New SimCity Will Require Always-On Internet - UPDATED

[Quazimofo]

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 agree with this. i really do love sim City. i own 3000, will be getting 4 soon (because i never got around to it.... and financial problems.... and 40k miniatures). but while i do enjoy multiplayer games, i adore many good ones, and love playing games with my friends, when i am incapable of playing it alone, this is when it becomes a problem.

i don't need this game. it's just a game. it could be fantastic, but if i cannot play it alone, as i always have, without an internet connection, which i all-too-often do not have, then it is a pass, because i can already get decades of fun from modded sim-city 4

to explain, i once played a friend's copy, which is why i know it is, to put it politely, ******* awesome, despite not owning it

 

[Broken Orange]

While 90% of gamers might have access to constant internet, how about the 10% who don't. While I might be high balling the statistics, my point still stands. How about the Mountain Men who want to play god? They'll have to stick with some older game that doesn't require constant internet and that is a lost sale to EA.

 

[happy_turtle]

Another issue this raises is that EA will use the lower than expected sales figures of this title as rationale for producing more cookie cutter FPS games which sell. I think they're hamstringing their own developers so they can point to this as an example of what happens when they create non mainstream titles

 

[samsonguy920]

If they aren't idiots, then they can figure out a way for a person to enjoy the game when their internet inevitably crashes.
It's going to come a time when a good chunk of popular games require always-on access, and then isp's around the region will get hit but some snafu or another, leaving those people without net for a day or two. That's a lot of time for those people to discover other things to do with their time since they can't play their always-on games.
I like the idea of interactivity between players and their cities, that's a plus. But cities don't shut down when the highways get closed by massive blizzards or such. Why can't we play during those kind of instances, too?

P.S. Escapist, love the new verification, it's nice not to feel like I am on an LSD trip, but you guys best be using that additional ad revenue for keeping the servers decently running.
P.P.S. Never mind, just refreshed and the nightmare returned.

 

[Ninedeus]

They should have made multiplayer an option, not a requirement. I find it disturbing the trend from "We have this new feature" to "You NEED this new feature" popping up in many games from EA.

 

[antipunt]

Ah the 'anti-piracy' measure. Making internet-reliant multiplayer games is the best combatant to piracy. Well, to them anyway

 

[A Satanic Panda]

Putting in my second cent on this, while I'm sure that they thought that this would be a great idea (I remember the Will Wright interview when Sims 2000 came out) I am really not up for playing this game with other people, and if this is what the company is expecting of me, then they should not expect my money.

As much as I wish he had said that...


It's at about 3:38

 

[octafish]

It is a non subscription MMO. I know that isn't what a lot of people want from a Sim City game but that is what they are making. I'll admit the concept intrigues me, and it sounds like fun.

There are questions that arise though. How many cities can you have going at once? Will there be a penalty for abandoning cities? (I know that players can adopt abandoned cities which sounds pretty cool). How will cities communicate with each other? Most importantly how long will the servers run? This is the point that concerns me the most, it seems like the game will have a built in obsolescence that EA can activate as soon as they deem it time for a new SimCity.

 

[shadowform]

Well, it looks like I'm finally going to be breaking my long, long streak of buying new Sim City games the week they come out. I've stuck with the series since I first picked up Sim City 2000, way way back when...

Goodnight, sweet prince. You will be missed. Or maybe not; Sim City 4 is pretty good. I might pick it up again for a month or two win the new one comes out, just for the sake of it.

 

[LorienvArden]

Well, if they don't WANT my money, fine - other companies still do. A new sim city would have been nice, but that kind of DRM is an absolute no-go. Oh, its on origin as well ? Great - two reasons why I won't have to feel tempted.

 

[pilouuuu]

It's OK, it's OK. We'll have Civ V expansion and X-Com Enemy Unknown... Blizzard and EA don't want me to throw money at the screen!

 

[Dreadjaws]

This is me:

[http://www.speedtest.net]

My normal speed is only slightly better, today is specially slow. But still, I don't like that excuse of "People always use internet, I don't know why they complain". Well, this is why:

a) Some people have slow connection. Alright for browsing, terrible for gaming.
b) People don't have access to internet everywhere. Some people like to play games on the bus or maybe in a house in the forest. It doesn't matter, there are many places where internet is not an option.
c) It's not really a question of being able to do it, it's about being forced to do it. Most people don't like to be forced to do things, no matter how easy. This goes both for the always-on connection and the unnecessary interactivity with other players.

Origin is another issue. My first experience with the software was pretty bad. It's buggy, it lacks options that no downloading software released after 2000 should lack and its GUI is poorly designed. Maybe it works OK for some people, but definitely not the case for everyone. And that's leaving aside the way it scans your PC and consumes resources.

So well, if I want to play Sim City I'll stick to the old ones. I'm not touching this one ever.

 

[satsugaikaze]

I don't think the problem here is the need for a persistent internet connection so much as there is a lack of offline singleplayer.

It seems to be different from that of Diablo 3, where playing either by yourself or online with others requires the Internet regardless. Maxis/Will Wright have always been searching for this SimCity game where everyone's works make an impact on each other.

They're just so enthusiastic about the idea of a totally interconnected SimCity world made by the players that they forgot that some people don't actually want that for their SimCity experience.

Personally, I'm on board with the concepts they're trying to use. Their focus on an internet connection isn't so much about copyright protection as it is a closely-banded community that produces an interactive world that goes past the individual gamer's control. And I think achieving that would be such a great thing.
But that doesn't mean they have to exclude the individual who may not appreciate that.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Where do you live?
Because i dont understand how my internet is this

[http://www.speedtest.net]good.
While i live in a small town in holland.
I just dont get it.

I live here.

[http://www.speedtest.net]

This is a fairly average day for me.

 

[FEichinger]

Sooo ... After BF3 and ME3, the new SimCity is hopping straight onto the list of "EA games requiring Origin and having ridiculous mechanics inbound."

So, instead of a screwed-up server management, or the useless Ending-o-tron ... We now have Always-on-DRM in a theoretically-singleplayer-but-actually-multiplayer game?
Right ... Let me put this bluntly: Fuck off, EA.

 

[The Virgo]

To be clear, this isn't the same as the usual quickie call home to Origin that drives so many people to distraction; that's not really a big deal, relatively speaking, since it's exactly the same thing Steam does and nobody seems to have a problem with that.

Wrong. I can set Steam to play in offline mode. I can play Half-Life 2 without being on the internet. I can play anything except my multiplayer games with Steam in offline mode.

One is an option, the other is mandatory. Big difference.

 

[laserwulf]

Looks like I'm sticking to Cities XL. Hooray for options!

How is that? I see it on Steam from time to time, and I haven't played a city simulator in years... could be fun.

Cities XL was bought by Focus Home Interactive, and is now just a standard offline city-builder. Reading the reviews of their 2012 release, I'm in no rush to get rid of my SimCity 4 disks.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Possible mods eh?

...Some rather eccentric people are going to have to be rather creative to implement a nude mod for SimCity.


....Maybe a red light district with large billboards...

Oh yeah, and always online game shit for what some/most want to be a single player experience, grr grr.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

I hate always on requirements, not because they inconvenience me (my net goes down, like... once every few days for a few seconds and games crash or freeze about that often anyway--not to mention I'm not playing 24/7) but because it's stupid. Pirates crack it. Why bother? What is the point?

Split personality much?

OT: Well I am definitely not going to buy it, so I'll stick to the other games.

You mean my post above the one you quoted? About pirates?

I wasn't saying DRM was good in that first comment. I was saying whenever it pops up, people who pirate games (and music) use it as an excuse to pirate everything. Like, Assassin's Creed had DRM, so some people said "This is why I pirate ALL Ubisoft games."

DRM opens a window and the pirates kick down the door, pretending they are part of some movement protesting against "the big guys" and fighting DRM. They just want free shit.

DRM is stupid and pointless, but I don't really care about it in the games I buy (mostly). Pirates using it as an excuse to steal anything they want while saying DRM is somehow the worst thing to ever happens is worse.

I dunno if that clears up the confusion but hopefully it didn't confuse it more, lol.