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EA considering offline mode for SimCity

EA is canvassing player feedback on offline mode and content for future expansion packs.

490 Comments

EA may be looking at the possibility of adding offline play and other features to SimCity as part of its future updates for its world-building series, according to a customer survey that has surfaced on Reddit.

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The survey, which can be seen here in screenshots, seeks player feedback on potential upcoming features. These include: farms, faster rebuilding after disasters, overpass and underpass roads, cities twice the size of current land plots, terraforming, cooperative city building with friends, and Classic mode. The latter is described as allowing players to, “In offline or online mode, play a single, fully functioning city using cheats and unlocks that allow you to create your perfect city.”

Among other possible changes are four new additions to an upcoming expansion pack. Simulate to the Sky is described as adding the ability to build up instead of out to create SuperScrapers. Players will also be able to zone the new building type residential, commercial, and industrial concurrently, as well as create multi-layered transportation, and improve overall city density to raise populations.

Greed cities add a resource-consuming mega corporation that boosts profits--a robotics augmentation business--and increases the total amount of trash and pollution produced. Conversely, green cities add an academy to research advanced technology and generate wealthy, highly skilled workers, and your city will better collaborate with others on research.

The last component of the new expansion pack is called Transform Tomorrow. It will allow players to watch their cities change as future technologies are added, or see your region become affected by the actions of your future cities.

Launching to low review scores and server troubles, Maxis co-founder Will Wright described the game's initial release as being "inexcusable" for consumers, saying that both EA and Maxis failed to adequately communicate with players.

GameSpot contacted EA seeking clarification regarding the customer survey. A spokesperson from the publisher was unavailable at time of publication.

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Avatar image for MasterOfSprites
MasterOfSprites

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What took them so long?

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Avatar image for keech
keech

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Backpedaling must be the cool thing to do right now or something.

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brunocj2

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Oh, NOW they're thinking about an offline mode. Pathetic...

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quakke

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@AncientDozer @brunocj2

They can try all they want but soon they realize that you can't undo stuff irl. Forexample if you step on shit, you just can't undo the shit stepping, you live with it.

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Revl8n

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Edited By Revl8n

An online requirement for THIS game is pointless. This is one of EAs stupidest product "features" - and that is a high mark to achieve.

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kmarko

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Edited By kmarko

Well ,the game is been cracked and many people play offline already , no wonder that EA want to make offline now .


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Avatar image for jd7904
jd7904

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If they have a true offline copy I would get it

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Tidal_Abyss

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@AggrandizedUser I know a lot of people that do, just off of preference. There's nothing wrong with liking online, but it should be a choice. Different strokes for different folks, so to speak.

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kasumi45

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@AggrandizedUser But Id rather make my own city alone without bad people

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Tidal_Abyss

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Edited By Tidal_Abyss

@kasumi45 Agreed, there's always people/trolls that just like to ruin things for others just for the 'fun' of it. Also though, I just prefer sp., I don't like 'social' in my gaming. Additionally, sometimes your connection can go down, isp problems and whatnot, and I should still be able to use a product I purchased if I'm offline whether by choice or problems, travel/not available/etc.

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ferna1234

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very nice. looks like listening to the consumers is getting to be fashionable in the video game industry.

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Generic_Dude

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@ferna1234 Bull -- they're backpedaling because the game was cracked. EA thinks they're so brilliant, but it turns out some 17-year-old hacker is more brilliant. Hopefully this brings the lesson that ill will is more troublesome than good will.

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Generic_Dude

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@ferna1234 I say 'hacker', but I guess 'cracker' would be more apt. I'm turning into one of those old people who call every console a 'Nintendo'. *sigh*

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Oozyrat

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Edited By Oozyrat

@ferna1234 *common sense is getting to be fashionable in the video game industry

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Oozyrat

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Must've seen the Xbox 180 lol come on people, nothing always online will work until the entire globe has wi fi (and that unfortunately will probably never happen).

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CP2077

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I hate DRM one of the main reasons I wont buy games from EA or Ubisoft on PC

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Tidal_Abyss

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@CP2077 Yeah, ubi is another that is totally annoying.

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ragnar320

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Edited By ragnar320

@Tidal_Abyss @CP2077 It made anno 2070 super annoying and I cant even play it now cause I forget what my log in info is

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Tidal_Abyss

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@ragnar320 yeah, and it looked like it had potential, but they ruined it's chances with a lot of people that didn't want to bother with their drm.

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Accuracy158

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Hahaha EA went so much further than Microsoft when it came to spewing lies in defense of their DRM... for months! Remember how the game was built for always online and absolutely wouldn't work with out it... and that cloud processing was the only thing making it possible.

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CincoToes

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@Accuracy158 Further how? Sounded pretty similar to me.

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keech

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@Accuracy158 Then remember when players hacked the game to play offline within a week of release? Haha.

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Fursnake

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EA is "considering" an offline mode? How "considerate" of them.

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deactivated-610c3819be19e

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Hey Xbox supporters. Remember this little game that was 'designed' from the ground up with cloud processing implemented to drive a lot of the backend?

YA. it is all BS. Nothing needs to be monitored 24/7 nor can they use any server side methods to really take any load off of a game.

Do not be fooled that this sort of thing is the future because it is not, yet.


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tooki

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**** you too EA.

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JacobNX01a

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They shouldn't have to stop and consider something so obvious

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Tidal_Abyss

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Edited By Tidal_Abyss

@JacobNX01a ....and they're not, just trying to figure out the best way to spin their fiasco!

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jsmoke03

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that should have been patched already when diablo 3 came out lol

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ACMC85

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They are releasing an expansion, before they even fix the original game. I don't remember hearing anything about things improving.

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electroban

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Take one good game, mix in a bunch of corporate greedy c**nts, wallah, Sim City!

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smylexx

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@electroban i think the word you're looking for is 'voila'.


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Verenti

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So I can play an overpriced and generally poor game without half of the features without having EA spying on me? Great. I always wanted to spend my time with a polished turd.

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lonewolf1044

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It will be welcomed for it is never too late and I want my money's worth. The question now is how soon?

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Genocide6sic6

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Edited By Genocide6sic6

Put a bullet in it or is it not even worth the bullet?

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Avatar image for abcdefgabcdefgz
abcdefgabcdefgz

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After D3 im glad I didnt waste my money on this too. I have the old games that were good.

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Ninjaboey

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Too late.

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Avenger1324

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Edited By Avenger1324

"canvassing player feedback"

LOL

I think the feedback was universal in saying we don't want to be forced to be online to player a single player game, and I don't recall reading many comments complaining about how large the individual city maps were.

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Darkreaper_1

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Edited By Darkreaper_1

Too little too late

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ColdstoneX3

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@Darkreaper_1 agreed

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dinosaur-123

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too late ,also ''expansion pack'' ? am I supposed to pay to have the option to play a game offline ? seuriously?

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oldschoolvandal

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@dinosaur-123 Even fixing mistakes, they are stil EA.

They will make their crap better....for a price.

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blackace

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I wouldn't waste my money on this game. I might go back and give SimCity 2000 a try again. I still have the original very first game. I think it's on 3-1/2" floppies. I think I still have one of those drives too. lol!!

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cirugo

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@blackace

ha! so do I but I don't have a floppy drive!

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Master_cheat001

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@cirugo @blackace Not sure if first time with PC or just sarcasm.

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WantYouBad

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Much too late.

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Diablo-B

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And now I am considering SimCity

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oldschoolvandal

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@Diablo-B Hold your horses...you will probably have to pay some more to be able to play offline.

Notice the "expansion pack" mentioned in the text.

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eventhorizon77

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What EA fails to realize is that the "stupid gamers" that they used to peddle these lies to, have grown up into intelligent gamers that will hack your bullshit "complex code" to prove that they are fucking liars.


*NOTE TO EA:

Dont lie to pc gamers. They will expose you. It never fails.

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