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A SimCity Update

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Re: A SimCity Update

#61

Post by deminature »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #59
deminature wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you agree with CD Projekt's approach to gathering piracy statistics, the community rewarded them by pirating the game in extraordinarily large numbers, despite the gesture of good faith http://gamespot.com/news/the-witcher-2-pirated-45-million-ti...

This falls prey to the classic fallacy of "piracy" critics, that all instances of piracy are effectively lost sales. In fact, there's little evidence this is so for most games. It makes sense that a game that can be pirated will be so by a higher number of people than those who pay for it, but this alone does not support the conclusion that the rates of purchase for a game that is extensively pirated are necessarily…

Obviously in no way does each instance of piracy equate to a lost sale, but even a moderate percentage of instances of piracy that actually lost a sale would be a disappointing total sum lost by the developer, considering the enormous overall rate of piracy.

Also, the 4 million figure is total sales of the first and second games on all released platforms, not solely PC nor following the removal of the DRM, unless you have a source that wildly disagrees with mine. It would certainly be an impressive vote of no confidence in DRM if 4 PC million sales had occurred subsequent to the removal of the DRM, however that appears not to be the case. http://gamespot.com/news/the-witcher-series-sales-hit-4-mill...

Re: A SimCity Update

#62

Post by aikn »

Kiro wrote: post #46
ihsw wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The really depressing bit about the situation is if their servers had handled the load well then nobody would have complained.

What's depressing about that?

That it's now accepted to pay $60 for a service instead of a product in gaming. A service they can shut down whenever they want (e.g. when the customer refuses to be ripped off by the DLC anymore). The cities created by the players could (or probably will) be lost. For some games like MMOs this is normal. For simulation games it was not.

Re: A SimCity Update

#63

Post by sesqu »

deminature wrote: post #61
InclinedPlane wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This falls prey to the classic fallacy of "piracy" critics, that all instances of piracy are effectively lost sales. In fact, there's little evidence this is so for most games. It makes sense that a game that can be pirated will be so by a higher number of people than those who pay for it, but this alone does not support the conclusion that the rates of purchase for a game that is extensively pirated are necessarily…

Obviously in no way does each instance of piracy equate to a lost sale, but even a moderate percentage of instances of piracy that actually lost a sale would be a disappointing total sum lost by the developer, considering the enormous overall rate of piracy. Also, the 4 million figure is total sales of the first and second games on all released platforms, not solely PC nor following the removal of the DRM, unless you…

Considering how vastly pirated copies usually outnumber purchased copies, I hope you don't consider "a moderate percentage" to be something high, like 30% would be.

Re: A SimCity Update

#64

Post by sesqu »

rdl wrote: post #16
newbie12 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget us rural folk on satellite broadband! We're screwed too.

It doesn't seem to actually use much bandwidth.

It uses low broadband levels of bandwidth, from what I've heard. So it's pretty iffy for a lot of people.

Re: A SimCity Update

#65

Post by philwelch »

pilif wrote: post #49

I wonder. In a previous post here on HN, somebody said in a comment, that the Sim City infrastructure runs in Amazon's infrastructure. Isn't one of the big advantages of cloud computing the ability to scale your hardware with demand? Why only scale up by 130% when there's still people having problems? Why not scale until everybody has a good experience? I don't even think it's going to cost all that much: after the i…

Cloud computing is just cruise control for scaling. You still have to steer.

Re: A SimCity Update

#66

Post by [deleted] »

sesqu wrote: post #63
deminature wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously in no way does each instance of piracy equate to a lost sale, but even a moderate percentage of instances of piracy that actually lost a sale would be a disappointing total sum lost by the developer, considering the enormous overall rate of piracy. Also, the 4 million figure is total sales of the first and second games on all released platforms, not solely PC nor following the removal of the DRM, unless you…

Considering how vastly pirated copies usually outnumber purchased copies, I hope you don't consider "a moderate percentage" to be something high, like 30% would be.

[deleted]

Re: A SimCity Update

#67

Post by maccard »

zobzu wrote: post #52
UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without DIII's always-on DRM it was always going to have a bumpy launch. People's expectations were just insane by the time the game actually hit and they were bound to be left disappointed no matter what. The always-on DRM and downtime just added insult to injury. I think in retrospect, instead of going the refund route, Blizzard could have listened to people and then set out a plan for the game in the first fe…

Multi still isn't better than D2, one year later. I don't think expectations were that high. I think they actually sold less than planned and went into low-activity maintenance mode after a few month. Not buying again from them. Game may sucks or not, but empty promises, I can't give money for that.

D2's multiplayer sucked. It wasn't until LOD (a year to the day later) plus patches that the mutliplayer was decent. And I think you're misinformed, I know plenty of people (myself included) that still play D3 and enjoy it.

Re: A SimCity Update

#68

Post by Kiro »

aikn wrote: post #62
Kiro wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's depressing about that?

That it's now accepted to pay $60 for a service instead of a product in gaming. A service they can shut down whenever they want (e.g. when the customer refuses to be ripped off by the DLC anymore). The cities created by the players could (or probably will) be lost. For some games like MMOs this is normal. For simulation games it was not.

Tell me one game with always-online DRM where the makers shut it down and people lost their content.

Re: A SimCity Update

#69

Post by jzcoder »

kevinconroy wrote: post #8

"And a result of this public outcry, we've decided to remove the DRM that is crippling this otherwise great software." - Said no company ever

Intuit removed the DRM from TurboTax after one release in 2003 after public outcry and financial analysts questioned them about it. All you gamers have to do is stick to your position and not buy the product. Unless you hit them where it counts, they will continue to do this. Imagine, if the sales didn't meet expectations and analysts questioned EA.

Re: A SimCity Update

#70

Post by mikeash »

res0nat0r wrote: post #56
socialist_coder wrote: post #2

Who wants to bet that the free game will be limited to 2+ year old titles? And still no acknowledgment for the people that either don't care to play online or can't maintain a stable internet connection. Want to play while travelling? Want to play while in the military & deployed? Fuck you!

Why would you buy a game you know before hand must be played online if you don't have a good Internet connection or would want to play while in an airplane? You shouldn't be mad at EA you should pissed at yourself for letting that happen.

How clearly is this advertised? I poked around online on stores that sell it and saw no mention that an Internet connection is required to play. It's not even mentioned in the system requirements.
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