EA Admits That SimCity Could Have Been Offline

[TheCommanders]

As for EA and their bullshit I am surprised that they are actually allowed to get away with it. I know next to nothing about consumer protection laws in US but EA is bound to get slapped around for false advertising at the least, right? Why is it not happening?

Simple. Actions against these companies would be taken by the government, and in case you haven't noticed, the government (in a lot of countries) doesn't like video games, or gamers. They think we're all school shooters in waiting, or loafers and degenerates, thanks to the media. As far as they're concerned, us not getting the toys we want is none of their concern. Annoying, but true.

Anyway, back on topic:

While the whole media debacle has been quite amusing surrounding SimCity, it simultaneously makes me very sad. You know why? This won't change anything. Seriously. I guarantee that until they consistently fail to make a profit on their games, EA will continue to push the same policies over and over again. The only thing these fucks understand is money, and as complaints on the Internet don't cost them any, they really don't care. People wonder why they don't work harder to mediate the fallout on these games? Because they happen after the biggest sale period for a game: preorders and the first week of sales. So they don't make a goddamn difference. I really wish they did. I really wish companies had the integrity to cater to their consumers, rather than force their consumers to conform to their demands, but that's just not the world we live in. So in summary: Fuck. This. Shit. :C

 

[Jamous]

Well son of a *****. If this doesn't give that petition all the more weight then I have no idea what will. They really know how to stoke the good will of the people, don't EA?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Oh Maxis... How I miss your independent days. This could have been a game I would have bought. Too bad EA insisted you had to have online DRM shoved in.

 

[barbzilla]

That is exactly the argument that many fans in favor of an easy mode for dark souls used, then they got bashed for not respecting artistic integrity. Of course the difference being that this game is shit, and DS was great (in my opinion).

Easy Dark Souls is not a matter of artistic integrity. the problem is that a change in design philosophy can easily lead to a game that alienates the fans, as DA2, ME3, Diablo 3 and Sim City so aptly demonstrate.

Also, all those changes (including the easy mode in Dark Souls and always online DRM) are really not related to design vision. They are a sub-product of marketing, for better or worse (normally worse).

I don't disagree with you, I was just pointing out the uselessness of claiming artistic integrity in the current state of gaming. Maybe in 10 years or so we will see enough artistic games to really make that push, but currently it is an entertainment industry that occasionally has some artistic merit.

 

[zinho73]

That is exactly the argument that many fans in favor of an easy mode for dark souls used, then they got bashed for not respecting artistic integrity. Of course the difference being that this game is shit, and DS was great (in my opinion).

Easy Dark Souls is not a matter of artistic integrity. the problem is that a change in design philosophy can easily lead to a game that alienates the fans, as DA2, ME3, Diablo 3 and Sim City so aptly demonstrate.

Also, all those changes (including the easy mode in Dark Souls and always online DRM) are really not related to design vision. They are a sub-product of marketing, for better or worse (normally worse).

I don't disagree with you, I was just pointing out the uselessness of claiming artistic integrity in the current state of gaming. Maybe in 10 years or so we will see enough artistic games to really make that push, but currently it is an entertainment industry that occasionally has some artistic merit.

yeah, I was hoping to kind of complementing what you were saying.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Uh, no.

It is EXACTLY our place to question their so-called "artistic vision" because it did nothing but compromise the consumer experience.

When is this excuse going to be shamed until corporations stop using it to justify their scummy business practices? I'm already sick and tired of the "artistic integrity" card that apparently everyone wants to copy from Bioware.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

No one who witnessed Diablo III's belly-flop at launch couldn't have seen this coming, but I must give EA credit for managing to surprise me at just how badly their train flew off the rails. I assumed that if they were going the whole hog with always online they would at least relegate a substantial amount of info to the server-side so that a cracked copy wouldn't really offer any functionality. But when the mod community peaked under the hood and found it was nothing more than a back-to-base alarm for not being connected, it was almost too funny to believe.

It just goes to show that EA are incredibly out of touch with the broader community of Sim City fans, despite their constant claims to the opposite. Anyone who has even vaguely glanced in the direction of SimTropolis in the past few years would have known that an army of people with vast modding experience would have been picking the guts of this program apart the second it was released. Did they really think they wouldn't get caught with their pants down? Clearly not. EA have obviously decided that their core audience for the franchise are people who like Farmville, and tailored their expectations accordingly.

Of course, this bubble being popped won't stop the board from giving the CEO another huge bonus, nor the PR team calling this a 'success' because enough people bought the game before discovering the litany of flaws within.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

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Well again not really.

4 of you are connected by (almost) ALL traffic means. One or two are sort of way stations in between the other 4 and so on, however that doesn't have to be. We could just as easily build a high way or like we already can do build RAIL tracks outside in the region zone and connect all of us. The trains and boats are already incredibly badly done having to travel around the ENTIRE region before docking or stopping at your station (the stations are also TINY compared to actual train stations in real cities).

You can't share electricity, sewage, water, etc. with those NOT directly connected to you by road. You can ship coal, I pose that that is also completely broken and doesn't ship NEARLY fast enough, but that's really the only thing. You work AROUND the game rather than making the game work for you.

One last thing though. Will Scott's funeral require formal attire?

True, but then again it's better than nothing. You can bet that EA are going to release a DLC for bigger cities, more connected cities and better roads. All $10 each.

Goddamnit, this game is yet another incredibly fun and flawed game. The problem is that is just fun enough for me to overlook SOME of the flaws, and try to find ways around them. Urgh, I know I shouldn't be. It's working around the problems rather than getting Maxis to fix it.

Anyway, no formal attire, but you may want a haz-mat suit.

 

[1337mokro]

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True, but then again it's better than nothing. You can bet that EA are going to release a DLC for bigger cities, more connected cities and better roads. All $10 each.

Goddamnit, this game is yet another incredibly fun and flawed game. The problem is that is just fun enough for me to overlook SOME of the flaws, and try to find ways around them. Urgh, I know I shouldn't be. It's working around the problems rather than getting Maxis to fix it.

Anyway, no formal attire, but you may want a haz-mat suit.

Oh yes! I will NOT be surprised if we get a Transit Pack, a Larger Housing Pack, An Obama Care Pack (this would actually be quite funny), A Tycoon Pack, An Entertainment Pack, A More Workers Pack, A Decorative Pack, An Actual Cities Pack, An Offline Mode Pack, A Communist Russia Pack, An I Can Do This All Day Pack.

I just (again) built to the very edge of my city, at most I can cram like 150-200k into one city AND still keep it entirely self sufficient. It just drives me mad because if all those little cities could just be consolidated in ONE piece of land I could design the city I actually wanted rather than cramming everything into a weird awkward Square.

What's worse is that this COULD work. If they had done it like the Anno games. Where each city is still being simulated when you leave. Even with friends unless they are playing the cities stop dead. This ruins the dynamic they were going for. They could even bring it back, WAY back all the way down to just Numbers if it is to graphically intensive. Just have the city run in a giant simplified spread sheet (x amount of workers, bring in x amount of money, at x amount of cost).

I can't wear a Haz Mat suit. I have to build a big Fire Station AND a University AND an engineering department before I can unlock those.

 

[BrainWalker]

I have no issue with their grand vision of interconnected cities living together in simulation. After all, real-world cities don't live in isolation. It's a really cool idea. The issue I have is that they force the player into it. All they had to do was offer the player THE CHOICE to play offline or online with everyone else. How fucked is it that she straight up admitted they knew a lot of fans wanted a single-player experience but they said "Nah, fuck that. We know what you need. Stuff you don't want!"

Of course, given how horrible the online experience has been so far I gather nobody would be playing it online if there was an option. Then again, if only half the player base was playing online, maybe the issues wouldn't be so bad? Who knows. There's apparently a lot more issues than just server unavailability.

Also, I really don't appreciate how they couch all this always-online stuff in terms of creative vision rather than what it really is. I mean, they basically can't admit the truth, but that doesn't mean they have to coat that shit in chocolate and tell us it's truffles.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

SNIP

SNIP

SNIP

SNIP

Oh yes! I will NOT be surprised if we get a Transit Pack, a Larger Housing Pack, An Obama Care Pack (this would actually be quite funny), A Tycoon Pack, An Entertainment Pack, A More Workers Pack, A Decorative Pack, An Actual Cities Pack, An Offline Mode Pack, A Communist Russia Pack, An I Can Do This All Day Pack.

I just (again) built to the very edge of my city, at most I can cram like 150-200k into one city AND still keep it entirely self sufficient. It just drives me mad because if all those little cities could just be consolidated in ONE piece of land I could design the city I actually wanted rather than cramming everything into a weird awkward Square.

What's worse is that this COULD work. If they had done it like the Anno games. Where each city is still being simulated when you leave. Even with friends unless they are playing the cities stop dead. This ruins the dynamic they were going for. They could even bring it back, WAY back all the way down to just Numbers if it is to graphically intensive. Just have the city run in a giant simplified spread sheet (x amount of workers, bring in x amount of money, at x amount of cost).

I can't wear a Haz Mat suit. I have to build a big Fire Station AND a University AND an engineering department before I can unlock those.

Don't forget the "Aliens" pack and then the "Tropic Holiday" pack, and before you know it's the Sims, but just reallllllly zoomed out. Coming soon... YOU CAN GET A DOG!... (For $20).

And yeah, I agree, the whole stupid "pause" when you leave a city pisses me right off. It get's really annoying when I leave a city to make some money and visit another which has money, to upgrade it or whatever, and then you realise that the other city can't earn any money unless you sit there and watch it. And wait. And wait. Man, I wish they hadn't disabled Cheeta mode.

I think that number crunching should be their solution. I remember, in Oblivion and Morrowind and Skyrim, whenever you were not in an area, it was still persistent, but just as numbers. So when you returned, everyone would be different, they would have gone to work or home, but it was all just numbers. That's how mods worked as well. Zombies would "infect" and spawn more zombies in a town, but unless the player was there they weren't actually there, just numbers. Simcity could use the same system, and people would freakin' rejoice.

Anyway, I'm sure you can afford a big Fire Station soon, I have the department of safety! And you the department of education, right? Then why the hell can't I build my University?!

 

[Lilani]

Honestly, I'm not bothered that they wanted to add a multiplayer aspect to the game. It seems cool, and if I had the Internet connection to support it I'd give it a shot. What bothers me is that, as we've all suspected and has now been confirmed, the game easily could have also been released with a singleplayer mode, but wasn't. Rather than just releasing both to encompass as many customers and play styles as possible, they took away a lucrative and expected choice (given the nature of the game) and now have the gall to say it somehow "enhances" the game. When it comes to a game like Sim City, which at its core is about building and running things as you envision them, your goal as a gamemaker shouldn't be to shuffle the players down the narrowest corridor you can make. It should be to give them as many corridors as possible to explore and leave them the hell alone so they can explore them how and when they please.

 

[Dumoras]

take your vision and shove it up your ass.

 

[GAunderrated]

While the whole media debacle has been quite amusing surrounding SimCity, it simultaneously makes me very sad. You know why? This won't change anything. Seriously. I guarantee that until they consistently fail to make a profit on their games, EA will continue to push the same policies over and over again. The only thing these fucks understand is money, and as complaints on the Internet don't cost them any, they really don't care. People wonder why they don't work harder to mediate the fallout on these games? Because they happen after the biggest sale period for a game: preorders and the first week of sales. So they don't make a goddamn difference. I really wish they did. I really wish companies had the integrity to cater to their consumers, rather than force their consumers to conform to their demands, but that's just not the world we live in. So in summary: Fuck. This. Shit. :C

You couldn't be more right that this won't change anything and that they got paid so they won. All I have to do is look at the #1 digital sales SINCE RELEASE at amazon and its SimCity. It has stayed the #1 seller despite the 2k 1 star reviews, being taken off amazon briefly after servers went to hell, and all the horrible media press bashing this game.

No matter how much we say we hate this and won't support it wont change a thing because they got paid so they think it is what we want.

As long as EA can keep using games people can't resist playing despite whatever horrible crap they put with it, they can make Always-on-connections a standard practice by holding people's favorite titles hostage.

The saddest thing in all of this is people just can't help themselves.

 

[beniki]

Train wreck after train wreck... and yet, they still make money.

You know, I remember from a Dilbert cartoon it was better to be a well-known screw up than a competent nobody. I can't honestly believe this is true for entire organisations as well as people.

 

[MPerce]

Uh...still not seeing how having a single player mode would have ruined the artistic integrity of the game. The multiplayer's a pretty cool idea, but do you know what else is a great idea? Being able to play the game.

The always-online is poorly disguised DRM. Maxis knows it, and we all know it. They don't need to play the bullshit "artistic integrity" card like Bioware did when they rushed out the ME3 ending or whatever the hell happened there. They should either own up to it or be quiet and learn something from this shitstorm they created.

 

[HellbirdIV]

"... could we have built a subset offline mode? Yes," Bradshaw states in no uncertain terms. "But we rejected that idea because it didn't fit with our vision."

If your "vision" completley cripples the players' ability to play the damn game, you are - in no uncertain terms - a very bad developer.

 

[DTWolfwood]

On the other hand, as Bradshaw points out, the Always-Connected scheme does allow the game to keep constant, ever-updated saves on an off-site, cloud-based server. That's undeniably convenient.

this statement is bullshit. First, you have no idea if it has saved or not since you don't get an option to save when you exit. All you are hoping for is that it does. Second, this feature has crashed my city and forced me to Rollback in no less than 4 occasions.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Aaaaand crash and burn.

RIP: SimCity. I guess you had a good run. A shame you didn't even get a bloody month in before you imploded in on yourself.

 

[ultramarine486]

While the whole media debacle has been quite amusing surrounding SimCity, it simultaneously makes me very sad. You know why? This won't change anything. Seriously. I guarantee that until they consistently fail to make a profit on their games, EA will continue to push the same policies over and over again. The only thing these fucks understand is money, and as complaints on the Internet don't cost them any, they really don't care. People wonder why they don't work harder to mediate the fallout on these games? Because they happen after the biggest sale period for a game: preorders and the first week of sales. So they don't make a goddamn difference. I really wish they did. I really wish companies had the integrity to cater to their consumers, rather than force their consumers to conform to their demands, but that's just not the world we live in. So in summary: Fuck. This. Shit. :C

You couldn't be more right that this won't change anything and that they got paid so they won. All I have to do is look at the #1 digital sales SINCE RELEASE at amazon and its SimCity. It has stayed the #1 seller despite the 2k 1 star reviews, being taken off amazon briefly after servers went to hell, and all the horrible media press bashing this game.

No matter how much we say we hate this and won't support it wont change a thing because they got paid so they think it is what we want.

As long as EA can keep using games people can't resist playing despite whatever horrible crap they put with it, they can make Always-on-connections a standard practice by holding people's favorite titles hostage.

The saddest thing in all of this is people just can't help themselves.

In response to the claims of this bad PR not doing anything you guys should really check out EA's stock when such events happen. EA is a company that's at best stagnating and you can see that in regards to the fact that they haven't even come close to recovering from the economic recession despite others bouncing back long before now. Sure they receive a bump when a good game is released but in most cases that usually drops right back down as soon as the controversy starts. Yes they still make money but if they were really making as much money as their PR and public opinion said they did then they would be doing far better then they actually are stock wise.