The SimCity Thread of Offline Play

[Badnik Mechanic]

You guys forget that EA have two things that Hogfather doesn't; a team of lawyers and lots and lots of money. They'd just find out who did it and take him to court for all he's worth. 

 

Wow! I have money!?

 

Although I think from a legal standpoint, there isn't much they could have done. They had the computers all in a public area, there was no password protection... and most of all, I was told I could use it and leave what-ever feedback I wanted.

 

"Go visit TSS and get a working copy of Sim City 5"

 

* 2 min later, 50,000 people join TSS, everyone is confused and I begin to laugh evily.

[Gabz Girl]

I don't know if I would've done it or not but that is a bit stupid of the guy, to leave the actual EA Twitter page online for anyone to use. It's a shame you didn't actually. =P

[MykonosFan]

Did they get your name or anything? I don't see how they could've sued you if  you just popped in, Tweeted something on the account and popped out if all they could go by was "He uhh was this tall and looked kinda sorta like this!"

[Salamander]

I don't think I'd have been able to resist.  And to be honest, I'm disappointed that you did.

[SuperLink]

Absolutely unbelievable.

 

I wonder how desperately EA will attempt to save face if more stuff like this gets around.

Here's the full image for anyone who wants some interesting stuff to look through; http://s7.postimage.org/9590bn20b/1362800040653.jpg

[Emmett L. Brown]

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity

 

You know, I'm not much of a public speaker, but I just can't say how gratifying it is...to leave you to wallow in your own mess. You're screwed, goodnight!

 

[/yep, that was a Simpsons quote]

[Frogging101]

Oh wow Hogfather, that's awesome! What would I have done in your position? I may just have posted something to cause some sort of PR disaster for EA. For any other account, I would probably have taken the moral high ground and just logged out. But EA doesn't deserve any such kindness from me, not after the way they screwed over everyone who bought SimCity. It's a golden opportunity, and I probably would have taken it. I wouldn't do it on some random person's account, I may not even have done it on another game company's account, but EA's account? Hell yeah

You did the right thing, technically. But I don't know if it would be wrong to have done it, considering it's EA. Because ya know EA, karma's a bitch sometimes.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Frogging101

[Badnik Mechanic]

Thinking about it though, I'm glad I didn't do anything bad... or wrong...

 

Mainly because what I suspect that the guy who was running 'the hub' would have lost his job. Thats something I don't particually want to be responsible for since it was a mistake and he was trying to do something that EA have obviously told him to do... that being 'get people talking on twitter about our games.'

 

Lets be frank here, this is EA, they treat their customers like crap so goodness knows how the employees are treated.

[Frogging101]

Thinking about it though, I'm glad I didn't do anything bad... or wrong...

 

Mainly because what I suspect that the guy who was running 'the hub' would have lost his job. Thats something I don't particually want to be responsible for since it was a mistake and he was trying to do something that EA have obviously told him to do... that being 'get people talking on twitter about our games.'

 

Lets be frank here, this is EA, they treat their customers like crap so goodness knows how the employees are treated.

Ah, that is very true, I didn't consider that. I would think nothing of causing a disaster for EA but I definitely wouldn't want someone to lose their job over it. I do wonder though if it would have been possible to figure out that it was that guy who made the mistake; it's the general "EA" account, right? So for all EA knows it could have been posted from anywhere, by anyone, without that employee even being involved. I dunno though, better safe than sorry when it comes to someone's job. Getting fired from EA... It might make it hard to get another job, methinks.

[Autosaver]

 

Scumbag EA

[SuperLink]

I have the constant feeling that many of EA's employees are normal humans like us who hate the majority of EA's shitty practises.. I mean, it's a big company, no way do that many people (employees) agree with keeping SC online or the microtransaction bullshit.

 

However, if they speak even one word out of line or disagree, their ass is probably as good as fired or harassed at the very least! This is the company that bloody bans people from all their games for criticising things on Origin.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

I have the constant feeling that many of EA's employees are normal humans like us who hate the majority of EA's shitty practises.. I mean, it's a big company, no way do that many people (employees) agree with keeping SC online or the microtransaction bullshit.

 

I have a feeling that everyone hates EA, and that the only reason they're still around is that they've got everyone's favorite franchises hostage.

[Phos]

Hoggfather, I think you should have at least posted "Hey, can you believe this idiot let me use his official twitter?"

[Emmett L. Brown]

Can you withstand the pulse-pounding excitment?

 

[Patticus]

They should make it so that, in the space between developing and full grown cities, suburbs farmland and villages and stuff spring up. It just looks weird, having these big cities not surrounded by all the extra paraphernalia of civilization. Although, maybe that's because they really are planning on expanding cities in the not-too-distant future; build up to a certain point and your territorial boundaries also expand, up to a certain point.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Ho ho ho boy!

 

ScrewAttack has reviewed Sim City 5. They gave it 1/10! Whilst I would argue it probably deserves the score. In terms of the reasoning behind it, it feels more like they gave it that score for site hits. Theres barely a paragraph about why the whole DRM issue and it's hardly the most original or philosophical pieces of text.

[Patticus]

If the product is non-functional, then shouldn't the review be postponed until such a time as it is functional?

[Emmett L. Brown]

If the product is non-functional, then shouldn't the review be postponed until such a time as it is functional?

Not if it's on sale for full price while still non-functional. Then a review is all the more important for warning people to stay away until the problems are resolved.

 

In any case, Metacritic is filled to the brim with lauding reviews written by people who've only played the Beta.

[Patticus]

Not if it's on sale for full price while still non-functional. Then a review is all the more important for warning people to stay away until the problems are resolved.

Then write a short and to-the-point article saying so, and don't review the game itself until such a time as you can review it and not the server problems.

[Badnik Mechanic]

If the product is non-functional, then shouldn't the review be postponed until such a time as it is functional?

 

No.

 

I think if the product is released then you should write your review based on the product presented. In this case it's not working so it should get a review which reflects that.

 

The problem I have with SA's review is that it doesn't seem to actually review the problems or explain in detail as to why theres an issue as much as they're just posting tivial soundbites from other sources as to why the game is broken.

[EmmBee]

Ho ho ho boy!

 

ScrewAttack has reviewed Sim City 5. They gave it 1/10! Whilst I would argue it probably deserves the score. In terms of the reasoning behind it, it feels more like they gave it that score for site hits. Theres barely a paragraph about why the whole DRM issue and it's hardly the most original or philosophical pieces of text.

Isn't ScrewAttack the same site that said Sonic R is worse than Sonic 06?

This honestly isn't too surprising then...

[Emmett L. Brown]

Isn't ScrewAttack the same site that said Sonic R is worse than Sonic 06?

This honestly isn't too surprising then...

They're also the site that put Sonic Generations in the Best Games of the Year list.

 

...since we're basing their objective journalism solely on their Sonic opinions.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Isn't ScrewAttack the same site that said Sonic R is worse than Sonic 06?

This honestly isn't too surprising then...

 

Right... so that means we should instantly dismiss everything they say?

[Patticus]

Right... so that means we should instantly dismiss everything they say?

The answer to this question depends in large part on what parts of these forums you pose it.

[Emmett L. Brown]

 

This is interesting. Looks like single player is deliberately nerfed to force players to cooperate. A good idea for an MMO - a bad idea for what was built up as a single player franchise. A downright atrocious idea when you don't have reliable servers, making cooperation impossible over any stretch of time.