User Information - NKD

News Comments > Saints Row 4 in August

Beamer wrote on Mar 15, 2013, 10:35:
But not giving people something they pay for?

That's why we shouldn't do something so stupid as to buy DLC that doesn't exist and hasn't been announced on the promise that you might get something for your money some day.

I buy DLC as it is released, and only if it's worthwhile for the price. Some "Season Pass" that may or may not pay off? As a great man once said, I call that getting swindled and pimped.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: Saints Row 4 in August

Mar 15, 2013, 10:13

xXBatmanXx wrote on Mar 15, 2013, 09:49:
Would normally be an autobuy, but since it was purchased so recently and a game will be released before the 1 year mark of accusition - will be waiting a bit. I assume they might just try and cash in on current assets and rehash 3.

Watched the vid 2-3 times already. All assets look exactly the same. Looks more like a patch/addon and should be DLC.....bummer.

That's what everyone said about AC:Brotherhood and it ended up being better than AC2. I don't want them reinventing the wheel, I want them working on improving what is already an awesome game series, primarily in the gameplay department.

EDIT: Also please for the love of god give us more than 2 player co-op!

This comment was edited on Mar 15, 2013, 10:19.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

143.

Re: SimCity Hacked to Play Offline?

Mar 15, 2013, 08:33

SpectralMeat wrote on Mar 15, 2013, 06:38:
Really good Anno 2070 guide here for those of you not familiar with the game, like myself: http://youtu.be/yYFLhADYd3k

Hahaha, yeah. NanosuitNinja's videos are extremely informative, and funny too.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

140.

Re: SimCity Hacked to Play Offline?

Mar 15, 2013, 01:53

Dev wrote on Mar 15, 2013, 00:23:
NKD wrote on Mar 15, 2013, 00:07:
Dev wrote on Mar 14, 2013, 23:36:
jdreyer wrote on Mar 14, 2013, 19:20:
Someone has probably mentioned this already, but Ubisoft is sticking ti EA with Anno 2070 on sale on Steam this weekend.

EDIT: NKD stole my thunder!
And I stole it before he did. I also told how to get the complete anno 2070 (and no, the complete pack does NOT have it all)

Looks like it has it all to me. What is missing?
As I said way back in post 95
Dev wrote on Mar 14, 2013, 15:56:
Props to ubi, if they timed their Anno 2070 sale for now.
Just because of simcity being out, it has increased my desire to again play a city simulation. Despite that I have zero intention of playing this simcity catastrophe, and certainly wouldn't pay EA more than a couple bucks for it, and maybe not even then.
But I went ahead and got anno 2070.

BTW, the complete game pack isn't, it doesn't appear to give you the deluxe version of the game, and there's no deluxe upgrade pack like some games do (though it does have everything else, so if you dont care about the bits that the deluxe adds, getting the complete game pack should be fine)
Also the complete DLC pack isn't, it doesn't include deep ocean.

So, to get everything add 3 things to cart.
1)Deluxe Anno 2070
2)Complete dlc pack
3)Deep Ocean dlc.
Total should be $36.67

Seems to include Deep Ocean now bro.
Screeny from my Steam

EDIT: Oh nm I see what you're saying the complete pack doesn't have deluxe.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

136.

Re: SimCity Hacked to Play Offline?

Mar 15, 2013, 00:07

Dev wrote on Mar 14, 2013, 23:36:
jdreyer wrote on Mar 14, 2013, 19:20:
Someone has probably mentioned this already, but Ubisoft is sticking ti EA with Anno 2070 on sale on Steam this weekend.

EDIT: NKD stole my thunder!
And I stole it before he did. I also told how to get the complete anno 2070 (and no, the complete pack does NOT have it all)

Looks like it has it all to me. What is missing?




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

122.

Re: SimCity Hacked to Play Offline?

Mar 14, 2013, 18:53

News Comments > WoW Free Character Moves

In other news, Anno 2070 is on sale on Steam. If you're going to play a building game with an online requirement, it might as well be a good one. (And more importantly, one that is on sale, and has been out for a while, so you don't encourage more online requirements.)




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: WoW Free Character Moves

Mar 14, 2013, 10:43

News Comments > Minecraft Optional Subscription Mode Plans

It's hard to believe they haven't started server merges yet.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: lol

Mar 14, 2013, 10:40

News Comments > SimCity Status Report

zombiefan wrote on Mar 14, 2013, 10:28:
Wow, Notch. I guess it's true: wealth and greed go hand-in-hand.

I don't think them offering server hosting is really greedy. It's hard to find a reliable server host for Minecraft at a reasonable price, and even harder to find an existing server that isn't filled with nightmarish douchebags. Especially for the younger players they seem to be trying to cater to here.

Minecraft has a lot of younger players who have to deal with a pretty abrasive community, or else play by themselves. Getting their own server with an easy-mode control panel and friend system would be really fantastic. Especially if it's only like $10 a month.

This isn't really targeted at people who run their own servers and are skilled enough to fix problems that arise. I have a Minecraft server with a custom mod pack of 70 mods and there's a new problem every day I have to hunt down.

Article suggests they will even be providing some safe mod options too.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: SimCity Status Report

Mar 13, 2013, 21:23

Does Maxis just hire people based on the improbability of their names?




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: Op Ed

Mar 12, 2013, 23:18

The problem, jdreyer, is that EA and all these other companies are businesses. All they care is that you're buying their product. Only the developers who get their hands dirty actually care about the quality of the product. The decision makers only care if it sells. You have to actually make the product sell poorly by refusing to buy it before they'll even begin to look at forums and take them seriously. If sales are really good, they won't take your complaints seriously. Because you didn't prove you were serious by not buying the game.

But if we stop giving them our money, they have no choice but to do what we say to start getting it back.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

21.

Re: Op Ed

Mar 12, 2013, 13:11

Beamer wrote on Mar 12, 2013, 13:08:

Yeah, I'm hearing anecdotal evidence extremely to the contrary, but you're right, I shouldn't base anything on that.

Clearly there's a ton of FUD going around. If that's contrary to what you're experiencing then I'm way off.

I don't have any personal experience. I imagine most of us don't since we've hopefully dodged this mess, but what I've heard is that you get dropped after a preset period of time, but up until then everything works short of regional syncing.

Anyone here who has played who can confirm?




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

19.

Re: Op Ed

Mar 12, 2013, 13:05

Beamer wrote on Mar 12, 2013, 12:49:

But with both of these games DRM is still the primary reason. Need proof? Why is so much server-side. It isn't just a constant handshake, there is actual critical computation offloaded to the server.

That's pure, 100% DRM.

It's not as much as people think. You can play for quite a while after yanking your net connection and very little stops working.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

17.

Re: Op Ed

Mar 12, 2013, 12:07

Beamer wrote on Mar 12, 2013, 11:47:
I still disagree heavily that it's about data mining.

Valve data mines more than any other game company. Infinitely more. But they don't require a perpetual connection. Steam just calls home whenever it can and dumps the data it mines.

If this was about data mining then EA failed more than we think.
I'm not sure what Verno means with "control," either. Controlling... what? What do they not control now that they can control with an always-on connection? Version control? Steam does that. Back-end tweaks without needing to patch? Borderlands 2 does that.

I don't see what they get with always-on that they couldn't get without always-on, other than DRM.

It's like I said, user retention. Multiplayer is the longevity of a game. There's no money to be made off people who pay the box cost, play for three days, shelf the game, and then never pay you again. Box cost, relative to the cost of making a game is dropping every year. They need to start getting as many people as possible paying for DLC. Forcing online play, even if it is by yourself, gets their foot in the door, and makes it more acceptable. In theory anyway, when you fuck it up and your servers explode, you're not helping push the agenda at all.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: Op Ed

Mar 12, 2013, 11:21

News Comments > EA Will "Look Into" Offline SimCity; New Patch Released

I think it's a cop out to claim it's done to prevent piracy. Even far less pirated console games are moving towards online-centric gameplay. It's more about control and data mining, but here's the kicker:

They do it to keep you around so you'll buy DLC. Online/social gamers stick around for a lot longer, and are far more tolerant of repetitious gameplay, playing the same dozen maps over and over with no story, no dynamic content, etc, for months at a time.

It's easy to ignore DLC when playing it means dusting off a game box, or reinstalling a game you "beat" months ago. It's not so easy to ignore DLC when you're playing the game every day with a bunch of buddies peer-pressuring you into buying it.

People need to get off the "Oh no, DRM!" rap. It's not DRM. It's something much worse. It's playing on human psychology to get more money out of you.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

32.

Re: EA Will

Mar 10, 2013, 18:34

News Comments > EA Will "Look Into" Offline SimCity; New Patch Released

Redmask wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 18:11:
NKD wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 17:31:
It doesn't seem like a very likely scenario that we'll end up finding that the game sold poorly. Yes, it's technically possible that the game sold 7 copies, and the Commodore 64 hosting the game couldn't handle it, but I don't think that's the most likely scenario.

Nice try with the hyperbole but that's not what I said, you're dodging. I was contesting your flawed assumption that the game is a victim of its own success, that somehow its oversold and demand is driving the games problems. Given everything we've seen so far, it's actually more likely that its sold moderately and buckled under its mismanagement and poor infrastructure.

What evidence do we have for YOUR assumption of poor sales? I'd LOVE for you to be right, and that people were smart enough to avoid this mess, but it doesn't seem that way.

Creston wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 18:29:
Btw, as much as they try to, EA still hasn't managed to equal that fantastic time when they "released" an expansion for UO, and said expansion had a note in the box that said "We're still working on it. You will be able to download it when it's done."

I wish I could remember which expansion that was...

Creston

Ah poor UO, the most mismanaged MMO of all time. I'm surprised it's still running.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

24.

Re: EA Will

Mar 10, 2013, 18:06

News Comments > EA Will "Look Into" Offline SimCity; New Patch Released

Creston wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 18:01:
Ray Marden wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 17:35:
Maybe they can trot out Cliffy B. and sell it as a value-added DLC?

I like that you refer to cliffyb as it, and I like the idea of selling it as DLC. I'm not sure I'd call it a value-add, though.

A value-loss DLC?

Creston

Ah yes, Cliffy B

http://i.imgur.com/LY1z3ol.gif




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

15.

Re: EA Will

Mar 10, 2013, 17:31

News Comments > EA Will "Look Into" Offline SimCity; New Patch Released

Redmask wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 17:21:
NKD wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 17:16:
The difference being that people actually want to play Simcity, apparently, as the massive need for additional servers seems to reveal. Spore was a disappointing game that people tired of after a day of playing. And even then it sold a couple million copies.

Totally flawed assumption without any sales figures or access to insider information. You assume that EA was competent in its server infrastructure and everything points to the opposite. You assume gamers are beating down the servers in huge droves when for all we know EA simply couldn't service a half million sales.

Given their very limited beta periods, it's more likely they went with the bare minimum to meet preorder demand then undershot it because they're cheap and fuck up all of their launches.

It doesn't seem like a very likely scenario that we'll end up finding that the game sold poorly. Yes, it's technically possible that the game sold 7 copies, and the Commodore 64 hosting the game couldn't handle it, but I don't think that's the most likely scenario.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

11.

Re: EA Will

Mar 10, 2013, 17:16

News Comments > EA Will "Look Into" Offline SimCity; New Patch Released

Kajetan wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 16:39:
NKD wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 16:29:
The problem is that once the server issues are gone, the motivation to complain goes with it. Sure, they gotta be online, but if the servers are working, they aren't going to be nearly as mad about it and are more likely to overlook the issue. :/
Remember Spore? It took nearly five years to climb from a one star rating on Amazon to a measly 3 star rating. Sim City Online will suffer the same fate.

And remember what EA wanted from Spore? Being the new The Sims with tons of addons and stuff to sell? The second (!) addon was to be released in 2009, then in 2012 and now it has vanished without notice.

Sim City WILL suffer the same fate. EA will cancel this game without any offline mode in two years.

The difference being that people actually want to play Simcity, apparently, as the massive need for additional servers seems to reveal. Spore was a disappointing game that people tired of after a day of playing. And even then it sold a couple million copies.

Gamers have a weakness that lets publishers walk all over them: They aren't willing to put the game down. They will complain til they are blue in the face, they will go on Amazon or Metacritic and give a zero score that says "FVCK EA" fifty times.

But what do they do afterwards? A few might get a refund, but most go spam the Simcity servers some more trying to get in because by the gods they paid $60 and they are going to get their moneys worth out of the game, even if it sends entirely the wrong message to EA.

You can't go around talking about how crack is bad for you, if you've still got the pipe in your hand. Gamers are going to have to be willing to actually NOT FUCKING PURCHASE these games in the first place. Amazon and Metacritic User Score mean nothing to EA, absolutely nothing. All that matters to EA is if they are making money. And after the dust settles, and they start shitting out mediocre content for Simcity, these drones are going to lap it up like one of those funny cat videos where they stick their head under the faucet.




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

Re: EA Will

Mar 10, 2013, 16:29

News Comments > EA Adds SimCity Servers; Promises Free Game

jacobvandy wrote on Mar 10, 2013, 16:24:
Alright, nerds, the thing you should NOT do right now is walk away, mumbling "oh, okay, finally..." KEEP UP THE PRESSURE until they deliver!

The problem is that once the server issues are gone, the motivation to complain goes with it. Sure, they gotta be online, but if the servers are working, they aren't going to be nearly as mad about it and are more likely to overlook the issue. :/




If you don't like where gaming is heading, stop giving your money to the people who are taking it in that direction.

55.

Re: EA Adds SimCity Servers; Promises Free Game

Mar 9, 2013, 17:21