5 ms·

sigh I'll need to create an Origin account and always be online to play this, right? I miss the days when we could simply install a game. The only validation be

by navs 14y ago

sigh I'll need to create an Origin account and always be online to play this, right? I miss the days when we could simply install a game. The only validation being a product key.

jmsduran 14y ago
Agreed. A growing number of games are requiring a persistent online connection for DRM verification. I miss that feeling of being able to completely disconnect from the Internet and just enjoy gaming on my local machine.
- DrStalker 14y ago
  Sim City isn't just online for DRM, it's a multiplayer only game like Diablo III. There is no single player, there is only making an online game without other people. There is no reloading an earlier save, there is the persistence of an MMO. It's a shame, I would have loved a new single player city building sim but after seeing how badly Blizzard screwed Diablo III there's no way I'm trusting EA to manage this.
morsch 14y ago
They also seem to be hostile towards modding, which is a shame, since extensive modding has kept SimCity 4 alive to this day, close to 10 years after its release. A cold gesture towards their fan community, as well.
scrumper 14y ago
Well Origin does have an offline mode, IIRC. Online to activate, then you can play away from a connection if you want. It's a shame, and it's inconvenient, frustrating, only hurts legitimate players and won't do a thing to stop piracy, but it does mean that a multi-billion dollar corporation greenlit a fantastically nerdy sandbox sim and gave it a triple-A budget. If that's what it takes to keep their board happy, so be it. I would rather take the slight-to-moderate pain of EA/Origin DRM and have an honest-to-goodness SimCity 5 to play than not have one at all. And come on, this really does look like it's going to be brilliant, doesn't it? The enthusiasm of those engine designers was obvious, and there's a lot of talk of how it's going to be even richer than previous versions (2K, 4 Rush Hour.)
- DrStalker 14y ago
  Sim City will not not work offline, even if Origin does. http://kotaku.com/5915377/like-diablo-iii-sim-city-will-require-an-online-connection http://kotaku.com/5915377/like-diablo-iii-sim-city-will-requ... It's also not going to let you reload an earlier savegame - your city is in a persistent world, even if you want to play in a private region without other people. I'm skipping this one; I'd rather feel I was missing out on a good game than become bitter trying to actually play it the way I want.
  - scrumper 14y ago
    Oh no, that's dreadful. Thanks for the clarification anyway.
  - morsch 14y ago
    I think there's ample market for a good "indie" city sim. Simple, stylized graphics with a focus on the transportation network and the ability to model real-world cities in the game. And as much moddability as possible. SimCity 4 was sometimes criticized for being too difficult and complicated, and what few city sims we've had since SC4 -- and that may include the new Sim City -- tried to appeal to a broader audience, but they have all done so at the cost of alienating the more "hard core" sim fans. They're all still playing a heavily modified SC4, but the game is showing its age.
    - yellowbkpk 14y ago
      Have you played OpenTTD? http://www.openttd.org/en/ http://www.openttd.org/en/ It focuses on transit, but it's an excellent game and very open ended.
    - hk_kh 14y ago
      Chris Sawyer was the one. In any case: "Cities in Motion" is a pretty good game IMHO, not sure if I would call it indie.
  - bduerst 14y ago
    Welp, it looks like there's going to be a localhost server hack.
vibrunazo 14y ago
> I miss the days when we could simply install a game. When was that? A decade ago my games required me to put the CD in the drive to play. And two decades ago my games required me to find random words in the user manual to make sure I wasn't a pirate. I hate the game needing me to stay online. And it's a stupid strategy to hurt legitimate users to try to stop pirates. But to be honest, that's much less bad than what came before it :P
- barrkel 14y ago
  No, it's worse; in 5 or 10 years, you may no longer be able to play these games. With CDs / manuals, it's not a problem. I'm currently playing (or rather, trying to play) Assassin's Creed. It's a series I never got into, so I bought the first two on Steam. Guess what? The servers at Ubisoft have been turned off. This leads to multi-second pauses every 60 seconds, and after various game events - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046228 http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046... . At least the game still sort-of works, but if they "improve" the DRM any further, they'll be completely broken in the future.
  - bduerst 14y ago
    You lose a CD or Manual (with install code) and you're SOL when it comes time to play the game again. I hate DRM as much as the next guy but installing from server accounts is amazing.
    - barrkel 14y ago
      In principle, I agree. But I haven't lost any CDs or manuals; if anything, they've become collectible items. Importantly, I have control over them; and no-cd cracks aren't exactly rare. But with servers, there is no control. And it seems an obvious further development of DRM is to host some of the application code remotely, so that no simple workaround will be available to your children, should they want to see what games were like in your youth.
      - 14y ago
sbmassey 14y ago
Just be happy it's not being remade as a FPS
- navs 14y ago
  I suppose I should be glad they decided to continue making a full game and not just build something akin to Sims Social on Facebook/iOS/Android.

by navs 14y ago

sigh I'll need to create an Origin account and always be online to play this, right? I miss the days when we could simply install a game. The only validation being a product key.

jmsduran 14y ago

Agreed. A growing number of games are requiring a persistent online connection for DRM verification. I miss that feeling of being able to completely disconnect from the Internet and just enjoy gaming on my local machine.

DrStalker 14y ago
Sim City isn't just online for DRM, it's a multiplayer only game like Diablo III. There is no single player, there is only making an online game without other people. There is no reloading an earlier save, there is the persistence of an MMO. It's a shame, I would have loved a new single player city building sim but after seeing how badly Blizzard screwed Diablo III there's no way I'm trusting EA to manage this.

morsch 14y ago

They also seem to be hostile towards modding, which is a shame, since extensive modding has kept SimCity 4 alive to this day, close to 10 years after its release. A cold gesture towards their fan community, as well.

scrumper 14y ago

Well Origin does have an offline mode, IIRC. Online to activate, then you can play away from a connection if you want. It's a shame, and it's inconvenient, frustrating, only hurts legitimate players and won't do a thing to stop piracy, but it does mean that a multi-billion dollar corporation greenlit a fantastically nerdy sandbox sim and gave it a triple-A budget. If that's what it takes to keep their board happy, so be it. I would rather take the slight-to-moderate pain of EA/Origin DRM and have an honest-to-goodness SimCity 5 to play than not have one at all. And come on, this really does look like it's going to be brilliant, doesn't it? The enthusiasm of those engine designers was obvious, and there's a lot of talk of how it's going to be even richer than previous versions (2K, 4 Rush Hour.)

DrStalker 14y ago
Sim City will not not work offline, even if Origin does. http://kotaku.com/5915377/like-diablo-iii-sim-city-will-require-an-online-connection http://kotaku.com/5915377/like-diablo-iii-sim-city-will-requ... It's also not going to let you reload an earlier savegame - your city is in a persistent world, even if you want to play in a private region without other people. I'm skipping this one; I'd rather feel I was missing out on a good game than become bitter trying to actually play it the way I want.
- scrumper 14y ago
  Oh no, that's dreadful. Thanks for the clarification anyway.
- morsch 14y ago
  I think there's ample market for a good "indie" city sim. Simple, stylized graphics with a focus on the transportation network and the ability to model real-world cities in the game. And as much moddability as possible. SimCity 4 was sometimes criticized for being too difficult and complicated, and what few city sims we've had since SC4 -- and that may include the new Sim City -- tried to appeal to a broader audience, but they have all done so at the cost of alienating the more "hard core" sim fans. They're all still playing a heavily modified SC4, but the game is showing its age.
  - yellowbkpk 14y ago
    Have you played OpenTTD? http://www.openttd.org/en/ http://www.openttd.org/en/ It focuses on transit, but it's an excellent game and very open ended.
  - hk_kh 14y ago
    Chris Sawyer was the one. In any case: "Cities in Motion" is a pretty good game IMHO, not sure if I would call it indie.
- bduerst 14y ago
  Welp, it looks like there's going to be a localhost server hack.

vibrunazo 14y ago

> I miss the days when we could simply install a game. When was that? A decade ago my games required me to put the CD in the drive to play. And two decades ago my games required me to find random words in the user manual to make sure I wasn't a pirate. I hate the game needing me to stay online. And it's a stupid strategy to hurt legitimate users to try to stop pirates. But to be honest, that's much less bad than what came before it :P

barrkel 14y ago
No, it's worse; in 5 or 10 years, you may no longer be able to play these games. With CDs / manuals, it's not a problem. I'm currently playing (or rather, trying to play) Assassin's Creed. It's a series I never got into, so I bought the first two on Steam. Guess what? The servers at Ubisoft have been turned off. This leads to multi-second pauses every 60 seconds, and after various game events - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046228 http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046... . At least the game still sort-of works, but if they "improve" the DRM any further, they'll be completely broken in the future.
- bduerst 14y ago
  You lose a CD or Manual (with install code) and you're SOL when it comes time to play the game again. I hate DRM as much as the next guy but installing from server accounts is amazing.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    In principle, I agree. But I haven't lost any CDs or manuals; if anything, they've become collectible items. Importantly, I have control over them; and no-cd cracks aren't exactly rare. But with servers, there is no control. And it seems an obvious further development of DRM is to host some of the application code remotely, so that no simple workaround will be available to your children, should they want to see what games were like in your youth.
    - 14y ago

sbmassey 14y ago

Just be happy it's not being remade as a FPS

navs 14y ago
I suppose I should be glad they decided to continue making a full game and not just build something akin to Sims Social on Facebook/iOS/Android.