EA: SimCity offline mode 'didn't fit with our vision'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaqC5FnvAEc

a vision. ok go praise the sun \o/ lol

Lucy from Maxis, SimCity was never Maxis' vision. It was EA's vision.

I don't understand why they didn't give the offline mode option. How can't it fit the "vision" of EA? It is just a lame excuse. Everyone knows why developers make online-only games.

Are EA fans of the game? They must be the only ones praising on the online only drm! It's pretty obvious what they're trying to do. Ea is trying to forcefully impose a very bad drm system. This will go on for sure on future games. The only way to stop them is by not buying their products. That's all that counts for them!

"some fans" ? you mean all of us?

"But we rejected that idea because it didn't fit with our vision. We did not focus on the 'single city in isolation' that we have delivered in past SimCities."Poor EA for your short-sightedness, if it ain't broke don't fix it! And due to their poor "vision" I won't be buying, but I may peruse the internet for a copy later on.

Ms. Bradshaw, the thousands of voices in your head do not count as actual people, please go and seek a doctor for professional treatment advisory, better sooner than later.

Just read her blog post, this woman has absolutely no clue what she's talking about, also ignoring all the feedback.
The result is that even 90+% of the responses to her blog post are telling that nobody is buying her bullshit.

The entertainment value this game has since it was first announced cannot be described with words, but it's not the game that's entertaining, it's the clusterfuck of fails by these incompetent people.
I don't mean the developers though, they're just the code monkeys executing their superiors' stupid ideas, the developers are actually doing a pretty good job still - They were even nice enough to keep the ".package" format similar to Sims3, so modding is more or less easily done, left some debug features and code snippings in the release code to circumvent most online features, "forgot" to encrypt the client-server communication and even pretty easily allow an offline mod to be done - It's almost as if they all want to get fired so they can start an indie company and come up with a superior "IndieCity" version of this game.

Every new SimCity news fills me with joy, it's so entertaining to watch them fail, despite the high price of them ruining this IP / franchise, but it's EA, so it's expected that everythiing they touch turns to shit - EA is like an anti king Midas.

The actual gamers generation has fish memory and thats why the big companies never fail on what they aim for, all those rages about COD annual release, AC DRM, etc etc, yet they get pretty high numbers on sales... just put yourself on their place and think a bit, would you change anything if fishy brains rage for a week or two and then again buy your product anyway? i dont think so.

Nowadays, good videogame franchises that come into possession of EA, or in any association with EA, have the gaming experience ruined! Oh wait, I may be too extreme and biased here. However, this certainly is how I feel about EA now!

Lies, lies, lies, all lies!! What comes out of EA's mouth are lies to me now when they are on the issue of always-online requirement!!

Oh, sorry I thought I was in a Diablo 3 news post by Blizzard.

Moving on.

" Didn't fit in our vision" I assume this vision involves unspeakable acts of evil and greed punctuated by the anguished crys of simcity gamers as they feel the hard turgid phallus of EA ramming them hard reapeatedly in the rear?

@bosmafia @mikesla11555 Oh my God that is sad. That is down right criminal.

Here is a famous quote, and how it applies to Steam, UBI, Activision, and EA:

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." ―Princess Leia to Grand Moff Tarkin

@mikesla11555 really? lucas founded lucasarts not ea...stop talking

did they ever say what the FREE game was?

You know folks, I have been thumbing through countless documents about this game, and EA, and a thought just occured to me about Piracy, and how EA by forcing this Online DRM. Many, and I mean many people are so angry over what EA has done to them that instead of EA stopping piracy, they are only making people who normally not pirate anything now look to doing just that. EA, and other companies are now creating a whole new generation of pirates out there because of the way they legit customers, and not only that but to continue on milking them for everything they are worth. The game costs 60 dollars, by the time you get a game that is worthwhile playing, you would have spent hundreds extra for other DLC packs EA throws their way. I mean they literally crippled the game so they can gouge every player out there. I mean come on, a DLC is going to be released to allow for larger maps? Are you freaking kidding me? GUYS, don't buy this game, just don't otherwise you will be spending a weeks wage to play this game the way you should be able to play from the start.

End Note: Instead of EA stopping piracy, they are now creating more to join their ranks... Good going EA, your actually helping piracy to continue, and grow because of your GREED, and your desire to control people.

You mean THIS vision?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ

I just want my old single player games to continue to be single-player games. I stopped buying online-only single-player games because I had far too many problems reclaiming saved games, having saved games corrupted, tons of server-side downtime interrupting my play at the few key times in my days when I have time to play. Those cons far outweigh the benefits of scoring systems or the ability to get social with some 13 year old from Ohio with a cr*p attitude.

Not every gamer suddenly wants to be forced into social situations just because pirates have wrecked your business. Newsflash- the pirates keep on pirating, even fully-online, DRM-heavy games. Meanwhile, you are losing valued customers like me. As I said, I'll never again buy an online-only single-player game. I buy multiplayer when I want multiplayer, but when I want single-player, I just want a game that is saved on my computer that I can access anytime without an Internet connection.

If you think I am in the minority, you are simply stubbornly sticking to a failed DRM method, because the overwhelming (vastly overwhelming) majority of players have found SimCity's DRM exhausting, cumbersome and broken. They are also complaining en masse about the size of the cities, a limitation imposed by the "social features" of the game. In other words, this isn't SimCity anymore, it's some hybridized MMO thing. The next SimCity I buy will be an offline version. If it's never produced, we're done, you and I, SimCity. And that makes me sad.

Actually, Lucy Bradshaw, I count thousands of 1-star review on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/SimCity-Limited-Edition-Pc/product-reviews/B007FTE2VW/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Ok so "longtime fans of the SimCity series are upset the game does not accommodate offline play" but longtime fans don't matter because we would rather force anti-piracy measures disguised as "social features" on you. That is what I read...

I think it would be nice if some game companies stopped telling us what we want, and just made what people want. ie. You all want micro transactions, because we can get more money out of you, you all want all games to be online and multi-player, again so we can sell you upgrades for more money, so on and so on.

"Didn't fit with our vision" Yeah, it might not fit with yours, pretty sure it fits with everyone elses. EA, just leave the gaming industry and hand your IPs onto other, better Developers/publishers. Ones who's intent is not to screw every person who pays them money.

EA, we'd rather not buy your crippled games. Forcing an Online Only Mode for a Single Player Game is a crock. With this strategy you're actually encouraging users download the pirated version just so they can get an offline mode. Why do this?

This game is sh!t,why are we limited on what to build?Right now I'm building a city in my own region all the other regions are full,so I have to create other citys around each other to benefit from one city to another.Honestly if this was your master plan Maxis then you need to go back to the drawing board.

EA smells a lot like poop.

"it's not final and it never will be" Anyone else having flashbacks of that one idiot claiming this as the reason The War Z didn't have a lot of stuff it was supposed to? *laughs* What a load of crap. If you were able to do it, you should have, plain and simple, especially since you're basically saying "we decided to give the middle finger to all these people we know wanted it....everyone who bought the other iterations and made it popular in the first place"

What's next Solitaire the MMO? How does having a screaming/swearing 10 year old in another part of the country make SimCity better?

who are those thousands of people.. cause... in all the internet, i heard non of them.........

Hey there will be those who like the online gameplay and those who done. if you like it then wait till they patch the ever loving hell out of the game and buy it, if not then pass it up and buy a different game. I myself will pass on this one, if I want to play SimCity then I will just play one of the classic versions, I like offline play, I don't need to be inter-connected with other people to enjoy a game (on the contrary I prefer stupid AI to stupid people).

Also they are in the business to make money, which means making a product people want, with the features they want... you know the whole giving the people what they want thing. Well if a majority of the people who are your customer base want offline isn't it counter productive to not give them that? I mean sure you don't wanna sacrifice your artistic vision and so on but to stick to your guns on something and thus cheating potential customers out of features they want can in cases like mine motivates them from buying said game and as a result means less cash to you.