

EA apologises over 'dumb' SimCity launch - hansbo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21741528

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rjzzleep
am i the only one who thinks this was no apology at all? (judging from the
comments in the forum that's not really the case)

it did not look like an apology at all. It looked more like an excuse saying
that the drm is fine as it is and they just underestimated the userbase.
essentially putting the blame on the users. one of those apologies that really
isn't...

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fredleblanc
Mostly agree. It seems like they're saying that they're sorry there aren't
enough servers to handle the online requirement, but not sorry that SimCity
has an online requirement. (They also want to remind you that they're making a
lot of money, as it's a major hit across all major markets.)

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vbl
Nothing they have done or said strikes me as an honest admission of guilt,
sorrow or concern.

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gte910h
They gave everyone a free game.

That sounds like something.

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moccajoghurt
> So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we
> expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.

How can the play style of people have such an impact on the servers?

Sure there could have been people spamming buildings in order to produce high
traffic. But that's sounds like an unlikely exceptional case.

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stevenameyer
This part really confused me as well. The other thing that I was confused
with(as someone who played the beta) was if they knew play style could have an
effect on server load, why did they have such a restrictive beta? The beta was
short and greatly limited what you were able to do, so it seems logical that
it would not give a fair representation of how people would play the game. I
think if play style was an issue then they made the mistake of using the beta
as a marketing tool, rather then as a method of testing the game/system.

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grhino
My guess is "play style" is being used more generally to refer to how long
they play the game during a session and how frequently their game sessions
are.

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aliem
This reminds me of <http://youtu.be/e-LE0ycgkBQ>

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pkhamre
All the FIFA Ultimate Team releases the last three years has also been filled
with trouble during launch and high peak times. Release problems is not a new
thing for this company.

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RKearney
Until people learn to vote with their wallets, nothing will change.

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chaz
This only works if the products are good substitutes for each other, and in
entertainment products, this is usually not the case. There's only one
Beatles, one Star Wars franchise, and one Sim City -- lots of alternative ways
to spend time, but no substitutes. Even with the kerfuffle, I will still buy
Sim City when it comes out for Mac because I remember spending many, many late
nights with the original game.

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scottux
Thank you, you've put into words what I've long believed but been unable to
describe. I definitely believe in voting with my wallet, but I can't see
"don't buy the new SimCity" as a legitimate option when that's precisely what
I want to play. Until CitiesXXL comes out with identical enough gameplay, this
is the only game that will scratch that particular itch.

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jaachan
The page now 404's, even though it's still linked like this from
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology/>.

Edit: It's resolving properly now for me.

~~~
conradfr
Still 404 for me.

