''Everyone’s connected all the time, so we felt like it would be fine to do that'': EA Maxis on Always-Online DRM, Sheep, Mutants and More in SimCity

[André Axe'm]

And even if I was online all the time, I'm not uploading save data to a cloud all the time.

[Disco LT]

I don't approve of DRM, and it's laughable how easy it is to avoid by sourcing your games elsewhere. I don't understand why game developers refuse to see that.

An example would be recently when I went on vacation, I had little to no access to internet for a fortnight. What little I did have was by hot spotting my iPhone to my iPad/laptop to surf the net. I did play a few video games in some down time, but with always on DRM I wouldn't have been able to do it.

It's fair to see that on one hand, most people probably are connected 99% of the time, but on the other hand it's not always convenient, and I'm not just talking about if there is a power outage, or your ADSL/Cable is down.

I don't object to my saved games being uploaded, but I also want them stored locally and the option to disable the cloud save.

[André Axe'm]

Wait...
If our saves are being uploaded and used to influence other cities, does that mean that time is running when we are offline?

[Overture]

I don't care what this spin is, this is straight out DRM.
And Simcity 5, it isn't. Simcity online, it is.

Not for me, and no money for them.

[Marius]

On topic, the third question of the interview cracked me up.

[vcatkiller]

With all this talk about always on internet connection so that gamer's cities can apparently on some level interact with one another by city specialization and cities stored on clouds and whatnot, one thing really baffles me about the whole situation that may have me staring at the ceiling until the wee hours of the morning, constantly going over it in my mind until I leave my bed in the early morning a bleary-eyed tired mess.

You had an interview, and the opening question is about sheep?

[Toby McCasker]

You had an interview, and the opening question is about sheep?

It's a silly story. One Snezana of EA infamy had just been gifted a toy sheep by a few of the Chillingo guys and this captivated everyone within a 100-mile radius for the rest of the day.

[Frontl1ne]

People are going to love lagging their nuts off playing SP games while waiting for their digitally distributed games to download in the near future.

Heh. Talk about two steps backwards.

[TheD]

DRM is DRM.

[Lumen Melano]

I definitely don't like where AAA is heading. Each game as a service is a bad idea. D3 doesn't even run on your computer, Simcity has a persistent world whether you like it or not. Gaming as a hobby is being dictated by the developer because every game has a service attached to it. I was becoming hopeful with what seems to be the slow decline of MMOs, but now it seems that most games that come out will have a shelf life. Of all the blockbuster games, which ones will we still be able to play 10-15 years down the track?

[Aphyosis]

When i was a Teenager and before i had any real idea how all this equipment worked, i used to have horrifically unreliable internet. Constant drop outs, speed fluctuation and considering i played WoW at the time, very iffy raid reliability.

ISP could find absolutely nothing wrong with the line and the problem came and went, so i persisted with it for months. In the end i cracked the **** and yanked the wall point off the wall. The old lead cable had fallen to pieces and one of the wires was resting on the plaster clip. Whenever the house vibrated (People walking, even my sub when playing music loud) would jump the wire off the clip and back down again, making me lose Sync.

Two friends of mine also hung off a congested exchange, giving very inconsistent connections. Between the three of us (Especially being a licensed cabler now and having seen some of the infrastructure around...) I'm a touch skeptical about these always on games.

It's unfortunately not that convenient...(Plus, i like to play games on the move! I spent 4 months away from home last year upgrading infrastructure and gaming on my work laptop. That would not have been possible with this sort of scheme in place. Somewhat ironic no?)

[Marius]

I definitely don't like where AAA is heading. Each game as a service is a bad idea. D3 doesn't even run on your computer, Simcity has a persistent world whether you like it or not. Gaming as a hobby is being dictated by the developer because every game has a service attached to it. I was becoming hopeful with what seems to be the slow decline of MMOs, but now it seems that most games that come out will have a shelf life. Of all the blockbuster games, which ones will we still be able to play 10-15 years down the track?

While this is a concern, how are games able to justify years of development investment without significant online components?

Like it or not, that's where the money is, and really the only way publishers can afford to make AAA games.

You brought up the example of D3, and that had hundreds of people working on it for about 8 or so years. That level of work simply can't be supported through single player box sales.

In contrast, D2 had a much smaller team working on it for about 2-3 years.

[meji]

I will say, I kind of like the idea of cities influencing other cities, I think this actually will bring a new element to the game rather than oh Megaopolis will give you 1000 simoleons a month to take their trash.

I look forward to creating Bumsville, Plopstown and the ever popular Garbopolis and seeing exactly how much havoc I can ravage upon my hoity-toity neighbours in Classville and Suvburgh.

[Joshsux]

idc, when the fk do I never have net ? Never... it's not like I take my pc out to play games... Won't bother me, Nor will I even really notice.

I'm a Anti-Anti EA hater, **** ya'll!!!

[vcatkiller]

You had an interview, and the opening question is about sheep?

It's a silly story. One Snezana of EA infamy had just been gifted a toy sheep by a few of the Chillingo guys and this captivated everyone within a 100-mile radius for the rest of the day.

Ah explains it, I must be outside that 100-mile radius.