Rejoice! SimCity's offline mode is rolling out today

Dear Maxis,

I thought I'd send you an email but didn't have an account with Maxis so I'll post here instead. Perhaps you'll find this. Anyway, I wanted to share my experience and make a request.

I bought the game a couple days after launch and never had any real issues with the online DRM. Always online was not a good thing in any way, but aside from one lost city it never really hindered my enjoyment of the game. I did play quite a bit of SimCity and enjoyed it greatly.

The thing that began to sour my experience was the day one DLC packs. I bought the game for $70, so if I'd purchased the three available skin packs that were immediately available I'd have spent $100 total!! I really didn't like that aggressive price gauging strategy. Still, I grudgingly passed on the DLC and continued enjoying the game. I created a couple regions on my own and then I was done.

I feel like I got my money's worth, and yet I didn't feel like picking up the expansion pack and continue playing. Why? I guess I'm just done with the game. The scope of the game is too small. I played until I figured out the best template for the type of city I like to build, then kept repeating it throughout the region with minimal variances.

I played Sim City 3000 and Sim City 4 / Rush Hour forever! I had so much space and time to dream up cities.

Making an offline mode for SimCity is a great step. However it does not enhance the actual game. I want to see bigger city sizes. I have a good system, so give me the option to crank up the settings and unlock the games potential.

With those restrictions gone I will gladly return and be hungry for content. I think SimCity is a wonderful game. The potential is there but it is stifled by restrictions and unsavoury business practices.

If I wanted a SimCity in a pocket, I might rejoice.

I'll stick with number 4 and NAM, thanks.

About time. They'd better not think about trying "always online" again.

Great! Now just allow us maps large enough to actually build sprawling cities, and this game that everyone already gave up on a year ago might finally be enjoyable.

to little to late

I want some Sims 4 news.

But, wait, they said it couldn't be done! Oh, that's right, just more lies from EA. Now if they make it DRM-free with bigger cities and about half-price or less, since it's not a new game, I might buy it. Might.

Meh, too late. I'm playing Banihed now :)

SimShitty?

I guess all that shit about needing their mega-powerful EA uber servers to run their mind-blowingly complex city simulation software didn't work out like that, huh? Funny how things (eg. lies) turn out.

Anyway, not playing a game with Origin. I don't care if they're not gathering "personally identifiable" data, it's still my stuff and I'm not OK with them having legal rights to it, thanks.

But what about the cloud?

Oh right having a server do what the host computer could easily do for a ingame calculations and processes was never and will never be a good idea... and very likely an outright lie to sell their DRM always online MP only mode.

Now don't get me wrong I saw my friend playing this mode and asked him about it, the concept sounded interesting and it should have been included... as an optional mode with a friggen single player mode there is no reason why a simcity was ever put out as MP only.

sigh Maxis is quickly becoming one of the many companies you can add to the list that EA has sucked the soul from.

Anybody rememers the presentations held by Lucy Bradshaw, trying to sell that without the massive amount of calculations required for the "simulation", without the power of their cloud servers it would be impossible to run the game offline on our puny consumer hardware ?

Well, guess what, it was (as expected) just a load of marketing bullshit to justify their always online DRM.

Offline mode for SimCity however still requires an EA account and use of their Origin DRM client, as has been verified by Maxis staff on Reddit (<< LINK REMOVED >>) and we still can't host our own multiplayer server for playing with friends but have to rely on EA's mercy to keep the servers running.

The game itself is still broken too, the buildable map sizes are still the same tiny, village / town sized areas, the RCI model is still majorly flawed and broken, the agent system doesn't make sense and even the artificially fluffed numbers make no sense, regional trading is still bugged, the list goes on and on.

I don't see me buying this anytime soon now either, even with offline mode it's still a horrendously broken mess. (not that I ever would install Origin anyways or register an EA account)

Too bad Maxis, I once liked you (pre Spore area).

Now give us the ability to run our own private servers with our friends and I'm all in.

As much as I love the franchise, and as much as I wanted a traditional Sim City game, I just don't care at this point.

o sims you slow piece of crap

Wait:

Does the title in this article really have the word "Rejoice!" at the beginning of the sentence?

Wow.

Too little, too late Maxis.

Shove it up your collective, corporate, greedy asses.

A year late and a dollar short to save Sim Sh*ty from being anything other than the fetid turd that it is. I'll never forgive EA/Maxis for utterly ruining this once great and unique franchise.

I got a boxed copy on impulse for $12 ages ago and never got around to installing it :). Maybe I'll give it a try now, but I really didn't like the small areas when I tried the beta.

One question still remains unanswered:
DID THEY FIX THE COMMUTE SYSTEM?

Remember how they said this would never be possible because there was "processing" that was done server side that couldn't be done client side?

Ahahaha.

bout a year too late bro

Origin is still rubbish !

This is great news for the three people still playing.

EA SCREW THE OFFLINE MODE GIVE US BIGGER MAPs

Too little, too late

Useless, won't let me setup my own server and play with my mate!

Not seeing anything here that would inspire me to allow Origin to infect my hard drive. Let Steam sell it to me for 5 or 10 bucks and I'll consider.

Way to late. They needed to do that a month after lunch.

Too little WAY too late Evil Arseholes. I'm sorry but when a company, which generates so much hate and disdain in a community of gamers that they are "trying" to appeal to, and I use trying VERY loosely, and fail on such a hardcore level that it makes the current level of hardcore seem ridiculously soft, you only alienate more and more people against your company. How are they still in business after all these atrocious decisions? The people who give in to this form of garbage are no better than the company itself. The game has been out for a long time now, massive backlash from your released product didn't clue you in on how fucking moronic of a decision to require a SINGLE PLAYER GAME O_O, to be connected at all times? What kind of idiot do you take us for? Obviously they think we are the village idiot amongst the village of idiots *facepalm*. I for one will never put a penny towards this company. It's very icon makes me clench my fists and teeth in absolute disgust. I can't possibly put anything else down to convey my absolute hate of this company and everything, every decision, it represents. *spits*

But...but they said it couldn't be done! You mean they LIED? I'm shocked!

a) Too little too late.

b) Want larger cities instead.

too little too late.

I like how we are now getting offline mode, a year later, when originally there were supposed to be too many calculations for a normal PC to make, which is why they forced AODRM on the game. Hows that argument standing out now? Shall I call it BS or does Maxis want to take this one?

Still not giving a F...

Only took them a year to remove AO-DRM. Now, if we wait 5 years we might get bigger maps.