Maxis Developer Denies Need For Single-Player SimCity Servers

[J Tyran]

I hope people do not pirate it, it does not discourage EA. In fact it does the opposite, instead of wringing their hands asking "how have we failed, what did we do wrong?" the suits at EA will think "look see there is demand for our game after all, now all we need to do is find a way to make sure people pay for the game instead of pirating it!"

Piracy shows demand for the products, publishers then get desperate to make people pay instead of fixing the shit that caused the piracy.

 

[Xannieros]

In other words... EA doesn't want my money. I'd gladly buy it without the DRM or the NEED to play with other people. I am disappointed people are okay with being slapped around and still defending EA.

 

[PunkRex]

Seriously EA just release a evil villian song and dance number, we might start enjoying this.

 

[devotedsniper]

I knew it, not that it really matters. Even if the servers did handle calculations it would not be hard to implement most of the same code into the client.

As for lies? Maybe it's more likely the Manager thinks it would cost a lot.

 

[Treblaine]

but I have a hard time imagining a major game publisher - yes, even Electronic Arts - flat-out lying about this sort of thing.

Maybe they've been drinking so much of their own kool-aid that they really believe that their DRM is so important that it cannot be removed. Because when they aren't just deceiving others, but deceiving themselves, is it even a lie any more as they are as much the victim as the one lied to.

But either way, add it to the pile of evidence in the upcoming kangaroo court of Internet Justice where it doesn't seem to be a case of "guilty or not guilty" but are they malicious or "diminished capacity by means of stupidity".

 

[Starik20X6]

"What? EA lying to us, grasping at any reason they can to try and keep any scrap of control over the customer? I can't believe it!" said no one, ever.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

They moment they cut out the crap and let me play my single player experience the way I want it, saving games locally, I'm really all too willing to throw some cash at them, despite EA.

 

[theultimateend]

Had it been offline single player in would have been worth,/b> their most expensive edition. But you really shouldn't pre-order, especially from EA.

Yeah I stopped preordering games a few months ago. I just wait for them to go down now. I don't respect developers that don't respect me .

Saves me on cash too.

 

[Charli]

And reiterating pointlessly again:

Charli denies need for Sim City constantly online or desire to give EA/Maxi's money.

 

[porous_shield]

I'm reminded of Hanlon's Razor- Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity, but I have a hard time believing it with EA's track record. Maybe Bradshaw is simply misinformed and I've noticed a lot of her quotes that I've read sound kind of strange but I can't quite put my finger on it.

It sounds like to me that they are trying to save face. They caused this fiasco with always on DRM and now they're trying to justify that the DRM had a point other than to just authenticate and send some other trivial data. Plus, added to that they don't want their game pirated so they feel they need it.

 

[Ix Rebound]

"It wouldn't be possible to make the game offline without a significant amount of engineering work by our team."

Sounds a lot like designing a game feature. Shocking.

bear in mind this is coming from the pretty much same people that said that implementing coop in Dead Space 3 was "hard work", while borderlands 2 laughed at them from the corner

 

[-Dragmire-]

Is there a competitive nature to simcity that necessitates cheat checking? All I ever wanted to do in that series was quickly make a city and spam disasters(I really sucked at the actual game) so I would cheat for the cash to build. The premade maps didn't feel as satisfying since I didn't make them.

snip

I refuse to believe the kitten in your avatar is real, this world cannot contain that density of cuteness.

 

[duchaked]

it doesn't need it? or y'all just don't want to do it :/

and as I type my stupid router drops the Internet lol...

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

"It wouldn't be possible to make the game offline without a significant amount of engineering work by our team."

Sounds a lot like designing a game feature. Shocking.

bear in mind this is coming from the pretty much same people that said that implementing coop in Dead Space 3 was "hard work", while borderlands 2 laughed at them from the corner

That said Borderlands 2 could have had a better loot sharing system other than 'first one to grab it, gets it.'

One could also beg the question of why Dead Space 3 needed co-op in the first place.

 

[thiosk]

I was initially supportive of offloading some of the pathfinding computation onto mystical cloud computers.

Like the idea. Not a bad one. Gives me a chance to have a little more city, right?

I started getting skeptical before release, when little information on this tidbit had come out. You start thinking about the logistics-- every agent in a city being a unique entity that has to then upload information and download information from the central server in order to find his way around town... every time they move. I thought thats why they shifted to smaller cities.

BUT NO, no, it doesn't make sense at all to do it that way. And it doesn't do it that way at all.

 

[Bat Vader]

I can't wait for EA to crash and burn. It would teach other publishers not to fuck with their customers.

If or when that does happen I hope that all the developers they own either get to stay open and go their seprate ways or get picked up by better publishers like 2K Studios or CD Projekt Red. I would love to see CD Projekt Red purchase Bioware and Obsidian and hire all the old staff for those two developers back.

On Topic: I have seen my sister and her boyfriend playing the new SimCity and while it does look interesting and a bit fun and I do want to play it. I refuse to purchase it until they add in an offline option. If people want to play online with others that is fine but that should be a choice players are given instead of everyone being forced to play online.

 

[thiosk]

About as advanced as they get is wondering around, then they go to work at the first workplace in need of employees they find, then when they leave for the day they go into the first home they find that has room, so it is rare that a sim will ever work at the same job two days in a row or live in the same house two days in a row.

Sim ALIEN HIVE MIND much?

 

[Atmos Duality]

I was initially supportive of offloading some of the pathfinding computation onto mystical cloud computers.

Like the idea. Not a bad one. Gives me a chance to have a little more city, right?

I started getting skeptical before release, when little information on this tidbit had come out. You start thinking about the logistics-- every agent in a city being a unique entity that has to then upload information and download information from the central server in order to find his way around town... every time they move. I thought thats why they shifted to smaller cities.

BUT NO, no, it doesn't make sense at all to do it that way. And it doesn't do it that way at all.

After reading some things from people who played observed and dug into the game the 'agents' pretty much dont do jack

About as advanced as they get is wondering around, then they go to work at the first workplace in need of employees they find, then when they leave for the day they go into the first home they find that has room, so it is rare that a sim will ever work at the same job two days in a row or live in the same house two days in a row.

Games from ten years ago had better AI agents than the new Sim City

Took the words out of my mouth.
But to illustrate, check this shit out:


(ABOVE):Glassbox AI "First come, First serve".
Combined with...
(BELOW): "Shortest Path, no Weighting"


These create a scenario that is completely batshit insane....and quite hilarious to watch.
But the point is: These are some of the biggest computations (not?) being made on their servers, and they're both being done on what appears to be the simplest and sloppiest algorithm possible for the job.

And EVERYTHING that travels uses that same algorithm.
Cars. Pedestrians. Garbage. Sewage. EVERYTHING.
You will watch conga-lines of buses do donuts constantly recalculating routes.
Lines of garbage trucks all fighting over the same route while leaving most of the city unserviced.
Cop Cars swarming out from ALL stations to the first crime on the map regardless of proximity, while letting all others go uncontested until the first criminal is brought in.

Biblical Traffic jams causing Firetrucks to literally get stuck for hours while the city burns.

Now I don't know about you, but none of this particularly screams "WE NEED EA'S SERVERS TO DO THIS!" to me.

EDIT: Oh, and just as a bit of trivia I dug up: Most Sims don't keep their Education level when they travel inter-region. So don't plop down any Nuclear Power Plants until you can get the city's HIVE MIND up to snuff.