John-SJ

Sixty dollars plus? In that case, it doesn't matter how good the game is, or how good it is claimed to be. I will not spend $60 on any game. Many of the arguments being made in favor of SC2013 sound very similar to the arguments made by Monte Cristo around the time of the release of Cities XL. I have to admit, the arguments made then by Monte Cristo and now by EA/Origin/Maxis/Whoever sound real good on paper. But as Monte Cristo found out, sounding good on paper is not exactly the same as being good where the rubber meets the road, in the market place. I get no satisfaction over seeing companies/games fail, but as things stand right now, I for one will not beadding to its success by supporting it with my dollars,

I know that others have already mentioned Cities XL and the community backlash to the online only option, but I just learned of this today and I was shocked and dismayed that EA/Origin didn't learn from the Cities XL experience, The game developer went bankrupt because of it for Pete's sake! I know EA/Origin will not suffer that fate, but come on! Didn't they learn anything? So, just in case they missed it, we don't WANT multi-play, we want the ability to build cities and create mods. An always online requirement can only DECREASE the user base. Signed, Annoyed!

Originally posted by: buidingbig C:\Users\\Pictures\Focus Home Interactive\Cities XL 2011\screenshotsquote> or, in XP, you can find them in My Documents\My Pictures\Focus Home Interactive\Cities XL 2011\screenshots Also, if screenshots are not working, make sure you are using F11 for screenshots.

That's the title of the email I just received from the CXL Webmaster. Imagine my surprise! Well, not that surprised really, it never seemed to me that CXL was doing that well with their PO anyway. When the revocation of the one and two month offers came along I imagined that MC must be pretty desperate for cash. Does the revocation of the PO confirm my imagining? Possibly. So, buses will be made available to SP mode in March, but then there will be no further updates, meaning no mass transit options, until the release of CXL 2011. I wonder if it will really be released in 2011? Will MC get smart and make mass transit a major feature of 2011? Is MC's quote, "Although the online game comes to an end the community still lives on and we plan to support it the same way we have always done." a good thing, or a bad thing?

I thing CXL 2011 will be an expansion, or a whole new version of the game.

If you decide you need highways in the future, you may find those "too small" 4x4 blocks have a nice use after all. If you demolish buildings between 2 streets 4 squares apart and run your highway down the middle, the enclosing streets are just the right distance apart for parallel on/off ramps to your highway.

Check out citiesxl.com. One of the options is to d/l a PO only version of the game for $9 which includes 1 month subscription. The game is therefore free. All you are paying for is the subscription.

Well, that's good at least. The reason I ask, when the first content pack was released I received an email that suggested I subscribe to the PO in order to get the content pack. It also seemed to suggest that if I did not act on the offer within 15 days that I would miss out on the content. It's good to know that it is not really that way.

Question: If I subscribe to PO 6 months after release, do I get all of the content packs that have been released during that 6 months? Or do I get only the packs that come out while I am subscribed?

But, considering that, "Development is absurdly slow, communication is non-existent, and it seems to me as though the community is already fading." better to wait a year or two and then buy it. That way you'll be able to make the decision, if the game is awesome, buy it, and if not, pat yourself on the back knowing you avoided a train wreck with little or no community.

Originally posted by: DaveParker meh - started it up today and nearly all the billboard ads have been replaced with adverts for planet offer I don't mind the billboard ads that look like the ones you see in real life but these make it seem like I'm playing a demo (one that cost money) :-(quote> It has been my impression from the beginning that the single player portion is not a game at all, but rather, an ongoing ad for the Planet Offer. MC actually admits that the single player isn't complete, and then goes about trying to get you to play the complete game for $9 per month. Do they mention taht if you drop your subscription for one or more months that you will permanently miss any content that was delivered during your absence? No?

You may also want to consider the vote of the person (who is a CXL player) that I quote in my signiture. "If you don't subscribe to the (Cities XL) PO, you shouldn't play this game..." - YannickMtl

Unless you are okay with spending $9 per month for a chat room and the ability to "trade tokens" with other players, don't even consider CXL, not even for $20. The single player is not even a reasonably playable game, really, the single player game is nothing more than an inducement to plunk down your $9 per month so you can play the "real game". I played the planet offer (that's the mmo version of the game for $9 per month) long enough to realize that I prefer SC4 by far. To me, SC4 is a much more in depth simulation. CXL just feels very shallow to me. Just my $ .02

Originally posted by: site400 Originally posted by: John-SJ We can see how the PO is doing just by looking at the number of cities on each server, and has the number of servers increased since release? For instance, I played my 7-day free trial a couple of weeks after release. At the time there were 2 U.S. servers with between 5-6 thousand cities on each server.quote> But what we don't know is how long inactive cities remain on the server before they are freed up. In particular, how long do cities created by people who used their 7-day free trial stay online before they deleted. I see a butt-load of cities every day, but only a very small number are actually "in use". MC could just leave cities in play for weeks after a person's trial ends just to create a sense of "fullness" on the planet. Who knows! quote> True enough. Okay, more to the point, How many active U.S. servers are there today? And how full are they? Surely there must be at least 3 or 4 by now, right?

This is off-topic, I know, but I have a question. We can see how the PO is doing just by looking at the number of cities on each server, and has the number of servers increased since release? For instance, I played my 7-day free trial a couple of weeks after release. At the time there were 2 U.S. servers with between 5-6 thousand cities on each server. So, how many U.S. servers are there now? And how many cities total? And yes, I am aware that multiple cities per account are allowed, but still, the number of total cities should give at least a rough idea how well CXL is doing.