Discussion about Always-On Connection to Origin

[SS3K 160]

I saw this comming when they announced that they will have it for constant internet connection. I will not buy simcity 5, shame really because I have all the simcity series but this one will not be in my collection.   just out off intrest does anyone know what landmarks they have put in this game?

[Pouria 8]

Well, my point is that piracy doesn't really hurt developers/publishers as much as they think or say it does. It's impossible to give exact numbers on this but I'm willing to bet that at least 95% of people who pirate a game wouldn't buy a game even if they couldn't pirate it. They might not even like the game. They pirate it because they can and pirating is free. DRM, even if it makes it impossible for pirates to access the game will only hurt the sales of a game. Ubisoft learned this the hard way when their sales on PC dropped significantly. Even Blizzard acknowledged their mistake with diablo 3. And yet EA is now making the same mistake. Unbelievable!!!

[chicagoflo 8]

EA's greed will be their folly.

 

Over the past few years I've purchased Sim City 4 at least 3 or 4 times on several difference devices. I hope Maxis wises up and breaks away or the lead designers quit. This is the only dignified next step in my opinion.

[infoman96 27]

I live on the East Coast so I try to always play on "North America East 1" or "North America East 2" but their always busy, I have to wait like 20 minutes to play which is just ridiculous. Then when I finally decide to play just then, they shut off the servers for maintenance. Why do that at this hour? I wouldn't have been so mad if they would've done it at like 4 AM since everyone is usually sleep at the hour but during a snow storm or my day off, they decide to cut the servers off. The hell? We need about five servers per coast, and even some midwest servers, if EA wants to be cheap about this then I want my money back because I've barely played the game with all these problems. 

  Edited March 7, 2013 by CaptCity  
Language... See the rules.

[GirlsDeadMonster 17]

I could care less about mod support. I don't use it anyways. I'm a classic sim gamer, I just want to play in my own little sandbox without anyone on the internet helping or hindering me. I pre-order my game not knowing this was even a requirement, instead I foolishly assumed that like SC4, you can play solo. So wrong.

[CoolColJ 42]

How this for a facepalm, not only are saves are server specific, but so are achievements....

 

Who's is the frigging genius behind this?!

[tropical_fruitjuice 0]

 

Got shot down by some but I could see this coming, I'm afraid EA are a terrible publisher now-a-days. Obsessed with forcing DRM on people I won't be able to play this as I live in a village in England, my internet reliability is shocking.

 

Its okay man. I got a friend in Dillingham, Alaska and not only is his internet shot, a gallon of milk cost near $20.

[SirChick 184]

I could care less about mod support.

 

 

You must be new here. Mod support practically makes SimCity 4. Without it its not really worth playing as its not so realistic enough and very odd specially road traffic... NAM is a must.

[Micah 16]

My friend Jaxon was going to buy this game until he learned it was online only. He travels A LOT via airplane and so he only plays PC games when he's on his laptop on the plane. Since he's in a plane for a good portion of his time, he won't be able to play this game at all. No connection. No buy. 

[ResetLoad 0]

I think the game is flawless, so screw the haters! (I made a video of in a sarcastic manner, have a look if ya want, YouTube channel is in my profile!) But yeah, it's really annoying, especially since they promised this and that on how it was going to be okey with always-on.

[eburress 267]

I think the game is flawless, so screw the haters! (I made a video of in a sarcastic manner, have a look if ya want, YouTube channel is in my profile!) But yeah, it's really annoying, especially since they promised this and that on how it was going to be okey with always-on.

 

It's been two days and I still can't get into the game, regardless of what server I choose, so yeah, having to play through their servers hasn't been a problem at all! lol

[snick25 384]

Well. Here we are; it's opening week. How are things faring in the world of SimVillage? How playable is the game on the cloud? Is it worth the $60+ customers paid for it?

 

Judging from the thousands of user reviews, ratings and comments on Amazon, Metacritic, and on EA's own Facebook, I think those questions answer themselves.

 

So, I just have two further questions to all those who dismissed the legitimate concerns of their fellow citybuilders - how's the game going so far? How's that whole 'online-only' thing workin' out for ya?

[duhaldista 10]

[Shark7 118]

All I can say at this point is that I am glad I decided not to buy this game.  And from most of the comments and the video I've seen, I'm not missing out on anything since it seems no one can actually manage to play the game.

 

Not going to say I told you so, cause I honestly do feel bad for those of you that bought the game, spent your hard earned money, and want to play the game and can't.  It's bound to be very frustrating.  And this is the reason why I don't buy PC games much anymore, having to deal with situations like the current one the SimCity players are going through.

[fernby 1]

As a long time Sim City player, I was incredibly dissapointed to hear about this always online, DRm thing with the newest Sim City. The fact that - regardless of whether it's immediatly post-launch or in ten years time - we'll be reliant on servers elsewhere to allow us to play this game is a major concern for me. I put my hand up as one of those who prefer the option to play this game myself - not online with others - and if I purchase the game legitimately, I should be able to do exactly that. I understand the need for preventing piracy, but the reports coming from the US and the international launches is exceptionally disappointing to what I was hoping for.

 

I won't be buying the game until either the server issue is resolved, or a mod comes along that allows me to play the game in some kind of offline mode.

[ChrilleT 2]

Am I correct that they have turned off city/region trading to make it go smoother ? In that case it´s only drm that kept them from doing a singleplayer offline mode.

[Dijego 66]

Well, I can understand the online part of the game since the servers are doing a lot of the calculations for the clients as well, however there are other things that bother me a lot. The game is gameplay wise so much worse than SimCity 4. The area to build in is not even close to what any player should want as a size for a city. I mean this size is at most enough for a small village with at most 10,000 inhabitants.

 

Also another really frustrating thing of this game is that they did not seem to have learned a single thing from the franchise that had existed for a long time already. They just started fresh and dismissed any valuable lessons that you could learn. 

 

I mean, the success of SC4 has a lot to do with active modding community that saw potential in that game and were willing to put hours into that and make some of that potential part of the game. So why not implement some possibiltiy for modding at the release? There are no excuses of delaying that if you can clearly see that a great deal of success comes from the additional gameplay created by the users themselves. The only excuse you could have would be that the game has matched the gameplay of modded SC4. *Laughs out loud.. really loud..*

 

I mean just look at the intersections, they are often so freaking bad. It is embarassing that this is what professional studios create these days. They should have just worked on the modding from the start since in the current day and age there is no way a company with tunnel-visioned designers can create what the crowd wants. But their greed leads to them creating DLC which they want you to buy. I'm going to stop typing now before I go into a tantrum, this game is an insult..

[Hanvey 0]

I like many other players is mostly interested in the single player mode as that is how we play SC4. I do not have access to the internet all the time. Can the community create some sort of petition against this bad decision?

Have they not learned from the backlash at CitiesXL? Here we go again, a city builder is primarily a solo experience and sim city players are not your cityville crowd. I would start a petion but don't know how. Any ideas? This community has had enough disapointments.

As i know there has been a petition but whether EA will listen to the "offline mode" petition is anyones guess :/

[Shadely 63]

I could care less about mod support.

 

 

You must be new here. Mod support practically makes SimCity 4. Without it its not really worth playing as its not so realistic enough and very odd specially road traffic... NAM is a must.

 

The fact that EA has never been able to recognize just how integral modding has been to the longevity of their games absolutely kills me. How is it possible they can't see that?!? If it weren't for mods, EA games would last me a couple months tops, instead of years. Its near antagonistic stance towards modding is unbelievably short sighted.  And not only that but it flies in the face of Will Wright's original intention of allowing users to create and share their own content.

 

And about online always...I would love to know how Steam's model is doing as far as curtailing piracy goes. While probably not foolproof I bet it's at least effective and lucrative as well since gamers can actually PLAY. 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I like many other players is mostly interested in the single player mode as that is how we play SC4. I do not have access to the internet all the time. Can the community create some sort of petition against this bad decision?

Have they not learned from the backlash at CitiesXL? Here we go again, a city builder is primarily a solo experience and sim city players are not your cityville crowd. I would start a petion but don't know how. Any ideas? This community has had enough disapointments.

As i know there has been a petition but whether EA will listen to the "offline mode" petition is anyones guess :/

 

For the record I changed my position on starting a petition since I made that post a year ago. It is not for me even if it was a facebook game. Offline mode is not going to save this game. People seem to be forgetting what the game actually contains aside from the server issues. So before you go through all the trouble of getting your offline wish, study what you are actually fighting to play. The main issue for me is I think the game is far inferior in many ways than what we have with SC4 today.

[macvirt 361]

I find it almost hilarious that so many people still do not realise that all the issues of launch fit perfectly in the marketing. It is of severe interest to look at the target user categories for the type of game, and observe the correlations between the management of triggers and stimuli for the variables of exposure and user behaviour. Ofcourse there are launch issues, EA has applied a few lessons from studies and is milking it for what it is worth. More and more people look at the game, there is no such thing as bad press especially when you compensate customers with a free title pick and you can make a grand show of all the effort undertaken on making it right for customers. 

 

Ofcourse that is rather simplified, the complexities of this kind of marketing do require a rather intrinsic balance between messaging and trending, but sofar EA is doing very well. And as a bonus it is shedding a few user types who for the long run can pose issues because these user types tend to maintain deeper expectations over time.

[Evil_One 119]

I find it almost hilarious that so many people still do not realise that all the issues of launch fit perfectly in the marketing. It is of severe interest to look at the target user categories for the type of game, and observe the correlations between the management of triggers and stimuli for the variables of exposure and user behaviour. Ofcourse there are launch issues, EA has applied a few lessons from studies and is milking it for what it is worth. More and more people look at the game, there is no such thing as bad press especially when you compensate customers with a free title pick and you can make a grand show of all the effort undertaken on making it right for customers. 

 

Ofcourse that is rather simplified, the complexities of this kind of marketing do require a rather intrinsic balance between messaging and trending, but sofar EA is doing very well. And as a bonus it is shedding a few user types who for the long run can pose issues because these user types tend to maintain deeper expectations over time.

 

The chief problem is they're also shedding a vast number of the ever impatient casual gamer crowd as well.

 

But I imagine there's probably enough fools who'll take the bribes EA are offering.

[Shadely 63]

Edit: <double post>

[Shadely 63]

I find it almost hilarious that so many people still do not realise that all the issues of launch fit perfectly in the marketing. It is of severe interest to look at the target user categories for the type of game, and observe the correlations between the management of triggers and stimuli for the variables of exposure and user behaviour. Ofcourse there are launch issues, EA has applied a few lessons from studies and is milking it for what it is worth. More and more people look at the game, there is no such thing as bad press especially when you compensate customers with a free title pick and you can make a grand show of all the effort undertaken on making it right for customers. 

 

Ofcourse that is rather simplified, the complexities of this kind of marketing do require a rather intrinsic balance between messaging and trending, but sofar EA is doing very well. And as a bonus it is shedding a few user types who for the long run can pose issues because these user types tend to maintain deeper expectations over time.

 

The phrase, 'There is no such thing as bad press.' may work for movies and reality tv stars but not when it comes to products. Just ask Proctor and Gamble, when they were accused of being devil worshippers because of perceived signs in their logo, which weren't true but still lead to decreased sales and a change in their corporate logo.

 

To say that all bad press is good press is premature, IMO. However, if EA is able to ride this storm out and placate the masses with a free game as compensation, if the masses except it then all the bad press could be turned into good press. I just hope that the majority of my fellow gamers are smarter than that. 

[crashx 18]

I find it almost hilarious that so many people still do not realise that all the issues of launch fit perfectly in the marketing. It is of severe interest to look at the target user categories for the type of game, and observe the correlations between the management of triggers and stimuli for the variables of exposure and user behaviour. Ofcourse there are launch issues, EA has applied a few lessons from studies and is milking it for what it is worth. More and more people look at the game, there is no such thing as bad press especially when you compensate customers with a free title pick and you can make a grand show of all the effort undertaken on making it right for customers. 

 

Ofcourse that is rather simplified, the complexities of this kind of marketing do require a rather intrinsic balance between messaging and trending, but sofar EA is doing very well. And as a bonus it is shedding a few user types who for the long run can pose issues because these user types tend to maintain deeper expectations over time.

 

The chief problem is they're also shedding a vast number of the ever impatient casual gamer crowd as well.

 

But I imagine there's probably enough fools who'll take the bribes EA are offering.

 

The casual crowd doesn't really care. They care about playing the game and getting enjoyment for however long they play it. That's pretty much it, they don't care about some battle against DRM as long as they play their game and have fun doing it then it really doesn't matter much.

 

It's not that they are fools or are stupid, they just aren't that seriously invested to care. They get their entertainment out of the product and really that is what will count.

[BiggyF 0]

Always on connection!! Are you kidding me? That's the last thing I want from a city simulation game. Who thought this was a good idea? I understand the online play aspect, but the player should be able to play by himself and save on his own computer. The game should of been designed primarily as a single player game and have an optional online component for those who CHOOSE to do so.  

[Tito85037 2]

For the most part, I can live without mods, but there must some single player offline-mode. I think this can be done by just logging into origin once and being able to disconnect and then when you are done you can go back online and save.

[Subgrav 32]

For the most part, I can live without mods, but there must some single player offline-mode. I think this can be done by just logging into origin once and being able to disconnect and then when you are done you can go back online and save.

You may not use the mods, but they are the only reason that a site like Simtropolis continue to thrive.

But even if there is no "official" support for mods, do we really think that the enterprising modders out there won't figure out how to hack into the data and create stuff? just give it time.

 

But on the topic of "always on" - Amen to that! The person who decided this was a good idea was not a designer, tech, or programmer. The place I work deals with cloud-based software all the time, and the first thing we tell our clients is "always on" is a supremely stupid idea unless they can guarantee their employees always have a reliable internet connections.

That usually shuts them up and they ask what can be done to ensure only legal use and access.

We design our software to precisely to ping the server on login, authenticate the software, then disconnect. The app now runs off-line! It doesn't even ping the server at shut-down, because the data is saved locally.

If the client wants cloud-based sync of data, it can occur every few minutes, but if there is no connection, data saves locally and the app continues to work flawlessly.

We're a small company of 20 people and we figured it out. How EA couldn't figure it out with their thousands of programmers and personnel is puzzling to me.

 

But hey, I'd be happy to offer our company's services to fix their problem. Just waiting for my phone to ring 

[Evil_One 119]

 

I find it almost hilarious that so many people still do not realise that all the issues of launch fit perfectly in the marketing. It is of severe interest to look at the target user categories for the type of game, and observe the correlations between the management of triggers and stimuli for the variables of exposure and user behaviour. Ofcourse there are launch issues, EA has applied a few lessons from studies and is milking it for what it is worth. More and more people look at the game, there is no such thing as bad press especially when you compensate customers with a free title pick and you can make a grand show of all the effort undertaken on making it right for customers. 

 

Ofcourse that is rather simplified, the complexities of this kind of marketing do require a rather intrinsic balance between messaging and trending, but sofar EA is doing very well. And as a bonus it is shedding a few user types who for the long run can pose issues because these user types tend to maintain deeper expectations over time.

 

The chief problem is they're also shedding a vast number of the ever impatient casual gamer crowd as well.

 

But I imagine there's probably enough fools who'll take the bribes EA are offering.

 

The casual crowd doesn't really care. They care about playing the game and getting enjoyment for however long they play it. That's pretty much it, they don't care about some battle against DRM as long as they play their game and have fun doing it then it really doesn't matter much.

 

It's not that they are fools or are stupid, they just aren't that seriously invested to care. They get their entertainment out of the product and really that is what will count.

 

They spend 60-80$ on a game they can't play and probably will never play stably, and that isn't stupid or foolish?

 

What entertainment did they get out of it, as a frisbee or a drinks coaster?

 

And now they've bought into always-online and other stupid EAxis decisions, the quality of their future games will continue to decrease, which I think is pretty a stupid way to behave.

[guitarmatt99 27]

Please take the time to sign this petition for an offline mode! Currently there is about 55,000 people who have signed! 

 

---> https://www.change.org/petitions/electronic-arts-inc-remove-always-online-drm-from-simcity-and-future-games <---

 

Please share this link!