The single biggest question on my mind is how this ended up functioning worse than the community-made solutions such as NAM (Network Addon Mod) for Sim City 4.

The single biggest question on my mind is how this ended up functioning worse than the community-made solutions such as NAM (Network Addon Mod) for Sim City 4. If all they did was monkey-copy that behavior, available for many years now, I would have been more satisfied. I am reminded of Gabe Newell's recent comment of how “[Valve] can’t compete with our own customers. Our customers have defeated us, not by a little, but by a lot.”[1] and am starting to understand what he meant in a more visceral way: My low-bar for the experience, my expectation of quality, was not for Sim City 5 to outperform Sim City 4. My expectation was for Sim City 5 to outperform Sim City 4 Plus Community Content, because to my brain in consumer mode, those last 3 words don't exist, and it all just gets the label "Sim City 4" on the experience. [1] http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/gabe-newell-claims-users-have-defeated-valve-created-content-and-thats-a-go http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/gabe-ne...