Discussion about Always-On Connection to Origin

[insanechris 6]

I was all about to pre-order SimCity, but upon reading up on the ToS for Origin and EA's Privacy Policy I changed my mind. I don't feel comfortable with Origin being able to pull personably identifiable information off my computer, at will, EA store it, and then EA not making any guarantees that the collected data is safe. While I have no qualms in electing into hardware surveys and other things of that nature, I refuse to allow something to collect unfettered amounts of information about me without my consent or being able to verify what they have collected about me.

I guess EA and Origin killed the opportunity to enjoy the reboot. What a shame.

[cirugo 1,889]

I was all about to pre-order SimCity, but upon reading up on the ToS for Origin and EA's Privacy Policy I changed my mind. I don't feel comfortable with Origin being able to pull personably identifiable information off my computer, at will, EA store it, and then EA not making any guarantees that the collected data is safe. While I have no qualms in electing into hardware surveys and other things of that nature, I refuse to allow something to collect unfettered amounts of information about me without my consent or being able to verify what they have collected about me.

I guess EA and Origin killed the opportunity to enjoy the reboot. What a shame.

Read up on all the features they're chopping out to serve the forced online/multiplayer game model and you won't feel so bad about your decision.

[na107 0]

Still won't be as bad as Windows 8 .....

[Intrepid 20]

Not wasting my time on this game if it relies on a constant connection and cloud based rubbish. This game won't be moddable and will just become a DLC content only affair. Eventually when people get fed up of playing vanilla cities and cancel their subscriptions, the game will go FTP freefall where players will no doubt have to grind or pay for that new building or transit feature or some other rubbish gimmick. Eventually when that fails the game dies with it.

To hell with all that when I still have SC4, packed with mods made by people that actually care.

Until EA come back with a simcity game that is single player, does not need constant connection to the internet, and moddable (eventually after release), I will use my money for something else.

[insanechris 6]

snip

Read up on all the features they're chopping out to serve the forced online/multiplayer game model and you won't feel so bad about your decision.

Oh man, I hadn't even gotten that far! What a disappointment. Sure, the multiplayer had potential, but requiring me to be online 24/7 with no access to my gamesave? I guess I don't feel as awful.

What a shame. I thought higher of Maxis.

[Superbacon 380]

Deal breaker right there.

[TheDinozRule 77]

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/8576040.page

Vote. Probably not much of use right now, but we'll give EA a hard punch about forced online play.

[aparrot7 82]

Wow. This community is extremely pessimistic. You have such high hopes in your minds growing for 10 years that you are completely closed off to any new games. Give it up. You have to make compromises in life. There is never the perfect game, there is always something that you would want different. All this community wants is 3D SimCity 4 with curvy roads, and nothing else. I'm sure that SimCity 2013 is still gonna be plenty of fun. Stop being so pessimistic and closed-minded!

[The Avatar 1,089]

The game has it's pros and cons, and at this point I'd say there are more cons than pros. Based on that information that has been released so far, the game looks disappointing, but It's too early to make any judgments. Once I've played the game, I'll determine whether I think it's a good or bad game.

[ Quote removed - BL]

  Edited July 28, 2012 by Blue Lightning  

[Vahr 343]

Okay, that's enough.

Can you all seriously stop ripping at each other's throats? And use more elegant language than "This sucks!" Go read

[The_City_Builder 299]

Wow. This community is extremely pessimistic. You have such high hopes in your minds growing for 10 years that you are completely closed off to any new games. Give it up. You have to make compromises in life. There is never the perfect game, there is always something that you would want different. All this community wants is 3D SimCity 4 with curvy roads, and nothing else. I'm sure that SimCity 2013 is still gonna be plenty of fun. Stop being so pessimistic and closed-minded!

Finally someone understands.

[Twyla 40]

Wow. This community is extremely pessimistic. You have such high hopes in your minds growing for 10 years that you are completely closed off to any new games. Give it up. You have to make compromises in life. There is never the perfect game, there is always something that you would want different. All this community wants is 3D SimCity 4 with curvy roads, and nothing else. I'm sure that SimCity 2013 is still gonna be plenty of fun. Stop being so pessimistic and closed-minded!

One has to consider legacy...

The original Sim City set the standard for what a city-building simulation should be.

Sim City 2000 trumped the original in so many ways, raising the bar considerably. And, if anyone recalls, they tried multiplayer with SC2000: Network Edition - it was such a failure that they never developed it beyond the Windows version (ie Mac and other platforms).

Maxis tried to go full-3d with Sim City 3000, but abandoned it when they couldn't produce quality graphics with reasonable system requirements. EA bought Maxis and released SC3k using a more streamlined version of SC2k's isometric system. Didn't trump SC2k, but still made a lot of improvements and further raised the bar.

Sim City 4 added regions play (vs theoretical neighbors) and full customization options (including BAT and LE), trumping all prior incarnations of Sim City.

In each and every case, Sim City expanded dramatically while retaining every aspect of the core gameplay. FaceBook City (aka SimCity 2013) has thrown it all out the window in an effort to appeal to the Social Networking Gamer, further forsaking the loyal Sim City fans who have suffered through ten long years of abandonment like concert junkies camped outside the ticket office.

And EA is screwing themselves over with a double-whammy:

1 ~ The game they're trying to push has little to no appeal to Sim City fans because it deviates so far from everything they've come to expect from any game bearing the Sim City name (a major factor in why Sim City Societies flopped so hard).

2 ~ The FaceBook Freaks they're pandering to generally aren't the sort who are willing (or able) to drop $60-$80 in one shot on a game.

In short: Those who can buy it won't, and those who would buy it can't.

[CaptCity 4,893]

And more posts removed... The topic is SImCity needing a constant online connection. Let's keep it at that... Including Youtube videos and links to other sources. Thanks.

[alex macnamara 139]

Wow. This community is extremely pessimistic. You have such high hopes in your minds growing for 10 years that you are completely closed off to any new games. Give it up. You have to make compromises in life. There is never the perfect game, there is always something that you would want different. All this community wants is 3D SimCity 4 with curvy roads, and nothing else. I'm sure that SimCity 2013 is still gonna be plenty of fun. Stop being so pessimistic and closed-minded!

In short: Those who can buy it won't, and those who would buy it can't.

Wow this post is probably the best example of truth packed into a very small statement. Props!

[Helevitia 38]

Wow. This community is extremely pessimistic. You have such high hopes in your minds growing for 10 years that you are completely closed off to any new games. Give it up. You have to make compromises in life. There is never the perfect game, there is always something that you would want different. All this community wants is 3D SimCity 4 with curvy roads, and nothing else. I'm sure that SimCity 2013 is still gonna be plenty of fun. Stop being so pessimistic and closed-minded!

I respectfully disagree. I am a "casual" SimCity player. I usually ignore the complainers because it's usually about nothing significant. Bugs get fixed, features get added and complainers mostly go away. This time, however, I'm the complainer. Why? Because the two things that most people feel is CORE to the game has been removed. Terraforming and Single Player. I can live with all of the other BS such as Origin(which I despise BTW), can't make my own roads to neighboring cities, and some other things. I can even live without single player to an extent. The GlassBox Engine is AMAZING! The potential is unreal. But mark my words. The simple fact that this game will be played on servers means the servers will either go away within a few years and you will have a dead game or they will start micro charging you for new "map packs" or "features"(read: bug fixes). Hell, I'm half convinced they are going to charge right out of the gate, but I hope I'm wrong. How do you think the servers will get paid for over time? EA has already proven they will pull servers that aren't making money, so start praying Simcity makes money or we are all SOL.

EA doesn't care about anything except making money. EA has ruined many games over the years. EA is on the path of destruction with this game. Sadly, I think the developers are super excited about the engine and the game, but are being held back by upper management, politics and money.

So you are saying that we have too much high hopes riding on this game yet you say all we want is Simcity 4 redone. That's a tad contradicting don't you think? I just want what I would consider must have features and I would be willing to let the cards lie where they may, but they can't even get the core features right. And yes, of course we have high hopes, this is Simcity! One of the best games ever made. How can we not have high hopes? And to some degree, yes a lot of people probably want it like Simcity 4 or at least similar because it is loved by many and has withstood the test of time. But the Glassbox engine is so awesome, that just seeing what it could do made me feel like I didn't have to worry about anything else. I guess I was wrong.

Like everyone, I'll be watching and waiting and praying that they make a liar out of me. I'll be the first to stand up and say I was wrong and the game is great. Whew! If you got through all of that, then I apologize for ranting for so long

[brynhyfryd 222]

Another reason not to buy simcity due to always online requirement.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4311264

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/310353,ubisoft-drm-in-trouble-again-best-to-ditch-uplay-right-now.aspx

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/30/psa-possible-security-risk-in-some-ubisoft-pc-games/

In simple terms, These DRM schemes can result in your PC being Hacked and personal information stolen.

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

I have to say I feel very sorry for those with slow or unreliable internet connections. Sure, you can't play World of Warcraft or anything else like that, but you could at least play SimCity before. Now...

[Helevitia 38]

For those of you that haven't heard, EA has decided to make SWTOR free-to-play, which is good news for Simcity because it means that they likely won't decide to charge a monthly fee. The bad news is that they might decide to charge for smaller stuff or features such as building packs or transit systems or whatever, maybe even terraforming down the road. I personally don't like the FTP model. I want to pay all of my money up front and do what I want with the game later. They already want $60 for the game up front, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[alex macnamara 139]

For those of you that haven't heard, EA has decided to make SWTOR free-to-play, which is good news for Simcity because it means that they likely won't decide to charge a monthly fee. The bad news is that they might decide to charge for smaller stuff or features such as building packs or transit systems or whatever, maybe even terraforming down the road. I personally don't like the FTP model. I want to pay all of my money up front and do what I want with the game later. They already want $60 for the game up front, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

so in otherwords....youll buy the empty shell of a "game" at 60$ then pay for the real game in the form of DLCs :/

[Helbore 15]

If I understand the T&Cs of Origin correctly, they go something like this; EA have permission to data mine my computer for personal information that's really none of their business, and then they can use that data to try and sell me more stuff. They also accept no responsibility for the protection of my data once they've copied it all to their servers. Sorry, but even if this new Sim City was the most perfect citybuilder of all time - even if it fulfilled all my wishes for Sim City and then some - I wouldn't buy it if Origin was a requirement. There's NO WAY I'm allowing some massive corporation unrestricted access to my PERSONAL computer. That's just not on, imo. This should be illegal, as far as I'm concerned. Could a corporation get away with adding a condition of purchase that allowed them free access to your home whenever they felt like it?

[alex macnamara 139]

If I understand the T&Cs of Origin correctly, they go something like this; EA have permission to data mine my computer for personal information that's really none of their business, and then they can use that data to try and sell me more stuff. They also accept no responsibility for the protection of my data once they've copied it all to their servers. Sorry, but even if this new Sim City was the most perfect citybuilder of all time - even if it fulfilled all my wishes for Sim City and then some - I wouldn't buy it if Origin was a requirement. There's NO WAY I'm allowing some massive corporation unrestricted access to my PERSONAL computer. That's just not on, imo. This should be illegal, as far as I'm concerned. Could a corporation get away with adding a condition of purchase that allowed them free access to your home whenever they felt like it?

in Germany thats not so....there is pending civil litigation going on right now

[NCGAIO 562]

still within the subject ONLINE that already seems to have exhausted his goal!

in Germany thats not so....there is pending civil litigation going on right now

It is not more over litigation because it seems that the laws are already in effect:

After Abmahnwahn the consumer now wants to control the subscription traps

Posted: 07/28/12 11:30

From next Wednesday, 1 August 2012 for a new law into effect That will protect buyers from hidden traps subscription in online shops. It was only in June, the Consumer Protection Announced Against The prevailing Abmahnwahn proceed to Introduce the "one-Buton-system" for online shops ....

source: http://www.theorigin...en-gegensteuern

Equation of second-hand retail and digital versions

Posted: 17:00 03:07:12

Made hay of the day, You Should Be red mark on the calendar because It could point the way for the software industry. The European Court held:

And digital download versions of software may be resold Also used the retail versions....

source:http://www.theorigin...igitalversionen

Looks like something for that region is already changing as there are distributors changing their EULAs to suit

  Edited August 3, 2012 by CaptCity  
Removed image which has unnecessarily placed in every post.

[alex macnamara 139]

I couldnt understand that article becsuae of the foriegn dialect, but it sounds as if it was made illegal to charge for a 2nd "online pass? "

[jdenm8 362]

I couldnt understand that article becsuae of the foriegn dialect, but it sounds as if it was made illegal to charge for a 2nd "online pass? "

No, it's recognising purchases of virtual items (Software mainly) as property that is owned by the purchaser. Most EULAs up to that point made everything remain the property of the seller (Still do everywhere else in the world).

[Shark7 118]

Another reason not to buy simcity due to always online requirement.

http://news.ycombina...item?id=4311264

http://www.atomicmpc...-right-now.aspx

http://www.rockpaper...isoft-pc-games/

In simple terms, These DRM schemes can result in your PC being Hacked and personal information stolen.

And this is the exact reason I loathe this forced DRM stuff...it will always be a security issue to put a program on your PC that some one else has control over or that automatically opens up a web-browser or internet connection.

[MINIggy03 227]

Good thing Ubisoft isn't making SimCity!

[cirugo 1,889]

Good thing Ubisoft isn't making SimCity!

Too bad Maxis is following them down the same road...

[spiritbw 111]

Good thing Ubisoft isn't making SimCity!

Too bad Maxis is following them down the same road...

Pretty much. Maxis/EA really does seem to be going down the same dark road that Ubisoft already tread.

[Shark7 118]

Good thing Ubisoft isn't making SimCity!

Unfortunately, EA is producing...

[brynhyfryd 222]

EA stockholder meeting discussion/future video game crash speculation

http://www.goblinarm...ash-speculation

Check out the video.

EA admit monetising simcity for a month by month revenue stream.

  Edited August 8, 2012 by brynhyfryd