reputationZed

I was just reading an article in the Chicago Tribune were the Maxis developers were bragging that this version of SC is the first one that is truly a simulation. They spoke of previous versions as simulations of simulations. It don't see modeling erratic behavior such as this as being a true simulatoon

I thought it was a well written letter, unfortunately I don't hold much hope that EA’s leadership will take it to heart.

If SC 2013 flops bad then EA could severely punish Maxis, to the point where Maxis could be wound down (terminated or something) by EA. So hundreds of Maxis employees jobs are on the line because of EA's incompetence, Maxis must have known problems like this would occur and I'm sure they are secretly desperate to create a single-player mode but with EA breathing down their backs... I pity those employees and Maxis programmers and developers, I bet for months they knew the launch would be plagued with online problems. This smacks to me of nothing but franchise assassination on EA's part, to release a product that has such a devastating flaw. Besides it's also a matter of psychology to, if SC 2013 were a single player game I would have peace of mind because I know I can save my cities. But with this setup you will always be wondering when you next start up the game if your cities and regions have been properly saved. I'm sorry but how can you purchase a game with that uncertainty lingering around? Me voting with my money is the only way (however small) I can to tell Maxis/EA; SC 2013 needs to have a single player mode before I even think about buying the game again. p.s. I understand exactly how difficult economic conditions are in the USA, 47 million people on foodstamps for Godsake, it's horrific. I am pretty certain if big corporations began to value capitalism and long-term development of their franchises and products, and not be so obsessed with dividends and the value of their stock price, the economy would be on a much sounder footing.I'm not giving Maxis a buy on this one. While EA clearly made decisions that were not in the players interest and ultimately lead to core issues with the games playability I feel that Maxis is also at least partly to blame. I can understand why Maxis caved to EA In regards to the always on DRM. EA is the 800lbs gorilla in the room and if they wanted their game published there may have not been any option but to give in to EA's vision even if the devs within Maxis felt it was a bad idea. Where I fault Maxis is in there obsession with social networking. Granted the Sims has been a huge success based on interacting with individual sims and closely tied to social networking. SimCities roots however are in the single player environment and focused on the city as a whole rather than tracking the wants and needs of individual sims. The need to be always connected to a server is only in part a requirement of the always on DRM, regional play is also to blame. So even if EA, and their DRM scheme, were out of the picture, we would still need to connect to the servers to support regional play. My view is that Maxis shares accountability for SC's shortcomings with EA

Ditched the game last night as well. Requested a refund from Amazon which was approved within a few hours despite their policy that digital downloads are in eligible for refunds. Cudo's to Amazon for the commitment to customer satisfaction Frustration with the servers ultimately outweighed any satisfaction I was getting from the game, and EA's solution of throwing more servers at the problem seems like a desperate attempt to bandaid the games issues rather than solve them. Case in point I tried logging on last night and was told that the server I had been playing on was busy and to try again in 29 minutes. Per Maxis/EA suggestion I tried logging on to one of the available servers even though it would have meant starting a new city from scratch. Problem was when I tried connecting to a server that was listed as available I'd still get a message that the connection couldn't be established. That was the last straw for me, can't play the game because the servers busy, can't play the game because the server is available, in short cant play the game. The game had potential but I'm still not convinced that Maxis's reboot of SimCity into a social network Sims/SC hybrid makes for a more enjoyable game than a true to the bone SimCity 5 would have been. The concept was interesting but to many concessions were made that ultimately detract from the games potential. For example why give us curved roads but then constrain us to a city size that makes them impractical to use. Who knows, 6 months from now if EA fixes things to the point were I can just jump on and play I might give SC2013 another go. Heck it might even be in the bargain bin by then. But for me, in its current state, SC2013 is a fail.

Re #1 - A well written petition is far more likely to be taken seriously Re #2 - I didn't see that AIX mentioned politics or sexual orientation, not sure why you felt the need to do so

EA did get one thing right in naming the game Simcity LIMITED edition. I guess I just didn't anticipate by limited they ment they were going to limit our enjoyment of the game by limiting our ability to actually play the game. I was willing to give the 'reebot' of Simcity a chance eventhough many of its concepts go against my concept of what SImcity should be, but so far EA has made it all but impossible for us to even give the game a fair run to see if their solicial network vs single player model has any merit. I was disapointed we didn't get the much anticiapted and hoped for SImCity 5 but some what intregued that a new spin on the game might actually be enjoyable, but my access to the game has to this point been so limited that I can't even make an informed decision is the game has potential or is a complete fail.

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.

Just got an email from Amazon that they had inadvertently canceled my order. Gave me $5 off for my inconvenience. Just reordered through Amazon

Just got following from Amazon Hello, We're contacting you about your order for "Origin SimCity." We recently learned that, due to a technical issue, Origin SimCity will no longer pre-load on 3/1/2013. Instead, the game will launch with no pre-load on 3/5/2013. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I'd almost guarantee the physical media is going to be DVD. If the game will fit on a DVD what's the advantage of putting it on a Blueray? Why limit your customer base if there is no advantage to be had

OK, that makes sense. Didn't think I'd actually be able to play that early.

I'm reasonably confident that Amazon got the release date wrong but I just got an e-mail from them showing that "This item will be available to download on March 1, 2013 at 11:00 AM (US/Pacific)"