Sign the petition

[NASCAR2007 11]

Ok, everybody. Let's make it quick. Sign the petition to get Maxis to change Simcity to a multiplayer OPTIONAL game. They need it to be optional for offline as well. Here's the link: https://www.change.org/petitions/electronic-arts-inc-remove-always-online-drm-from-simcity-and-future-games

[eburress 267]

Signed.  So far this game has been completely unplayable, so being able to play offline is absolutely necessary.

[ferryv 94]

signed.. I hate EA for abusing the online situation. I dont mind they checking if i paid for the version or the want to compair my gameplay to other people.. But right now i still have to start my first freaking city/town.. getting already 4 hours of server errors! And EA is saying theyre adding more servers etc. but why didnt they do it in the first place???!!!!! Its always going wrong like this on a launchweek (same problem with Battlefield) So @EA get your stuff right. 

[Catchin22 299]

They need to give us $30 store credit to make up for this mess.

[lars_city 23]

signed.. I hate EA for abusing the online situation. I dont mind they checking if i paid for the version or the want to compair my gameplay to other people.. But right now i still have to start my first freaking city/town.. getting already 4 hours of server errors! And EA is saying theyre adding more servers etc. but why didnt they do it in the first place???!!!!! Its always going wrong like this on a launchweek (same problem with Battlefield) So @EA get your stuff right. 

 

I played for those hours, you must be doing something wrong, try picking a server outside of Europe, it worked for me, but indeed everything seem "overloaded", however my stomach hates the game, as I forgot to eat for the past 5 hours I AM HOOKED

[AdoxxBE 289]

All servers are busy or you'll get a connection error, typical something for EA.

Launch a game but can't keep the servers running, why did they even do a BETA..

[johnvosh 13]

signed!

 

Signed.  So far this game has been completely unplayable, so being able to play offline is absolutely necessary.

Completely agree!

[Urban Cartographer 601]

Thank you NASCAR2007 for helping me promote my petition, and bringing it back to the front.  I nearly forgot about it.

 

Here is the fixed link: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/create-a-100-offline-single-player-mode-in-simcity-2013-remove-the-origin-requirement-from-it-and-bring-back-popular-features-from-simcity-4

 

Update: There are now over 5500 signatures.  Keep the pressure up!

[SDaisy2 1]

signed

[halicem 16]

I'd prefer a whitehouse.gov petition, here's why:

 

Because of the required connection to their servers in order to play, this is tantamount to a broken product.

 

Picture this, you just bought the latest released brand-spanking-new car, you drive off the lot only for it to go out on you right on the dealer's driveway. As it turns out, the manufacturer forgot to put in an essential part in the engine which only they can provide. The manufacturer were so incompetent that they left this item out on all the cars they built and that are being sold by dealers worldwide.

 

Reputable dealers, like amazon, immediately halt sales. The maker meanwhile tries to scramble to manufacture that part. Then they have to ship it. Then they have to train technicians what to do. Then your car actually gets fixed. Lucky if all that happens in under a week.

 

As a consumer, your recourse is to walk back in to the manager's office and demand a refund, or exercise the return/love-it-or-hate-it programs.

 

Here lay the crux of the matter, because it's currently unusable, it doesn't meet requirements, it doesn't work as advertised(that's a separate FTC complaint right there), under normal circumstances, if this were a regular product, you'd be able to take it back and ask for a refund.

 

BUT because this is a digital product, it is "IP" and all the wonderful implications that come along with it. So because it was opened/used/activated/bought, you're not allowed to return it.

 

So:

 

Here it is:

 

When you buy a movie, even though it's crap and you totally hated it, the fact is you watched it, you saw it, it fulfilled every function that a movie is supposed to fulfill. The same with music or tv shows.

 

In this case though, you bought Simcity with the expectation that the software will start, and you'll be able to use it. But the reality is, that isn't happening.

 

But what about the "it will eventually get resolved" argument.

 

That is one of many possible outcomes. It is in fact almost a certainty that it will get resolved. But what's also a possible outcome is that North Korea make do good on their threat and detonate a nuke on US soil, say LA. Yes, we've got bigger problems should that happen - but that's a possibility. And if you want to deal with possibilities, there are an infinite number of possibilities that could happen.

 

But in the here, in the now, in what's real right this moment is the fact that it's a broken product. For that reason, we the people should have every right to pull out and be refunded.

 

After all, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow and die, I never would have had the chance to use the product for which I paid for but never got the chance to enjoy because when I was alive and had the capacity to enjoy it, the product didn't work.

 

In short, just because a product is offered digitally does not absolve anyone of any responsibility of fulfilling the promise of what the product should be able to do.

 

Accountability? In the digital world, there is none.

 

Oops, please wait, we made a boo-boo and we're trying to fix it.

 

It's high time this was discussed on a higher stage, hence a white house petition. Sure he won't be able to do anything about it directly, it won't magically fix the servers, but it opens the dialogue - finally.

 

 

ps. I should disclose that I myself work in the digital world. I'm a programmer. I build in-house enterprise apps used by our company and let me tell you, if we mess up, we have to fix it right away, we have plans for backups, and we can't disrupt our users. When users get disrupted, that means the company is paying a large group of people(our users) to do nothing but check their facebooks and twitters, that the company is not making money since we're not producing value(because employee's aren't working), and we might fail to meet client deadlines(in which case the company is obligated to refund our clients). accountability, Maxis, EA, learn what that word means - when you do, should you have this problem again, you'll see it resolved sooner.

[reputationZed 4]

Can't say that I'm in agreement with all the points raised in this petition but I feel strongly enough about creating a offline single player mode that I agreed to sign the petition. I understand EA's desire to prevent piracy but it would seem that once again a DRM scheme has been implemented that seriously detracts from the legitimate users enjoyment of the game. I wouldn't mind having to check in to play but not being able to save a local copy just seems like an incredibly stupid idea for what to many is a single player game.

[Prankemperor 3]

Signed

[mk11232 105]

I'd prefer a whitehouse.gov petition, here's why:

 

I like the petition idea but the whitehouse.gov is just plain stupid.  The government has nothing to do with a digital consumer product, you want congress to stop trying to fix what's broken with the country to address a company's poor game?  Seriously?  That kind of attitude is simply pathetic as it is not the job of the government to even bother looking at this or wasting diskspace with a whitehouse petition.

 

There are plenty of avenues of redress against EA and the courts are wide open, your credit card company, the BBB, public petitions and shame.  

[GenXisT 127]

Signed.

 

Another opinion that I heard about this DRM requirement is that there's like ONE person that pirates a game and then people get if from that one person.  You have to be pretty effing good at it to pirate any product.  So in essence, EA are doing battle with this ONE (or 2 or 3) people vs. the MILLIONS of people that buy this outright legitimately.  That also includes those that COULD get a pirated copy, but still wind up paying for it anyway.  

 

Furthermore, the DRM is all "you're not a legal copy,  go away" isn't suddenly going to make a pirate say "yeah, damn,  you're right. I think I'll go buy a copy now."

 

So in the end, the MILLIONS get hurt because of one...in essence, over $60, and it's a totally illegitimate battle to have in the first place.

How utterly daft... 

[MrBomba 9]

Here's a similar petition but with a ton more signs.

 

https://www.change.org/petitions/electronic-arts-inc-remove-always-online-drm-from-simcity-and-future-games

 

Sign and complete it first

[halicem 16]

I'd prefer a whitehouse.gov petition, here's why:

 

I like the petition idea but the whitehouse.gov is just plain stupid.  The government has nothing to do with a digital consumer product, you want congress to stop trying to fix what's broken with the country to address a company's poor game?  Seriously?  That kind of attitude is simply pathetic as it is not the job of the government to even bother looking at this or wasting diskspace with a whitehouse petition.

 

There are plenty of avenues of redress against EA and the courts are wide open, your credit card company, the BBB, public petitions and shame.  

Like I mentioned, I don't expect it to fix the game - it's meant to get the conversation started. There'd been petitions for Death Stars and more stupid things like that and this, I believe, has more relevance. The issue here isn't just about a game, like I said, it's about digital products and the reality is:

- you can't take them to court because they're protected by existing laws

- you can dispute charges but like EA said, do that and you'll get banned

- multi-million dollar businesses don't care about public "social" petitions

- corporations treat the bbb as a joke(reputation management 101: don't directly engage with the bbb issue center or ripoff reports, doing so makes those pages relevant in the Internet. Instead control it via official channels)

- you may shame companies, but again, they've got big marketing budgets to weather it, shaming them only works for so long especially if they know by this time next month, the issue is buried

[arcology 224]

It's up to 40,000+ signatures!

[reReticulated Spline 69]

This has got to be the first not-dumb gamer petition I have ever seen.

 

While I keep my opinion that expecting an online game to work on launch day without problems is unrealistic to the point of being gullible, it is obvious that Simcity's launch HAS gone a lot worse then it should have gone. And consumers getting together and saying: we don't like it makes sense. A lot more sense then making a petition because you don't like the color scheme of a game in development *cough diablo II cough*.

 

On the other hand. Maxis, EA, we the consumers, gaming journalism, everyone already knows the launch went disasterous. What would be the point of a petition? EA probably thinks: if the launch went fine, this petition wouldn't have existed so next time we just make the launch better and keep the online component. And would they have been wrong? How many people wouldn't have signed the petition if they didn't have any server problems?

 

Meh, I get why this petition exists, and it makes sense that people set it up. It's also one of the few mature repsonses from gamers I have seen in a while. However, I don't see it achieving anything.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Signed! Anything to make Maxis/EA smell the stench of the pariah they unleashed upon us!

[AIX 270]

The BBB and RipoffReport are jokes (all though I think the owner of RipoffReport is pond scum not worthy of my shoe), so I hardly use those channels.

 

Had I purchased this game, I would be disputing it on my credit card. HOWEVER, I would only do that if all other options for a refund fail. I am notorious for getting past the "front line gatekeepers" when calling customer service and getting in touch with a senior manager or other person of authority. If I did have to take the dispute route, I wouldn't care if they banned me because I would be so enraged with EA beyond the game not working that I would have banned them before they could ban me.

 

Also, if you bought this game in disc form from a store, they are likely powerless in getting you a refund because they are often prohibited from taken returns for media (movies, music, games, etc) here in the United States. Of course, laws and your experience will vary.