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jennickelsI've been a fan of the Sim franchise since I was like 14. That's when my dad bought me a Super Nintendo and I saved up my Christmas money to buy Sim City. That was back in 1991. I owned SimCity2000 (for Playstation), SimCity 3000, SimCity 4 and the EP. When the Sims came out I faithfully bought up every expansion pack they put out for Sims and Sims 2. I have all the EPs for Sims 3 except for University since it just came out but only one stuff pack because they are a rip off. But I have been a fan and consumer of these products for over 20 years.
Anyway. Yesterday the first new SimCity game in 10 years came out. The only problem (okay, not the only but the hugest at the moment) is that you HAVE to be online to play it. Even if you want to just play by yourself. No one saw the problem that would cause over at EA?
So Patrick got me the game yesterday afternoon (to justify him getting the new Tomb Raider game for xbox). I got it all installed on my super awesome self-built desktop (which I built so it could play this game with graphics all on high and great resolution). I played for about an hour then got slammed with a "server is down" message. Frustrating. But it let me keep playing so I fooled around some until the whole game crashed without a connection.
That was annoying. But it was only the beginning. Just about everyone is having the exact same issue. Right around the time when the East Coast people got off of work and booted up their new games all of the North America servers crashed and burned taking our games with them. See, to continue a saved game you have to be on the same server. But all those crashed. So everyone moved to the European and Oceanic servers. I figured I'd at least try them but it wouldn't let me create a region. It would go through all the motions but at the end it would say, "you can't do that at this time."
Eventually I was able to get back on my original server and play a few more hours only interrupted like two more times. But then I was booted off for good for the night. This morning I turned the game on and got right into my server and played my game. Another problem--the night before I had started a 2nd city in my region. Now I can't access the first one. It perpetually says, "this city is processing, come back later." Grrr.
I got to play for about two hours before I lost my connection to the server. I think I was able to get back on and play another couple of hours. I forget now. I know I was frustrated as hell (but, thanks to an adjustment to my meds no flipping out... I'm so mellow right now). I just shrugged it off and went to have lunch. That was like 12:45 when the kids got home from school. In my room I decided to download the game onto my laptop. It meets the bare minimum for gameplay so I knew it would look like crap. It took me awhile to get back into the server but I did.
I was also able to bump the textures to high, turn shadows on and increase the lighting to medium on the highest resolution my PC can support without any noticeable game lag. It doesn't look as great as the desktop (which is running all on high with a better resolution) but it's not bad. So I play for an hour or so once I'm on then get booted off. Get back on after like 20 minutes of waiting. Booted off before an hour was up. Then I couldn't get on any of the American servers for hours. Even the one that said "available." They put you in a queue for 20-30 minutes but once that was up it told me, "network failure." And that was it. I was once able to get on one of the European servers but same problem as before--couldn't start a region. One other time I got on Oceanic but it wanted me to redo the stupid tutorial (which I've done twice now and has no way to exit out of it or bypass it). So I clicked okay only to tell me there was no network connection... "oops, sorry."
Finally I managed to get back on for about 30 minutes around dinner time. I spent the in between time reading the EA/SimCity message boards--they are highly entertaining and flamey. People are beyond pissed. I remember when Sims 2 came out and was full of so many bugs and glitches it was almost unplayable. If I thought people were bad back then... this is even worse. There was some press release form someone at EA or Maxis that said people could get a refund because of all the issues. But everyone that has tried was told no refunds and if they kept bugging them about it or had their credit card block the payment then they would be banned from Origin and not be able to play any games they may have bought through there.
Nice. What great customer service. I always knew EA was the devil (and I remember playing EA games back in the 80s on my old Commodore 128 we had... that's an ancient computer for you youngins).
This has been a monster epic fail on EA's fault. And Australia, Japan and a bunch of other places haven't even gotten their games yet. If they think things are bad now what are they going to do when the entire world is playing? It's like EA/Maxis never considered this. I won't even mention some of the glitches and bugs I've had in game because they seem minor when you have to wait hours to play a game you paid $60 (or more) for.
I'm taking it all in stride, though. I think the addition of a new med for my PMS is really helping (because I should be having an epic meltdown right now with my period supposed to be starting in a few days). I feel so mellow and calm it's ridiculous. I love it. Really. After years of constantly feeling jittery and on edge I'm enjoying this. I'm wondering if my doctor would consider letting me take this stuff all the time because I didn't feel this great before I started taking it a few days ago (I only take it for the week before my period for the PMS).
I'm just totally like, "whatever," when it comes to this game. Eventually it will all be sorted out and I'll get to play. It's not bothering me. In fact, I've found the entire thing kind of hilarious.
But, yeah. EPIC FAIL for EA. If you were thinking about getting SimCity... DON'T. Not now. You won't be able to play it so just sit on your money for a couple weeks then pick it up. They might have their server issues sorted out by then.
Anyway. Yesterday the first new SimCity game in 10 years came out. The only problem (okay, not the only but the hugest at the moment) is that you HAVE to be online to play it. Even if you want to just play by yourself. No one saw the problem that would cause over at EA?
So Patrick got me the game yesterday afternoon (to justify him getting the new Tomb Raider game for xbox). I got it all installed on my super awesome self-built desktop (which I built so it could play this game with graphics all on high and great resolution). I played for about an hour then got slammed with a "server is down" message. Frustrating. But it let me keep playing so I fooled around some until the whole game crashed without a connection.
That was annoying. But it was only the beginning. Just about everyone is having the exact same issue. Right around the time when the East Coast people got off of work and booted up their new games all of the North America servers crashed and burned taking our games with them. See, to continue a saved game you have to be on the same server. But all those crashed. So everyone moved to the European and Oceanic servers. I figured I'd at least try them but it wouldn't let me create a region. It would go through all the motions but at the end it would say, "you can't do that at this time."
Eventually I was able to get back on my original server and play a few more hours only interrupted like two more times. But then I was booted off for good for the night. This morning I turned the game on and got right into my server and played my game. Another problem--the night before I had started a 2nd city in my region. Now I can't access the first one. It perpetually says, "this city is processing, come back later." Grrr.
I got to play for about two hours before I lost my connection to the server. I think I was able to get back on and play another couple of hours. I forget now. I know I was frustrated as hell (but, thanks to an adjustment to my meds no flipping out... I'm so mellow right now). I just shrugged it off and went to have lunch. That was like 12:45 when the kids got home from school. In my room I decided to download the game onto my laptop. It meets the bare minimum for gameplay so I knew it would look like crap. It took me awhile to get back into the server but I did.
I was also able to bump the textures to high, turn shadows on and increase the lighting to medium on the highest resolution my PC can support without any noticeable game lag. It doesn't look as great as the desktop (which is running all on high with a better resolution) but it's not bad. So I play for an hour or so once I'm on then get booted off. Get back on after like 20 minutes of waiting. Booted off before an hour was up. Then I couldn't get on any of the American servers for hours. Even the one that said "available." They put you in a queue for 20-30 minutes but once that was up it told me, "network failure." And that was it. I was once able to get on one of the European servers but same problem as before--couldn't start a region. One other time I got on Oceanic but it wanted me to redo the stupid tutorial (which I've done twice now and has no way to exit out of it or bypass it). So I clicked okay only to tell me there was no network connection... "oops, sorry."
Finally I managed to get back on for about 30 minutes around dinner time. I spent the in between time reading the EA/SimCity message boards--they are highly entertaining and flamey. People are beyond pissed. I remember when Sims 2 came out and was full of so many bugs and glitches it was almost unplayable. If I thought people were bad back then... this is even worse. There was some press release form someone at EA or Maxis that said people could get a refund because of all the issues. But everyone that has tried was told no refunds and if they kept bugging them about it or had their credit card block the payment then they would be banned from Origin and not be able to play any games they may have bought through there.
Nice. What great customer service. I always knew EA was the devil (and I remember playing EA games back in the 80s on my old Commodore 128 we had... that's an ancient computer for you youngins).
This has been a monster epic fail on EA's fault. And Australia, Japan and a bunch of other places haven't even gotten their games yet. If they think things are bad now what are they going to do when the entire world is playing? It's like EA/Maxis never considered this. I won't even mention some of the glitches and bugs I've had in game because they seem minor when you have to wait hours to play a game you paid $60 (or more) for.
I'm taking it all in stride, though. I think the addition of a new med for my PMS is really helping (because I should be having an epic meltdown right now with my period supposed to be starting in a few days). I feel so mellow and calm it's ridiculous. I love it. Really. After years of constantly feeling jittery and on edge I'm enjoying this. I'm wondering if my doctor would consider letting me take this stuff all the time because I didn't feel this great before I started taking it a few days ago (I only take it for the week before my period for the PMS).
I'm just totally like, "whatever," when it comes to this game. Eventually it will all be sorted out and I'll get to play. It's not bothering me. In fact, I've found the entire thing kind of hilarious.
But, yeah. EPIC FAIL for EA. If you were thinking about getting SimCity... DON'T. Not now. You won't be able to play it so just sit on your money for a couple weeks then pick it up. They might have their server issues sorted out by then.
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no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 06:12 am (UTC)The plus side of waiting I guess too, is that the price might come down. ha. Cheapest I have seen here is $69. Maybe I can get it for $50 or something in a month. Assuming I can wait that long.
I don't think I can wait that long. lol
no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 06:42 am (UTC)It's like they don't even use beta testers. And I know they did with SimCity because I was part of the first closed beta they had for fans. Maybe they want us to hate them.
*shakes head*
I was able to get back on after I posted that and it was running good but I had to shut it off to do my writing for the night (figures). I'll try again in the morning.
no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 06:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 06:45 am (UTC)It feels good.
no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7 Mar 2013 07:37 pm (UTC)It's just been so long with these feelings I didn't know any other way of living. Just a few months ago I was doubting I was even capable of not being depressed even with meds because I felt better but still crappy half the time. This has been a real eye opener.