NewMaxx wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 12:40:And all of those together don't amount to anything EA much cares about in terms of money.
You may be right as far as traditional game publishers go... but then there has been competition that will save us old-school gamers... Crowd Funded:
Example of selecting more games than I bought from AAA publishers in the last 2 years:
Backed:
[...]
ALL of them can be played offline.
NONE of them have DRM
As Torment and Shroud of the Avatar have shown... there are more to come.
So, Fuck EA and their bullshit. I can easily game without them.
deqer wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 18:48:If someone has circumvented the need to be online, he hasnt published anything. At the moment, there is no crack, no server emulator.
I heard the hackers have gotten around the DRM, and you can get it on piratebay now. Not sure what that means, but sounds like it's not an emulation hack; sounds like the hackers have all the assets they needed to run the full game, in offline-mode.
JohnnyRotten wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 20:53:
Maybe the server is written on a *nix server? That would throw a wrinkle in things.
JohnnyRotten wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 20:33:wtf_man wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 09:24:
I'm sure that hackers will come out with a server emulator... probably one that can be run in the background of the same machine as the game client... and one that will be better since you won't be running against EA's artificial size limitations that they intend to sell "unlocking larger zones" to people.
I wouldn't be the least surprised, as a SimCity server emulater probably doesn't have much more do to then to say "Yes sir Mr. Client, you are still online".
Not sure about the regions thing - given all the other BS that has been shoveled out about the game, wonder if that's really being done locally as well.
ASeven wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 19:31:
RPS really nails this.
"What EA and Maxis have done with SimCity is attempt a year-long PR assault to suggest that the online-only nature of SimCity is designed to offer enhancements for gamers. This is simply not true. It’s utter rubbish. It’s a backward step for a format that seemed to be managing for years to offer single player and multiplayer options for games without the universe cracking in two. The idea that multiplayer-only is an enhancement is such an obvious piece of newspeak, such a ridiculous untruth, that we can only loudly and furiously react against it if we’re to not see it incredulously accepted as fact. I do worry it’s maybe already too late."
"To see anyone defending EA and Maxis for the state of SimCity, even were it in perfect working order on launch, depresses me to my core. This self-flagellation-as-skincare notion, where gamers loudly and proudly defend the destruction of their own rights as consumers, is an Orwellian perversity."
This last paragraph reminds me too much of some people here.
Beamer wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 12:25:
There's almost definitely no reason why they couldn't handle it.
But coding something for a server and coding something for a home system tends to be very, very different. It isn't as simple as just flipping a switch.
If you never intended to turn off server-side calculations, why have someone put a few weeks into putting that ability in?
wtf_man wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 09:24:
I'm sure that hackers will come out with a server emulator... probably one that can be run in the background of the same machine as the game client... and one that will be better since you won't be running against EA's artificial size limitations that they intend to sell "unlocking larger zones" to people.
This last paragraph reminds me too much of some people here.
Steele Johnson wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 18:29:
I'm surprised about all the news for this title. A crappy game usually gets a couple posts, and then it's gone for good. Why the extra news content for this failure of a game? Oh that's right, Blue is not a big fan of EA. lol
Saboth wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 18:32:I heard the hackers have gotten around the DRM, and you can get it on piratebay now. Not sure what that means, but sounds like it's not an emulation hack; sounds like the hackers have all the assets they needed to run the full game, in offline-mode.
You know, it's a shame about all the DRM and whatnot. I'd love to give these guys my money, as the game looks decent enough. Ah well.
Steele Johnson wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 18:29:
I'm surprised about all the news for this title. A crappy game usually gets a couple posts, and then it's gone for good. Why the extra news content for this failure of a game? Oh that's right, Blue is not a big fan of EA. lol
Steele Johnson wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 18:29:
I'm surprised about all the news for this title. A crappy game usually gets a couple posts, and then it's gone for good. Why the extra news content for this failure of a game? Oh that's right, Blue is not a big fan of EA. lol
Quboid wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 18:05:
That's looking at it the wrong way anyway. EA should be looking at increasing customers, not decreasing pirates - they don't actually matter.
wtf_man wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 14:59:
Uhm, would this be a good alternative?
Cities XL Platinum
And it looks like they got rid of the Secure Rom and 5 Machine Activation from the 2011 version.
Creston wrote on Mar 11, 2013, 10:26:Sadly, EA seems to have failed to do some very simple math. Let’s look at an example. We’ll assume that for an amazingly successful game like SimCity, about 20,000 people will end up pirating it (those who have the technical knowhow and Internet savvy to find a working crack). I have 160,000 Twitter followers, of whom around 50,000 follow me for gaming. I just told those 50,000 people NOT to buy SimCity because EA cannot handle its s***, and the game is unplayable. We’ll say half those people listen to me and haven’t bought the game already. Soooo, carrying the pi, we see that EA is already out 5,000 more sales than if they had just created a normal, single player offline capable game with multiplayer components.
I doubt just 20K people would have pirated it, but on the flipside, most of those pirating it wouldn't have bought it anyway (and likely haven't done so right now.)
But if he gets half his followers to not buy something who otherwise probably would have bought it (had he given it a glowing endorsement), that's a big chunk of cash right there.
So, good job on skimping on server hardware, EA. I'm sure that's made you a ton of money.
Creston