EA - We Can Do Better

m4rk84 said:
This makes no sense. It would be absolutely possible to sell DLC while fully supporting a single player mode. In fact they will be selling the DLC through Origin anyway?
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Well I'm only speculating that it might be a reason. They obviously had some reason why they decided to make it online only, but that doesn't mean the reason is DRM. Otherwise it would have been more difficult to play it offline. What proof do you have that it is DRM?
 
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ZombieFan said:
Well I'm only speculating that it might be a reason. They obviously had some reason why they decided to make it online only, but that doesn't mean the reason is DRM. Otherwise it would have been more difficult to play it offline. Why do you think it is DRM?
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Because without it being DRM there is no viable reason why it is there and you will struggle to find one. One of the major draws of SimCity is chilling out on your own and running a nice relaxing city.

Removing the ability for offline play was a risky move which must have been discussed, seeing as there is no technical reason for there not to be an offline mode the only reasonable reason is that it would serve as a piracy deterrent.

What proof do you have it isn't a form of DRM? If they just removed offline play for the fun of it didn't they shoot their selves in the foot for no reason?
 
ZombieFan said:
but that doesn't mean the reason is DRM. Otherwise it would have been more difficult to play it offline.
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This is completely flawed logic, the gaming industry has a huge history of tremendously easy to bypass copy protection and digital rights management.

Just because it was easy to bypass doesn't mean it wasn't DRM.

The only official reasons i've seen are something about your own PC isn't good enough to run the game without help from central servers (clearly nonsense) and it being a design decision that they wanted all play to be multiplayer.

Now be honest, do you think they really made a 'design decision' to eliminate a big sector of the market in single player gamers by deciding the game just wasn't fun enough unless you were forced to be on the internet with other people to play it?

The very fact that press release doesn't actually say why it's online, instead just choosing to say NO IT ISN'T DRM NO IT ISN'T DRM, speaks volumes.

They've tried to disguise it - they've seen the backlash from Ubisoft and their always online policy which was openly for DRM and no other purpose and so have taken the same route on a technical front but tried to obfuscate it so that if and when it goes breasts skyward, the backlash wouldn't be as bad. They've not really done very well as anyone with half a brain has seen straight through it.
 
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m4rk84 said:
Because without it being DRM there is no viable reason why it is there and you will struggle to find one. One of the major draws of SimCity is chilling out on your own and running a nice relaxing city.

Removing the ability for offline play was a risky move which must have been discussed, seeing as there is no technical reason for there not to be an offline mode the only reasonable reason is that it would serve as a piracy deterrent.

What proof do you have it isn't a form of DRM? If they just removed offline play for the fun of it didn't they shoot their selves in the foot for no reason?
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The proof I have is a quote from the EA COO confirming that it isn't a form of DRM. Also, the proof that it is easily bypassed and therefore would be ineffective as DRM. What proof do you have for it being DRM again? ;)
 
ZombieFan said:
The proof I have is a quote from the EA COO confirming that it isn't a form of DRM. Also, the proof that it is easily bypassed and therefore would be ineffective as DRM. What proof do you have for it being DRM again? ;)
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I think you may want to rethink what you interpret to be 'proof'... by it's very nature it's a DRM that isn't even questionable, the game requires an internet connection in order to play. The question is whether it's intentional DRM or not.
 
If it wasn't DRM, EA would have been able to much more easily articulate why they felt a previously single player focussed game suddenly couldn't even function without a permanent internet connection.

If they'd been able to do so, rather than just say 'NO IT ISN'T DRM' then we wouldn't even need to have this discussion.

Everyone: "EA, why did this need to be online only?"
EA: "Well it's definitely not because of DRM"
Everyone: "OK, if not that, what has driven that decision?"
EA: "Not DRM"
Everyone: "So why is there an online only requirement?"
EA: "IT ISN'T DRM"
 
Ea are shockingly bad aint they, 99 percent of the EA games ive bought have had major issues. Im really shocked how well crysis 3 turned out online, its superb. I suppose they had to get a game right one day!
 
Kenai said:
If it wasn't DRM, EA would have been able to much more easily articulate why they felt a previously single player focussed game suddenly couldn't even function without a permanent internet connection.

If they'd been able to do so, rather than just say 'NO IT ISN'T DRM' then we wouldn't even need to have this discussion.

Everyone: "EA, why did this need to be online only?"
EA: "Well it's definitely not because of DRM"
Everyone: "OK, if not that, what has driven that decision?"
EA: "Not DRM"
Everyone: "So why is there an online only requirement?"
EA: "IT ISN'T DRM"
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I believe they explained that the online connection was required because a significant number of calculations were made by the server which were not possible to do on the client, so they did answer the question. The ability to play the game offline goes against this, but people have slowly skewed this to interpret it was DRM because they can't think of any other reason. As I said earlier, I'm only playing devils advocate but there doesn't seem to be any proof that it is DRM.
 
m4rk84 said:
I think you may want to rethink what you interpret to be 'proof'... by it's very nature it's a DRM that isn't even questionable, the game requires an internet connection in order to play. The question is whether it's intentional DRM or not.
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I think you need to rethink what you interpret Digital Rights Management to be. Just because a piece of software requires an internet connection doesn't mean it's used as an anti-piracy measure.
 
ZombieFan said:
I believe they explained that the online connection was required because a significant number of calculations were made by the server which were not possible to do on the client, so they did answer the question. The ability to play the game offline goes against this, but people have slowly skewed this to interpret it was DRM because they can't think of any other reason. As I said earlier, I'm only playing devils advocate but there doesn't seem to be any proof that it is DRM.
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Well as you move on to within your post, the reasoning regarding server side calculations is clearly a complete fantasy (some would say lie) and has been clearly and factually demonstrated to be such.

Why would they spout nonsense like that if they weren't trying to hide something?

If they have a genuine reason, surely it would be easier to just say so and shut everyone up rather than the current fingers in ears repeated denial approach.

ZombieFan said:
I think you need to rethink what you interpret Digital Rights Management to be. Just because a piece of software requires an internet connection doesn't mean it's used as an anti-piracy measure.
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True, but in most cases where that is true, it's obvious enough. A game like World of Warcraft needs an online connection because it is a fundamentally online game which cannot function on any level without it.

Sim City is not one of these cases however.

That said, any permanent online connection does effectively work as DRM, whether that was the intended purpose or not. The very fact you need to contact and interact with the publishers servers, means they are managing the usage of their game, whether that's the primary objective of such communications or not.
 
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ZombieFan said:
I think you need to rethink what you interpret Digital Rights Management to be. Just because a piece of software requires an internet connection doesn't mean it's used as an anti-piracy measure.
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Give an example of another single player focused game that requires an online connection which isnt DRM?
 
This is the same poll that last year judged us as worse than companies responsible for the biggest oil spill in history, the mortgage crisis, and bank bailouts that cost millions of taxpayer dollars. The complaints against us last year were our support of SOPA (not true), and that they didn’t like the ending to Mass Effect 3.
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You really are the worst company then. Thanks for clarifying it for us.

Youre ruining the gaming industry so do us a favour and go jump off a cliff.
 
Put the all the Origin exclusive titles on Steam tomorrow and allow people who own titles on Origin to activate them on Steam; see how many of those millions upon millions of Origin users don't drop that **** in an instant.
 
Battlefield 3 and FIFA are stunning achievements with tens of millions of players; and SimCity is being enjoyed by millions of passionate fans all over the world.
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BF3 hitreg and ****loads of other problems, Fifa dont get me started this game is broken and scripted into oblivion, Simcity people cant play half the time and is dumbed down.

Way to go EA, way to go.. keep sticking your head in the sand.
 
TBH if you dont like their games, just dont buy them - simple as. Easy to get worked up, pointless if you dont do something actively about it. Might matter little, but if everyone that seems to have an issue with EA as a developer/publisher did so, then surely that be so many people that EA couldnt ignore it. EA wont care til it affects the bottom line, what else can you gather from the CEOs vitriol.

Its the people that just moan even after being aware how poor EA are that annoy me. Id probably previously include myself in that...

'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me'

P.S. They arent the worst company in the US, but considering the type of people probably completing that poll would be skewed to a particular demographic more likely to be some form of nerd/gamer :p

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
45 million registered users but doesn't mention how many of that are active now and continue to use it on a daily basis. I had to register to play BF3 and ME3 not touched either in ages and rarely does Origin ever get loaded so 45 million registered maybe, users not so much.

Server side calculations is an excuse for Sim City being online, proven to show that it can work for what 20 minutes before it needs to check in which says it is not doing any 'cloud' calculations at all.

Pay to win in titles like Dead Space 3 that are loaded with micro transactions from the start, lovely just what we wanted.

Messing up one of their biggest franchises in ME3 by not really taking any player choices into consideration which, if I am not mistaken was the biggest selling point of this trilogy.

F2P isn't a problem, it works and has been shown to work very well. It is the holding back of content vital to story and plot in order to charge people later for enjoying a game they have bought and not being able to see the complete saga.
 
ps3ud0 said:
TBH if you dont like their games, just dont buy them - simple as. Easy to get worked up, pointless if you dont do something actively about it. Might matter little, but if everyone that seems to have an issue with EA as a developer/publisher did so, then surely that be so many people that EA couldnt ignore it. EA wont care til it affects the bottom line, what else can you gather from the CEOs vitriol.

Its the people that just moan even after being aware how poor EA are that annoy me. Id probably previously include myself in that...

'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me'

P.S. They arent the worst company in the US, but considering the type of people probably completing that poll would be skewed to a particular demographic more likely to be some form of nerd/gamer :p

ps3ud0 :cool:
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Don't worry, I have stopped and i assume many others as well, however that does not stop me from moaning about them though, what they do ripples through the entire industry, so i wont stop moaning until they are dead.

Inextricably rotting in the ground.
 
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