An Open Letter to EA on SimCity: You Could Have Prevented This

Pretty much what I've felt but been too polite to say.

It will probably not make any difference. EA can be very stubborn...

I'm not ashamed to say "I told you so."

I've been saying it for a year and been treated like @@@@ by fanbois because of it.

But it's not about my personal satisfaction...I'm happy to see this happen to the game because, hopefully, it will finally sink in to some heads that you can't just do this with games.

At least no future games will mess up as badly. I'm sure all the gaming companies are watching this unfold in real time. Hopefully, in a few weeks we will all look back (while playing a working SimCity that doesn't have connection problems) and laugh about how horrible the launch was.

Simcity 4 isn't even on their list of alternative titles

I honestly doubt the system they are attempting to use will go away. Not to say the system is ready to be used. I simply think the tech isnt there yet. The cloud concept is pretty damned young in its current iteration. Frankly Im surprised they attempted it after the CitiesXL debacle. The big different of course is there backed by a company like EA. Makes you wonder how they will iron things out over the next few months. 

EA is to large, arrogant and ignorant to take notice of this. But a good try. I really hate that company

 So far, Amazon has 1,091 one-star user reviews for SimCity out of 1,213 reviews total (and I'm pretty sure several of the five-star reviews are being sarcastic). A Change.org petition has raised over 35,000

signatures in two days demanding that you offer a single-player,

offline mode in SimCity and eschew always-on online for games. Polygon

has revised its score of SimCity increasingly downward from 9.5 to 4. At PCMag, we even came up with seven SimCity alternatives for players who don't want to deal with server problems.

If that isn't a swift kick in their a$$ I don't know what is...

petitions.whitehouse.g­ov/petition/indict-electronic-­arts-consumer-fraud/Kv8ncfGt

Please sign the White House petition to have Electronic Arts indicted for consumer fraud!!!

This is so sad. I expected this this. But this wouldn't, shouldn't and couldn't have happened if EA listened. Once again, so sad. 

It is sad because the idiots who make these decisions won't learn the lessons that they should (ably pointed-out by many here long before launch and in this article).  Instead, the lesson will be that it was a mistake to do a city simulator and we'll be waiting 20 years instead of 10 for the next one.

It's not all about always online DRM. It is also about deleting user-friendly core features for the sake of higer control over the user-experienc and DLC (terraforming, modding, undo, reload old save, etc.). PR been horribly unhonest. Lastly, the game seems prematurely released as there are still various bugs within the game engine (weak traffic simulation, buggy agent simulation). An extended open beta and open and transparent communication with the loyal fan base could have prevented much of this disaster. EA really got it all wrong on this one!

it always seems my thoughts don't reflect at all what the consensuses is saying on these forums, but anyway I bought SimCity digital deluxe edition. I had all the same problems. my cities are private on the oceanic 1 server...Tonight I played without any problems...SimCity is different then sc4 you really have to think strategic....how do you want the city to grow and represent it self within the region. I have a whole region...I can devise my own great works all on my own...I love how crime effects other cities...that is real life...I like how out of work sims can't pay there mortgage and you see them homeless in the parks...dropping land value...the simulation is very intriguing...humans are frail...and frailty is something we can't break the mold of...but fixing the problem is something they seem to have done tonight....and that is all they can do...I don't believe in conspiracies concerning Maxis and EA...I have better more stimulating things to do with my brain...then degrade people when I make mistakes myself.

The only way EA will ever listen is if people stop buying there games. I havent purchased SC13 and i dont intend to.

It is sad because the idiots who make these decisions won't learn the lessons that they should (ably pointed-out by many here long before launch and in this article).  Instead, the lesson will be that it was a mistake to do a city simulator and we'll be waiting 20 years instead of 10 for the next one.

yup.  they're actually going to try to appease people by giving away free games than actually fix the problem.

Yah, that notice came out a few minutes after I posted here!

 

To be clear, I agree that there are some great new featuires and aspects to Glassbox SimCity.  Unfortunately too many core aspects were removed and/or crippled and/or mangled.  Add always online and you have a disaster that I will not be purchasing--first SimCity title since the very first that I will not own and I have been one of the keenest people waiting for the new one to come out. 

 

Sorry, it's just too dumded-down even though the new sim engine had the potential to upgrade SC4 in a magnificent way.  They couldn't leave well enough alone, so if I want to play The Sims, I'll buy it.  If I want SimCity, I'll stick to SC4, now even better with the latest NAM!