SimCity Offline-Mode Patch Won't Be Arriving "Any Time Soon"

[Weaver]

snip

But it has a singleplayer mode. If it's supposed to be multiplayer then they shouldn't have put in a singleplayer mode in the first place.

You are ignoring the most important part of my post. One can play solo in Dota (with bots) or in WoW no problem as well. However, all the moving pieces behind those games are done by the server. SimCity is no different due to the change in model from data driven (lots of statistics) to full blown individual and grand scale simulation: each individual Sim rendered and managed as a piece of the working puzzle, and the entire region being run simultaniously with all those pieces interacting.

Managing that on the local client would turn even my really nice gaming rig into a steaming pile of rubble. Making the game manageable offline would require them changing the entire basis of the game from full simulation to data driven, and they aren't going to do that.

The thing is, so much of the game is run client side. The only thing done on the server is city to city transfer. The server load of saying "200 sims visited this city to go shopping" is essentially variable addition. Yes, there's more to it, but it's not that much work they're doing server side.

All the logic within the city is run on your own client.
How do I know this?

Well, if your internet goes down or you lose connection to the servers (through fault of EA) your city continues to run and you can play it a bit before you get kicked. When you go back online it re-synchs with the EA servers. The only thing that you DON'T get when you disconnect is the city to city interaction.

In short, the servers aren't doing the simulation for each sim running around, and cars driving, etc. Your computer is.

 

[V8 Ninja]

You know, I honestly can't believe that it's all "on Maxis", especially considering that EA has been desperately pushing for online experiences and microtransactions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122396-EA-Asserts-Customers-Enjoy-Microtransactions].

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

You know, I honestly can't believe that it's all "on Maxis", especially considering that EA has been desperately pushing for online experiences and microtransactions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122396-EA-Asserts-Customers-Enjoy-Microtransactions].

Maxis, of all the EA owner devs, has a fairly terrible track record of this. Sims 3 pretty much pioneered the microtansaction as a money earner (for 50 Sim pints you can have a new hat!), Sims 2 (though it was present in Sims 1 too, though perhaps more honestly) the idea of selling a shite game and forcing you to buy expansion packs to make it worth while, and then were the issues with Spore.

Some of it is, of course, EA - the customer service being staffed entirely by what appear to be oppossums , no refund policy, and the servers. The decision not to have a offline mode was Maxis, however.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'll have to adjust my prediction on when Maxis will get shut down. 1-2 months at best. Taking the blame isn't really a great idea, it just means that Maxis are on record for saying it is their fault and giving EA some justification (not that they would care if they didn't) for closing the studio. It doesn't make people feel better about this, it doesn't make them see the devs or EA in a better light and I seriously doubt it will make people trust either in the future.

I wonder how much EA's value has dropped in the last week?

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

If you want a really good laugh

http://www.ea.com/executives

Not a single one of their own executives are even playing that shitty game they released :3

LOL that's classic.

 

[Azahiel]

Oh boy...regarding to piracy I think pirates can be divided into 2 groups:
- the people who pirate a well-known, well-made game to "try it out" and then eventually buy it.
- the people who pirate a game just because they can with no intention of buying it.

That's the whole point. The more popular the game is, the more pirated it is.

Diablo 3 wasn't pirated simply because it wasn't possible. People who wanted to buy it got it. The others didn't.

Ironically, by unabling people to pirate their game Blizzard left out the first pirate group who might have boosted the sales.

In the end DRM like this is a hassle ONLY to paying customers. Pirates who never intended to buy the game will either crack it and pirate the game anyway or just pass the game entirely. The statistics will look nice, but it won't change a thing.

To illustrate what I mean, let's imagine game X:

No DRM:
-1mil people bought it.
-2mil pirated it.

Always on-line DRM:
-1mil people bought it.
-0 pirated it.

 

[Terminate421]

snip]

No, you should have used this one:


On topic:

I don't know who to trust in this relationship, seriously. On one hand, I could say Maxis are relatively human and admitting it's their fault, on the other hand, given history, I'd believe EA was holding a gun to their head when they typed it.

 

[GAunderrated]

Good to know EA, taking my money elsewhere.

 

[DaxStrife]

Would EA/Maxis have had this much trouble if they just named it "SimCity Online" or "SimCity MMO" or something? Something to indicate the online multiplayer aspect?

The problem here is when I think of Sim City, I remember the classic games where I built a city, on my own, and could mess around with them afterwards however I wished. That was half the beauty of Sim City: create something wonderful, save it, then see all the different ways I could destroy it. I can guarantee that at least 70% of players enjoyed triggering a natural disaster or plopping a giant monster over their city.
What I don't associate with Sim City is having a town influenced by other people (unless they're in the same room as me, watching me play). I don't associate Sim City with multiplayer or social gaming. I admit, some of the online features they've added to the game do sound pretty cool, provided I could hook up my city up with friends and not total strangers who were likely to troll me.

So I give Maxis props for coming up with the multiplayer aspect, but at the same time all of the blame for not keeping to it's single-player roots. At the same time, as EA is providing the servers for the game, it's their fault the one feature the game needs to work in this fashion doesn't work. Both parties should have known what they were getting in to long before this mess happened.

 

[Frezzato]

Sooooo, I'm the only one that had a problem with how Lucy Bradshaw ended her tweet huh?

"...earning back your trust efforts."

Trust efforts? It almost sounds like a french dish. It's gotta be tough being a punching bag for tens of thousands of angry customers.

 

[Darks63]

Well somebody was told by their king to fall on their sword so to speak.

 

[Kargathia]

I respect Lucy Bradshaw and Maxis for owning up and taking the blame instead of taking the easy way out and shifting the blame onto EA. It would be nice to see if they did put in an offline patch.

Indeed, owning up to this is definitely the right call here - regardless of whether it's strictly true. The surest way to lose all respect and appreciation from your customers is to start pointing fingers.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

Maxis Exec: "Alright, fine, release an offline version, the fans demand it."
random code-monkey points at his explosive collar.

"Oh right."

 

[kailus13]

If you want a really good laugh

http://www.ea.com/executives

Not a single one of their own executives are even playing that shitty game they released :3

Peter Ricitello appears to be playing it now. I also noticed that his sim looks more human than he does.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well, when that offline patch gets around to getting made, then they can have my money, not a moment sooner though.

This.

I'll take what I can get, and I'm glad they're "looking into it".

As soon as they look into it, make it, tweak it and RELEASE it, though, I'll buy the game at full price. As is, I'd buy it for a couple bucks.

 

[Nocturnus]

If you want a really good laugh

http://www.ea.com/executives

Not a single one of their own executives are even playing that shitty game they released :3

This is grasping at straws. The game was released less than a week ago, and I doubt they've updated the EA Website to compensate. Most companies have to go through Doc Control to even rev a website.

 

[duchaked]

well Maxis kinda has to take the blame otherwise EA would probably have a few words for them lol...

gotta have em offline modes tho :/

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's funny that they just can't say no.

And they wonder why so many don't trust them or their parent company.

"Hey, this is on Maxis. EA does not force design upon us."

I don't buy that for a second.

Every major design decision in SimCity follows the EA roadmap (more emphasis on DLC and multiplayer, with Origin-centric distribution), but hey, that could just be coincidence, right? Those are more "guidelines" than hard rules for development.

What isn't coincidence is the fact that SimCity runs on EA's SERVERS which is handled entirely through the Origin SERVICE.
Maxis is completely dependent on EA here; so don't try to tell me it's only Maxis' fault when the SERVICE side collapses.

Besides, even if we assume Maxis had full development autonomy (which is patently absurd, considering EA owns and backs them) EA is the publisher. Surely it's part of their job to pay attention to what their competition is doing (both good and bad, success and flop) and if they paid any attention at all in the last year, they might have noticed this little game called Diablo 3.

Customers aren't always right, but I think they might be onto something when another game running a similar model experiences catastrophic backlash, and subsequent extreme user falloff.

 

[Hekler]

Diablo 3 isn't always online because DRM. It's because Diablo 3 is an MMO.

No it's not. While it's true it doesn't have a proper single player component you can play by yourself in a private game, so you get lag in 'single player'.

I don't play D3 because it's always online DRM ruins the play experience. So I wont be buying SimCity because it's always on DRM seems to be doing the same.

 

[Alphakirby]

If you want a really good laugh

http://www.ea.com/executives

Not a single one of their own executives are even playing that shitty game they released :3

Well nobody can play the game right now because EA botched the launch by not realizing how many people would buy the game, breaking their servers preventing everyone from playing it because the game wants to constantly be online.

Also the game isn't shitty, I hear praise about the game itself, just that the game can't be played because of shitty business practices. If the game were bad, I don't think this Simcity server issue situation would be as big as it is.
People WANT to play the game, what they did play of it is good, but they can't because EA decided to act like idiots and not bother to even put in a way to simply play offline.
That's where all the refunds and such come in, simply put, if the game were shitty, nobody would care about the servers and ask for a refund anyway but it isn't shitty, so a lot of people care that they can't play it due to a fault on EA's part.