EA Admits That SimCity Could Have Been Offline

[Bvenged]

Many good comments in this news thread so far, and I can only agree with them. EA is still full of shit and Maxis are still bending the truth. My respect for maxis has gone out the window now and I wholeheartedly despise EA. Get an offline mode, give me possession of my own game saves and allow me to play with larger and/or parellel cities, and then I'll buy your game AND even optionally sign in to your servers for you to spam me microtransaction shit and social connectivity. That's how it works, EA/Maxis, you give us the CHOICE rather than treat us as dogs or untrustworthy crooks.

Their artistic integrity is questionable, and we can question it as paying customers.

EA-monitored PR statements by Maxis should be taken with a bucket load of salt, particularly now they've been caught lying.

This "Always-connected" artistic view could still be achieved with an offline mode for those who want to play singleplayer. How is that different to the many who have played/want to play in private regions by themselves? It only interferes with their plans of microtransactions force feeding and DRM. Saves in the cloud and "simulations done server-side" are total bullshit and only serve a purpose as a form of DRM.

Their PR department at EA needs to just shut the fuck up now. They clearly can't talk sense without spinning it into a web of fabricated bullshit-wool to try and cover over out eyes. It's disrespectful to me, as a consumer, at the very least.

Fucking ugly company, EA is. This is the first time now I've not bought a game I desperately wanted because of the shitty business practices of the publisher behind it. Maxis deserve as much of the blame for going along with this whole fucking façade, and trying to design SimCity around it, but in the end they're owned by EA so what can they do? Fucking disrespectful and a disgusting model of business.

Treat me like a dog that chases after everything to no-end, a thief that can't be trusted and a cow to milk all my money from - and you can go fuck yourself.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Hey Bradshaw, how about an apology for OUTRIGHT LYING to all your customers for a week? No? Well fuck you too then.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's not unpirateable, there are options in the game to not interact with people. The majority of the game realistically is spent by most players doing stuff by themselves for themselves.

There's not even an evil reason for always online. It's like they got so hung up on it they thought mandatory internet connection was a feature by itself. Maybe it's a bullet point on the back of the box

 

[mfeff]

EA has no artistic vision; all of their recent games were churned out to make money, not to inspire someone.

EA is now a company, and have long since abandoned their roots, so they shouldn't hide behind weak-sauce excuses like the ones in the article.

It makes me both angry and sad when I hear the *challenge everything* jingle at the beginning of SimCity 4.
Also it makes me laugh because I imagine that "challenge everything" nowadays includes bad business practices.

Here ya go guy... try these out...

http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/26793-network-addon-mod-for-windows-installer/

http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/28544-sc4-launcher/

Challenge everything? Yeah... maybe a couple years ago... now I just turn it off.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I love how the pictures show more and more sever disasters as this story goes on.

Haha, so I'm not the only one who noticed that.
First it was the single building on fire, then a firestorm, now a meteor strike?
By the end of next week the Escapist will show nukes going off in cities adjacent to SC5 articles.

 

[weirdee]

Welp, I'm satisfied. Let's go get some sushi.

 

[zinho73]

Always online is not a feature, it is a limitation. Please, stop trying to sell this as something new, exciting and in favor of the consumer.

 

[ASnogarD]

The vision :

A service where consumers purchase the platform as well as all the future DLC in a all inclusive system that can advertise and deliver the DLC to the consumers at no extra cost.

Game ? What game ?

Hell its a joke anyways, even the multiplayer is a mess... mates on a 16 city region, cant all seem to join that specific server at the same time, full up and with the all so helpful hint to try another server.
You know the server without the region of mates or that half built city from a previous session.

Simcity MP is like a game of TF 2 on a 1 man servers... with lots of 1 man servers all over the place, sure you could eventually find a open server but it wont have your mates on it.

 

[DaxStrife]

You know Maxis, we're used to games with single-player AND multi-player modes. Just saying.

 

[inkheart_artist]

Oh, what a train wreck, the schadenfreude is strong with this one!

So of course after they have to admit their shitty DRM scheme was not integral to the game, they hide behind the "it was our artistic vision!" argument. Maybe next they'll say the need for a constant internet connection wasn't DRM at all, that was just a part of their vision. Hell, over at Maxis, they don't even know what DRM is, much less would they intentionally put it in one of their games!

 

[Antari]

EA caught out on a lie? One of many ... The only way they will stop doing this sort of thing is if people stop buying EA games. Plain and simple. Friends don't let friends buy EA.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

When they say "vision" they mean "we thought we could make more money". If you're always online then the microtransaction store is always available and they think that we'll be more tempted to spend money there. And they can also make multiplayer pay-to-win. That's the extend of their vision.

I have a vision too. And that's a game without always-on DRM.

Always online is not a feature, it is a limitation.

If only more people would realize this. Especially those corporate apologists who think that always-on DRM is fine and dandy and that games (even single player games) are services.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Describing SimCity as akin to an MMO, Bradshaw also illustrates a number of reasons why key aspects of the game's core functionality rely on the presence of an online connection. "Always-Connected is a big change from [SimCity games] of the past," Bradshaw writes. "It didn't come down as an order from corporate and it isn't a clandestine strategy to control players. It's fundamental to the vision we had for this SimCity."

*laughs uproariously*
Right. You keep barking for your master Maxis. You already took blame for something that was provably not entirely your fault once. Better keep barking, or master won't feed you.

There is a mountain of evidence that points to a clandestine strategy for control; it's called SimCity.

When they say "vision" they mean "we thought we could make more money".

I propose an amendment to that:
"we thought we could make more money for less effort"

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

As someone who loves SimCity, all I have to say is that this is the most entertaining game I never bought.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

That is just it, its what YOU wanted, not the players.

And that is tragically hilarious since EA actually has a "consumers first" policy in place. They just forgot about it.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Whilst I always try to be an optimist even I can see the PR spinning here. Artistic vision my butt, how long does an EA execs arm have to be to use the devs like Muppets to spoute their dribble.

 

[weirdee]

I like how she misrepresents the people who want single player mode by referring to all the people that they've FORCED to play online (as in, all of their users) as "thousands" and further using that wording to imply that it means that they both enjoy and desire the online functionality, while she doesn't even mention any quantity for the detractors in such a way as to call into question the existence of those fans in the same way one would refer to life on other planets.

And then she refers to the system that both broke largely due to the incompetence and bad design of the developers and/or publisher, and has been proven to be forced DRM to be "ever improving technology". She then says that it was never intended to control players, even while saying that the game isn't possible as single player, even if not allowing single player IS A FORM OF CONTROLLING THE PLAYERS.

Sleaze never changes, heh.

 

[Dryk]

As game developers they should know that their vision should definitely be pushed, but not forced. Because as we all know:

Fans find a way

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

That is just it, its what YOU wanted, not the players.

And that is tragically hilarious since EA actually has a "consumers first" policy in place. They just forgot about it.

Actually, I'd say EA sticks to that policy just fine. The word "consumer" implies that one consumes something, which means that the product is meant to be temporary / expendable and that the "consumers" will constantly use it up and want more. In EA's eyes, that's exactly what they want from their customer base - to constantly buy more after they use up the product or service, and everything EA does reflects this. Just look at their sports division - a new Madden or FIFA every year to replace the old one - for a prime example of this. "Consumers first", indeed.

 

[ellers07]

Is it wrong that I have started looking forward to these SimCity news updates? These just get better and better.

While I haven't played a SimCity in years and have no experience wit this one, it seems a poor business decision to not include an offline mode. You know you've covered all your customers that way and if your always online vision is as good as you think, everyone will want to be a part of it anyway.

Of course, I don't know anything about what's required to include an offline mode, but I would think if someone has managed to mod/hack it then it shouldn't be too terribly difficult.

Anyway, can't wait to see what tomorrow brings for SimCity!