Slashdot Mirror
New SimCity To Require Constant Internet Connection
eldavojohn writes "According to Lead designer Stone Librande, it has been confirmed that the next installment of SimCity will require a constant internet connection. Perhaps as a form of DRM, the 2013 edition looks like it will be the first to include online play but will also require you to constantly be connected to Origin to play — even if that wasn't your point of purchase. Add SimCity to the growing list."
Update: 03/29 02:09 GMT by S : An online connection will be needed to start the game, but you won't be kicked out if your connection dies.
Publishers have already managed to kill the used market for PC games with stuff like this. Console games are next. A lot of new console games are already requiring online activation for certain features (like Mass Effect 3). It's only a matter of time before they require online activation to work at all, and then ultimately require an online verification check each time the game is started.
A requiem for the days when consumers actually owned videogames, and could still play them just fine, even ten years later, using just the original game discs/cartridges.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Can I get my money back when the service is inevitably cancelled?
But it's simple: I vote with my wallet, just like Assassins Creed 2, no sale.
The other day I re-installed the original C&C Red Alert and had a fun time playing it.
Somehow, I doubt we'll be able to do the same with the new Sim City -- and many other new games -- seventeen years after their release. It's a sad future for old games.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I'm not buying it. I'll probably buy something from GOG instead.
Still disappointed though.
Not sure if trolling or incredibly fucking stupid......
I've had over a week's Internet downtime in the last year, and absolutely no power outage. You can understand if perhaps I'm more concerned about one than the other, then?
of games I won't buy.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I hear this SimCity has an actual ending. Vishnu shows up in the form of Justin Beiber, and kicks your city into the sea. But you get to choose which sea.
I had heard this was going to be coming out soon and was thinking about picking it up for her. Looks like we can scratch that. Cityville already requires a constant connection and makes you reload and lose all your shit when it drops for a few seconds. Why on earth do they think I want to pay 60 bucks for that same privilege? I assume they think we're made of money AND stupid?
-pirates
http://i43.tinypic.com/1pghep.jpg
Sim City destroyed their brand with Sim City 3000. Like many simulation games, they focused too much on graphics and 3D imagery and compromised usability and basic game play. Sim City 2000 is still their best version and it was built in 1993. IMO they should return to a basic tile-based game engine and start over.
Right, because fighting the market for used games did not factor into this decision at all. Gaming companies have so much respect for their users that they would only create these sorts of draconian DRM schemes if they were desperate to do so, because of the crushing weight of piracy, right?
Get real -- this is because Maxis has no respect for SimCity players and sees nothing beyond a chance to make a little more money than they did before.
Palm trees and 8
I also want to add: I'm more likely to buy a game if I don't have to deal with the DRM. I can install it anywhere, just like I can read a book anywhere. Software has enough limitations as it is, I don't need the added restrictions of DRM to restrict my use of the game after a certain poorly defined point.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
If anything, DRM like this will cause *MORE* piracy, as the pirated versions will be cracked and able to play locally.
This signature is false.
If you are that angry about it, don't buy the game.
Unfortunately, even if all slashdotters stopped buying, the effect on video-game market would be almost zero. On the other hand, if we raise stink about it and manage to educate a significant portion of buyers managements will think twice before crippling their offerings. And that is exactly what we are doing here.
If most of their market is ok with this deal
Most of their market does not realize/give it a thought that their acquisition will kick the bucket as soon as it is not profitable to maintain those DRM servers, which could happen after a few years or as soon as tomorrow. And at that point they will need to go to the grey market looking for hacked version and punch themselves for shelling money for it in the first place. If the DRM locks the game to hardware, they are out of luck with the next hardware upgrade as well. Meanwhile those who have a hacked version can enjoy a DRM-free experience for years to come. This is called "defective by design". Look it up.
You're missing the point. Any authority which grants permission can also not grant permission. Services are sold off and shut down. Games and ebooks can be and have been "unsold" retroactively. If you want the software you buy to remain functional, it must operate without the need to call home for permission. There was a recent article about PSP games becoming unavailable for download, even if you already paid for them. No refund was offered. Similarly, you could buy this new version of SimCity only to find that the publisher has decided to discontinue it, rendering your purchase inoperable.
not necessarily a piracy thing, but heck if it is, can you blame them?
Yes. Group punishment is a civil wrong.
Besides, used game markets do just fine, you just can't continue to play it once you sell it. That doesn't mean ownership can't be passed along though.
I see you haven't been victim of some of the used games that require online activation. The games become useless for resale once installed on the original machine.
Steam does not require you to be online to play. Steam works just fine offline. I believe Steam games just need to be activated online once.
I've played Fallout: New Vegas offline. And I think it is funny that you choose to call that game specifically "Payus" when the developer basically didn't get paid on that game.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Fine by me -- interacting with other people's cities has been something I've been looking forward to in the series for a long time. I imagine a world where one country's low industrial taxes suck away all of the factory jobs from your online neighbors, but everyone lives in another region and takes that neighbor's super-fast rail to world, while yet another neighbor develops a coastal resort for this population of transit workers to relax at on their days off, all the while a struggling farm community sits on its hands with a "World's Largest Llama" display...
Count me baited. DRM or not, I'm on board, assuming this enhancement is at least somewhat more than a simple statistical one.
I am not a zealot, I'll meet publishers half way on DRM. I'm ok so long as it doesn't mess with my gameplay experience. Steam is fine, activation on install is fine. I prefer no DRM but I'm not going to be an absolutist dick.
However I will not accept always connected DRM for single player games. Part of the reason I have single player games is for when I don't have net access like when I'm on a plane, or when my Internet dies (and please let's not pretend like that never happens) and so on. That means they'd better work without it.
As such I've not bought Settlers 7, Assassin's Creed 2, or Heroes of Might and Magic 6. All games I wanted, all which I was willing to pay for, none that I have because of the always on DRM.
Thing is, it really isn't a big deal. There are SO MANY good games these days. Not just big studio titles, but indy as well, and digital distribution lets me get them easy. I have a backlog of games that I've bought, and haven't even installed. Time is my limiting factor, not games to play.
As such I can give some titles a miss, and will. I encourage others to do the same. Don't pirate, just don't buy. If they want always on DRM, just give it a miss and get something else. There's tons and tons out there. You can't be a zealot about it and demand NO DRM EVAR! If you do that you'll find your selection fairly limited, however if you meet them half way and say "Only DRM that doesn't mess with my ability to play," you find a whole lot of games.
There are tons and tons of games out there with new ones coming out all the time. So long as you are willing to be pragmatic and meet publishers half way and accept DRM that doesn't interfere, you can find a shitload of games. None of my games do always-connected DRM except for maybe the multiplayer ones in which case I'd never know since I have to be connected to play them (actually they don't bother, just saying) and I have a bunch of them. Many do have DRM, but it is DRM that isn't a big deal.
Steam would be an example. I do have to be online to get the game, of course, since it is a download. However I can run it offline just fine. So my net goes down, no problem I can play my game. Another would be some of the activation based systems. I install game, it activates, and then never checks again.
Companies are testing the waters with this and the easy way to put a stop to it is to not buy. If they sell Title X with always on DRM and they do 20,000 sales and sell Title Y with regular DRM and do 2,000,000 sales they'll learn quick enough.
Even Ubisoft who has talked shit like this up and was the first big on to do it is highly schizophrenic about it. They have done releases without it, even from the same series (AC2 has always on DRM, AC Brotherhood does not).
Just don't buy, or pirate, shit that has it, stick to the many, many other titles and there you go.
This is what "the cloud" is all about. Why let people pay you once to own something when they can pay you forever to rent it?
Deleted
If you are that angry about it, don't buy the game.
Or, you could do something effectual, and not buy the game AND tell them why... just like 'whining' on a forum like Slashdot is accomplishing.
Millions of people don't buy games, just a little over a thousand got EA to change its DRM policy. Look up Spore.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
A risk? It's practically guaranteed. The only thing that isn't guaranteed is the timeframe. It's like buying a computer knowing that it has a timebomb inside that will destroy the CPU after a random period of time. It might go off after a week, or it might go off after three or four years, but it will go off.
Let's look at the history of DRM for a moment.
These are just a few of the types of content that have become inaccessible or are expected to soon become inaccessible because of the shutdown of DRM-related servers. In some cases, the content still functions on the original devices, but for most of the above list, it does not.
Buying games that will stop working if they can't contact a server isn't taking a risk. It's throwing money away. Taking a risk is buying products that require activation on new machines; at least the continued operation of your own equipment is, to an extent, under your control.
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After leaving the tabletop gaming market for the electronics game market, I find myself slowly returning to the tabletop gaming. Sure, there aren't as many good solo games (Lord of the Rings "living card game", Arkham Horror, etc). Sure, the cost is about the same - $50 to $100 plus $25 to $60 per expansion - and many of them are designed to only work in multiplayer mode. However, I don't have to activate over the internet each time I start the game, I never have to worry about a service going down for a month and preventing me from even opening my game, and I never have to worry about servers shutting down and causing my game to become non-functional. True, sometimes when I buy a used game there are components that are missing that can render it non-functional, so I have to be careful and check that the game is complete. Still, the best part is being able to play my game when my power is out. (Wish I had gotten back into the tabletop gaming before Heroscape got cancelled - that one looked fun, but its pricey to buy it used.)
Seriously, I was looking forward to a real sequel to SimCity, but this DRM scheme is something I want to avoid. At this point I think I'd rather head down to my local game shop during game night and have several hours of fun that way. With game companies also churning out the boardgames with great visuals (plastic figures, sometimes painted figures, colorful map tiles, tons of chipboard markers, higher quality art work, etc), the lack of DRM in tabletop games is a welcome relief from the electronic game lockdown. Heck, as fun as video games are, nothing beats a nice tense game of Pandemic + Over the Brink with my wife - best coop play I've ever seen in tabletop or electronic gaming!