Fun with EA: "Micro"-Transactions, Online DRM, CEO Fired

[Ruldra]

And in OTHER news...

EA refuses to refund user for SimCity and threatens to ban his account if he chargeback.

Jesus Christ.

[Udderdude]

Always offline gaming :3

[Friendly]

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-4 ... 007VTVRFA/

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm sure used sex toys rate better than that, lol

[Udderdude]

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-4 ... 007VTVRFA/

:lol:

[BIL]

I wouldn't buy that for a dollar!

And in OTHER news...

EA refuses to refund user for SimCity and threatens to ban his account if he chargeback.

Jesus Christ.

Haha. I'd take the ban on principle. Not like EA can ban me from my Saturn ports of Garegga and Souky.

[Jeneki]

Amazon now lists the digital version of Sim City as "currently unavailable". Wonder if they're getting bombed for refunds as well.

[Ruldra]

Watch as EA axes the SimCity series next and blame it all on the gamers.

"I suppose players nowadays aren't interested in city-building games anymore. Oh well."

[Udderdude]

[Ed Oscuro]

Whenever I see this picture, I know it's a good day.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

oh lol

You remember when Maxis games weren't shit? Good times.



The Super Nintendo port was surprisingly good too for a console port.

[Udderdude]

The Super Nintendo port was surprisingly good too for a console port.

It was ported by Nintendo themselves, so yeah.

[BulletMagnet]

His preceding comments are even more entertaining.

That said, EA is also denying the "we'll ban you if you ask for a refund" thing.

[Ed Oscuro]

a visual representation of EA's failed coup, courtesy of science animation

[Friendly]

"Today [these games] have to be online, have to be connected and have to have a social component. A large majority of gamers want and play such games.
If someone wants to live in the Stone Age and not purchase such games, then that's their choice."
- SimCity developer Kip Katsarelis on SimCity's always online DRM. (source: pcgames.de interview)

Stone Age for me, please.

[spoot]

"Today [these games] have to be online, have to be connected and have to have a social component. A large majority of gamers want and play such games.
If someone wants to live in the Stone Age and not purchase such games, then that's their choice."
- SimCity developer Kip Katsarelis on SimCity's always online DRM. (source: pcgames.de interview)

Stone Age for me, please.

Funny, that apparently having ACTUAL friends that show up to one's house to play games over the LAN is the stone age.

[Friendly]

https://www.change.org/petitions/electr ... ture-games#

Got 30,000 signatures already since it was put up. (No, I don't expect this to actually make a difference; EA would probably rather cancel development of any future SimCity games than to stop screwing their customers)

[Ganelon]

Petitions don't have clear quantifiable value in making business decisions. People need to speak with their wallets instead. EA made public SimCity's online requirement a year ago so the outrage starting now suggests there are other reasons behind customer displeasure.

I'd say the real issues here are lacking QA and weak risk management on EA's part. If Electronic Arts took more care testing its network capabilities, then it could have made sure that there were enough resources to accommodate all the connections. Also, if EA rolled out online requirements in a more incremental manner (e.g. having a test game beforehand where online was "required" but could be bypassed after 10 sec. with a simple ping of an EA site, perhaps with limited features), then EA could have discovered this issue while avoiding this catastrophe scenario where customers can't do anything at all.

Finally, if EA were more transparent about this problem and willing to help customers out (e.g. immediate free offering of a random digital game), then it wouldn't be so vilified right now. Instead, it's refusing returns, hasn't done anything to make customers feel happy with their purchases, and is not making the situation any better. I doubt most of its customers cared all that much about the online requirement as we here do. However, this debacle—alongside Diablo III's more minor one—will certainly have (and already has, looking at the poll) many others associating online requirements with a poor user experience. Even then, this situation is only negative if it affects future customer purchases, an outcome that isn't necessarily guaranteed

[xgunnBlaze]

"Today [these games] have to be online, have to be connected and have to have a social component. A large majority of gamers want and play such games.
If someone wants to live in the Stone Age and not purchase such games, then that's their choice."
- SimCity developer Kip Katsarelis on SimCity's always online DRM. (source: pcgames.de interview)

Stone Age for me, please.

Wow this is the dumbest thing I've read from a so-called video game developer. Always online DRM is like being required to ask the Gamestop (or whatever store) you bought your game from if it is okay to play your game before you play it every time you turn it on-- AFTER you have already payed for it.

[Udderdude]

It's like they saw the ridiculous copy protection schemes the music industry was trying with their music CDs and said, "Hey, let's do that but even worse!"

Great, now that I've gone and given them the idea, they'll lock everyone's DRMed music files down so you can't play them without a net connection >_>

[Jeneki]

And yet, after all those 1 star reviews and even being pulled from the site for a while, it's still the best selling video game on Amazon.

[Friendly]

[Skykid]

^ Ha ha ha, that's great!

[Ganelon]

http://www.ea.com/news/a-simcity-update ... ur-trouble

A little late and still lacking in details, but the right start out of this PR mess. If EA needs a consultant...

[greg]

I haven't played an online game since Chu Chu Rocket on the Dreamcast. Apparently, I'm not missing anything.

I'll take the stone age, too.

[Udderdude]

http://www.ea.com/news/a-simcity-update ... ur-trouble

Your reward for putting up with that is .. another EA game! yaaaaaay :3

[Ex-Cyber]

Petitions don't have clear quantifiable value in making business decisions. People need to speak with their wallets instead.

That also has less clear quantifiable value than I'd like. It's going to be counted relative to projections, and all reasons for not buying something get lumped together into a single number, so it's not a very effective way to tell a company what they got wrong.

[BryanM]

On Slashdot a sad fellow muttered "my greatest regret is the worst thing I can do to them is not give them my money. If only there were some way to take their money instead."

Another fellow helpfully offered "hey, waste the time of their tech support guys."

Which doesn't seem an effective long term solution....

[Friendly]

Looks like EA's claim that it would not be possible to make SimShitty play offline was a lie:
Maxis Insider: SimCity Servers Not Necessary

[GaijinPunch]

Too bad it's only the stone age for games and we can't just whack women over the head and lug them back to our caves.