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Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

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Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#401

Post by Goronmon »

VMG wrote: post #282
PeterisP wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a technical bug, but it's a deliberately made flaw - and it illustrates what will happen when after a couple of years they'll turn the servers off (The current list http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0L266ui... shows even games of 2011 disabled already), leaving the game that you "bought" useless. Digital Restrictions Management = Defective by Design.

isn't Steam also DRM and hugely successful and very popular with the gaming community?

The main difference is that Steam's DRM, if it requires an online connection, only requires it in order to start the game up. Once you are in-game, you aren't booted from the game if you lose your connection while playing. That isn't the case when playing games like SimCity and Diablo 3.

Though, it SimCity's case it seems to be worse as I've heard people losing saves occasionally. I don't remember too many people losing characters when Diablo 3 launched.

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#402

Post by pessimizer »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #320
chongli wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of the AMA was to promote the game, not satisfy readers' questions. This is the case for all political/corporate AMAs.

If someone drove their car into a lake, you wouldn't be adding anything to the conversation if you said "The purpose of a car was to drive on the road, not to drive into the lake" In a similar fashion, you don't really add information to the discussion when you make an analogous statement about the misuse of an AMA thread.

The analogous statement to:

'the purpose of the AMA was to promote the game, not satisfy readers' questions, so they didn't answer questions that would reflect negatively on SimCity V.'

Would be:

'the purpose of the car was to drive on the road, not to drive into the lake, so they chose not to drive into the lake.'

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#403

Post by deniska »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #368
DigitalSea wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the case for non EA games, but considering people won't get to play Simcity within the next 2 weeks or so, there'll be a cracked version out by then. EA have brought themselves nothing but trouble in this situation and being the out-of-touch company they are, they deserve every loss of sale they get.

This isn't like normal DRM, key parts of the game logic and performed server side so you would need to reimplement the server in order to crack it. Think of it like trying to get a "crack" for 37s Basecamp or similar.

> key parts of the game logic and performed server side so you would need to reimplement the server in order to crack it

But game runs just fine for twenty minutes after disconnect (at least it simulates one city fine). You just may lose your progress because game saves "in the cloud".

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#404

Post by andyking »

estel wrote: post #112
gimeq wrote: post #50

SimCity 2000/3000/4 still work perfectly, and are available for free.

Since when are they available for free?

Not free, but I saw SimCity 4 for sale on Steam for a small sum of about £3.99 the other week. I nearly bought it, if only to end the requirement to have the CD in to play it!

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#405

Post by VMG »

Goronmon wrote: post #401
VMG wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't Steam also DRM and hugely successful and very popular with the gaming community?

The main difference is that Steam's DRM, if it requires an online connection, only requires it in order to start the game up. Once you are in-game, you aren't booted from the game if you lose your connection while playing. That isn't the case when playing games like SimCity and Diablo 3. Though, it SimCity's case it seems to be worse as I've heard people losing saves occasionally. I don't remember too many people los…

I'm not sure you can call DRM "Defective by Design" then. It works for Valve and they are making a lot of money by stifling piracy with it.

The problem with EA then isn't DRM but badly implemented DRM.

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#406

Post by Rovanion »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #60
talmand wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the box art says SimCity with no "V". The promotional materials on the EA site says SimCity with no "V". If it actually is named SimCity V then it's easy to understand the confusion. Although I wouldn't call it a reboot necessarily since every version is more or less a reboot, so to speak.

It's actually the sixth SimCity game, not the fifth. The fifth game was SimCity Societies. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity#Personal_computer_versi... .

Societies was not made by Maxis which is why I discount it as a SimCity game.

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#407

Post by lloeki »

rhizome wrote: post #127
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #42

I feel bad for the game devs who got to see their hard work turn into something they don't intend. I suppose this is a great advertising technique for small firms, startups, indie shops, etc. "Don't want this[ http://amazon-pulls-sim-city ] to happen? Work for our small team. We won't destroy your work." I know it's standard to say "you get a part in the decisionmaking process!" That's part of it. But a lot of people…

I feel bad for the game devs who got to see their hard work turn into something they don't intend. "Spore" was 5 years ago, FWIW.

Although the servers did not melt at that time, the Amazon ratings and reviews are similar.

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#409

Post by estel »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #390
estel wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure they could. But if I get £40 of value from my game before they do, I can live with that. It's not ideal, but it doesn't make it a poor purchase.

I think there is a broader cultural loss though. In the future years when "study of video game history" becomes a thing, people will be able to examine and analyse old games like SimCity 2000 by actually playing them as they were. Since they have been archived and preserved by wide distribution. Then as you get further into the future maybe you start to come across games where you have to say "sadly the only existing…

I absolutely agree that that's a loss, but that argument would seem to apply equally to all online games. But a game isn't less worth playing because it's online, right?

Re: Amazon stops selling Sim City V over game issues

#410

Post by Xylakant »

VMG wrote: post #405
Goronmon wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main difference is that Steam's DRM, if it requires an online connection, only requires it in order to start the game up. Once you are in-game, you aren't booted from the game if you lose your connection while playing. That isn't the case when playing games like SimCity and Diablo 3. Though, it SimCity's case it seems to be worse as I've heard people losing saves occasionally. I don't remember too many people los…

I'm not sure you can call DRM "Defective by Design" then. It works for Valve and they are making a lot of money by stifling piracy with it. The problem with EA then isn't DRM but badly implemented DRM.

On one side, valve's DRM is far less intrusive than EA's and on the other side valves efforts to curb piracy involves a lot more than just slapping DRM on. I remember a large post (interview?) where the gist was:

* Treat all markets equal and release the game at the same time. Not having access to a game that's released elsewhere is a huge driver of piracy. * Support your games, release follow-up content. * Actually make the DRM-Service a service: I can buy a game on steam and if there is a mac/windows/linux version, I can actually play all three of them.

It's all give and take. It's annoying that Steam games are DRM protected, but OTOH, I get added benefits. Just taking functionality from the user won't get you far.

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