A SimCity Update • Hacker News Board

Re: A SimCity Update

#71

Post by Tzunamitom » Sat, Mar 09, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #68

aikn wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

http://www.gamefront.com/ea-announces-server-shut-downs-incl...

There's a few for you, all by EA, one of which after only 15 months - except in those cases the single player was at least still playable. Unlike SimCity.

Re: A SimCity Update

#72

Post by rdl » Sat, Mar 09, 2013, 6:52 PM UTC

yohui wrote: post #30

rdl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubtful, since most of the EA games I see on origin are either old or are "buy the game cheap, buy lots of expensive expansion packs" model. Giving SimCity buyers who bought on pre-order or release day a copy of Battlefield or The Sims is probably a great economic choice for Maxis/EA; they're the same people who will likely buy lots of expansions. The exception is what, Mass Effect (old now)? I guess there's Far Cry…

> Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed III Could EA give away Ubisoft title? I expect they'd have to pay Ubisoft for each redemption if they did.

Oops; I was assuming all the games on Origin were EA-owned-studios. They probably will only allow EA studio games.

The Sims is the obvious one; if they give away Sims base games to everyone who bought SimCity, they'll probably see something like $30/user lifetime purchases.

Re: A SimCity Update

#73

Post by sebastianavina » Sun, Mar 10, 2013, 4:05 AM UTC

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

I'm wondering how much electricity and mainteinance they will need to keep sim city working on the first years?

I guess every time a customer buys a game, they are basically signing a contract to keep that infrastructure runing for an unlimited amount of time...

Is not like Xbox that you have to pay your membership every month...

Re: A SimCity Update

#74

Post by bobx11 » Sun, Mar 10, 2013, 5:06 AM UTC

NuZZ wrote: post #37

bobx11 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought I was not the crazy one that wouldn't buy a game because of the DRM, but I'm finally that guy. I love the Sim City games and remember playing them since the 90's, but I can't pay into a company which preferred the DRM over playability and kept the DRM even when it meant making people wait instead of releasing a patch with more responsible DRM to truly fix the problem.

It only appears crazy to those who find themselves desperate to play said games. Others, who aren't, or have created boycotts, can make decisions based on DRM.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to play that game. The company EA, to me, just has a lot less reputation than Amazon where I buy plenty of DRM'd books. Although, Amazon has a workable DRM model at the moment that doesn't break-down when you are offline or when Amazon servers are offline.