SimCity; Refunds Offered

Couchpotato

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Well the new Simcity is finally released but not without many errors. Many can't even download or play the game.

The first review scores are up on Metacritic, where it has so far received much acclaim from critics, while the user score scrapes along the bottom, as many gamers are using this opportunity to voice disapproval of the game's DRM, which requires it to be played online.

Saw this coming so nothing new there but regardless there now offering full refunds to any buyer.

Origin global community manager Marcel Hatam that the service is still struggling, and they note a post on the EA Forums sympathizing with frustration at the delays, and offering refunds for unhappy customers. They explain that they understand how important pre-loads are to a smooth launch, and apologize that they could not put this knowledge to use in this case, saying: "This didn't come together for SimCity unfortunately, for which I again apologize."

Here's part of the release announcement:

Everything is intelligently simulated in this new SimCity, from all of the Sims in a city, to every kilowatt of power pulsing through a region thanks to the powerful GlassBox Engine. It is the most expansive city management game yet where multi-city gameplay across regions delivers a larger playing field. No longer are players relegated to playing one single city, now they can manage and play up to 16 cities at once. Each city can have different specializations; they can share services and trade resources; they can help or even hinder each other; every decision a player makes in each city has impact in the broader region. It’s up to the player to decide where and how they play.

For the first time in the series multiplayer is added to the gameplay giving players a new dimension to the game, as decisions impact both the city and the region, creating new ways to play by collaborating or competing to earn achievements. Underpinning SimCity is a live service that simulates real-time updates and pushes them to players in the form of new challenges and achievements. Players will track their progression alongside their friends and the world for the most polluted city, the richest city and more. Whether players play by themselves, with their friends or with the rest of the world, SimCity will challenge players to create the city of their dreams answer the question – what kind of mayor will you be?
Links-

1. http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-is-back
2. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity
3. http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/5/4066280/ea-origin-struggling-to-meet-simcity-demands-at-launch
4. http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/210/9330019.page#top
 
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Well I'm not sure what to think. I was really looking forward to it but it sounds like a disaster of Elemental proportions. The only question is that Stardock was willing to fix their disaster but is EA? I doubt it. If EA were to fix this and correct the flaws (aka remove the online part) and expand the size of maps I maybe able to live with the game. As it is I'm hoping the modders can hack it enough to fix these flaw for them.

If the backlash is too strong then they may just write it off and move on to another Sims 3 expansion. If too weak then it justifies the strategy even if initially distasteful (sort of like the netflix deal).

At the moment I'm not sure its worth trying to get a refund for me. I will download and test it before giving a final verdict but its not looking good.

Edit: Bad experience #1. Cannot install game get "ERROR: Windows IGameExplorer2 is unable to InstallGame (800700ea)" ok so this is fraking Games for Windows so had to figure out how to disable that but got through the install.

Bad experience #2. Now I get the extremely helpful message of [3000]. If anyone can interpret this for me it would help greatly.
Code:
—————————————-
Error
—————————————-
 [3000]
—————————————-
OK   
—————————————-


Edit #2: For what its worth, someone seem to think that EA_ComRaven is not legit as they could not get refunds.
CNaish said:
Well, it seems EA_ComRaven lied anyway. Refunds are NOT available. I just requested one from support.

Edit: "Deepak" from support says EA_ComRaven isn't even an EA representative.
 
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*gets some popcorn*

I have this gut feeling that simcity mess up could escalate quite a bit due to that small answer from ea support. :) The user metascore for this game is currently 2.9 while critics gave it 91! That must cause some panic in the EA pr department.

Funny how ubisoft (the publisher which orginally endorsed this always online functionality in their games such as AC2) actually made a press stament last fall how the company has decided to abandon the always online drm in pc games.

EA on the other hand has clearly decided to walk down that same path to the very end. Maybe they have just calculated that its still worth of all the angry customer feedback, bad pr and legal costs.
 
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If EA were to fix this and correct the flaws (aka remove the online part) and expand the size of maps I maybe able to live with the game.

The online feature is an integrated feature. It cant be seen as a flaw. Its implementation, yes.
 
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The preload is up btw. It seems to be only like 20 meg or something.
 
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I read somewhere that the game is already cracked and pirates are playing this game while legitimate users need to go wait in queue or something, wonder if it's true.
 
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That seems unlikely to me given that functionality is handled by the server. I'm not saying it wont happen but seems like it would take longer than one day (though I suppose people had the beta client to hack with). Its more likely they cracked the key generator or something giving access to the game but maybe at the expense of actual users.

Not that I would be unhappy if standalone play has already been hacked in at the moment. (By the way I did fix my issue above by adding additional registry keys manually).
 
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Definitely want to pick this up but I guess I'll be waiting a while For them to iron things out.

Fortunately tomb raider has been a great surprise and I just discovered sleeping dogs so I'll be good for a while.

Glad I didn't preorder.
 
As much as I love SimCity, I'm going to have to pass on this one. The DRM/aggressive, insidious marketing is going too far, and I find it hard to give money to a company that cares so little about its customers.

If only someone else could get their hands on the Maxis properties.
 
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Whether players play by themselves, with their friends or with the rest of the world, SimCity will challenge players to create the city of their dreams answer the question – what kind of mayor will you be?

An Offline Mayor ?
 
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Hmm, so will the cities keep running 24 / 7 while we are away.. and needs to be managed some everyday.. ? that kind of multiplayer would be really fun for sim city.. or maybe that is in next release ?
 
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GG it's EA. No buy!

Or we could buy it, never install and just ask for refund to make their useless support department at least a bit busy.
 
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Hmm, so will the cities keep running 24 / 7 while we are away.. and needs to be managed some everyday.. ? that kind of multiplayer would be really fun for sim city.. or maybe that is in next release ?

You create a zone (private or public) in which you can invite friends to create their own cities. Your city still get saved because none of the cities borders can touch each others. Otherwise you can trade with other cities or send workers there. Neighbors affect the economy of the region. Just don't invite jerks...

The games is apparently a lots of fun though, well minus the server connection issues which have been plaguing all games that requires full connectivity to play since, well, forever. Although, unlike Diablo 3, you have to select a server to play this one.
 
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Unfortunately this is the type of games (like Civilization, HoMM, Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings) that I like to play during long waits away from home, at airports, long flights, etc. Since Internet is most probably not available there, this game defeats its purpose.
 
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GG it's EA. No buy!

Or we could buy it, never install and just ask for refund to make their useless support department at least a bit busy.

Yes, just wanted to confirm that it wasn't a kind of simcity 24/7 online which could be played from anywhere... since it isn't I am still not missing anything by my EA boycott :)
 
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Hmm, so will the cities keep running 24 / 7 while we are away.. and needs to be managed some everyday.. ? that kind of multiplayer would be really fun for sim city.. or maybe that is in next release ?

Simcity Online was a huge deal over a decade ago but it was a complete disaster. People want to play God in this game just as they did in its original version The Game of Life.

That said, I'm not surprised they are trying some online features again.

I remember some game called Colony? where it seemed like the purpose of it was combine micromanagement ability of Simcity but on the scale of Civilization. It may have had a multiplayer feature. It was a full hybrid of the two, at least in design. What they released was a 5 CD game and admission they had to abandon the idea due to cost overuns.
 
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Ive never been interested in sim city games, watching a Totalbiscuit "WTF is…" on this game, and I have to admit - it looks pretty cool. When it works.

He's talking about the DRM right now…
… saying that they are claiming (one of the) reasons for online DRM thing, is that there's simulation processing, the game itself processing all this myriad of information, going on at the server level.

Now theyre talking about all the DLC, including the infamous day one DLC. They are going to shovel DLC at you in this game


Looks like Gamespot pretty much skewered it in their review, due to it basiclly being broken on launch. Sounds awful, especially when it doesnt remember your progress. Nothing's worse then that in gaming, losing hours of progress!
 
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Amazon has posted this. Some people reported Amazon stopped selling but looks like you still can. Surprisingly there are 26 5-star reviews on Amazon but the 1003 bad one even it out.

Important Note on "SimCity"
Many customers are having issues connecting to the "SimCity" servers. EA is actively working to resolve these issues, but at this time we do not know when the issue will be fixed. Please visit https://help.ea.com/en/simcity/simcity for more information.

Yeah I regret preordering and not cancelling it. I totally saw this coming though not nearly as as badly as it has turned out to be. Time to re-institute my EA/Origin ban I guess. It just unfortunate that I totally enjoy SimCity and would have loved an updated version. SimCity 4 just has too many issues even with mods for me to last any length of time these days but still a million times better than the latest version.
 
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at least Amazon is being cool about it and refunding, I always do biz thru them if possible because of their no-nonsense policy of giving me my money back if I'm not happy. Believe me, Ive tested them several times!

I'm really glad this is happening tho, I want the SP DRM thing to be a death knell for games that use it
 
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