SimCity players get eco-friendly 'ad'-on free
SimCity players have had to endure a lot in the game's short lifespan, but things have stabilized a bit sans a few game modes. Now, Maxis was to make you and your sims happier with a free add-on, brought to you my the Nissan Leaf.
SimCity players have had to endure a lot in the game's short lifespan, but things have stabilized a bit, and they got a free game for their trouble. Now, Maxis wants to make you and your sims happier with a free add-on, brought to you by the Nissan Leaf.
If you are trying to have your city go green, a new charging station--emblazoned with a Nissan logo and a billboard advertising the auto manufacturer's electric car--is available for download from Origin free of charge (see what I did there?). And while you can have the satisfaction of knowing you have saved your sims from inhaling extra toxic pixels, there is an even bigger benefit, according to a forum update: "Plopping down the Nissan Leaf Charging Station will add happiness to nearby buildings. Adding the Charging Station will not take power, water or workers away from your city. Zoom in to the streets of cities and players will start seeing a percentage of their Sims from all wealth classes driving the electric vehicles. The Charging Station produces no garbage or sewage as well making it pollution free."
Of course, you have six months to decide if you want this free DLC. That's probably the length of the in-game branding deal between Nissan and Electronic Arts.
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Shacknews
replyJohn Keefer posted a new article, SimCity players get eco-friendly 'ad'-on free.
SimCity players have had to endure a lot in the game's short lifespan, but things have stabilized a bit sans a few game modes. Now, Maxis was to make you and your sims happier with a free add-on, brought to you my the Nissan Leaf.-
*FACEPALM*
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haha
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"This is a $60 boxed retail game; why the hell does it have ___?"
A. Ads
B. Microtransactions
C. DLC that should've been in the initial release
D. All of the above
If you answered D, the game was probably made by EA in the past couple of years. And that covers most of what's wrong with EA's boxed products right now.-
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Also, amend B to say "unbalancing and/or blatantly aggressive microtransactions." Other companies, in their retail products, are at least focusing on either cosmetic add-ons or actual content adds, while EA seems to be going hog-wild with Zynga-esque microtransaction items (coin doubler in Dead Space 3; sheesh).
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If the ads weren't superfluous and made sense in the context of these cities as well as lowered the cost of the game if there were many ad dollars coming in, sure.
This thing is just a glorified park with a company logo on it. It simply raises happiness around it. Doesn't even require power to run (what?). It's a free and optional download so I can't really deride it, but I hope it's not the first stage of a flood of useless branded bullshit like this. Especially if they're going to be promoting all of it in game and subjecting me to it regardless.-
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This whole game is unbalanced I don't think this will break anything any more than it already is.
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It's free and optional, that's fine. However this new Sim City is built around a living multiplayer community.
While you may choose not to participate in this ad-campaign, others may take the easier route and use every single one they can. Which basically means that you will somehow benefit from these lots one way or another.
While it's only one lot so far, this can easily be the first of many before it just gets out of control. A cosmetic ad lot is one thing. An annoyance, sure but nowhere near as bad as what it really is. A lot that actually compromises gameplay. Propaganda applied to the mechanics of the game to deliver only positive effects of the advertised product. Throws off balance (for what little the game already had) and en masse will completely ruin the game.
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I think you're assuming a lot here. There is no proof or even reason to believe this thing works at all right now.
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yeah because it's the same guys working on Cheetah speed and creating new art assets.... right...
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Really? I mean the game still doesn't work like it should and you are surprised people are complaining about useless ads that nobody asked for being put in the game instead of fixes?
http://imgur.com/HqYUrXJ
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Art assets don't put themselves in the game. I mean, you have to do things to make them work, right?
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Ads aren't so much of a problem as this "Ad"-on compromises gameplay in the name of propaganda. There is seriously no drawback to this lot. It draws no power, adds no pollution, and applies itself to all social classes. On top of the many controversies Sim City already has, let's add "whoring out" to the pile.
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Not really. It's an EA studio influenced by EA's policies.
That's not all that boggling.
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