[St. John's] SimCity (2013) - Page 18

jeddy1989 · #**341** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 4:14 PM**

On CBC

Sim City creators in damage control mode over technical problems

Quote:

The makers of the highly anticipated PC game Sim City have spent the last several days doing damage control - both in terms of public relations and its servers that have left thousands of players unable to play their new games.

The latest in a series of followups to the original 1989 game launched on Tuesday as part of a worldwide rollout, but setbacks have caused an uproar in the tech world. Some users claimed to have been left in a server queue, waiting to play their game for hours. Some experienced game crashes and lost data - their virtual cities disappearing in a virtual cloud of smoke.

CBCNews' story on Sim City's service outage, posted Thursday, attracted several comments from players experiencing delays. Others criticized the always-online requirement for the game, accusing EA Games of sacrificing the user's experience to curb piracy and illegal copies of games.

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CBC·18 HOURS AGO
The latest in a series of award-winning city simulation games, each player builds a city from the ground up and manages its resources and population. The latest version of Sim City requires the user to always be connected to the internet, whether they want to interact with other players and their cities or not.

The ongoing server troubles led to disgruntled gamers voicing their frustrations online, overwhelmingly demanding that the game be made playable without an internet connection - as past Sim City games allowed.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity...-problems.html

jeddy1989 · #**342** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 4:16 PM**

New SimCity game stalled by server upgrades

Quote:

The hotly anticipated internet computer game SimCity has been smacked with lacklustre reviews this week after servers quickly reached capacity, preventing virtual mayors from breaking ground on their new metropolises.

Several reports indicated Friday that Amazon had also temporarily suspended sales of the Electronic Arts' city-building game, citing complaints from users, but it now appears to be available for purchase.

The latest in a series of followups to the original 1989 game launched on Tuesday as part of a worldwide rollout, but setbacks have caused uproar in the tech world.

"It's pretty clear it's a completely messed-up launch," said video game and technology journalist Peter Nowak.

'Our plan is to continue to bring more servers online until we have enough to meet the demand, increase player capacity and let more people through the gates and into the game.'
—Kip Katsarelis
In a blog dated Thursday, SimCity senior producer Kip Katsarelis acknowledged that "server capacity is our biggest obstacle."

"Our plan is to continue to bring more servers online until we have enough to meet the demand, increase player capacity and let more people through the gates and into the game," said Katsarelis, adding that after the North American launch on Tuesday servers were full within hours.

It's not clear how many users are part of a server, but Nowak says requiring people play the game while connected to the internet is the root of the problem.

"Game companies are increasingly doing this to try and combat piracy," he said. "It's hurting innocent players far more than it's defeating bad actors."

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Many people took to social media to express their frustration.

"Been playing about 2 hours of Tomb Raider while waiting for the #SimCity queue to let me in. Feel like I paid $80 for a broken clock," tweeted one gamer.

"The problem isn't your servers, it's the fact that you unnecessarily have hundreds of thousands of players that don't want to play online still using up server capacity," another person posted in response to Katsarelis's blog.

Award-winning game
SimCity was the winner of 23 PC Game Awards at the annual gamescon video games trade fair in Germany last August. Several of the game's features, however, have been remotely turned off by EA as they patch issues.

"There was a time when you could buy a game on day one and be confident that it would work, but that's not the case anymore," said Nowak. "Game companies are increasingly shipping incomplete games, thinking that they can patch them up, add to them or fix them with downloads later."

For the time being, EA's updates on SimCity upgrades are being communicated through its blog, company forums and Twitter account.

"I can't wait to play it, but unfortunately, I'm going to," Nowak said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/st...server-ea.html

BigRedSpecial · #**343** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 4:45 PM**

The most frustrating part of all is that it's all for nothing. The only reason I bought the game is because I was assured someone would make a offline crack; Ironically, by forcing people to play online, they expedited development of that crack, which will make it easy to play pirated games.

I ran into the same issue with Diablo III; it got to the point that I stopped playing completely after only a month. That's a big deal from someone who played DII for close to 10 years.

jeddy1989 · #**344** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 4:51 PM**

I couldn't even get on the NAE2 server yesterday .. at all ... very frustrating .. they've added a bunch of servers but it's still crashing ... hmmm getting very annoyed now

BigRedSpecial · #**345** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 4:54 PM**

Neither could I. I have a private area, and was planning on joining the SSP region yesterday... couldn't connect, so had to start a second region on a different server.

rwspencer38 · #**346** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 6:44 PM**

Ya I use NA2 for our region but I have a private area on NA4.

Marty_Mcfly · #**347** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 7:59 PM**

I'm growing real sick of how impossible this game is being. The crime and fire rate is insane, so I finally get enough money to expand police and fire services a crap tonne. Doubled the jail size, added new cars, added a whole new police station with more cars, and more fire engines.

The result? More crime, more fires.

I CAN'T WIN. I JUST SPEND 100,000 SIMOLEANS TO GET A HIGHER CRIME RATE.

Copes · #**348** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 8:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

I'm growing real sick of how impossible this game is being. The crime and fire rate is insane, so I finally get enough money to expand police and fire services a crap tonne. Doubled the jail size, added new cars, added a whole new police station with more cars, and more fire engines.

The result? More crime, more fires.

I CAN'T WIN. I JUST SPEND 100,000 SIMOLEANS TO GET A HIGHER CRIME RATE.

Do you have a school? Are your Sims educated enough to use the Stove?

You seem to have a disproportionate amount of Fires / Criminals. I've regularly gone to about 3000 - 6000 population before even plopping fire / police station.

jeddy1989 · #**349** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 8:55 PM**

This is for you Copes so you can see Cope Landing with a bit higher graphics

In front of your expo centre

Architype · #**350** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 8:57 PM**

Not being much of a "gamer", I'm going to ask what's probably a stupid question - Can you run it on more than one computer, or say if you get a new computer, without having to pay for it all over again ?

SignalHillHiker · #**351** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 8:59 PM**

Cool, Jeddy!

Yes, you can, Architype!

Architype · #**352** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:04 PM**

^ OK thanks, the one I'm using is clearly too slow. Can someone here who is really into this stuff recommend what I should buy to have a basic suitable system (probably a laptop) for better performance. I think mine meets the minimum standards but it seems painfully slow.

SignalHillHiker · #**353** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:08 PM**

Newegg.ca is the best, in my experience. But you can get gaming laptops at places like Best Buy, etc., as well. Just make sure it's a gaming laptop. Any of the regular ones won't cut it.

BigRedSpecial · #**354** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:12 PM**

As a VERY rough minimum, in a laptop I'd say a Core i5 and discreet graphics (IE, a dedicated Nvidia or Radeon video card). If you want more in depth advise feel free to ask

Architype · #**355** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Just make sure it's a gaming laptop. Any of the regular ones won't cut it.

I didn't even know that much, thanks, . . .because I've never been into games except for the three older versions of SC up to 3000.

BigRedSpecial · #**356** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Newegg.ca is the best, in my experience. But you can get gaming laptops at places like Best Buy, etc., as well. Just make sure it's a gaming laptop. Any of the regular ones won't cut it.

QFT... NCIX is another great site.

Ayreonaut · #**357** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:44 PM**

The third pic... That car's going to get t-boned by a tram!

Copes · #**358** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 9:56 PM**

Jeddy: Wicked shots! Thanks. Looks great at street level.

I bought my parts at NCIX. They price match. But I doubt you are looking to build a PC. Aaaand I wouldn't be much help if you were because I had to get my computer engineer pal do it for me.

But yeah. Price matching. NCIX.

Marty_Mcfly · #**359** Posted **Mar 12, 2013, 10:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Copes

Do you have a school? Are your Sims educated enough to use the Stove?

You seem to have a disproportionate amount of Fires / Criminals. I've regularly gone to about 3000 - 6000 population before even plopping fire / police station.

There is a school, education is fairly high for the most part. In earlier games I typically would place a PD at like 10,000 people, and a FD when needed (ie when a fire breaks out and I don't have a department to take care of it)

rwspencer38 · #**360** Posted **Mar 13, 2013, 2:43 AM**

A new updated photo of Magnolia Gardens with Kenmount Terrace is the background haha! My little city has turned the corner from a country retreat to density driven economic zone (whose tourism industry is about to blow wide open!)