A New Perspective On SimCity

[Elynole 4]

Greetings All,

 

I'd like to make an introduction - I ended up stumbling across the announcement of SimCity 2013 earlier yesterday afternoon as I came home from work, having not played a SimCity game since 2000, it peaked my interest to discover what new evolutions this franchise has taken over the past two decades or so - so I splurged and bought myself the Limited Edition collection.

 

It should be noted that I've been playing online-based games, specific to the PC, since the mid-90's when my father introduced me to text-based MUDs and Ultima Online.  I was around during the EverQuest era, was a component of the ushering in of Battle.Net, and watched games such as StarCraft, Diablo, and WarCraft skyrocket to stardom.  Somewhere in between there I found my fixation for god-complex games such as SimCity, Civilization, Black & White, and Spore just to name a few.  Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I lost touch with the SimCity franchise for whatever reason. 

 

I ended up spending the night playing SimCity 2013, although I had a 15-20 minute blackout after the tutorial where the servers were down - I decided no harm done! I ended up finally getting my region made and began tearing up the ground for my new city developments.  Having stayed up way too late, spending 6-7 hours or so playing, I eventually made my way into work this morning and decided to check up on some of the news that had been buzzing about this new addition to the franchise - and to my dismay it was plagued with negativity.

 

Having not played a SimCity since the late 90's, I decided that perhaps my take on the game was much different compared to the enthusiasts and fanactics - continuing to read more and more on the server stability issues, I decided right.

 

Server Stability 

 

Oh the woes this can cause.  As stated above, I'm not new to taking a client-side PC and having to connect to a host server to be able to play.   I personally love the DRM-style that many games are going to, as it allows for a larger social interaction with the games we love and who doesn't love DLC?  Perhaps though, it's my unwavering patience I've built up when playing online games that has made me so resistant to be angered at stability issues - As it happens with most online released games that are worth their weight in gold for the initial week or so.

 

Switching over to my developer side for a moment, I handle "big data" in the real world and it's often times hard to judge accurately a user's take on a new product to the point of having the architecture in place to support such.  Furthermore, it's even harder once that hardware goes down, for whatever reason, to meet the demands of such markets - especially the overly self-entitled gaming market.  When dealing with a server architecture the size of what would be needed to keep all the instances of everyone's newly created region, leaderboards, online achievement handling, theft-protection, etc it comes to a point where you're relying not just on your company to support this type of architecture but most likely a large onset of contractors and 3rd party companies to get through the initial nightmare of a launch date.

 

Hardware mishaps do happen, projections are either overwhelming or underwhelming(in this case, underwhelming), and often times there's not enough daylight at any given time to get these issues fixed timely.  I, personally, would hate to see the support bill that EA pays IBM/Dell/Cisco/etc - some of the smallest bills I've had the pleasure of looking at for these ranged in the 10's of thousands of dollars per month and these were for small-medium architectures.  Not to mention EA's Maxis division is probably plagued full of contractors who were hired on for 3 months or so contract to support just the launch, have limited knowledge in the existing architecture, and only using the experience of their previous contracts to guide them through their launch projects.  This is, however, the fault of Agile development - though the alternative would mean you probably wouldn't see a SimCity game until the year 2020. 

 

Server issues will subside in the coming days/weeks, people will begin to play SimCity the way the developers envisioned the game, and all but the most immature of consumers will totally forget about the nightmare that was launch unless the topic is specifically brought up again.  The expectations of a game, especially a franchised one, are always sky-high - which should be a credit to the developers for having developed such consistently great products - and, much like any other game I've been apart of during launch these issues do get fixed and players continue on with their lives.

 

Regions, You Say?

 

Stepping down from my technical soap-box, after about hour 2-3 last night of playing I eventually found myself demolishing and rebuilding quite frequently within my ever-changing city.  It finally occurred to me that the reason and need for doing this was due to the boundaries that the city was to be made in was rather small compared to the building sizes of some of the player-placed buildings.  By the time I ended up shutting down the game last night, I had pretty much touched all four corners of my little city boundary and was wondering where I was going to obtain more space - having noticed that I could claim other cities within the region - I now have something to look forward to when I get home.

 

Additionally, after reading a good portion of the given comments on these forums about this subject, I noticed that I was not thinking outside the box.  The opportunities that multiple cities gives me within a region are quite rewarding, and I can't wait to start fleshing out my metropolitan utopia on SimCity 2013 once I make it home from work.

 

Eyegasms

 

My enjoyment of the game so far has been nothing short of amazing, and I believe I'm pleased to say that this may be the SimCity that has drawn me back into the franchise.  One thing I couldn't help but notice was how gorgeous, and creative the building designs and landscapes were.  Playing everything on ultra graphical settings is like watching the second-coming of Christ himself.

 

I've also enjoyed the pop-ups that are quite comical, adding a bit of spice to the could-be dull social presentation that you receive from your fellow populace. Overall, I'll be sticking with this game and perhaps I'll get into the modding environment that seems to be everso present here at Simtropolis.

 

I hope you've enjoyed my write-up, this was a website I had stumbled upon during my searches of news.  It seemed as though everyone on the forums was quite passionate over SimCity, so I figured it may also be good to hear from someone who doesn't quite have that level of passion or commitment to the game yet

[GenXisT 127]

Regions, You Say?

 

Stepping down from my technical soap-box, after about hour 2-3 last night of playing I eventually found myself demolishing and rebuilding quite frequently within my ever-changing city.  It finally occurred to me that the reason and need for doing this was due to the boundaries that the city was to be made in was rather small compared to the building sizes of some of the player-placed buildings.  By the time I ended up shutting down the game last night, I had pretty much touched all four corners of my little city boundary and was wondering where I was going to obtain more space - having noticed that I could claim other cities within the region - I now have something to look forward to when I get home.

 

Additionally, after reading a good portion of the given comments on these forums about this subject, I noticed that I was not thinking outside the box.  The opportunities that multiple cities gives me within a region are quite rewarding, and I can't wait to start fleshing out my metropolitan utopia on SimCity 2013 once I make it home from work.

 

please read thru this thread:

 

 

the fact that you've skipped out on SC4 means you can't fully appreciate the magnitude of the problem here.

[VikingPea 0]

I do like your take on it. BUT region play simply does not work at this time. So basically the entire design of how this was ment to be played with small tiles doesn't work. I can't sustain a huge city on one tile...yet if my friend tries to develop next to me or I grab another tile the city's done communicate at all. It is like the other city isn't there at all :-/

[arcology 224]

Server issues will subside in the coming days/weeks, people will begin to play SimCity the way the developers envisioned the game, and all but the most immature of consumers will totally forget about the nightmare that was launch unless the topic is specifically brought up again.  The expectations of a game, especially a franchised one, are always sky-high - which should be a credit to the developers for having developed such consistently great products - and, much like any other game I've been apart of during launch these issues do get fixed and players continue on with their lives.

 

While I can respect anybody's opinion, to assume that people who are disgruntled are "immature" is a bit of a stretch. 

 

Also, it always sounds suspicious to me when someone is not able to see it from the consumer's side. 

[Elynole 4]

While I can respect anybody's opinion, to assume that people who are disgruntled are "immature" is a bit of a stretch. 

 

Also, it always sounds suspicious to me when someone is not able to see it from the consumer's side. 

 

Moreso in that, those that grow lethargic based around issues that obviously weren't intentional are in a sense throwing a "tantrum" of sorts, if they were to stay angered even after the incident had been resolved.  Sometimes I feel as though people stay in a mindset that developers intentionally try and destroy something that they've worked for years on - and their the job hinges on.

 

I feel I can see both sides, as I was a gamer before a developer, and still continue to be a consumer while being a developer at the same time.

[arcology 224]

While I can respect anybody's opinion, to assume that people who are disgruntled are "immature" is a bit of a stretch. 

 

Also, it always sounds suspicious to me when someone is not able to see it from the consumer's side. 

 

Moreso in that, those that grow lethargic based around issues that obviously weren't intentional are in a sense throwing a "tantrum" of sorts, if they were to stay angered even after the incident had been resolved.  Sometimes I feel as though people stay in a mindset that developers intentionally try and destroy something that they've worked for years on - and their the job hinges on.

 

I feel I can see both sides, as I was a gamer before a developer, and still continue to be a consumer while being a developer at the same time.

 

 

It is not the consumer's job to pay AND also worry about the person putting out the product.  How much are they supposed to "give"? 

 

So, in essence, just because a consumer "feels" a certain way - that will destroy a game?  That again, is a little far fetched. 

 

If said game was inherently great, and contained many of the core elements that made it a fan favorite for all these years, it wouldn't matter what anybody "thought" or "felt" - they would be too busy playing to care. 

[Elynole 4]

 

 

Moreso in that, those that grow lethargic based around issues that obviously weren't intentional are in a sense throwing a "tantrum" of sorts, if they were to stay angered even after the incident had been resolved.  Sometimes I feel as though people stay in a mindset that developers intentionally try and destroy something that they've worked for years on - and their the job hinges on.

 

I feel I can see both sides, as I was a gamer before a developer, and still continue to be a consumer while being a developer at the same time.

 

 

So, in essence, just because a consumer "feels" a certain way - that will destroy a game?  That again, is a little far fetched. 

 

Can't say I said anything of the sort, please re-read what I said.  It had nothing to do with consumers feeling a certain way that destroys the game. 

[Elynole 4]

Considering that I stated that I was out of touch with the franchise multiple times in the post, I'm sure reiterating it as an "obviously" was a bit of a redundancy.  I haven't messed with the region control but I did notice that the money isn't shared - which is disheartening - there should be like a county seat of sorts.  The zoning I do not have a problem with, it's based on the transportation density and the surroundings - much like any major city would be. Much more realistic than specifically stating, you can only build million dollar condos on this lot. 

[jeje71 6]

...really? i'm pretty sure in the REAL world that's exactly what happens: it's not enough to buy a lot, you also have to get a permit for a specific type of construction, with landscaping consideration, what kind of purpose, which height, etc... so the unrealistic part in simcity 4 was the restrictions you could didn't represent all aspects, but at some point there is realistic and there is fun.

so, adjusting size of buildings to size of roads "could" be interesting gameplay wise, but it's surely NOT realistic at all.

 

in real life, the bigger the size of the city, the harder the conditions to fulfill to allowed to build something are. that's why there are city planning, urban planner, etc, etc...these jobs are not restricted to "okay, let's build a bigger road here and then it's free for all"

[Elynole 4]

 

 

 

 The zoning I do not have a problem with, it's based on the transportation density and the surroundings - much like any major city would be. Much more realistic than specifically stating, you can only build million dollar condos on this lot. 

 

...really? i'm pretty sure in the REAL world that's exactly what happens: it's not enough to buy a lot, you also have to get a permit for a specific type of construction, with landscaping consideration, what kind of purpose, which height, etc... so the unrealistic part in simcity 4 was the restrictions you could didn't represent all aspects, but at some point there is realistic and there is fun.

so, adjusting size of buildings to size of roads "could" be interesting gameplay wise, but it's surely NOT realistic at all.

 

in real life, the bigger the size of the city, the harder the conditions to fulfill to allowed to build something are. that's why there are city planning, urban planner, etc, etc...these jobs are not restricted to "okay, let's build a bigger road here and then it's free for all"

 

Of course you zone it accordingly, but I'm not sure the conversations for that go as "I'm designating this lot to be only for the lowest income families in the region" - populace decides what is a respectable place to live based on the venues around the area, transportation, etc - and that's exactly what SC5 does.  

[GenXisT 127]

a perfect representation of the issues can be seen in the heading picture on this site.  Obviously some concept type art for the game.

But no state, country or region, anywhere on earth has cities like that. there aren't just local patches of skyscrapers.

And there aren't really metropolitan areas with nowt in between.

 

I would expect this type of thing on a new planet, where the atmosphere is unstable so we all live under bio-domes

[Zukunftstraume 220]

Unfortunately, skipping 3000 and SC4, and comparing this game to a SC2000 from over 15 years ago really makes it so you can't appreciate the magic of where the SC franchise was heading. Those particular two games were among the greatest games ever created! It's like comparing a dumbed-down version of the brand new Nintendo Wii U to the old PlayStation 1 from 1995, and writing reviews on that while completely missing all the consoles in-between like the PlayStation 2 and 3... While we, expected a "PlayStation 4" to continue the legacy of the great series... but nope.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

SimCity 2000 is hardly comparable with SimCity 4, let alone SimCity 2013. I mean compare this...

... to this...

... and you see how far progressed SimCity 4 has compared to SimCity 2000. You obviously missed the capabilities of what SimCity 4 can do (especially on transit and region fronts) and this is also why so many people are upset about the new game. SimCity 4 allowed us to create realistic looking cities, only restricted by the grid (but in the mean time, we've found ways to counter-act that).

Quite a few games quickly look and feel better compared to SimCity 2000, including this new game, but that doesn't make the new game really a good game. Newer isn't always better. I found OpenTTD more entertaining than the SimCity 2013 Beta, despite the fact that this open-source game is based upon the game-engine of the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe came out in 1994, around the same time as SimCity 2000. The graphics don't look that good, but the possibilities are versatile. With SimCity 2013, it seems to be the other way around (form with little function).

Want to know how most of the old fans feel? Try out SimCity 4 Deluxe, download the NAM (version 30, v31 is not yet stable) and experience yourself...

Best,

Maarten

[AIX 270]

Well said, Maarten.

 

@Elynole: All the game issues aside, the mere fact that people weren't able play on release day after spending $60-80 is enough to make me permanently ban EA from my purchases. If I purchase something, I expect it to be usable upon delivery. No ifs, ands, or buts. If I was a reviewer, I would drop the rating to a 0 regardless of any other considerations. My attitude is I am the consumer and I invested my money in this product. Getting it to work as promised on delivery IS THE DEVELOPER'S PROBLEM, not mine.

 

By the way, I paid $39.99 for SC4 and $19.99 for Rush Hour. They both worked perfectly fine the day I purchased.

[nataniels3 61]

Eyenole, you should read the news article on Simtropolis about the Christian Science Monitor. I understand your defense, but some people had different experiences, also, you should read about Amazon stopping sales. When major retailors back down, its not just going to be "forgotten about"

[Charizard 284]

SimCity 2000 is hardly comparable with SimCity 4, let alone SimCity 2013. I mean compare this...

... to this...

... and you see how far progressed SimCity 4 has compared to SimCity 2000. You obviously missed the capabilities of what SimCity 4 can do (especially on transit and region fronts) and this is also why so many people are upset about the new game. SimCity 4 allowed us to create realistic looking cities, only restricted by the grid (but in the mean time, we've found ways to counter-act that).

Quite a few games quickly look and feel better compared to SimCity 2000, including this new game, but that doesn't make the new game really a good game. Newer isn't always better. I found OpenTTD more entertaining than the SimCity 2013 Beta, despite the fact that this open-source game is based upon the game-engine of the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe came out in 1994, around the same time as SimCity 2000. The graphics don't look that good, but the possibilities are versatile. With SimCity 2013, it seems to be the other way around (form with little function).

Want to know how most of the old fans feel? Try out SimCity 4 Deluxe, download the NAM (version 30, v31 is not yet stable) and experience yourself...

Best,

Maarten

That second pic is simply beautiful. It's wonderful what mods can do to SimCity 4. Too bad we'll never see something like this in the new SimCity. Even the Paris building set is worse in quality than the stuff produced by the people at this website.