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Feedback On Simcity Gets User Banned From EA Forums
An anonymous reader writes "EA's latest SimCity game requires users to log on online even for single player. After being unable to log on for three hours, one of its users chimed in with his very polite $0.02 opinion, only to get himself banned by EA admins. Another great victory for DRM."
Update: 01/29 18:00 GMT by S : The player's ban has been lifted, and it seems to have happened for an unrelated issue anyway.
It IS a beta, and if you have a problem with it... such as being unable to log on... you're expected to report such problems (unless the devs already clearly know about it, maybe).
STOP buying EA games.
This setup is the stupidest thing to come down the pike in a long time. I can understand having the DRM to be able to play online. What I don't understand is why there is not an offline mode that does not allow you to take advantage of all the online only features and who's gameplay doesn't affect the online version. And the article shows just how far they have gone into looney land - no constructive feedback allowed. This will be literally the first Sim City I will not own. I have bought literally every version of it over the years including the original Sim City.
More like beta user submits valid beta feedback and is banned for their trouble.
That smells the same way asking for someone's opinion then punching them when they give it to you does.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Unfortunately for folks, this means fans of the game have to give EA the middle finger and pirate it, or simply not buy the game, but at least they've finally released a new version of the game after years.
There, FTFY.
Coffee-driven development.
Feedback is feedback.. the feedback I read, did not warrant getting banned. Worse, it was constructive in many ways. Finally, this is a paying customer. If this is how EA will now do business, consider me warned, I'm not buying their wares. I think it should be illegal to stop a paying customer from being able to provide feedback, especially since this customer is trying to have access to a product which he paid to used in the first place.
If you must play this game(and you don't) please pirate it. Please.
Personally, I think it sends a stronger message to tell the company "your product isn't even worth pirating" than to establish that there is in fact demand for it despite the issues.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
If you must play this game(and you don't) please pirate it. Please.
I never like it when people suggest pirating software as a form of protest, if you think the DRM is too intrusive, don't buy the game at all. For the bad car analogy, Let's say you don't like On-Star because you think its too intrusive. You see a car you like, but it only comes with On-Star. So to protest On-Star you steal a car. That's not protesting it's an excuse to steal.
If you must play the game, buy it, feel guilty about not sticking to your morals, then attempt to forgive yourself by donating to the EFF or something.
I think it would send the strongest message if they could see the following:
- sales rates go up when games have less DRM
- piracy goes up when games have more DRM independent of sales rate
- EA sales would increase if EA stops being assholes
- EA does not see any of this because EA's head is in its ass
--- We need more Ron Paul!
While I do want a Simcity game, as SimCity 4 is 9 years old at this point, I can't see this new product as a Simcity game. There is no local saves. There are preset map sizes (don't mind that that much), but there is a problem here. The player is not able to edit the land. I can't level a mountain to make way for a road. I can't build a system of streams and lakes. They want players to view making a city a puzzle that also takes into account terrain and wondering how to build a road around that mountain. They want the toy (not a game by Will Wright's point of view) to play with the players instead of letting the players play freely with it. Not everyone wants their cities to be compared to the works of others.
At this rate, I doubt it will have any fun cheat codes as was a staple of the series.