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EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

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Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#141

Post by tsotha »

bstar77 wrote: post #34
keyle wrote: post #4

There seems to be a lot of misinformation going around. They're chopping off the people of Maxis but the name will remain (ahem!). Same for the IP, it will live on and be farmed to (an)other studio(s). (I don't side with EA. Sad day for SimCity lovers. Maxis is a mammoth of history and should not be chopped up. My thoughts for the devs that lost jobs...)

People are what make game companies great, not names or logos. There's something to say for maintaining the direct line of employee descendants to the original Sim City.

Absolutely true. I've purchased a few sequels over the years only to find somebody made the game in a different place with different people and turned my beloved franchise to crap.

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#142

Post by ansible »

sesqu wrote: post #103
dkbrk wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, for one, was extremely disappointed in Mass Effect 2 as compared to the original. As a result, I didn't buy the third. Mass Effect, was, in my opinion, truly inimitable. While the sequels may have kept the setting and had very high production values, at their core they were little more than a sequence of cover-based setpieces and cutscenes. Dragon Age 2 was even more of regression from Dragon Age: Origins. Origins…

Mass effect 2 was perhaps the best game in the series, but it was a very different game than mass effect 1. While the core mechanics were the same, it was extremely episodic and the plot was flimsy. I recall ME3 reeled it back a bit, doing away with some of the annoying exploration stuff, but suffered from third installment syndrome.

I, like others, was disappointed in the ending for Mass Effect 3. This guy took the time to explain it very well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs

Even with their "improvements" to the ending, it was still just choosing what color explosion you got.

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#143

Post by yc1010 »

chao- wrote: post #53
prewett wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the plus side, it looks like there is a vacancy in the simulation game market...

Coincidentally I was just looking back into the state of city simulation games the other day. On my list of "Games I have played beyond any reasonable number of hours" is Sim City 4 with the various mods available. I was, like most, disappointed with the 2013 offering. Cities XL never really piqued my interest, and I've also switched entirely to Linux for my desktop needs. Then the other day I heard about an upcoming…

I love games from Paradoxplaza some of the best strategy games such as Hearts of Iron 3 and of course my all time favorite Europa Universalis 4 which sucked away hours and days of my life are made by them

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#144

Post by tomelders »

lmkg wrote: post #33
spiritplumber wrote: post #6

Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog, Maxis.... EA's strategy seems to be "Buy studio, make them shovel a couple incomplete games out of the door, close studio, repeat." Okay, they're asshats. What I don't get is, how does this make them any money? They're basically strip-mining the games industry, is this really more profitable than actually making good games?

As a strategy, it's better than being profitable: it's predictable. The forecasts for the upcoming financial quarters are much more likely to be accurate when you only work with known IP. The CEO is more beholden to analysts and stockholders than to customers. He has more to lose by failing expectations than he has to gain by exceeding expectations. Therefore, EA adopts a strategy that minimizes variance rather than…

If that's the plan... why even get out of bed in a morning. It's depressing? Stop giving these people money people.

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#146

Post by cLeEOGPw »

stickfigure wrote: post #117

These laments are a bit overblown. I worked for Maxis during the big closure in 2004, when the company was in Walnut Creek. A small group moved to Emeryville, many people (including the Sims teams) moved to Redwood Shores, and some some people didn't make the transition. Think of it like layoffs, following on the colossal failure that was The Sims Online (although, ironically, what's left of that team had already mov…

> Spore was a disappointment

Spore was a textbook example of bad management. They spent 80% of time, money and effort on creature designer - a feature that did not make up even 20% of game, closer to 5%. Game had complex and massive functionality for libraries, various downloadable creatures, even tunes for cities, outfits for citizens - all things that were not just unnecessary, but one might say even made game less attractive (because usually you end up not being such great designer and all cities look equally generically bad). Essential features, such as autosave, were lacking. It is hard to fathom how detached from reality the managers were.

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#147

Post by SixSigma »

blumkvist wrote: post #128
SixSigma wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Business says "we exist to make a profit". People don't tend to be profit maximisers in their actual work. I don't know many workers who think "which one of these choices is most profitable for the company"

Is this a joke?

No. It's one of the core beliefs of Behavioral Science

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#148

Post by SixSigma »

blumkvist wrote: post #128
SixSigma wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Business says "we exist to make a profit". People don't tend to be profit maximisers in their actual work. I don't know many workers who think "which one of these choices is most profitable for the company"

Is this a joke?

No. It's one of the core beliefs of Behavioral Science

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#149

Post by plikan13 »

spiritplumber wrote: post #6

Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog, Maxis.... EA's strategy seems to be "Buy studio, make them shovel a couple incomplete games out of the door, close studio, repeat." Okay, they're asshats. What I don't get is, how does this make them any money? They're basically strip-mining the games industry, is this really more profitable than actually making good games?

> is this really more profitable than actually making good games?

I know I'm going to sound like a terrible elitist snob, but the target audience for today's mainstream video games are not exactly the top layer of humanity. It's pretty much a tale of milking the stupid, i'm afraid.

Re: EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis

#150

Post by izacus »

ansible wrote: post #142
sesqu wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mass effect 2 was perhaps the best game in the series, but it was a very different game than mass effect 1. While the core mechanics were the same, it was extremely episodic and the plot was flimsy. I recall ME3 reeled it back a bit, doing away with some of the annoying exploration stuff, but suffered from third installment syndrome.

I, like others, was disappointed in the ending for Mass Effect 3. This guy took the time to explain it very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs Even with their "improvements" to the ending, it was still just choosing what color explosion you got.

I'm sorry, but last I recall ME3 was a 20-30hour long game that is way more than just a 10-minute ending sequence. Maybe criticism of it should take that into consideration?
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