FleshEatingZipper writes: Lucy, no one’s asking you to fall on your sword in a response about the always-on DRM mess that your parent company forced you into for that SimCity game you guys did. It’s okay, there’s no hard feelings, we know where the blame lies, but c’mon now, let’s not pretend we haven’t seen the evidence that a different, far less controversial game lies just under the covers. Let’s take a look at your response, an interesting piece of literature that appears to have been quadruple-checked, note by note.
Some games force online-only measures onto people. It sucks! Especially when some titles, like these seven, 100% didn't need it.
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of The Secret History of Mac Gaming, “Simulated.”
EA has something of a reputation when it comes to awkwardly handling much-loved franchises. Here are 7 that Screen Critics feel they ruined.
Need for Speed as well. Here's to hope that the new one will be a return to form for the franchise.
Maxis, Lucy Bradshaw, don't take the fall. Please, just don't. We all know where the blame should go. We all know how this game got to where it is now. Electronic Arts is the sole reason for it. Don't be the scapegoat and stop defending EA.
I just wished they'd stop with interviews or community interaction in this way.. they're lying through their teeth and they know it. Whether it's Lucy's fault or EA's, these people have zero respect and zero integrity and it pisses me off far more than always online DRM mess they've created.
They should change the name from "Simcity" to "allways online (screw up) Vilagecity".
I still don't see why you have to be connected. If the cities are always evolving then fine but if it is just for cloud saves c'mon now. Diablo III from my understanding needed to be because your character are being saved to the cloud. The hacking community made the servers unstable and the auction house was a way to combat the underground community. That was a case where piracy actually forced Blizzard to do something different and to make the game more secure for everyone. I'm not sure if SimCity is doing it for the game itself or just a way to combat piracy.
What a load of bullcrap.
I haven't bought it, and I'm not going to.
The game can have online enhancements, but when it cannot connect to a server, it throws you out of the game and I've read people lose their progress. What it should do is to keep a local save and sync with the cloud whenever possible and update your game state in the cloud. But don't make people lose their level because your shitty servers can't handle it.
Fine, here's a middle ground: If you can't log on for a day, save the game locally, throw the player out, because you want to act like a douche. But at least have some class, don't ruin the game when you cannot log for a couple of mins or whatever stupid amount you had decided.