New SimCity Will Require Always-On Internet - UPDATED

[Rouzeki]

First I have to miss out on Diablo 3, now this.

I hate being a PC gamer sometimes.

You said it. I just got through reminding one of my friends why I won't be buying Diablo III, which included the thought that soon other games would attempt to follow suit. it all came down to that fact of precedence plus the fact the people I may move in with at a later date live just inside a Broadband dead zone.

... I'm not trying to be smug or anything, but apparently I subconsciously called it. Sorry traveling Sim-city fans or in the many crevices of bad internet networks. its just not for you.

 

[AdmiralCheez]

Such a shame. With this trend, at least the good news for me is my laptop will get a few more years out of it before I need to upgrade it. Maybe by then, games will be worth buying again.

 

[Cenzton]

EA being dumb?

Well, this has certainly never happened before or anything~

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

Okay seriously even I'm starting to get a little annoyed by all of this "Welp, online connectivity, no way becauz Im protestin". Seriously, nice idea, but it won't mean diddly squat.
Personally I've had origin on my computer since ME3, and I can promise that if you have the kind of system you game on, it doesn't slow it down, and you won't even know it's there (Granted it's not set to auto-load with windows). As much as I hate it, and I agree with jimquisition, I'm not going to pass by what is probably a perfectly good game (I love SC4 and still play it weekly) because of it.

 

[Blind Sight]

Hey, I'll take this as a positive. I won't need to buy a new computer to run this game because I won't be buying it.

 

[Harker067]

Well I think that raises the bar for the game. Its going to have to be orgasmicly amazing for me to buy it. Goes back to playing simcity 3000.

 

[happy_turtle]

Damn, and I was really looking forward to buying this. Oh well I guess I'll throw it on the pile of games I'll never touch alongside Diablo 3

 

[Aircross]

I never understood why companies requires always-on internet for single player.

Are they afraid that we're going to cheat?...

IN THE SINGLE PLAYER MODE?!

 

[Dogstile]

First I have to miss out on Diablo 3, now this.

I hate being a PC gamer sometimes.

You said it. I just got through reminding one of my friends why I won't be buying Diablo III, which included the thought that soon other games would attempt to follow suit. it all came down to that fact of precedence plus the fact the people I may move in with at a later date live just inside a Broadband dead zone.

... I'm not trying to be smug or anything, but apparently I subconsciously called it. Sorry traveling Sim-city fans or in the many crevices of bad internet networks. its just not for you.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable "but you're complaining online, this doesn't affect you!" argument I always get, because the other person hasn't considered my internet sometimes goes down for days at a time, usually once every two weeks.

I live in a well developed UK town to, I hate to think of what gamers in the EU have to deal with

 

[Epona]

I never understood why companies requires always-on internet for single player.

Are they afraid that we're going to cheat?...

IN THE SINGLE PLAYER MODE?!

They are afraid you are going to actually use "Fair Use" like letting another family member play it too.

 

[Andy Chalk]

But this isn't a question of Origin, which I have no problem with, but of requiring an always-on connection. If a game is going to dump me because my shitbag ISP pukes out on a near-daily basis, why am I going to spend money on it? Especially when I have zero intention of playing it online anyway.

I don't much care about SimCity, but I'm infuriated about Diablo 3, which I will not be buying because of the same idiotic requirement. It's interesting, though, that you don't hear anywhere near the same level of rage about Blizzard and Battle.net. Some people have legitimate, principled concerns about always-on DRM, but I think it's fair to say that others are a little more selective about where they point their anger.

It might be worth dropping a line to EA - a civil line - to protest this always-on nonsense and ask for the inclusion of a proper, offline single-player mode. It's still fairly early in the development process, so it might still be possible for minds to change. Worth a shot.

 

[Epona]

First I have to miss out on Diablo 3, now this.

I hate being a PC gamer sometimes.

You said it. I just got through reminding one of my friends why I won't be buying Diablo III, which included the thought that soon other games would attempt to follow suit. it all came down to that fact of precedence plus the fact the people I may move in with at a later date live just inside a Broadband dead zone.

... I'm not trying to be smug or anything, but apparently I subconsciously called it. Sorry traveling Sim-city fans or in the many crevices of bad internet networks. its just not for you.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable "but you're complaining online, this doesn't affect you!" argument I always get, because the other person hasn't considered my internet sometimes goes down for days at a time, usually once every two weeks.

I live in a well developed UK town to, I hate to think of what gamers in the EU have to deal with

It doesn't matter how stable/unstable your connection is, being treated like a criminal because you bought the game (instead of pirating it) is wrong. Always on DRM is the gaming equivalent of an ankle bracelet.

 

[Callate]

EA Maxis Creative Director Ocean Quigley also revealed that SimCity won't support mods at launch, although it's a possibility in the future. "After we ship, we'll make decisions about how we can and when exactly we'll support mods. But it's worth pointing out that the reason people are still playing SimCity 4 almost ten years later is because the modding community essentially re-created it and filled it with new content and fixed bugs and made it as much of a hobby as it is a game," he said. "We're very cognizant of that - we're not idiots."

...So... You've added a multiplayer "feature" no one was asking for that will make it incredibly hard for modders to actually work because presumably everyone who wants to see or interact with "your" version of SimCity is going to have to have the exact same versions of the exact same mods, a situation difficult enough to bring about with LAN-sized groups and virtually impossible to accomplish with Internet-sized groups.

You acknowledge that the mod community is all that's kept your franchise in gamers' minds at all, but you've basically announced your firm intention to kick that community to the curb.

But you're not idiots. Well, glad we cleared that up!

I'm going to go lie down in my cryogenic sleep chamber. Wake me when EA self-destructs or pulls its collective head out of its collective nether region.

 

[Snarky]

I didn't buy BF3 because of Origin (i didn't care about mass effect), I won't buy the new SimCity because of Origin. BF2, BF2142, Spore, CnC4 and other other games left a bad taste in my mouth. It's not just because I don't want another piece of digital distribution software on my computer, it's because I don't care for EA's games any more either. Do pirates even bother anymore? I wouldn't waste the bandwidth on their rushed shit. I haven't seen anything recently that was compelling to buy. Battlefield 3 was close, but then I just went and played the other grey/brown modern shooter.

 

[Epona]

But this isn't a question of Origin, which I have no problem with, but of requiring an always-on connection. If a game is going to dump me because my shitbag ISP pukes out on a near-daily basis, why am I going to spend money on it? Especially when I have zero intention of playing it online anyway.

I don't much care about SimCity, but I'm infuriated about Diablo 3, which I will not be buying because of the same idiotic requirement. It's interesting, though, that you don't hear anywhere near the same level of rage about Blizzard and Battle.net. Some people have legitimate, principled concerns about always-on DRM, but I think it's fair to say that others are a little more selective about where they point their anger.

It might be worth dropping a line to EA - a civil line - to protest this always-on nonsense and ask for the inclusion of a proper, offline single-player mode. It's still fairly early in the development process, so it might still be possible for minds to change. Worth a shot.

I also don't appreciate Blizzards always online DRM but I think you hear less complaining about it because there is no real fear that Blizzard will kill the servers in a couple of years. Atleast Blizzard does right by that.

 

[jurnag12]

we're not idiots

And yet, there's always-on DRM.

 

[Aenir]

I could have put up with required always-on connection. I might have even been able to put up with enforced multiplayer. But requiring Origin? Guess I have 60 bucks to spend somewhere else now.

 

[Rouzeki]

I'm just waiting for the inevitable "but you're complaining online, this doesn't affect you!" argument I always get, because the other person hasn't considered my internet sometimes goes down for days at a time, usually once every two weeks.

I live in a well developed UK town to, I hate to think of what gamers in the EU have to deal with

...we should discuss our mutual annoyance over this with some sort of beverage and snack. I went batty counterpointing that. s'all over my post history from last fall.

it just adds an unnecessary mess. to be fair, I've never played Sim City, so i don't know in what manner its normally been playable, but it sounds to me another option when the nets down just got clipped, and outright denied- ooh, I wonder how this ones gonna monetize to account for it!

 

[Sabrestar]

This is good. Given that I can barely afford my mortgage, let alone games, when a company articulates clearly that they don't want me to buy their game (one I would probably have bought), it's a relief to my bank account.

And no, I will NOT be pirating it. I'll be very happy living without it.