Modder Proves That SimCity Works Offline

[O maestre]

Snip

Snip

You seem to assume that I'm oblivious to what EA does.

I know very well what their track record is with developers they've bought over the years. I know very well what their attitude toward their customers is. I know very well how much they try to forcibly suck money out of people who already bought their games.

But you know what? They're a video game publisher. Comparing them to the Bank of America or fucking Enron? Really? Video games are super serious business, amirite?

It's not about what they "deserve". Because they don't deserve all of the stupid, petty, insulting hatred they get. They do things that deserve to be criticized, yes. But when people are throwing out comments like "As long as a game has the EA logo on it, I'm going to assume it's shit", we've moved past the point of logical criticism. And that's where I stop caring about what all of the detractors are saying, because they're trying to make things personal with a multi-million dollar corporation that doesn't give a single shit what one person on an internet forum says.

So yes, when people make ridiculous claims like "EA bans people for asking for refunds" when it's been proven to not actually be the case, I'm going to defend them.

It's not about the games being shit, it's quite simply a matter of them lying to the consumers blatantly, and the numerous other sleazy scams they have tried combined with heavy handling of all their subsidiaries. But primarily its the lying, they could have said from the get go that the always online component was an anti piracy measure end of fucking story, yes people would moan about drm, but it would have been far more acceptable. The dead space thing, which wasn't that bad actually, could have been largely avoided if they just came out and said that they honestly believe micro-transactions in all kinds of games(albeit without the free to play model)

There are other examples that both you and I know or have heard of, so I'll skip the dozens of other examples.

They have not only lied repeatedly but have also constantly insulted our intelligence, and I must emphasize repeatedly approaching constantly. If corporations are people, and by US law they are, then how would you feel towards such a person? I cannot fathom how low self esteem someone would have, to tolerate such disrespect over and over, and worst of all pay for.

Yes I am a consumer, with disposable income, and yes EA is a greedy corp that can't wait to fuck that money straight out of my wallet... but at least they could be civil about it... and maybe thinking a little bit about my needs.

 

[direkiller]

two of my friends were talking about this today. One friend calls to Boycott EA, all gamers so they get the message. The other friend (who is going into school for gaming design) says that the workers at EA shouldn't suffer because of management's decisions.

I would also tell your firend that you are not responsible for the job of dev team.
You buy games to have fun, story, or whatever.
You do not owe it to any game developer to buy there game.
You are a consumer not a charity agency.

Mind you this works the outer way as well you don't have to boycott something just because someone calls for it. It's your money use it how you see fit.

 

[Tom Waits' hat]

Of course SimCity online mode is not necessary. They're only doing it to prevent piracy and sell DLCs. Are people really that naive to think otherwise?

 

[mooncalf]

I don't know if anyone is seriously surprised about the lying - though how they thought it was a good idea to say something that would be checked and the result disseminated...

Many of us are quite familiar with the framework of DRM both in it's technology and it's apology. You attach potentially crippling (by design) code to a game and say that it is not only necessary but beneficial.

The shortcomings of a DRM-related fail are blindingly obvious however, if the system is not ROBUST you become a laughing stock, ridiculed by customers and non-customers alike.

I hope this is the last fiasco before change in EA and any DRM supporting company that ensures DRM is done right or discarded.

 

[RicoADF]

I was actually under the impression that this was more along the lines of Diablo 3's system where everythin was on Maxis/EA's servers which would make it incredibly difficult and time consumin to pirate.

Is that not actually the case?

No that's not the case, EA claimed it was, but theuve been caught lieing their ass off. The online requirement is for:
- DRM
- Leaderboards
- Multiplayer
- Cloud saves

Everything else could be done offline by the client itself if the option was added in.

The claim is that a modder has achieved that.

 

[Ldude893]

Aaaaaaaaand now EA-hired viral marketers are allegedly downplaying the SimCity flaws on the game's official forum.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9367686.page

 

[MPerce]

And just when I thought this couldn't get any funnier.

Time to get some more popcorn!

 

[A Satanic Panda]

This is... It's like watching Stalin's totalitarian regime crumble. Suddenly all the bullshit backfires right in their well deserved faces. Hopefully, a new EA will emerge from these ashes, one that calls back to the "Arts" part of "Electronic Arts"

Beautiful.

 

[Product Placement]

And yet another example of where developers will unintentionally encourage users to pirate their product, simply because the hacked version provides a better service then the legal one, because of restrictions imposed on it to protect it from being pirated.

And we all dance around the irony tree.

Aaaaaaaaand now EA-hired viral marketers are allegedly downplaying the SimCity flaws on the game's official forum.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9367686.page

Hrmp... I bet they pulled exactly this type of shit with the Mass Effect ending.

 

[Fireprufe15]

When people who PIRATE a game, get a better EXPERIENCE than people who BOUGHT a game.

Pretty much.

Pirates already knew it was playable offline...

Thing is, it hasn't been cracked yet. So there are no pirates yet. Either this will convince EA they don't need drm anymore or it will convince EA that the DRM works and they will continue doing it.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

And EA is fucked.

Really, really fucked.

There is no way anyone is recovering from this.

 

[RJ 17]

And more proof of companies saying that things cant be done (in this case, offline mode) is basically an invitation to hackers and modders to show that theyre full of shit.

Pretty much my sentiments exactly. I was just thinking "Well that didn't take long."

Buuut I'm sure we all saw this coming sooner rather than later. Guess all the optimists holding out hope that maybe EA was just misinformed, and that they weren't just straight-up lying will be disappointed.

For shame, EA. For shame. If you have any left, that is.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

OK.

Just what some amongst us have been expecting to see eventually... including me. Not that soon, though.

This disqualifies a lot of EA/Maxis statements and exposes them as marketingspeak and lies.

I'm in a bit of a shitty place here. I really want to play Sim City, but I'd like to stay the hell away from EA/Origin, if at all possible. I only use my Origin credentials (which I got when my EA login got... 'upgraded') to log onto EA forums. I really, really want to admire Lucy Bradshaw, but that's becoming less and less appealing, seemingly every day. I hate it.

When I can finally patch the game to play offline with little or neglectable hassle, I'll go and buy it. I hope I can eventually also gain complete control over saving/loading game progress. That didn't seem to be such an outrageous demand a couple of weeks back.

 

[RJ 17]

OT: I'm surprised it took this long. I wonder if EA will patch it out of the game and/or start banning people who use this method to play offline.

You know what the beauty of playing a game offline is? You can't be banned no matter what you do.

 

[Scorpid]

Isn't it nice when a company assumes their customers are all criminals out to steal their product, and then lie to your face about it not once but twice! No wait that's not nice it's terrible. Why on earth does anyone buy their shitty games? There are so many other choices out there without supporting EA's terrible bullshit lying and business practices.

 

[Doom972]

OT: I'm surprised it took this long. I wonder if EA will patch it out of the game and/or start banning people who use this method to play offline.

You know what the beauty of playing a game offline is? You can't be banned no matter what you do.

When EA gives you a ban, it's a full ban. everything associated with your EA account - games, DLC, Origin account, etc becomes inaccessible. They banned people for less. And yes, they can monitor this sort of thing. Hopefully, they'll just leave it alone and let people play SimCity the way people played it for years.

 

[RJ 17]

OT: I'm surprised it took this long. I wonder if EA will patch it out of the game and/or start banning people who use this method to play offline.

You know what the beauty of playing a game offline is? You can't be banned no matter what you do.

When EA gives you a ban, it's a full ban. everything associated with your EA account - games, DLC, Origin account, etc becomes inaccessible. They banned people for less. And yes, they can monitor this sort of thing. Hopefully, they'll just leave it alone and let people play SimCity the way people played it for years.

Serious question: without having some EA agent walk in on you to catch you playing the game offline, how are they going to know?

 

[Doom972]

OT: I'm surprised it took this long. I wonder if EA will patch it out of the game and/or start banning people who use this method to play offline.

You know what the beauty of playing a game offline is? You can't be banned no matter what you do.

When EA gives you a ban, it's a full ban. everything associated with your EA account - games, DLC, Origin account, etc becomes inaccessible. They banned people for less. And yes, they can monitor this sort of thing. Hopefully, they'll just leave it alone and let people play SimCity the way people played it for years.

Serious question: without having some EA agent walk in on you to catch you playing the game offline, how are they going to know?

If I understood correctly, the modder first ran the game as he normally would, which means that the game ran with Origin in the background and checked in with the EA servers, and initiated the debug mode after that. At this point, the program has internet access and can (and probably does) send gameplay data to EA. One way to avoid this would be to disconnect from the internet or block internet access for Origin and SimCity - but that would probably cause the game to stop working (maybe not, it's worth a check). Another way to avoid this is not permitted for discussion on this forum.