Something to Dull the Pain: EA Gifting Free Game to SimCity Players - Forbes

Something to Dull the Pain: EA Gifting Free Game to SimCity Players - Forbes

Another update in the never ending saga that is the SimCity launch debacle. Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw just made a post over on EA’s website that accomplishes two things. 1) It’s meant to be a down to earth apology for the problems so far, promising they’ll be fixed soon:

“So what went wrong?  The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected.  More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it.”

And 2) Hey look, free stuff! It’s this part that might catch some attention:

“To get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio.  On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.

I know that’s a little contrived â€" kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy.  But we feel bad about what happened.  We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.”

It is a little contrived, but it’s not the worst idea in the world. A free game is a free game, and it’s certainly a gesture of goodwill.

That says, it’s just a hotfix, to use game-patching terminology, while the root problem is much deeper. It’s “always-on” that’s a the core of the issue, and until DRM can promise that games will be available to play on launch day, we’ll keep having these problems. This is a bandaid on a bullet wound, but it’s something, I suppose.

 

Source Article from http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/something-to-dull-the-pain-ea-gifting-free-game-to-simcity-players/