SimCity Mac Launch Facing More Problems 177
The launch of the new SimCity back in March made headlines for the problems caused by the game's always-online DRM. EA Maxis even decided that people who bought the game early deserved a free game for their trouble. They also decided to postpone the launch of the Mac version of the game. Well, the delay is over; SimCity has arrived for Macs, and players are now facing a whole new set of installation and launch problems. "Those issues include a 'mutexAlert' error, which can be resolved by switching the OS to English. Another simply doesn't allow a player to install the game once downloaded. The suggested solution for that is to re-install Origin and opt in to the new Beta version. The game also apparently doesn't currently support Mac OS X 10.7.4 nor the upcoming 10.9 beta release." There are also reports that the game won't function on high-resolution display settings.
The continuing saga. . . (Score:5, Interesting)
of bad software.
Despite the vociferous pronouncements from many on here as to how high their salary's are as programmers and that you get what you pay for, it's amazing the amount of bad software, games or otherwise, the end user has to suffer with.
I speak from near daily experience when I say the quality of today's software is far below what one would expect considering the company's producing the software and the lofty salaries paid to the programmers.
It's similar to the financial industry where the mantra "best and brightest" is trotted out to excuse the salaries and bonuses of those who continually reek havoc in the financial markets and suffer no penalty.
If these are our best and brightest programmers shoveling out this software, can we try the worst and dullest to see if they can do better?
Re:Treat the EA badge as a warning sticker (Score:4, Interesting)
It used to be that way on Netflix-streaming when you saw a Starz logo at the beginning of the movie. It meant a non-HD, non-anamorphic, low-resolution, shitty-print movie. I dreaded seeing it. I was so glad when Starz left Netflix. A lot of other people saw it as a bad sign at the time, but to me it was "Good riddance, assholes--and don't let the door hit the ass of your awful quality videos on the way out!"
Stream and DRM (Score:4, Interesting)
And that's one of the nicer leashes out there. This whole being on a long leash thing just doesn't appeal to me. Call me old-fashioned, but when I pay a buying price, I expect to actually own the game.
There is no shortage of DRM games available (and open source ones). I am personally loving the daily promotions at https://indiegamestand.com/ [indiegamestand.com] which offer a daily deal of Direct Downloads cross platform goodness. Groupees also is a great site http://groupees.com/bm9 [groupees.com] the link is actually available to the latest deal.
The real worry is not steam. Its Appl stores like those on iOS and Surface RT...and the bleed from these into Desktop Computers, as both Microsoft and Apple force their stores pretence of security....making them mandatory is just a matter of time.
Another Gaming depression looming (Score:5, Interesting)
I think there is another gaming depression looming similar to the great Atari game depression of the early 80's.
The problem is that companies like EA are so profit hungry that almost everything they do in games today is to drive more profit. Always on ensures no piracy, DLC ensures a constant revenue stream after a game release, Freemium is almost one of the most blatant attempts at gaming cash grabs ever because they know that stupid people will drop hundreds of dollars into a "free" game just to be able to advance to level 2. Nintendo has destroyed everything that was successful about it. Microsoft is pushing forward with a product that is already unpopular and Sony is just Sony.
This is happening on the PC, Tablets, Phones and Consoles, no platform is immune to the greedy corporations.
And so you might say what about the Indies, they are going to save gaming! Not if they are trying to push Freemium products like they are doing.
Eventually consumers are going to get fed up and stop buying games. I have no interest in the next generation systems and have generally stopped playing games even on mobile devices. I mean when Angry Birds started wanting you to buy power up's and Might Eagles to help you through the games then its obvious there is no integrity left in this industry. When I need to invest $40 to upgrade a dinosaur in the last Freemium game I will ever play, something is VERY wrong with the gaming industry.
What needs to happen is an almost universal collapse of ALL game companies before we might see a new generation of companies that actually respect their customers and not just their customer's money.
Re:Treat the EA badge as a warning sticker (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Same shit, different day (Score:5, Interesting)
Deluxe Paint was the only good thing they ever published, and they didn't even make it. They are the anti-Midas. Everything EA touches turns to shit.
From what I understand, they were generally quite highly-regarded in their early years (take a look at the ratings for their C64 games at Lemon 64 [lemon64.com]). They also placed great importance on giving credit to authors and programmers- which is ironically the antithesis of their later "EA Widow"-era reputation.
My understanding is that it was during the early 1990s when they started concentrating on the 16-bit Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES consoles and becoming more sequel/franchise-focused (i.e. Madden sequels, then FIFA) that they began mutating into the company that people know- and hate- today. Possibly not coincidentally, this was also the point at which founder Trip Hawkins ended his day-to-day involvement with the company in order to get 3DO up and running.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)