SimCity is back, gaming is dead, RIP gaming.

[palmer_eldritch]

EA have announced SimCity, the latest edition of the SimCity franchise. I guess it should be called SimCity 5 but they've decided to reboot the franchise by doing away with the numbers. It's nine years since SimCity 4, so why not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T70evBJE93s

From the launch video, it looks like they are focusing more on letting players place specific buildings than the traditional method of creating zones and hoping buildings appear in them. Edit: Or maybe not, other videos do show zoning.

It will be possible to customise your cities - making an entertainment mecca or manufacturing powerbase, for example - and there will be a strong multiplayer aspect. This apparently includes the ability to sabotage neighbouring cities by pouring out pollution, for example. It's not clear if there will be an offline option too.

From the look of the video, you'll actually be able to see neighbouring cities on the map, in as much detail as your own city, and watch them grow while you're building your own. It looks like fun to me.

http://www.simcity.com/

Edit: Wait, you guys are discussing this in the Origin thread already. Well, it deserves its own thread;)

[luckton]

Edit: Wait, you guys are discussing this in the Origin thread already. Well, it deserves its own thread;)

Indeed.

And /thread

[Sky]

And /thread

[Raging Turtle]

How dare they inform potential customers about different price models for a product.  

Wait, what?  People are actually complaining about the fact that a business is acting like a business and offering more things for more money?  

[Lantyssa]

It's the costs, not that they're different.

[koro]

60 Euros is roughly $80 and 80 Euros is about $105, just to put a finer point on things.

As long as publishers keep hosing Europe with batshit insane pricing people will keep bitching about it, even if that pricing is now the norm.

[Malakili]

I was excited about this until I realized EA.  Just not dealing with Origin, so an easy decision.

[tgr]

Yeah, that price, combined with the day 0 DLC and EA/Origin?

No thanks.

[Yoru]

There's four (one, two, three, four) videos from GDC up on some German site.

It seems like they're fundamentally changing the underlying mechanics of the game to arrive at similar gameplay. As opposed to a connectivity/static pathing model, they're going for almost a pure agent/heatmap implementation with lots of graphical indicators of the various data. The limited resource system also looks intriguing.

Still early days yet, but I think this is going to be a very interesting reboot. It seems very faithful to the basic ideas of the older SimCity games. Ocean Quigley is the Creative Director, which gives me quite a bit of hope. He's worked on SimCity things as far back as SC2k.

[Reg]

I'm not sure if I like the idea of placing individual buildings. Watching people move in and having your city build itself was half the fun for me playing this game.

In any case, I'll wait and see about buying it. Simcity 4 was basically unplayable for me at release and I vowed never to get sucked in again.

[apocrypha]

60 Euros is roughly $80 and 80 Euros is about $105, just to put a finer point on things.

As long as publishers keep hosing Europe with batshit insane pricing people will keep bitching about it, even if that pricing is now the norm.

EA are just doing their bit to ensure the survival of software piracy.

[Murgos]

You aren't entitled to Limited or Deluxe editions, if you don't like the price don't pay it and just get the regular box.

WTF!!!  You mean I can't get a BMW M3 with all the extras for the same price as the bare bones 3 series?  OPPRESSION!!!  RIOT!!!

I'm pretty sure not getting the Super Hero HQ in your little digital building game counts as a first world problem.

[Yoru]

I'm not sure if I like the idea of placing individual buildings. Watching people move in and having your city build itself was half the fun for me playing this game.

The engine videos show a player placing a zone, and the zone growing buildings, just like in the traditional SimCity titles. I think individual-placement remains as the placement mechanic for special buildings, like fire stations and schools. They also imply that you can add "upgrades" to these sorts of special buildings, e.g. plopping extra towers on top of a fire station to make it .. more... fire-station-y. Presumably they make it better somehow.

[Tebonas]

So, individual buildings als DLC doesn't seem like a money grab to you Murgos?

I agree that the only way is to vote with your money and not buying the game. But you make it sound like these are reasonable distinctions between the editions.

EA now is at the point where they complete a game and pull out features to sell extra from the completed game. What will be their excuse this time? "Crime waves weren't completed when the game went gold, so we had to make it a DLC."

Seriously?

[tgr]

EA now is at the point where they complete a game and pull out features to sell extra from the completed game. What will be their excuse this time? "Crime waves weren't completed when the game went gold, so we had to make it a DLC."

Seriously?

And super hero hq. And evil villain lair. And british city set. And french. And german.

[Murgos]

So, individual buildings als DLC doesn't seem like a money grab to you Murgos?

Of course it's a money grab.  So?  Don't buy it.  You don't have to have it.

e: by 'it' I mean one of the enhanced editions.  You don't need to have those things it comes with to still enjoy the game.  Not having them doesn't make the rest of the game worth less or not function.

[Tebonas]

Problem is you also have to say why you don't buy it. Because otherwise its just "Sales going down due to evil Pirates" instead of "Sales going down because we are douchebags".

[Mrbloodworth]

There's four (one, two, three, four) videos from GDC up on some German site.

Very cool stuff.

[tgr]

Problem is you also have to say why you don't buy it. Because otherwise its just "Sales going down due to evil Pirates" instead of "Sales going down because we are douchebags".

Don't kid yourself, it'll still be "sales going down due to evil pirates".

[Sky]

It's almost as if we live in a capitalist society.

Fucking hippies.

[tmp]

You aren't entitled to Limited or Deluxe editions, if you don't like the price don't pay it and just get the regular box.

It's cute you think the price of 'regular box' is going to be lower than that of "limited edition".

I mean srsly, EA.

[Murgos]

You aren't entitled to Limited or Deluxe editions, if you don't like the price don't pay it and just get the regular box.

It's cute you think the price of 'regular box' is going to be lower than that of "limited edition".

I mean srsly, EA.

Typically, yeah, limited editions are more than the regular price.  But even if EA is playing word games and the Limited Edition is the regular box, so what?  If it costs more than you are comfortable with, again, don't buy it.

You are not entitled to a video game, sorry.

[apocrypha]

But people are absolutely entitled to complain about what they consider to be exorbitant pricing.

It's called feedback, and it's something most companies do well to at least listen to.

[tgr]

They're too busy scrooge-diving into the mounds of dolla dollas they'll get.

[koro]

The "limited edition" is simply the normal box given some of the DLC as a bonus for pre-ordering.

Nobody (as far as I know) really cares too much about the USD pricing for the game, which is $60 normal / $80 Deluxe. The gripes come in when the game is priced at 60€, which is not comparable in the slightest to $60. It's not about entitlement, it's about wanting fair pricing, which Europe has been getting screwed out of for far too long.

[tmp]

Typically, yeah, limited editions are more than the regular price.

Iirc, typically, as far as EA games are concerned, "limited edition" is the buzzword they slap on pre-orders to imply artificial scarcity. The content and pricing at best doesn't change, and more typically you are actually asked to pay extra if you want the same 'bonus' bits they put in the pre-order package, when buying 'regular' game after launch date.

But even if EA is playing word games and the Limited Edition is the regular box, so what?

For one, it renders your "if you don't like this, buy the cheaper regular version" argument false. If as result you have to change it to "if you don't like the price then don't buy it, period" then it becomes meaningless, as you offer this wisdom to people who state precisely that -- that they won't buy the game as result of too aggressive, in their opinion, pricing.

[Murgos]

Awesome.  Yes, zipper head, if the meaning of limited edition changes from 'thing you pay extra for to get special stuff' to mean 'pre-order bonus' then the context of the conversation changes.

The 'if you don't like the price don't play it' message still applies to those who seem to think EA's pricing is a justification for piracy or that somehow a price in the US implies that something should convert equally to another currency at the current [instantaneous] exchange rate.  Neither point is true.
 

[Kageru]

The 'if you don't like the price don't play it' message still applies to those who seem to think EA's pricing is a justification for piracy or that somehow a price in the US implies that something should convert equally to another currency at the current [instantaneous] exchange rate.  Neither point is true.

Actually expecting a currency to act as a medium of exchange is sort of its point. Putting on an extra margin just because you can is gouging, which is repugnant but legal, as is working around it through buying a US copy. Though thanks to the US working around gouging enabling mechanisms may not be (ie region locking).

[tmp]

The 'if you don't like the price don't play it' message still applies to those who seem to think (..) that somehow a price in the US implies that something should convert equally to another currency at the current [instantaneous] exchange rate.

It's still completely pointless "message" to give in the context.

"It's too expensive for me so i won't be buying it"
"If it's too expensive for you then don't buy it"

honestly, duh?

Also, maybe it's not about exchange rates but about simple fact that prices hiked up ~30% wind up as simply too much for some to swallow regardless of whether someone else is fortunate enough to pay less? Perhaps we'll find out when EA tries to regularly charge 85-105 USD for their games on the other side of the pond.

[tgr]

This isn't new, steam does this all the time, both the exchange rate and the "limited edition" (because that's the publisher's demands or something, I don't care). Then again, steam does sales, so it kind of evens out.

But zipperhead? Really?

[Llyse]

But zipperhead? Really?

Is that a bad word? And why for all our non native English speakers

[Stokowski]

Looks pretty enough, but I can't help shake the feeling - based on the wank-speak the marketing arm have employed so far - that it'lll be a simplified SimCity 4 (which wasn't difficult anyway) built for social networking gameplay. I don't want to compete on MyBook or FaceSpace for nebulous achievements; I want a city builder where I'm resolving 6-way highway interchanges and issuing preservation orders for the historic crappy 1st-iteration buildings down on the waterfront. Otherwise it's just an overpriced screensaver.

[Kageru]

This isn't new, steam does this all the time, both the exchange rate and the "limited edition" (because that's the publisher's demands or something, I don't care). Then again, steam does sales, so it kind of evens out.

Since steam only does what the publishers demand why mention it? Especially since the majority of steam games are at USD price.

Though it is pretty amusing when a game shows up on steam at straight conversion and then suddenly jumps when they remember the internet is global. That said I mostly blame local retail protecting their margins more than EA, though I'm sure they are happy to shrug and pocket their cut.

[apocrypha]

But zipperhead? Really?

Is that a bad word? And why for all our non native English speakers

Racial slur, means Asian. Kinda like gook, chink, etc. I'm sure Murgos didn't mean it like that and was probably just unaware that's what it meant.

[tgr]

Since steam only does what the publishers demand why mention it? Especially since the majority of steam games are at USD price.

I'm mentioning it because steam used to use dollars initially, but moved over to euro and didn't adjust the price down to match, so it was a straight hike. Bitching where bitching is due, and I'm seeing Origin as something EA is going to try to make into a future content delivery service competing directly with steam.

But you say "are at USD price: they're not really, are they?
Wargame: European Escalation: €40
The Sims 3: €45
The Sims 3 - Showtime: €35

etc.

But zipperhead? Really?

Is that a bad word? And why for all our non native English speakers

Racial slur, means Asian. Kinda like gook, chink, etc. I'm sure Murgos didn't mean it like that and was probably just unaware that's what it meant.

Supposedly the name for koreans or asians, coined after the tiremarks the american jeeps made when running them over.

But it wasn't the word itself (I don't really give a fuck about that), it was more the fact that it was an insult against the person, instead of trying to keep the discussion civil.