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

Don't try to force feed multiplayer and coop on games that have been single-player for a quarter century. Launch a spin-off or something. I didn't ask for Sim City Online. I asked for Sim City.

Don't give us that shit, Lucy!

"but even more are praising the game's always-on features"

Complete BS right there. EA is now telling us what we praise? I haven't heard a single person "praise" the annoying always online feature... wonder if they're trying to tell us everybody likes it so we'll "fall in line" and just accept it... Yeah I got Mass Effect 3 for free and since I was given SimCity as a gift I actually got it for free as well... but the first 3 days I had it, I got to play maybe 2 hours total thanks to EA's always-on features and sucky server issues (which I still deal with at least once every time I play)... who in their right mind would praise them?

Frankly I haven't seen a single reason the game has to be always online... I find myself playing alone in a private region or in a private region setup by a friend more then anything, If EA released an actual official poll asking the people who bought the game if they'd prefer an offline mode, EA would apparently be shocked to learn that the vast majority do not wish to be forced to always be online in order to play the game they just bought.

Clearly this game should have been like it was meant to be. A single player game, with LAN/Online optional. I honestly wonder these days of EA actually believes the stuff they say.

All I have to say is that by the time the players are finished playing Simcity, and moving on to something new, most players will paid a few hundred dollars because of all of the expansions, or DLC's most call it now-a-days. The whole point of EA doing what they have done is not about piracy (they would like you to believe that), it's about milking players for everything penny they can before they move on to the next great game, or get tired of playing Simcity.

Have fun guys paying 300 or more dollars for a game that should only be $60.00 dollars.

They're still taking us for idiots, even with their pants around their ankles. "Didn't fit in with EA's vision of DRM" is more accurate. What morons. I'll play Simcity in a while. I hear it's one of their "freemium" games so I'll have to take advantage someday. Mahalo EA!

Oh, I see, so you supposedly wanted to create a game with deep online interactions between players. Well, I don't see anything wrong with that. I also don't see why that has the eliminate the OPTION of playing offline. DRM of this magnitude is disgustingly greedy, and, judging by how much modders have been able to toy with the game, hurts the actual consumer more than anyone who had pirated the game.

Oh, that's neat. So supposedly you wanted to create deep online interactions between players. I don't see what's wrong with that, except why that has to eliminate the OPTION of simply playing offline. DRM of this magnitude is disgusting, and judging by how much modders have been able to toy with it, hurts the actual consumer more than anyone who pirated the game.

OK, who are the fckfaces that have been giving positive feedback on the always-online feature...

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

Corrected

@SIDEFX1

You reminded me of Simcity 3000 and 4. I just installed them again and put 4 hard hours into starting to build up a city in SC4, and I've got to say; it still holds up incredibly well and is actually MUCH better than the new SimCity, even if it's mostly for the fact that the available space for a city is like easily ten times bigger.

Until I can play it offline when I want...they do not get a dollar .

In the corprate world "not in our vison" usually means that they honestly don't care about what we (the puplic) actually wants. Having an online only sytle game will cut down on any type of pirate copies of the game. Which is understandable, but it hurts a lot of customers at the same time. I stayed away from Dialbo 3 for that reason, and sadly I am staying away from this too.

only reason Sims is offline is because Sims Online failed....

"enable social play"? If they were interested in enabling social play then it would be an option, not required. At best they can say they are forcing social play on people. Its anti-piracy DRM and everyone knows it. Why can't a company be the least little bit honest about things to their consumers for once?

Always online DRM doesn't fit with my vision as a gamer.

Your vision was never mine to share, EA. Credits to swedish metal band Misery Loves Co. for the great title of their second (I think) album.

pay to win is here to stay

@MJaPThis is sad to say, but whenever you read what these people say I hear "Goebbels" speaking.

Too bad your online mode didn't fit the vision of those you expected to buy your game.

This woman's attitude reminds me of bioware's attitude toward Mass Effect 3's ending

"Yeah well, some people may hate it but TRILLIONS OF PEOPLE LOVE IT we are swimming in positive feedback . We love our fans"

Bulls*i t these people hate facts lol

Actually in all honesty i wonder what the creative brainstorm for this game looked like.

EA:"What can we do to better control our customers?"

Maxis"Well we can put in a 20min timer that kicks them off if they aren't connected."

EA:"good, good but that's only one line of code they could delete that what else?"

Maxis:"we could hold their saved games hostage on our severs so they can't play their city's then."

EA:"But what if someone makes a way to save it to their computer?"

Maxis:"We make them log in just to launch it tell them it's a Multi-Player only game.*room laughs*"

EA:"I like it if anyone complains Lucy you Lie to the consumers make them think we had nothing to do with this. Also have support censor our support number to limit complaints.

I'll have our viral marketing guys put out online what a great game it is. Offer our usual "Digital Deluxe" version*room laughs* I don't know throw super hero's or European land marks in people eat that stuff up.

Then when it comes out remind everyone we don't offer digital copy refunds and call it a Day."

ppl from EA have a fucked up "vision". In general gamers that play SimCity are not mmo players, quite the oposite. And mmo players that play simcity games, they do it to evade the mmo for a while. This game is designed to invest more and more money in it. Don't dream on bigger landscapes without paying for it.

Well Simcity 4 had online regional support, larger city's, Terrain editing, Highway and train track modifying exe.....

So I mean if you look at the bright side it only took them ten years to add..... well..... I mean..... they did take out a whole bunch of...... They put online DRM in it. That's new!

Ok, I'm going to finish this quote for her since it went nowhere as it was: "We recognize that there are fans--people who love the original SimCity--who want that, but we're also hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the always-connected functionality, so we're just going to ignore the others who want an offline mode."

I think this video sums up the player's views on this story and the game quite well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP1-oquwoL8

This is just a load of shit. Look, lady, nobody is complaining about the game having online features. Those features, however, should be optional. This is a single-player game that should be able to be played offline. The reason that online features are not optional is because they are actually just a thinly veiled attempt to prevent piracy. Nothing more. Don't insult our intelligence with your ridiculous statements. It has already been proven that if you remove just two lines of code from the game, it functions just fine offline. Stop lying. You are making yourself look ever MORE stupid.

Instead of spending so much time lying to your customers for damage control purposes, how about if you fix the fucking game? How about if you let one of your devs spend the 15 minutes required to make the game work offline, then release that patch? If you do, I might actually buy the fucking thing.

Yes I "praise" EA for making me rollback a city 5 times in one hour

I love when they keep saying "This was always our vision" and "We designed this game as an online-only from the very beginning."

I feel it's very mature and bold of them to be willing to make that so clear. "Oh no, we didn't make a mistake, or fail at something: We walked right into stupidity with our eyes wide open, and with every intention of fucking this up."