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?
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 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.
-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.
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.
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.
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?
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