How to Fuck Up a Beloved Franchise

[MKJ]

EA is refusing refunds now, for a product that doesn't work.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editoria ... nd-refusin

Pretty sure that's against the consumer law, at least here in Euroland.

[Psyche911]

I really feel sorry for Maxis, they're going to lose a shitton of money (maybe even land in financial trouble) because their publisher are complete morons.

My hope is that this is the end of traditional video game publishing companies. With digital distribution, alternative solutions might prove more valuable: self publishing, crowd funding, etc.

It sucks they got bought up by EA (back in 1997, mind you), but I can't say I really feel sorry for them over the systems they designed failing. Maxis isn't just some studio with EA as a publisher who forced them to add these "features" at the last minute. EA owns Maxis in its entirety. Maxis works out of EA's building, FFS. The designers and programmers may not have had a say in the matter but this is far from some DRM slapped on before the game goes to market.

[GONNAFISTYA]

EA is refusing refunds now, for a product that doesn't work.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editoria ... nd-refusin

Pretty sure that's against the consumer law, at least here in Euroland.

SimCity’s next big problem: EA is selling a game that may not work, and is refusing refunds

Serious question: is this the future of gaming? When the industry realized that sell-unfinished-games-to-patch-them-later was acceptable to their customers and that they could still charge full price for the product (effectively having your customers pay money to be beta testers) they made no efforts to improve quality before release. The opposite happened.

Now that EA has effectively taken people's money for something that doesn't work and are refusing refunds (something I've always hated about software and IP law) there's no motivation for them to stop, because the profits won't stop, because people will blindly give money to franchises they recognize without putting any thought into it or even finding out if it's worth the money. Unless there is a true boycott of their broken products (as in NOBODY buys it) then it'll never change. And guess what? Consumers - who are STILL BUYING this broken game - are too apathetic and too stupid to help themselves....much like the idiots who keep giving Hollywood money for making remakes/reboots/sequels and other "broken or sub-par" products.

I mean this sincerely: the reason we can't have nice things is because of stupid.

[Mat Linnett]

EA is refusing refunds now, for a product that doesn't work.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editoria ... nd-refusin

Pretty sure that's against the consumer law, at least here in Euroland.

Well they're not really refusing them. Just banning your Origin account if you insist on getting your money back. You know, your account that holds more than just your Sim City gam... er, I mean license.

[GONNAFISTYA]

My hope is that this is the end of traditional video game publishing companies. With digital distribution, alternative solutions might prove more valuable: self publishing, crowd funding, etc.

Not a chance. Promoting a game costs as much as making it or distributing it and big publishers (from any media) have the funds. Digital distribution is nothing but pop-up ads in Steam or Origin or gaming-related websites and cannot touch television adverts, which reach the most people and have the biggest impact on product awareness.

[obsidian]

Hey no problem, dude.... stomp on my optimism with your big black boots of reality. It's not like I needed that last faintest glimmer of hope even though it may be placed in fantasy.

[GONNAFISTYA]

Sorry.

But yeah...the promotional part of creating and selling games and the increasing cost of doing it never gets mentioned with these "new-fangled business approaches".

In short: a game that costs $5 million to create at the developer level ultimately costs at least $15 million after all is said and done to get it into customer's hands....and I don't foresee anyone paying out of pocket to have someone else tell their friends that "GameX" is cool.

[obsidian]

Aren't you getting paid to tell us about how Watch_Dogs™ is cool?

(not really, but I reject your reality because mine is more lulzy)

[GONNAFISTYA]

I only do that for projects I believe in. I'm almost positive I never even mentioned WET when it was released...except to bash it.

[Transient]

LOL

[Eraser]

EA is refusing refunds now, for a product that doesn't work.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editoria ... nd-refusin

Pretty sure that's against the consumer law, at least here in Euroland.

It may be against the law, but since there's no branche organization they can do as they please. I mean, no one's going to spend time or money on a court case over a 60 dollar purchase.

[losCHUNK]

Can get Trading Standards to look into them in the UK if they refused you, if they side with customer then EA would'nt have much of a leg to stand on. Dunno what other countries have but the best thing you can do is try and get a charge back from your bank for the purchase.

[Plan B]

It's how Hitler started his shenanigans.

[MKJ]

Maxis takes the blame, says onlineonly was not EAs decision.

https://twitter.com/simcity/status/310496083841261569

[Don Carlos]

Wonderful. That fixes everything.

[MKJ]

So while EA has been saying always-online is needed because large amounts of calculations are done on their servers, and therefore impossible for them to patch out the online requirement.. A maxis insider spills some beans

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03 ... necessary/

[Don Carlos]

Interesting - I think it is all about building up Origin personally.

[MKJ]

the GlassBox engine (AI algorithms) cracked open.
doesnt look good; even without the alledged cloud computing

http://kotaku.com/5990362/with-simple-a ... -computing

Sims returning home simply go to the first available house.

... It explains why casinos go bust unless they're placed right at the entrance of a city ..

[Transient]

There are definitely some quirks in the system that need to be ironed out. If I could fine my sims for making illegal U-turns, my budget problems would be nonexistant.

[Transient]

Turns out a lot of my issues stem from one huge fuckup on Maxis' part: http://answers.ea.com/t5/Miscellaneous- ... ncnhrrwyxk

[MKJ]

I'm getting more interested in this City Life / CitiesXL thing.
now I've seen that there about 2983 different versions of that game.. which of those is actually good? Anyone know?

[Eraser]

Turns out a lot of my issues stem from one huge fuckup on Maxis' part: http://answers.ea.com/t5/Miscellaneous- ... ncnhrrwyxk

Sounds like problems that should've been discovered in a simple QA session, no?

[Eraser]

So much for the always online thing being an integral part of the game:

Most importantly, UKAzzer was able to disable SimCity's disconnection timer, thus setting it to unlimited. Tests have shown SimCity kicks you out after around 20 minutes of offline play.

There are restrictions when doing this, of course. Access to SimCity's region features isn't possible, as you'd expect, and if you want to save your city you have to reconnect to the servers. But the video is our clearest indication yet that some kind of offline mode might be possible for the controversial game.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... definitely

[MKJ]

"oh, did we say offline mode wasn't possible ? We meant it was, but we chose not to include it."

So, could we have built a subset offline mode? Yes. But we rejected that idea because it didn't fit with our vision. We did not focus on the "single city in isolation" that we have delivered in past SimCities. We recognize that there are fans – people who love the original SimCity – who want that. But we're also hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality. The SimCity we delivered captures the magic of its heritage but catches up with ever-improving technology.

Keep digging that hole, guys, you're doing great.

[Transient]

EA