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General: SimCity: Built From the Ground Up for Multiplayer
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In a new post on the SimCity site, Maxis's Lucy Bradshaw answers lots of questions from the community about last week's launch and much more. Of keen interest to us was the quote, "The game we launched is only the beginning for us – it’s not final and it never will be. In many ways, we built an MMO."
It’s fundamental to the vision we had for this SimCity. From the ground up, we designed this game with multiplayer in mind – using new technology to realize a vision of players connected in regions to create a SimCity that captured the dynamism of the world we live in; a global, ever-changing, social world.
Read the full interview on the SimCity site.
Comments
They can't even keep their servers online and most people would rather play it offline , and already there has been a way found to play it offline without the "always online connection"
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/03/14/simcity-modded-for-offline-play.aspx
Forgot the internet connections and potential "rollback/abandon" moments, the bugs and logical fallacies in this game are the real issue. You can find a million topics on what's wrong with this games algorithims but fact is if you're a traditional simcity player, this is going to be a little dissapointing. The funnest thing about the game is online infact.
Hopefully they fix traffic, emergency vehicle response, and the RCI system which is in shambles this time around.
Aww someone beat me to it. "Straight" =/= truth" We know full well it was added in later on in development as a way to generate more profit. We aren't stupid, you shouldn't try to push it like we are such. It could easily have an offline mode that has those online features, it just wasn't put in since its far easier to monotize online content which I player isn't able to 'change up' to 'hack' their own perks and benefits into their city at any time.
Though I have to admit, the BS 'to stop piracy' excuse is quite a cute way to pretend that piracy is the real reason for things, specially even 'without' piracy the sales number isn't likely to be that much bigger, most 'pirates' being unlikely to buy the game in the first place, thus why they are obtaining it through those means. The profit it would generate through 'cash shop' I'd make a good bet is why it is online only ensuring players can ONLY get those perks if its on an always online environment.
A game that's built for multiplayer, first and foremost, should not have most of its players wishing they could play a single-player version. If it were really built for multiplayer, you'd think that would mean the multiplayer would be a huge part of what makes it fun, not the part that's just a huge pain in the ass. At best, it's just going to be less of a pain in the ass, but I don't think it'll ever be a welcome part of the gameplay. Not the way it would be, if it were really designed for it.
It's more like it was built to accomodate EA's demand that it be multiplayer, from the very beginning. That's not quite the same thing.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
What a mess.
"But we're also hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality."
Really now. I've yet to come across a single post anywhere that reflects this. Anyone in here sharing that sentiment? >_>
Considering all that social features could be easily put into multiplayer mode, without affecting core solo gameplay which is building cities so they can support each other, this sounds like poor PR spin.
They basically enforced multiplayer by limiting city size and freezing time for cities not played by anyone. Get rid of one or the other and voila you have a perfect single player game. But they know it better...
...Blizzard learned that hard way and now D3 dev team are listening players closely, but that won't bring all people back. At least D3 have one truly online feature - trading between people, which can't be done without enforcing it server side. However that was still bad excuse from not having offline mode.
Complete nonsense. There is already a hack out there that turns off any need for the internet to play the game. It is an extremely simple hack that just resets a timer number.
Another example of how absolutely clueless people at EA are. Attempting to defend EA for this blunder is ridiculous.
Here is an excellent article on this subject:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-15-were-not-always-online-games-shouldnt-be-either
You got to be pretty naive to believe that stuff.
"SimCity that captured the dynamism of the world we live in; a global, ever-changing, social world"
Really? How stupid do they think we are?
My gaming blog
That was a great article. Thanks much for the link.
She's lieing and that drivel is all damage control and buzzspin.
The game doesn't seem to work well in the first place either. That's before we get to the online travesty. It was all about control -- piracy control, the ability to spew paid DLC bits down the pipes, etc. What a bunch of inept charlatans!
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
After the whole server debacle, Maxis now has a new problem... There are already close to 1500 reports that players are missing their cities or that cities don't load (my city included). Those are only the ones reported on the forums where normally only a maximum of 10% of a playerbase is active. Makes you wonder how many players actually have this problem...
IMO SimCity has been a waste of money and time. I really hope that single-player off-line storage will come soon so that I save under different names and roll back when I need to...
Bought Anno 2070 yesterday on Steam witn all DLC for only €35. As far as I've played it, it's more fun and it gives way more freedom in building cities and multi-player...
Unfortunately last year, as reported by Rock Paper Shotgun, EA confirmed to gamespy that an internet connection was only required at start up. That losing your connection would not kick you out of the game.
One thing seems certain through this debacle, we are finding out which sites are remotely trustworthy, and which ones arent.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
This is actually correct. I was playing when my internet went down. The game told me it lost connection to the servers, but I was able to keep on playing with no issues. Hours later when my internet started to work again, it reconnected and gameplay wasn't stopped.
Now if you leave your city without a connection, well your stuck at that point.
Obviously they think we're drooling morons. I love it when an industry treats me like I don't have a braincell in my head. I've stopped watching TV for less reason. Hands down, SimCity isn't even as interesting as an episode of Iron Chef America.
Obviously they think we're drooling morons. I love it when an industry treats me like I don't have a braincell in my head. I've stopped watching TV for less reason. Hands down, SimCity isn't even as interesting as an episode of Iron Chef America.
The William Shatner as the Chairman Iron Chef or the current Iron Chef America? :P+1
So we have this from Lucy Bradshaw: "But we’re also hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality."
And from EA CFO Blake Jorgensen declared that, “The next and much bigger piece is microtransactions within games… We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level, to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business.”
So yeah they know it better, consumbers love always online, enjoy microtransactions. But if we check user reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity
or
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-41018ted-Edition2-SimCity/dp/B007VTVRFA
A completely different picture emerges. Shame on you mmorpg.com for supplying us with just one side of the story, PR propaganda...
Metacritic is useless... No it really is because the "footsloggers" claim that gaming sites are bought andfor the user score 8/10 times only people not happy with a product choose to put in a user score.. And of those most acre just little bubbles of spite and angre.
So... Tell me again what good a metacrit link is.
This have been a good conversation
but it's the weekend, and current events. i for one am glad they posted it. it's not like simcity has a page here or anything. just an article which has sparked a debate. also, in case you haven't noticed by now, a lot of discussion happens on this site about games that aren't mmos. so... you could go to massively for your fix of pure mmo news? except they have an article that is called "not so massively." so i guess you're a little stuck.
back on topic: i wonder how many more people are going to pirate simcity who would have bought it simply because of ea/maxis' insanity?
there are already tons of websites about video games i'm here to check news for mmorpg if i want some news for others video games i know better website than this one
My point was to show quite huge group of annoyed and unhappy customers and metacritic and amazon are good examples of those. However feel free to link other better sites if you are unsatisfied. As for reviewers there are honest and ones in developer pocket. Impossible to distinguish...
Even people claiming to be outside industry blew on that one. I remember vid when reviewer was so astonished by so complex and advanced simulation. Then I've read on reddit and RPS how dumb and straightforward AI is. Makes you really wonder about honesty of every professional reviewer(I'm sure there are good ones too, apologies for generalization).
So I'd rather go with regular people opinions and keeping this game as always online angered many, yo have to be blind to claim otherwise. And then I hear some PR nonsence how people love it...
Technically, it is. If you break it down it truly is .. You are roleplaying a city / mayer online in a massive world ( global market / leaderboards ), and it is a game, so yeah. It is able to be posted about on this website.
Just because its not like WoW or EQ, doesn't mean its an MMORPG.
Also, I for one, Love the online.
PS - All mammals have nipples.
Get over it already.
sorry but lots of companies use Metacritic as a rating, so just because you might be an EA shill or simcity fanboy and Metacritic has your game rated low, doesn't mean its useless.