SimCity is back, gaming is dead, RIP gaming.

[apocrypha]

I don't think that anyone's claiming that other companies don't also price gouge. But this thread is about Sim City, so I think it's fair for people to complain about 0 day DLC and what they feel are the excessive prices announced for said Sim City game.

Personally I think that AAA games are too expensive and that this contributes to piracy. For myself it means that I very, very rarely buy games on release but wait some months until they're cheaper. It also means I'm more likely to buy cheap indy games on Steam since I don't feel aggrieved at spending £10 or so to see if a game is any good. €60 / £50 for a digital download seems exorbitant to me.

Agree 100% about unnecessary use of insults, wasn't defending it, just saying I didn't think he was a racist :)

[Lantyssa]

I can get SimCity 4 on Steam for $5 during a sale.  There really isn't that much added to this one to justify the price difference.

[luckton]

I think we're all just accustomed to the good old days when a game came out, it was good, and if it was really good, it'd get patched or maybe even get an expansion.  While I like the idea that DLC replaces the need for a fully thought out and developed expansion pack, I disagree with having content that was developed at the same time as the original game and then cut out to be resold as DLC after the game comes out.  This is EA's strategy now; they ask themselves and their dev teams, "Just how much can we cut up this game to give a decent experience to most and make more profit by selling some of the bits at a premium?"  Combined with going into self-solitary confinement by only selling their games online through their own store, and manipulation of the brick 'n mortar stores, this is where the EA hate comes about these days.  It's no longer about a company that turned into "The Borg" of the industry by buying up everyone and rebranding them (though that's still a sore wound to many old-timers), it's about that company now saying "We've got enough talent, we don't need to assimilate anyone else.  You'll buy from us, you'll buy the DLC if you want the complete experience, or you can GTFO."

At this point, I have no problem with GTFO.  I'd much rather pay indy devs and other companies that don't treat their customers like mindless drones.  The problem is that, indeed, EA has grown to the point where they don't 'need' anyone else...they don't need Steam, D2D, GOG or others to survive.  Unless they just straight shoot themselves in the foot something fierce, this is just the way of things now.

[tgr]

And that is a pity, because I'm sort of getting the feeling that they're adding a lot of subtle things through the simulation of everything, that it would be worth, say, €40, if it was the whole thing, and was available on steam.

Oh well. It's not like they'll starve anyways, there are most likely more than enough people who aren't as bitter as we are.

[Mrbloodworth]

Huh, seems this is multiplayer.

[Kageru]

Playing simcity 4 made me feel the whole game is a capsule from another time. Find a green plain and just plop down nukes and freeways so your urban slums can start developing. And you'd better plan on spending a lot of time playing with roads because that's an inescapable part of a city. There's lots of demand (and resources) for whatever you are making in your smokey factories and trying to restrain growth leads to failure and slums.

It would be really fun to have something like, "Sim City: Bright Future" where you can start exploring different models for future cities. Alternative energy, transport modes (track carbon use), population control and the mechanics and policies to allow you to adjust the type of city you have. It would also solve the problem that all the sim-city mechanics seemed to only have one path of development and the challenge was how closely you could track their envisioned evolution.

... but it's from EA, so I expect it to be shinier, linked into facebook and have lots of DLC available now on origin.

Still, it encouraged me to finally download tropico. Gives me the urge to build something.

[Sheepherder]

It would be really fun to have something like, "Sim City: Bright Future" where you can start exploring different models for future cities. Alternative energy, transport modes (track carbon use), population control and the mechanics and policies to allow you to adjust the type of city you have. It would also solve the problem that all the sim-city mechanics seemed to only have one path of development and the challenge was how closely you could track their envisioned evolution.

Wat.

[Sky]

I think he is saying he's a giant hippy nerd.

And wants to start a eugenics program.

[Sheepherder]

I get that.  But, umm, a good chunk of that shit has been in the game since at least SC2k.  Pollution, nuclear energy, and rail has been in since the 1989 version.

[Sjofn]

I was so terrible at SimCity 2k. Yet it is the game that made me start looking at city builders.

Never played SimCity 4, though, I had other games occupying me at the time and I just never got around to it.

[sickrubik]

SimCity 4 Deluxe is $9.99 on Origin right now, btw. http://store.origin.com/store/ea/en_US/pd/productID.198095500/sac.true

[tgr]

It's 10 euro on steam (should be 10 usd in america I suppose?)

[Zar]

Nope, still $19.99 on Steam here.  Which is unfortunate, because I've managed to avoid Origin thus far, and I'd like to keep it that way.  On the other hand, this thread has reawakened my latent Sim City compulsion.   Hmm...

[Lantyssa]

Steam has it on sale quite frequently for $5.  Just wait for that and you get it cheaper without Origin.

[proudft]

I still take a crack at it every once in a while.  The game still runs oddly slowly, or at least LOOKS slow - I guess the animations were never meant to be super smooth.  I never really get further than one sort-of-decent section and one garbage/power neighbor section and then I lose interest.  I was terrible at SimCity the First, though.

[Kageru]

I get that.  But, umm, a good chunk of that shit has been in the game since at least SC2k.  Pollution, nuclear energy, and rail has been in since the 1989 version.

Pollution is a lot different from having a slider marked "carbon tax" or ceiling and having to mess with different models of a city to meet it as a victory condition. Similarly their power model is pretty much just plop down a coal power somewhere you don't care about or a nuclear power plant once you can afford it and the problem is solved. Have a scenario where the citizens refuse to live with a nuke on the map or pollution and see what's possible with alternative energy. Have a scenario were they leash the sims ability to travel from their home to represent fuel constraints and you can't just lay freeways everywhere. And the growth goals are almost always purely growth rather than anything involving quality of life or different styles of city.

Yes, I'm probably a hippy (and it's much more complex to design) but simCity is pretty much always about building the same city, and probably a city from the 60's. It would be more interesting if it was a tool for thinking about what future cities might be like and how future technologies and constraints will influence urban planning.

[CmdrSlack]

I get that.  But, umm, a good chunk of that shit has been in the game since at least SC2k.  Pollution, nuclear energy, and rail has been in since the 1989 version.

Pollution is a lot different from having a slider marked "carbon tax" or ceiling and having to mess with different models of a city to meet it as a victory condition. Similarly their power model is pretty much just plop down a coal power somewhere you don't care about or a nuclear power plant once you can afford it and the problem is solved. Have a scenario where the citizens refuse to live with a nuke on the map or pollution and see what's possible with alternative energy. Have a scenario were they leash the sims ability to travel from their home to represent fuel constraints and you can't just lay freeways everywhere. And the growth goals are almost always purely growth rather than anything involving quality of life or different styles of city.

Yes, I'm probably a hippy (and it's much more complex to design) but simCity is pretty much always about building the same city, and probably a city from the 60's. It would be more interesting if it was a tool for thinking about what future cities might be like and how future technologies and constraints will influence urban planning.

This.

Now, where'd I put that golf disc?

[Murgos]

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?

You are right, name calling was uncalled for, I was just feeling annoyed and snarky.  And no, I wasn't aware of the ethnic overtones.

Regardless costs do not directly translate across borders though, taxes, fees and any number of other agreements, arrangements and commercial realities of doing business affect the price.

I can go to two stores across the street from each other and get two different prices for the same item.  It's really not realistic to think that a price in Europe or Australia should be in anyway related to a price in the US long before it gets into the realm of 'price gouging'.  Look at car prices for an example, a car built in Germany (The GTI, they are all built at Wolfsburg) costs much more to buy in Germany than it does in the US.  Why?  It's not price gouging it market forces and government policies and a thousand other things.

[Sky]

Now, where'd I put that golf disc?

You didn't just reference SimGolf, did you?

Man, where is gog when you need them to come through? That game was so cool when you spent the time to customize names and lines. I remember the first time I had an old version of my character show up on a new character's course. I knew because I saw a bunch of swearing. Sure enough, Busta Clubs was on the green again.

[Ingmar]

SimGolf was far more entertaining than it had any right to be, yes.

[Velorath]

I had SimAnt as a kid which frankly was a pretty bizarre game.  I was a Mac user back then though and pretty much desperate to play any game.

[Reg]

SimAnt was pretty cool. It's SimEarth I reallly miss though. It was so neat crashing ice asteroids into Mars to terraform it.

[Sjofn]

Fuck, I loved SimGolf. Now I want to play it. THANKS GUYS

[tgr]

Isn't it what we're here for?

[luckton]

I might still have my copy of SimGolf somewhere...

[Sky]

I still have my disc, not sure if Win 7 would like it. If EA was serious about Origin, they'd take one ingredient from Steam (biannual sales with real discounts) and one from gog (making their back catalog available with modern OS compatiblity). Because I'd totally buy a digital version of SimGolf on Origin to de-disc it.

[luckton]

Such an act would be highly encouraging for me...there's a bunch of stuff on GOG I want, but can't get because they're based in Europe, and my bank apparently doesn't like me using my card on the internet to make foreign purchases.   

[Yoru]

SimAnt was pretty cool. It's SimEarth I reallly miss though. It was so neat crashing ice asteroids into Mars to terraform it.

This. I would kill for a modern, 3D version of SimEarth. I was pretty disappointed when the space phase of Spore didn't live up to that.

[Sky]

So was everyone else, up to and including WW.

[tmp]

It's really not realistic to think that a price in Europe or Australia should be in anyway related to a price in the US long before it gets into the realm of 'price gouging'.

However, in this particular example we are talking about prices of virtual item, delivered over intratubes to different IPs. The concepts of "it's Europe" or "it's Australia" largely cease to apply, as evidenced by the fact the price you're charged can magically shrink or grow by 30% based simply on what proxy you choose to connect to the store, while your physical location (as well as the delivery point that's your computer and the credit card or whatever you use to finance the purchase) remain the same.

(the really amusing part is, apparently buying through Polish page of Origin results in paying equivalent of ~$40-50 for ME3 or the new SimCity, while the US customers are being asked $60 for the same editions? Despite Poland being part of EU and as such a subject of the same legal agreements and arrangements that supposedly drive the price up in the rest of Europe...)

[CmdrSlack]

Now, where'd I put that golf disc?

You didn't just reference SimGolf, did you?

Man, where is gog when you need them to come through? That game was so cool when you spent the time to customize names and lines. I remember the first time I had an old version of my character show up on a new character's course. I knew because I saw a bunch of swearing. Sure enough, Busta Clubs was on the green again.

It was a double reference: 1) SimGolf and 2) disc golf/frisbee golf (playing off the hippie vibe in the quoted post).

I bet I still have my SimGolf disks and I bet that my Jurassic computer will run it without any fucking about on my part.

[sickrubik]

I still have my disc, not sure if Win 7 would like it. If EA was serious about Origin, they'd take one ingredient from Steam (biannual sales with real discounts) and one from gog (making their back catalog available with modern OS compatiblity). Because I'd totally buy a digital version of SimGolf on Origin to de-disc it.

It seems to run okay. I installed it the other day, but didn't get a chance to do much other than just that, install it. There are some command line hax to get it to run in 1920x1080, etc.

[Sky]

There are some command line hax to get it to run in 1920x1080, etc.

You're such a tease.

[taolurker]

SimCity Glassbox engine demo via Machinima

[sickrubik]

There are some command line hax to get it to run in 1920x1080, etc.

You're such a tease.

Sorry I didn't supply a link, it's pretty easy to find: http://www.widescreengaming.net/wiki/SimCity_4