SimCity 5

Therein lies the problem I have with games requiring a server to play on. If the servers ever go down, or the game company goes under (and the servers are gone), you're no longer able to play the game... and apparently, if the server your game is on is popular/having issues, that wait time looks pretty long.
 
If they are big enough to admit the online play idea was a bust and allow for offline play via an enormous patch, I'll consider buying it when it's on sale. I really hate that I wouldn't be able to play it if I'm in a situation where I don't have internet access, as that is a huge draw of single player games for me.

Also that I can't use curse words in my city names. That sucks.

At the moment, I'm just really glad my instincts were right and I didn't buy this.
 
EA is now disabling "non-critical" gameplay features to ease the stress on the servers, like Cheetah Speed.

Amazon.com has also stopped selling the game due to the server issues (you know, after they got all the pre-order money because this was pretty obvious).
Important Note on "SimCity"
Many customers are having issues connecting to the "SimCity" servers. EA is actively working to resolve these issues, but at this time we do not know when the issue will be fixed. Please visit https://help.ea.com/en/simcity/simcity for more information.
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http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/7/4076104/amazon-stops-simcity-digital-orders-customer-complaints
 
Reading some of the comments on their forums and other comment sections, I wonder if the backlash would be so sever if EA had tacked "Online" onto the title. For the most part, it seems like the game itself is decent, but the always-online and this server fiasco is the dealbreaker for most people.
 
Chieftess said:
Therein lies the problem I have with games requiring a server to play on. If the servers ever go down, or the game company goes under (and the servers are gone), you're no longer able to play the game... and apparently, if the server your game is on is popular/having issues, that wait time looks pretty long.
Click to expand...

What I don't understand is why the server is necessary in the first place. SimCity isn't World of Warcraft.
 
Antilogic said:
What I don't understand is why the server is necessary in the first place. SimCity isn't World of Warcraft.
Click to expand...
I read that some of the calculations in the game (even single player) are done on the server, not locally.
 
Supposedly its to reduce the load on your PC's CPU, but since it can last several or so minutes without connecting to their servers (or a few minutes for other people, YMMV) I'm not sure how much of it actually is running on their servers compared to how much of it they have made it seem like.

EDIT: Polygon has reduced their review score from a 9.5 (review copy and server) to a 8.0 to 4.0 now because of the issues. With an explanation for each reduction (and they will bring it back up when its fixed).
 
I'm not supprised at the low user ratings. I wouldn't even touch this game with a 10ft pole when they made an announcement of an always online-DRM and hosting it exclusively on Origin.
 
Petek said:
I read that some of the calculations in the game (even single player) are done on the server, not locally.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen that substantiated at any point. I think this is just more trickery to try and justify the DRM.

It was a comment somewhere I read from someone who made a very good point. What kind of videogame would get approval (for development) where every player would need servers to do computations because their computers couldn't handle it themselves, for what is for the most part a single player game? Can you imagine the expense?

It's reasonable that some MP features or global market mechanism etc. requires server computations, but for single player, it's just DRM. Cloud-based saves are often a good feature for games when it's in addition to local saves. But when there's no local save at all, it looks more like an attempt to make it harder for the pirates to get savegames working, and it might just be effective at that for a while. Naturally the more dependent a game is on servers (which can authenticate reliably) for essential functions, the harder it should be, in theory, to hack.
 
Joecoolyo said:
Has a savior arrived?
Click to expand...

YES!^$!^ A community based development project that will give us the sim city that we want.. and deserve

I wondered about a possibility of something like this earlier in this thread, or in another one. I really didn't think that we'd see something like this so soon!

That is great. These guys have my backing - I am going to back their project with some funds for sure. This is the sort of thing we should back if we want awesome moddable BS-free games.

Maybe next somebody can re-make simant :scan:
 
I spent time going through their kickstarter proposal and the video and they don't really have that much up in terms of an alpha or really any part of it - except a terraforming tool that wouldn't really take that long to build. I'm not discouraged though - with enough support these guys should be able to put together a good enough game - They seem to have good ideas and direction. They need to work on their presentation though.. I hope the way they're going about things doesn't put off too many people. This is what happens when a bunch of geeks decide to do something social together without that one "normal" friend who knows how to make everything a bit more appealing and presentable ;) In the end though, I am shelling out at least $25 here. How much was sim city again? $70? $80? If I give these guys $50 and their project doesn't take off, I'll get my money back. If they reach their goal, I'll get to play the betas and be involved in the discussion when the game gets created. That just seems like a good investment to me, especially since I have been waiting for a good city building game for a while. It will also make me feel like I'm contributing to something awesome and maybe encouraging others to build more games using this model.

Imagine how moddable a game like this could be and what unlimited potential exists here. These guys really need to put up a better video soon, and not one that's 20 minutes long and has the guy saying "ummm" every 10 seconds
 
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