ea Cloud Computing is Why the New SimCity Needs an Always-On Connection, Studi

[Tech Geek Alex]

OK here is the dictionary definition of what EA is doing, and this is because they know SimCity players still play all the old versions. They can't release a new version that will still be in use years later, how will they get more money from their next version.

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. Planned obsolescence has potential benefits for a producer because to obtain continuing use of the product the consumer is under pressure to purchase again, whether from the same manufacturer (a replacement part or a newer model), or from a competitor which might also rely on planned obsolescence

Source of definition - Wikipedia

[+LogicalApex MVC]

This is all a huge assumption.

I'm assuming the game will sell millions and EA will continue doing what they do and people will continue hating them with barely any reason.

Hating EA for barely any reason? You've got to be kidding me here...

There isn't any serious reason for EA to be doing this to the Sim City franchise other than the desire to choke off the mod community and extract what they hope to be gobs of money out of us. If they have this thing running "in the cloud" all the time it will be impossible to patch (mod patch, not game updates) and it will become a lot easier to peddle gimmicks for it that would have previous come from the mod community.

Simple logic says that forcing a game like Sim City into the cloud is a bad idea unless you have some way of extracting incremental revenue out of users. A cluster of cloud servers don't come cheap and EA isn't a charity so I can't see them paying one red cent a month for me to have access to those servers unless in aggregate users are generating more than those operating costs on a monthly basis.

So I'm skipping this game because the online requirement is just dumb and, even more so, it confirms to me that my game would be sold to me incomplete and I'll be getting shaken down for money regularly.

Diablo got by this for Blizzard because they have that real money auction house gambit in the game. Allowing them to easily extract money out of the player base to power its servers...

But to say I have no reason to be angry at EA for this is ludicrous at best.

[Raa]

My order has already been cancelled. EA, meet Ubisoft... :/

[spaceelf]

But to say I have no reason to be angry at EA for this is ludicrous at best.

I am assuming you realize I was not accounting for every single person in the universe when I said that.

[trag3dy]

My sister who doesn't really know much at all about computers or gaming but has played the Sim City games for many years said she wouldn't buy it because it required an always online connection. Yeah, if my sister who doesn't even really know what DRM is can figure out why a game that requires an always online connection is bad it's surprising that the big wigs at EA can't (or rather, don't care).

Normally I'm not one to jump on the EA hate bandwagon but this time neither me or my sister will be buying this game. I had my fill of that with Blizzard and Diablo 3.

[Aergan]

EA's slogan should just be "bull****, it's in the game". A SimCity game does not need this along with EA's track record for DRM instability.

[abysal]

So EA is devoting server processing time greater than my Core i7 just to run **my** individual game?

Bull.

The game would never be profitable. It'd cost them more than what they're making per copy if I played the game for 100 hours.

This is an explanation designed to appeal to people who don't understand how these things work. They're throwing out "cloud computing" as a magical term to make it sound good.

yep, I call BS on this as well.

[spaceelf]

Maybe you guys haven't noticed, but the Sims series has enough DLC to fund itself to the end of time. I don't think SimCity will be any different on that front.

[Glassed Silver]

Hmmm... Crap.

The game looked amazing and I heard a few showstoppers about Cities XL 2012 and Cities in Motion, but I surely won't invest into a single player game with an expiration date and this kind of bullsh*t internet requirement.

May my non-purchase amongst that of many others be a strong signal, I hope the game flops really hard.

Glassed Silver:mac

[n_K]

I wasn't overly interested in getting this but was gonna be on the look out for when it was in heavially reduced sales...

This has now cancelled any interest I had in it.

[Sandor]

Guess I'll be sticking with OpenTTD :D

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

It's funny, Anno 2070 requires an always on internet connection, but I honestly don't mind it because it gives you stuff like persistent item storage across saves, votes in the "council", special actions, etc. But what does it add to Sim City? The cloud computing excuse is a load of crap.

[spaceelf]

It's funny, Anno 2070 requires an always on internet connection, but I honestly don't mind it because it gives you stuff like persistent item storage across saves, votes in the "council", special actions, etc. But what does it add to Sim City? The cloud computing excuse is a load of crap.

Is it? Have you played the game via some methods I don't know?

[Elliot B.]

It's funny, Anno 2070 requires an always on internet connection, but I honestly don't mind it because it gives you stuff like persistent item storage across saves, votes in the "council", special actions, etc. But what does it add to Sim City? The cloud computing excuse is a load of crap.

What happens when they inevitably turn off the servers in Anno 2070?

That's the issue people here have.

[Colin McGregor]

so its gonna be an mmo? whats all the crying about?

[spaceelf]

so its gonna be an mmo? whats all the crying about?

No, but I gather your cities will affect your friends cities even when (you/they are) offline.

[Guest]

That game is amazing!

Guess I'll be sticking with OpenTTD :D

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

What happens when they inevitably turn off the servers in Anno 2070?

That's the issue people here have.

I have the same issue, My complaint is that they're coming up with excuses instead of providing an actual reason, or benefits for the scheme.

Like I said, I don't mind it in Anno because it gives you benefits, take away the benefits and then it's just something that will get in your way of playing the game.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

What happens when they inevitably turn off the servers in Anno 2070?

That's the issue people here have.

Thing is Anno feeds back for stuff like achievements and chat, among other things, but the game is still actually running locally. So, theoretically, they could patch Anno and allow the servers to go away without issue. The new Sim City is actually all running in the cloud so to remove the server would take a whole game rewrite and not just a simple patch to remove the online extras.

Playing Anno you can finish out a game if you lose internet in the middle, but the new Sim City will just shut off on you.

[Torolol]

to justify the 'always-on cloud-ness'

very likely E.A will chop-off the single-player mode,

therefore i'll predict that actual release of the new SimCity will be MMO mode only.

[spaceelf]

to justify the 'always-on cloud-ness'

very likely E.A will chop-off the single-player mode,

therefore i'll predict that actual release of the new SimCity will be MMO mode only.

even though it isn't an MMO? how's that work?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

even though it isn't an MMO? how's that work?

besides the fact that we do know that there will indeed be a single player mode

[Alladaskill17]

Just saw this, REALLY not cool at all, always-on is no bueno I just want to build cities by myself!