made a network edition of SimCity 2000 shows that they had an interest in a multiplayer SimCity for a long time and just never made it a reality until now.  

[Vihzel 9]

Quotes are getting too long. 

 

Forums... like SimCity's forums are not an accurate depiction? Simtropolis forums are not an accurate depiction? What is accurate? 

 

Letting you know, I was also one of the people who suffered from crashes, connection errors, immense lag, and so forth on launch day. So for ME and many others, the launch was not pain free at all. I'm glad it was pain free for you.  

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

 

 

 

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

 

Sorry mate, this is bogus.  This game has been SINGLE PLAYER for 24+ years.  TWENTY FOUR YEARS!!!!!

The mistake was making it an online multi-player game. It was doomed from jump.

 

It hasn't been that long since SC2K Network Edition

 

Nitpicking is fine and dandy.  That's typically the response of a very weak defense.  Everyone that plays Sim City and has historically knows full well that it is a Single Player game.

 

Everything loaded, saved and run on a local machine.

 

Pac-Man can be claimed to be "multiplayer" too since everyone can post their high scores on the same screen (if they make it).

However, you're not going to sit here and claim Pac-Man is multiplayer because that would be right daft... 

 

So once a single player game, ALWAYS a single player game?  Yeah right, times change.  The fact that they even made a network edition of SimCity 2000 shows that they had an interest in a multiplayer SimCity for a long time and just never made it a reality until now.  

There is NO reason this game has forced online, it is DRM in disguise nothing else, every other game that has online as an offline component except mmo's this is not an mmo, times  change yes, for the worse apparently. There is not 1 single reason people who just wanted to build a city alone need opnline at all. It's a ruse and guppies like you eat it up.

 

 

Multiplayer is not the issue, I love the fact they added it, but why totally remove SP? Even cod the worlds most popular MP game has single player. Thats the issue. If your gopnna force a SP game to be online you better be able to handle the load, and not take away options, they failed at both.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

What's more scary are those who don't like the "complexities and deep thought and strategy" of making a beautiful city complaining about having to lay pipes and stuff supporting a burning heap of metal and complaining about those who been putting up red flags with good reason. I even read someones post saying that terraforming was a hassle. Also I here those who say SC4 is repetitive proving they are missing the point in what to do with a city builder and calling SC4 a worse game than SC2013. And these guys are funding the companies who don't even meet their demands but yet they keep waiting and giving and defending. Anyone who puts up with this kind of poor customer service and interaction are the types I don't want to play a city builder with but yet if I bought this game I would be forced to play with them. When I was small I hated playing with kids who just smacked action figures together and threw trucks against walls instead of articulating movement. So tell me all those that are defending and getting mad at legitimate observations, what is your definition of quality?

[Sunfighter 186]

Rumor is the NA servers are down right now to help process downloading for the EU market.

[Vihzel 9]

Rumor is the NA servers are down right now to help process downloading for the EU market.

 

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9337881.page

[Sunfighter 186]

Rumor is the NA servers are down right now to help process downloading for the EU market.

 

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9337881.page

EA has no creditability in anything.

[beyurslf 5]

I went online for support and they gave me a phone number to call....expected wait time is 675 minutes.  no, that is not a typo...over 11 hours

[GenXisT 127]

Nitpicking is fine and dandy.  That's typically the response of a very weak defense.  Everyone that plays Sim City and has historically knows full well that it is a Single Player game.

 

Everything loaded, saved and run on a local machine.

 

Pac-Man can be claimed to be "multiplayer" too since everyone can post their high scores on the same screen (if they make it).

However, you're not going to sit here and claim Pac-Man is multiplayer because that would be right daft... 

 

So once a single player game, ALWAYS a single player game?  Yeah right, times change.  The fact that they even made a network edition of SimCity 2000 shows that they had an interest in a multiplayer SimCity for a long time and just never made it a reality until now.  

 

Is this a joke?  I mean come on man... that means they had 13 years to get it right and this is well beyond an epic fail.  they haven't even coined the term for how much fail this actually is.

It's WRONG.  It's a mess up.  It destroyed the game.

 

Not the actual game, which is still Sim City and loads of fun. But if you're going to put this as a primary focus, then you have to get it right.

I'm all for sharing resources if you want to play like that, but what if you don't?  So those of us that have been playing this, single player, for 24 years (and that's 100% of the Sim City public, other than the 24 year bit, that's only for us old-schoolers) are now forced to play online or at least in a "connected state?"

 

What's the point?  Why are you defending this?  Even if you DID play multiplayer before, you STILL had access to single player.  Imagine if they'd released BF3 with multiplayer only?  At least if you mess up the launch in the MP environment, the buyers of the game still have a single player option to fall back on.'

 

Quit trying to suggest this game isn't Single Player.  Mate, it's single-player, through and through.  You cannot argue 1 day of game history (and the odd-ball attempt 13 years ago) vs 24 years.

Sorry.  That's a red-herring.

[SirChick 184]

 

 

 

 

Ehm, server based games always crash a lot at launch. It's pretty much impossible for the IT guys to predict how servers react to such a sudden massive infllux of traffic. It's not a matter of not being tested enough, you can't test launch day and pretty much every game company with online games has had this. Blaming people for something nobody in the world has an anwser to is silly, no matter how much 'customer is king' you feel. Might as well hate them for not supporting windows 12.

 

So yeah, expecting a server based game to work in the first week without problems IS silly. 

More sheep, there was no need for this game to be a server based game. Also many games launch fine, Guild wars 2, way bigger then simcity had a pain free launch, and that was an mmo, this isn't, this is just DRM.. Its day 2 and people still cannot use a preduct they paid for, if you like bending over and taking it fine, most with standards do not.

 

BEcause it has happened before, doesnt make it right.

 

As someone who has been with Guild Wars 2 since beta and was there on launch day, it was not pain free at all whatsoever. You must have not been there on launch day and the next few days following it. 

I was there on launch and no, the launch was nearly pain free, the biggest issue was going into overflow............. Even so thats a massive MMO, this is DRM for 2 days causing a bad mess of a product, thats even worse.

 

You must have not seen the forums and the mass of reports of crashing, slowdowns, connection errors on the launcher, and server downtimes that ArenaNet had to do several times because the lag was becoming 5-7 second delays. 

Yes because forums is an accurate depiction of the entire fanbase...The forums still look like that they are forums, where people go to whine, less then 1% of the game population posts on forums, thats like using a blog as an editorial, LMAO. The forums still are full of complaints for wow after 10 years I gues that means that game doesnt work either?

 

 

When EA issue an apology and offer refunds - its safe to say they listened to forums. EA almost never do this.

[Vihzel 9]

 

Rumor is the NA servers are down right now to help process downloading for the EU market.

 

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9337881.page

EA has no creditability in anything.

 

It's much better than spreading an unfounded rumor. lol

[GenXisT 127]

And here's another thing.

 

I played last night for like 6-8 hours.  I was on Europe West 2.  God forbid an American server be open to the American buyers of this game.  Too much to ask, surely.

Anyway, after my last post, I launched the game... Server was unavailable...

 

So I selected Europe East 2.  Got in!  Great!

Err... wait a minute! Where the eff is my city that I worked on for hours and hours?

 

Gone!  It's on the other server.  Now how STUPID is that?  How are people actually trying to defend this as "first day jitters" or some stage fright crap?

This is a catastrophe that could've and should've been averted by listening the the cries the players were making as soon as they stated this was going to be online.

 

If it were LOCAL and SINGLE PLAYER... I wouldn't be starting over like I have to do now... Or wait ages till the Europe West 2 server opens up... and then pray my game is still there.

[warrior 169]

Don't think of it of Simcity 5, it's not. It's not called SimCity 5, it's just SimCity. SimCity is to SimCity 4 as The Amazing Spiderman is to the Spiderman trilogy, a reboot.

 

The servers are EAs fault, they could have bought more for the launch of their games, they didn't. So wait a few days and it won't be so bad as the initial load dies down and bugs get fixed.

 

There were bugs in SC4, just noone can remember them because either Maxis fixed them in patches or with Rush Hour, or mods like the NAM fixed them, and it was 10 year ago.

 

Ditching the game in the first days is not great. The devs have put years into the game, the least you can do is wait more than a few days before passing judgement.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Don't think of it of Simcity 5, it's not. It's not called SimCity 5, it's just SimCity. SimCity is to SimCity 4 as The Amazing Spiderman is to the Spiderman trilogy, a reboot.

 

The servers are EAs fault, they could have bought more for the launch of their games, they didn't. So wait a few days and it won't be so bad as the initial load dies down and bugs get fixed.

 

There were bugs in SC4, just noone can remember them because either Maxis fixed them in patches or with Rush Hour, or mods like the NAM fixed them, and it was 10 year ago.

 

Ditching the game in the first days is not great. The devs have put years into the game, the least you can do is wait more than a few days before passing judgement.

Yeah but Spiderman is still "spidey" in all carnations. He still does spiderman stuff. None of the movies have him suddenly able to multiply and teleport. So SimCity should always play like "SimCity".

[logintime 93]

There were bugs in SC4, just noone can remember them because either Maxis fixed them in patches or with Rush Hour, or mods like the NAM fixed them, and it was 10 year ago.

 

Ditching the game in the first days is not great. The devs have put years into the game, the least you can do is wait more than a few days before passing judgement.

 

There were bugs in SC4, terrible bugs, but the game was more than playable on release. The same cannot be said here.

 

As for your second point, I try and be polite on here, but that's a hard argument for me to take seriously. We don't owe the developers anything. We are paying for this game. It's their job to make something that is both functional and fun. They have put years into the game, the least they can do is release it in a playable state. People have every right to pass judgement if they don't.