SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
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Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#2I've been kind of surprised by ign's writing lately. They've gotten a lot more thoughtful, past the simple game review writing and have much more intelligent pieces these days.
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#3Having played simcity as much as the servers have allowed since launch, there are definitely a number of online tie-ins. I'm sure they could have done it with player run servers or LAN type connectivity, but it removes the social aspect of the game. I rather line being able to look at the leader board, then load the cities listed there to see what they look like.
Playing with a few friends in a region is a pretty cool idea, though there are fewer interactions as I would have liked, there are still a lot.
Their server connectivity is definitu beyond just DRM, but it's hard to say how they could have done their design without the server aspect.
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#4I've been looking forward to this game for years now. I thought it would never come. And now that it's here I'm totally saddened and appalled that EA would ruin such an incredible legacy for such petty reasons.
There has to be another way to stem piracy without totally obliterating the value of an otherwise excellent game...
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#5I've been looking forward to this game for years now. I thought it would never come. And now that it's here I'm totally saddened and appalled that EA would ruin such an incredible legacy for such petty reasons. There has to be another way to stem piracy without totally obliterating the value of an otherwise excellent game...
It is unfortunate. I've also been waiting on this game for years. On the plus side there are some entertaining 5-star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/SimCity-Limited-Edition-Pc/product-rev...
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#6Having played simcity as much as the servers have allowed since launch, there are definitely a number of online tie-ins. I'm sure they could have done it with player run servers or LAN type connectivity, but it removes the social aspect of the game. I rather line being able to look at the leader board, then load the cities listed there to see what they look like. Playing with a few friends in a region is a pretty coo…
They could have designed the game like the past SimCity games. Single player mode that give you God mode and multiplayer games that let you play with your friends and enjoy the benefits of multiplayer. What's essentially happened here is that SimCity 5 is a multiplayer only game and there is no real single player game bundled with it.
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#7I've been looking forward to this game for years now. I thought it would never come. And now that it's here I'm totally saddened and appalled that EA would ruin such an incredible legacy for such petty reasons. There has to be another way to stem piracy without totally obliterating the value of an otherwise excellent game...
That's what EA does best: ruin games. (Yeah, I know there are exceptions).
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#8Can someone explain what exactly happened with SimCity? From the article I gather that it had something to do with DRM but the author never explained what exactly made it unplayable.
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#9Having played simcity as much as the servers have allowed since launch, there are definitely a number of online tie-ins. I'm sure they could have done it with player run servers or LAN type connectivity, but it removes the social aspect of the game. I rather line being able to look at the leader board, then load the cities listed there to see what they look like. Playing with a few friends in a region is a pretty coo…
Surely those tie-ins could have been written to degrade gracefully when the servers are unavailable, rather than just refusing to run the entire game.
Re: SimCity Burning: A Warning to Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM
#10Can someone explain what exactly happened with SimCity? From the article I gather that it had something to do with DRM but the author never explained what exactly made it unplayable.
Trouble downloading and installing the game, massive login queues (that recheck the queue once every 30 minutes), trouble creating cities, troubles loading creating cities, disconnections, features have been removed to help handle stress, etc.
Basically, it's hard to get it downloaded and installed.
If you do that, it's very difficult to login to play.
If you manage that, it's very difficult to do the tutorial or claim a city or load your city.
If you manage that, it's very difficult to play the game without experiencing disconnects or server-related dysfunction that directly affects gameplay.
Basically, it's nothing like the experience they wanted to deliver.