SimCity launching more servers
The launch of Maxis's new SimCity has been something of a mess, to put it mildly, with players facing long queues to even launch what is chiefly a single-player game. Good job, always-online DRM. Maxis has issued a statement saying it's "putting everything we have" towards fixing up the servers and squashing bugs. The city-building sim launches in Europe today, so let's hope that doesn't overload things further.
The launch of Maxis's new SimCity has been something of a mess, to put it mildly, with players facing long queues to even launch what is chiefly a single-player game. Good job, always-online DRM. Maxis has issued a statement saying it's "putting everything we have" towards fixing up the servers and squashing bugs. The city-building sim launches in Europe today, so let's hope that doesn't overload things further.
"What we are doing is deploying more servers over the coming two days which will alleviate many of the ongoing issues. We are also paying close attention to all the bug reports we are receiving from our fans," Maxis said yesterday. The developer says it's released several updates since launch, and has the live ops team "working 24/7." Poor live ops team.
Here's a big chunk of text:
This has been an exciting and challenging week for the team here at Maxis, the culmination years of planning and development. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm from our fans which has made it even more upsetting for us that technical issues have become more prominent in the last 24 hours. We are hitting a number of problems with our server architecture which has seen players encountering bugs and long wait times to enter servers. This is, obviously, not the situation we wanted for our launch week and we want you to know that we are putting everything we have at resolving these issues.
If you're held up by the game stalling at 'Checking for updates', you can at least do something about that. The fix requires you to dig around and delete some files, so follow EA's instructions.
When it comes to fixing everything else wrong with SimCity, though, you're at EA's mercy. It's a shame, really, because our review says a jolly nice game lies beneath that awful DRM.
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Shacknews
replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, SimCity launching more servers.
The launch of Maxis's new SimCity has been something of a mess, to put it mildly, with players facing long queues to even launch what is chiefly a single-player game. Good job, always-online DRM. Maxis has issued a statement saying it's "putting everything we have" towards fixing up the servers and squashing bugs. The city-building sim launches in Europe today, so let's hope that doesn't overload things further.-
gives me the red ass!! I rather liked Sim City but there is no way in hell I'm supporting this or EA.
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Love SC2k my good man!
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Install SimCopter while you're at it!
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I did that and man has that game aged! I also installed SimCity 4 and it's still pretty good!
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I think people who are (rightfully) disappointed about this new game should try and take comfort in the fact that we still have SimCity 4 and that it has aged very well even though it is now 10 years old.
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Yeah, it still has some weird performance issues when you go to zoom in and whatnot but it's entirely playable and it does everything really well.
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It's easy because there are other great titles without this nonsense I'm playing right now :)
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Game unlocks here tomorrow, and I've set aside my Friday night for playing it, but I'm not going to be surprised if I don't get to play properly during the weekend.
I'm not one to believe in the whole "always-online is there only and just for preventing piracy", while it certainly is a factor, no doubt. It makes sense to me that if you're going to make a game and you want it to take advantage of online features, it's a lot of extra work making a version that works offline. It's not as simple as people make it out to be.
That said, companies have got to figure out how to make these launches smoother, or I believe they'll end up with a lot of lost sales. People tend to buy games on launch day easier than a little later, or at least I do. Patience is a virtue lacked by many, and often enough as the initial excitement dies and the negative opinions start flowing about, people change their mind about purchasing something. If launch days become synonymous with "game not working", well... That easily translates to lost sales in my book.-
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In such a way that EA would have had to implement support for dedicated servers (and then have to worry about hacks, possible microtransaction troubles, etc etc) and most people would still have used the official servers in fear of losing their cities. In other words, more development time for little gain outside of a few "geeks" who would run their own servers.
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I'm so very glad that maxis/ea is doing everything they can. It makes me feel better, while i try over and over again to play a game and cant.
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I wonder how much playing there will be. It's amusing to see EA offering 'refunds' and then turning around and banning anyone who asks for one on their forums.
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If you're basing this on the Reddit thing, it's not exactly accurate. It was some forum moderator who simply provided a link to the page where you can _request_ a refund, he never said you'll get one. Not to say he couldn't have worded it better... Pretty far from any kind of official statement saying that refunds are a sure bet, anyway. Or do you have something else to base this on?
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He's actually the "Origin Global Community Manager" and he originally wrote (before editing it yesterday):
"If you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order at http://help.origin.com/contact-us, though we’re currently still in the process of resolving this issue."
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I have been ridiculously lucky. Played the last two nights with almost no issues outside of the first few minutes on release day. Game is awesome, I can't wait for it to work for other folks.
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Post + username?
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Are the cities tied to the servers? What happens if an instance goes down? That could explain why people are losing progress :(
Also per above where you mention users choose a server, it's probably (hopefully) picking the availability zone and deployment, not a specific server instance.
I would be very interested to see what kind of architecture they set up for this, having recently gone through it myself.-
you actually choose a specific server. it's not just "NA East" with floating servers, it's "NA East 1", "NA East 2", etc. if they allowed a city created in one region to be executed on any server in that region, there'd be no problem. they could just fire up more instances in each region, redistribute the load, and away we go. but since the cities are tied to specific server instances, all they can do is offer new servers and have people reroll their cities on the new servers. i'm sure they have their reasons but this architecture is exactly why they're having a problem, and nearly entirely negates the benefit of running on EC2
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I'm still giving them the benefit of doubt and hoping that "NA East 1" and "NA East 2" are clusters of instances around some shared resource like a database. I find it hard to believe they would tie you to a specific instance... that would, like you say, almost entirely negate the benefits of running on EC2.
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whether it's a cluster or a single instance is an irrelevant technical detail. the problem is their apparent inability to scale the capacity of these individual instance/clusters. there shouldn't be a need for an "NA East 1" and "NA East 2"; they should just be "NA East" and they should scale up as needed. they are opening new instance/clusters rather than expanding the capacity of the existing instance/clusters, and that's the issue. for instance they created "NA West 2" rather than just expanding the capacity of the existing NA West server
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(i suppose the assumption here is that they're doing this because they have no other option. i suppose it's within the realm of possibility that they DO have the ability to scale the capacity of individual clusters, but are choosing not to. but that would be pretty stupid. so i'm assuming they simply can't do it.)
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It's very hard to load test an app like this unless you have plenty of time, insight, and/or planning for a test case that approximates the live production environment. Sometimes, you can't build a test of quite that scale, but at least you can try to prep for it.
I can only guess, but considering how inflexible a game launch date is, I think things were set in stone several months ago, and the executive team decided to lock down and go for it.
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If you start on NA East 1, do the tutorial, load a region, and create a city. That region/city is on NA East 1 only. If you start up the launcher again and select NA East 2, you will have to do the tutorial again and your region/city will not be there.
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well, only one instance can attach to an EBS volume at a time, but that's not relevant to your point, which i agree with. they could have designed this so that they could scale the server capacity dynamically without requiring users to do anything special. we shouldn't even have to know that they're doing it
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Also a small limit on the number of cities per player.
"Player will be able to play on multiple servers, with a maximum of 10 regions on each."
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9337036.page
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That doesn't seem like too big of an issue. A region can have up to 16 cities, so if you stuck to the 10+ city regions, you could easily have up to 160 cities per server. That doesn't sound bad to me.
Not trying to defend their other deficiencies, this just doesn't seem like one of them.
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The regions are tied to specific servers, so yes, if you change servers your cities won't be there. However, there were also some problems where you could get into a game, start a city, and due to some problem (on the server?) your city would not be saved. There were a bunch of similar problems interacting with regions and cities the first couple days, in fact.
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Once I heard it was always online I decided to save my money, let those idiots see poor sales with zero piracy and scratch their heads wondering...who do we blame now?
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I hope they see that, but looks like too many people buying at anyway
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don't spread mis-information. The game is unavailable for pirates right now, any version YOU see is a fake.
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It's simple, the goober above is saying a bold lie, Simcity is NOT out for pirates, any version you see is a fake, knowledge is my authority and I use it against stupidity.
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if he's wrong, it's only because you aren't thinking four dimensionally ;) In a couple weeks he'll be right. Of course that's all EA really wants. 2 weeks is when the bulk of the sales will happen, before any potential negative word of mouth. Those initial weeks are crucial for making the sure impatient fall on the side of paying for it.
I still don't think it's worth the ill will in the long run though -
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I don't hate EA for making the online-only requirement, but it certainly meant I choose not to get it for launch day. I'll wait until it is cheaper/server issues are worked out.
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On their forum, they said they were offering refunds but then stopped:
Original:
“If you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order at http://help.origin.com/contact-us, though we’re currently still in the process of resolving this issue."
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/05/simcity-refund-ea-origin/
Current:
3.) Please review our refund policy here: https://help.ea.com/article/returns-and-cancellations
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/210/9330019.page#27435284
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 03/06/2013 15:21:26-
WTF that thread. What a shit thing to do.
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So, instead of being proactive based on pre-orders they are just reacting to bad press. Sounds about right.
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That's what one former employee said recently. Not the 'any press' part, but the at EA marketing runs everything part.
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Total bullshit as a general statement. Speaking from current experience here.
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No, it's not. It's a direct quote from someone that worked directly with upper management at EA.
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That's not true at all, the "any press" part.
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I still have yet to be able to play, I guess I need to give it more of a buffer between release and purchase. :( That sixty dollar hole in my wallet sure feels empty right now.
What's the fucking excuse I wonder? No preload, no estimation of pre-order numbers, no concept of sales prior to launch. -
I think I'm done with EA. Mass Effect 3 locked me out from continuing my saved single-player campaign. New Status: EA Games - Not even for $10
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it worked for me
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I tried to boot again, and told the game: "It worked for EvilDolemite" :) Same result, though...
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I love that there are so many great games nowadays, and so many kickstarters for the types of games we've been longing for and missing. It means that I don't even look twice anymore as soon as I see the words always-online, or, for that matter, EA. Most of what EA does is wrong and illogical, and their brands of generic games with lowest-common-denominator gameplay offer no appeal.
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A little too late. Amazon just stopped selling it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VTVRFA?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links
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^^^
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Sim cancered? Sim cankled?
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+1 for reading that as Sim Cankled
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lol at 872 reviews for a 1 star average.
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Yeah, seriously.
I bought a car the other day, and it broke and i couldn't drive it so i sucked it up and walked to work like a normal american!
:: waits for the BUT CARS ARE IMPORTANT, ITS NOT THE SAME THING dumbass argument thats going to follow :: -
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If its still broken in a week, I'll eat my words. Pretty much any big online game is broken for the first few days. Not that it should be, but the endless amount of bitching gets old and I'm sure EA (or any other company in the same situation) is working around the clock to make it right.
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SimCity is by far and away the most broken of any online-only game I've ever played. Diablo 3 was a smooth launch by comparison. At least I could PLAY it. It seriously sets a new standard in what not to do.
It's perfectly reasonable to expect problems on the first day, but not like this.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2NTxSyb_uQ
Yes it's the guy that does the Francis videos, but he has a good point. You should watch it.-
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We've been trained with certain expectations with MMOs, which brings us to http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/07/simcity-vs-the-people-why-apologies-arent-enough/
The point of all this: consumers are entitled to what they paid for. The relatively recent mindset of entitlement being "bad" is completely anti-consumer and exactly the way corporations like EA would want you to think. It shifts power away from consumers, and things which should be straightforward, like wanting a refund for a product you're not satisfied with, are shunned.
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LOLOLOL. Wanting to play a game you bought = entitled?
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"Available Now." I guess that EA had a little chat with Amazon.
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That's only partly true. The metacritic score for users is absymal, as are reviews on say Amazon. They probably had really good pre-order numbers and first day sales. But these are the people who would now tell their colleagues, friends and family to buy the game - if it didn't have so many problems. Even if profitable, eventual sales numbers and DLC attachment could fall significantly below expectations, giving EA something to think about.
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Yeah, this is bad. Really bad. Even worse than Diablo 3, which a lot of people didn't buy because of the server problems.
If you think EA isn't going to notice this, you're just fooling yourself.
Either that, or they're going to drive themselves into the ground if they just stick their head in the sand and pretend like this never happened.-
This isn't the first time EA's had an always-on singleplayer game fail; remember C&C4? http://www.shacknews.com/article/62913/command-and-conquer-4-having
Almost exactly 2 years after that... http://www.shacknews.com/article/73074/simcity-to-use-always-on-drm-no-mod-tools-at
And Home Nugget called it so well: http://www.shacknews.com/article/73074/simcity-to-use-always-on-drm-no-mod-tools-at?id=27917094#item_27917094
You know what? I want them to do it. I want them to take their flagship moneymaker brand and slap this ridiculous impractical limitation on it so that millions of moms, uncles, grandpas, and every non-nerd in-between who wants to play "that new SIMS game" flood their support lines and make them spend millions more in damage control.
In short, I want them to learn their lesson, and the only way it's going to sink in is when it hits their bottom line.
And my comment to that was, "They won't 'learn their lesson'; they'll just become another Zynga." I'm not confident of EA backtracking and then releasing a single-player SimCity, and they're already making good progress on the "becoming another Zynga" front:
http://www.shacknews.com/article/78003/ea-including-microtransactions-in-all-games
http://www.shacknews.com/article/78093/ea-clarifies-microtransactions-comments
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I'm under the impression that Diablo 3 had the same review pattern (horrible user reviews) and still sold a gabillion copies.
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Remember how EA listed a bunch of reasons why the game being online was a good thing for gamers? Things like leaderboards and achievements?
Yeah, those are now being disabled in an attempt to make the game work.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/7/4075120/simcity-servers-update-maxis-disabling-features -
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Diablo 2 at least had singleplayer.
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I never had issue with the Diablo 3 servers even at launch. Because the damn game wouldn't install for the first week, finally I found the right ritual of uninstalls and regedits and the fucker went.
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yeah let us all blame EA and maxis and NOT thepiratebay
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you know exaclty what I mean. GTFO
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Are those the only two options in your world, it's either EA's always-connected DRM or Piracy?
I kinda like Steam. It includes an off-line mode.
I like Dishonored and Skyrim, those games seem just fine without always-connected DRM.
You know what, I'll go play some SimCity 2000 on GOG.
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How can you put so much money into developing and promoting a game and then shit the bed with server capacity on launch?
This happens everytime. You'd think at a certain point they'd just figure what they need to succefuly launch, and just double it. It's gotta be way less costly to do that and then scale it back then it is to take the massive bad pr, word of mouth and customer experience hit in the most critical few weeks of a games sales-
how can you pirate games for years and years and then get pissed when companies start cracking down and have to do this kind of stuff so you actually pay for peoples har dearned work?
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You are making an equivalence that does not exist.
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You're just pissed you can't pirate the game yet.
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Yeah, it's all his fault, what a jerk.
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You're a special snowflake gently floating along in the shitstorm that is The Chatty.
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oh nice, i bet you feel real big using people with mental handicaps as a form of insult.
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You could reply to my point above.
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im sorry but I dont see where you actually made one
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It's right here: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=29805062#item_29805062
You made a false equivalence. I have pointed out at least one alternate for you.
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As someone WITH Asperger's Syndrome, I approve of this SPERGCON 2 declaration.
Publishers didn't HAVE to shift all of their games server-side; they chose to do it, while other publishers chose to shrug off piracy, and be nice to their paying customers. Advocating server-side SimCity is a knee-jerk reaction that was obviously not architected out rigorously enough to be a robust solution. This was merely EA executives panicking and swaying with a trend, while ignoring actual customer needs and concerns.
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ninjase's post which you replied to isn't so much calling out always on DRM as it is calling out always on DRM with insufficient hardware to handle the load. Your response in this subthread is a non sequiter
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you're the worst
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Even if this was on EC2, EA's attitude toward infrastructure is to have as little of it as possible. This is why every January, they shut down all of the online infrastructure for games that have less than 1% of their total online participation. With that mentality, they probably walked into the launch with an attitude of, "Let's launch with this conservative population forecast, and hope that the app stays stable enough to handle what we tested."
Now, they have egg on face, and it's only 3 months to E3, where if they decide to announce another title that's "server-side", they're going to get questions of, "Oh, you mean something like SimCity that fell on its face back when it launched in March?"
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Nice response here http://twitter.com/ChrisWarcraft/status/309792266627735553/photo/1
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That's the kicker for the Minnesota Vikings, right?
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What I don't get is if the game does computations on their servers requiring always online, why does it still run fine for a while when the server goes down? Aren't the computations local then?
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I just bought, downloaded and was able to play in about an hour. Seems fast for me as well.
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More servers are not going to fix code.
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http://www.p4rgaming.com/?p=1473
"EA Hires Hundreds of Chinese Spammers to Post Positively About SimCity’s Always Online Requirement"
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH xD even if it's a smear job, it's absolutely hilarious xD
