Community Interviews Maxis: Part 1
You spoke, we listened! All of us here at Maxis value you, the community, and to show our thanks, we solicited all your burning SimCity questions last week on our blog. Now it’s time for us to give back our love in the form of answers. Lots (and lots) of answers. We combed through your comments and picked out some of the best questions for Creative Director Ocean Quigley, Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis, and Lead Designer Stone Librande to tackle. We got so many great questions, in fact, that we’re going to split up the answers into two parts.
Before we get to it, we just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to comment! If your question doesn’t get answered below, don’t worry, the second part of our Community Q&A will be coming soon. In the meantime, you can follow me, Michael Donahoe, the new SimCity Community Manager @Maxis_MD on Twitter to learn about all the fun and wacky stuff that goes down at the Maxis office. I love hearing what you have to say, so don’t be shy, OK?
Now for the main event: Your questions!
MamaLuigiST: Many people also feel that the textures look like "plastic" and are too clean and imperfect. Will this change before the release?
Creative Director Ocean Quigley: The textures are still being finalized. A lot of what we’re you seeing is a work in progress. We’re working hard on the building materials, so that glass looks like glass and metal looks like metal – the final buildings will have their own distinctive look and shouldn’t all look like they’re made out of cardboard or plastic. We’d like to point out that the buildings have a UI job to do as well. Buildings need to tell you how they’re doing, and if we make them look too noisy, then their simulation states are harder to see.
Romaq: What possible compelling benefit is there to "forced online play" even between regions where the players are in 'solo online play' that makes this a core required "feature?"
OQ: Your cities live on the cloud, and you can play them from any PC you like. If your PC is unplugged, your cities are safe, you can go over to your friend’s laptop and start playing. We don’t care where you install SimCity. Since your cities are on the cloud, we can give you rich online data visualizations, showing you the vitals of your city and how it compares to and relates to other cities in the SimCity world.
More prosaically, from its inception, we built this SimCity to be online and multiplayer. We’ve built servers to handle the simulation of regions and communication between cities in a region. We built servers to connect cities to global trade and commodity markets. A decent chunk of the simulation happens in the cloud.
And finally, the relationships between different cities and between different mayors are a big deal, and we think it’s one of the ways that we’re bringing new life to SimCity.
We have a lengthier response about this topic from a previous blog post I wrote. You’ll find more information here, SimCity: The Connection Between You and the World.
(German Community): Is it possible to customize something in the game like street names, signposts, hot spots for tourists etc. similar to SimCity 4 or The Sims?
Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis: We know customization is important to our fans and we’ve given players many ways to customize their cities. I can’t get into specifics at this time about what you’ll be able to name in SimCity, aside from City and Region names. However, every Ploppable building in the game is loaded with modules for players to unlock and use to customize their city. Choose from signs, flags, plants, fountains and more to give each of your Ploppables a personal touch. Our goal is to give players the control and the art to build unique pockets of their cities. You won’t have to read a name in a text box, you’ll be able to see it in world!
James A. (Facebook): What kind of resource industry will we see farming, coal mining, maybe fishing?
KK: Resources are an important part of SimCity and will feed many of the industries. These industries are meant to be the economic centers of your city. Some of the industries that you can build around harvesting resources include large scale mining operations and oil drilling. Other industries depend on these resources to make metals, alloys, and fuel. One thing to note, resources are finite, so make sure you have a backup plan for your city when those oil reserves run out!
hype_emperor: Is parking simulated in the new SimCity? Or, where do the cars go after arriving at their respective destinations?
KK: Good question. Parking is something we’ve toyed around with a lot in SimCity. Since our simulation is so detailed and we’re tracking all of our Sims and their vehicles, we found that we could easily create a Parking Lot Tycoon game if we weren’t careful. All buildings have parking and we represent some number of the cars at the building with surface parking. Additional cars are hidden in “underground” parking. There are a few Ploppables where parking is an important part of their game mechanic. The Stadiums for example have Parking Lot modules that players can add to increase their parking capacity.
Mkareha: How will solo region play work? From the trailers, it looks like the regions are composed of a bunch of isolated cities, separated by an automatic flat expressway that connects the cities. The way it looks in the trailers is not realistic at all. Will we have full control in the creation of highways, neighbor connects, modular road systems, etc.?
Lead Designer Stone Librande: Each city is connected to other cities in the region through a combination of roads and railroad tracks. Some centrally located cities may have access to many different connections, while cities located on the fringes of the region may have only one. Players do not have control of placing roads and rail in the region, but they have complete control over the road and rail networks within their city boundary.
Ilay160: Will there be new kind of parks, like a national park, or areas that people can go and camping?
SL: Yes, there will be parks in the city. Parks will make your Sims happy and increase the nearby land value. Parks also increase the “attraction level” of the city, which is used to determine how many tourists will visit.
German Community: What kind of traffic opportunities do you have and how can you control them?
SL: Traffic flows along the roads you place. The frequency of intersections, number of lanes, road type, and length of the road are used to determine the amount of congestion and how long it takes to get your Sims to their destination. The overall success (or failure) of a city is largely a function of how efficiently you have built your road system. You might not care if a few Sims can’t get to work on time, but you’ll feel the pressure when a fire truck can’t get to the scene of a fire and a key building burns to the ground.
But no matter how carefully you design your road network it will be difficult to keep the traffic flowing smoothly if your city is filled with densely populated skyscrapers. To avoid gridlock try building up your public transportation systems. Trams travel down a dedicated track in the middle of the street and are perfect for quickly shuttling Sims around within your city. Buses and passenger trains can be used to carry Sims to and from neighboring cities. If you happen to have a river running through your city you can build a boat dock to ferry your Sims.
Comments
Finally! Great question picks
Finally! Great question picks.. Informative answers.. Come on part 2!
Yeah, it is true.Replacing
Yeah, it is true.
Replacing damaged parquet flooring
I'm not sure I like that we
I'm not sure I like that we have no control of the area between cities (except for the big co-operative projects). In Sim CIty 4 I made some cities very small while some covered multiple "districts".
I agree. The only thing that
I agree. The only thing that was holding me over with the fixed map size of SC5 was the possibility of making larger cities from smaller maps. SC4 was great to me in part because it brought about a sense of scale with varied city sizes and huge regions. In a customized SC4 region, I would create 3 or 4 metropolitan cities on large tiles surrounded by suburbs and industrial cities on medium tiles and the outlying areas would be farmlands or landscaped forest and intercity highway.
You need to implement this
You need to implement this "around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users. Speaking of users"
Regards,
Child Support Attorney Palm Beach Gardens
"Players do not have control
"Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region."
.....Bad news everyone....bad news...we can't customized our transit network system, something that all fans wanted to control, and now MAXIS you are blocking it.
- no sprawling metropolis
- No control over the transit network system
- No multi-specialized cities
i can accept the fact that it will be online only, okay? but why do you cut through gameplay? why you do not let us have a customized transit network system and let us connect by rail, road, airport, waterways with anybody we want with cooperation ties between cities. Why can't we??
what's the point then to have mass transit system if we can't use it properly....if i don't want to be on the fringe of the map and that i HAVE to go there because everybody took better places, will i have to deal with only a ROAD connection for my freight and tourism??? what's the damn point MAXIS!?
Totally agree. The so
Totally agree. The so expected Simcity becomes less and less interesting. Simcity's success was based on customization and freedom to create networks. No subway or monorail...sadly. Custom made networks and buliding of the Simcity 4 community had to be an example of what really was missing from the game and try to expand it. I am afraid that Simcity 4 will remain top of all Simcity games.
What the **** ! No subway and
What the **** ! No subway and monorail in Simcity ! Everybody's dream is to create a metropolis in Simcity and subways are the base of a metropolis... But I won't say that Simcity will be a bad game, Maxis will do everything to make happy its fans and im pretty sure SC will be a good game online and in solo mode.
It'll be available in the
It'll be available in the SimCity Transit Expansion Pack, for only $29.99
There really is no point in
There really is no point in voicing our dislike for the forced always online DRM then right? No matter how much we say we don't want it - EA doesn't care. GIVE US THE OPTION!!! Cancelled my preorder - this is a game I will not be buying.
And you're pretty screwed if
And you're pretty screwed if you dont have a stable internet connection, or you're travelling, or or or or..... the list goes on why the always on is just a complete fail. Give us an option to rather play off-line and rather sync to the cloud when we want to.
not your Connection... their
not your Connection... their Servers.... hahaha i want my Money back
You can justify no off-line
You can justify no off-line play all you want: The question remains: what happens to the game once EA no longer makes money from it? How long before Simcity get kicked off the servers to make room for another game, leaving all of us with unusable software?
And why Maxis thought it is a good idea to have outside factors over which you have no control ruin your city is a good idea, no one knows! That's the whole POINT of Simcity: YOU are the context of your city.
Maxis, if you want this game to rival Simcity 4 (And it DOES have the potential to do that, GIVE US OUR OFFLINE MODE! It's a simple request, and it's one that can make or break this game.
Great questions and great
Great questions and great answers! Definitely alleviated most of my concerns... The fixed connection points between cities is a bit... different, then what we're used to, but I'm willing to give it a try.
Still not buying it. Your
Still not buying it. Your argument of forcing me online for solo play just isn't strong enough. I'm without internet connection far too often. I'm also smart enough to know when there might be a situation where I want to open my game from another place (visiting the parents, say), to be able to choose to cloudsave if I want to.
Look, I like the online aspect. I think it's cool and beneficial - but we also don't live in a world yet where being online 24/7 is possible and there are too many instances where I want to play a game like SimCity (while traveling, while on vacation at the lake, after EA pulls the servers) where I don't have access that I don't want to be hamstrung by this requirement.
I'm sorry, I hugely disagree.
I'm sorry, I hugely disagree. SimCity has always been about control and in sole player regions we should be able to create huge metropolises and control were exactly transportation should go in connection the regions. In SimCity 4 I always had a central city that was high dense connect with suburbs, there was no gap and the roads and transit were determined by this central city (wither on the center of the map, or hugging a feature like the ocean front.)
I can understand with multiusers there needs to be an agreed road connection scheme, but preferable let those who share a border agree between themselves were to place the road. With single user regions I should be in total control.
I don't mind the online cloud saves (provided you don't charge for the feature or delete my saves in 10 years when I'm still playing the game, because yes I do still play SimCity 4). But do not make reconsider buying this game by controlling where region connections are made.
I love that you put a link to
I love that you put a link to Ocean's forced online post, like it isn't the 2nd most commented and number one most viewed post on the forums. How did you think that would help the issue? The sad part, is that I'm confident many of you on the team wish the game could have an off-line option, but like many gamers, are just accepting that, while inconvenient, this is the "future" of the gaming industry and you can't do anything about it. Even you, Ocean. If the game is so rooted with online gameplay, I'm confident many would love if you pushed back the release date to give us an honest game that we can buy, and not just rent until the servers shut down. I will continue to fight this issue and refuse to buy because the gaming industry is going in a terrible direction with forced online, and now they're doing it to my favorite game of all time. Maxis, I beg you, be better that the others who've accepted this. Go against the grain. Make the next simcity right this time.
I would also like to add: One
I would also like to add: One of the best parts of Simcity 4 was the depth and breadth of it's God Mode. Having predetermined connections between your cities takes away so much freedom from the gameplay experience. You all act like you listen to us with this blog, but your responses make it clear that this is simply a concieved PR stunt. And finally: I WANT THIS GAME TO BE SUCCESSFUL! I want Ocean and all the rest to recieve fat bonuses in 2013. I want this game to fly off the shelves when the release date comes. I know I must seem like just another angry gamer, but really, I'm rooting for everyone on the development team. You all have come up with some truly amazing ideas for this game, but I know you guys won't find success if you keep going in the direction you're headed.
It seems the game is about 80
It seems the game is about 80% of the way there. Back when sim city societies was announced I was excited and expected to see a revamped version of SC4 but was disappointed by the 'dumbed down' simplistic approach. This new game seems to have most of the key components other sim city4 fans and I loved but as other members have commented, the cartoony graphics and restrictions to transit connections seem a bit worrying! Maxis need to be careful they don't loose touch with the expectations of their true fans. Being able to created sprawling metropolises in areas of my choice was one of the awe factors the game offered. Please sort these out and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. All we new is an upgrade! I do however, like the resource aspect!!
When they said:
When they said:
Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region.
I really hope they didn't mean you can't do that in solo mode, and that they just meant you can't place connections, because if you can't control the roads and other stuff INSIDE your city, especially in solo mode, I know I am not the only one that will be mad. I could deal with the forced online (I still don't like it) but with all of this stuff popping up about SimCity, I am going to have to wait about 2 weeks after it comes out to see what people think of it... cause I am hearing a lot of things I don't like or don't understand so far...
I left this out but if you
I left this out but if you can't control the roads inside your city, I seriously might stop playing the game just like I did with SimCity Societies.
Fuck EA, save money.
Fuck EA, save money.
I've been an excitable
I've been an excitable supporter of this game since it was announced. I've understood the rationale behind the online aspect and agreed with the view that a truly simulated city building experience should include variables imported from the wider world - economics and wider-world relationships - to name but two. However, I was also always under the impression that provided you had a brief but stable net connection to import/export the necessary variable data - mentioned by Ocean above - into the global community that the game would allow you to continue to 'solo-play' offline. I must admit the answers given in this Q&A session seem to indicate something to the contrary and for the first time I'm alarmed - along with everyone else it seems - that it's going to have a largely negative impact. Even the reasoning mentioned above seems rather weak - a growing number of PC users are now using laptop's and thanks to DRM technology it seems this game will buck the trend in allowing a user to install on multiple devices.
And the online/multiplayer aspect of the game is now impacting some of the fundamentals introduced to us in SC4. Rather than allowing the user to experience fewer boundaries, the developers are actually constricting the user even more by giving them a comparatively small 'sandbox' to develop which you cannot directly linked to neighbouring cities like the regions cleverly implemented in SC4. Fixed transport links feel like an added obstruction (rather than a challenge) to work around. Now, I can see why the developers have done this - having read other interviews - to be able to "import" a friend into a solely developed region - and to have that interconnectivity between single and multiplayer. But it's taking something away from the city building experience.
I can't help but feel - for the first time in following the new SimCity - that it's going to be like a - albeit very clever and beautiful - SimCity Social - defined by strict boundaries.
From Simtropolis
From Simtropolis
"My two biggest problems with the new game are:
1) The forced online global economy play. So many things can go wrong here, from servers being shut down in 10 months to the economy collapsing because of a few select players.
2) The removal of terraforming from the game. I want to make my dream city...thats what SimCity is all about. Not being able to do that and the pre-set connections to other cities are big problems for me.
I fell like this game isn't what the community really wanted...a sandbox offline solo mode is required. That is what built this series into what it is. Then the added negative of removing things we want in order to make the online gameplay work. We wouldn't have to have pre-set regions to insure all the resources are equal if there was an offline mode. I honestly don't know if I really want this game."
"'Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region.'
Players don't have control of how their cities connect to neighbors? That's ridiculous. This game is starting to sound less and less creative to me as a player. I don't want to spend my time building a region with others, I want to build a city that becomes a metropolis on it's own. Regions are nice, but not when it becomes the focus.
I think some things are nice about the multiplayer, but it sounds like we get no control on how things work and the #1 thing fans want is control and moddability of the game. We don't want the game to limit us from making a city the way we want it to be unless there is good real life reasons why. If everyones city can't be terraformed or change where the cities connect their transports, then it becomes the same every time.
Maxis... please rethink where this going. You still have time to change some of these things and you aren't thinking about the gameplay that"
"Don't think I'll be buying this on day one anymore.... ' Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region. ' Forced online play was bad enough... but THIS?!"
Maxis, listen to your fans...we want customization not online play. The fact that you are removing things we want in order to make the game work the way you want it is unbelievable. You need an offline solo sandbox mode. You are destroying what SimCity is. To the fans, if you really want to make a difference...speak with your wallet. Cancel your preorder and maybe then they will start to listen.
Sorry Maxis, but you have
Sorry Maxis, but you have failed to listen to your fan base about the whole online play thing. Forcing people to play a game online that requires people to pay $50-100+ for internet to just play the game just plain wrong. When your selling this game at $60.00 what you are really saying is $60.00 + internet service to play. Maxis, you have gotten far off the beaten path, get back on before it is too late.
You need to implement an offline mode where people can do whatever they want, whenever they want. If you do not listen to your fan base I am afraid your game will fall to the same pitfalls that Diablo 3 has. You are biased about your game being online and can't see behind your blind and ignorant judgement.
I am very hesitant to buy your game right now due to the fact this could be a failure in the long run. Ya its going to be great for the first 5 years or so, but what if you do wind up terminating the service for this game in the far future. You and EA could get sued major bucks for not giving the customer what they paid for. That is fraud actually. Pay heed to the warnings, don't make the same mistake that Blizzard did with their precious Diablo III, which is in my opinion in ruins. Now Blizzard is getting sued over there in Korea. And that will cost them big time, all due to poor understanding and not listening to their customers. I urge you to include an offline mode! For the sake of Simcity.
EA must hate their customers!
EA must hate their customers!
Simcity has been sucessful in the past because it allowed the player the freedoms required to create their own vision. EA limits our imagionation with restrictions (forced online play, regions that don't allow the user to make transit connections themselves, cloud saves that prevent gameplay if the web is down, etc.) EA refuses to listen to their customers! This is nothing new, if you have ever asked EA customer support for any help they give you a run around. I have played Simcity titles for 20 years, but i think I may CANCEL MY ORDER of the new simcity because EA will not listen to what its customers want. I, like many die hard fans, have been waiting a decade for a new REAL simcity title. But as the release date of this new game nears it becomes apparent that THIS IS NOT THE NEWEST SIMCITY title but A SEQUAL TO THE POORLY DEVELOPED SIMCITY SOCIETIES!
You can lead a horse to water
You can lead a horse to water...
EA, the true superfans of Simcity have spoken. We want options. Let the player decide if we want to participate in online gameplay, cloud saves, region creation, etc.
otherwise you are turning away the loyal fanbase. Many of us have played Simcity for decades and are serious about boycotting this release because the new features appear to limit the freedom of gameplay.
There are many other city titles that are out there, and many fail.
Your customers are telling EA what will make this title a failure, please listen to them. Make this title what the true fans of Simcity want and this game will encourage a new generation of players.
The game will FAIL if you do
The game will FAIL if you do not allow for single player regions like sc4.
This allows for players to connect cities and create dynamic interactions between them.
Taking this option away is cheating the players.
Let us create our own connections between regions for ourselves.
THIS IS REALLY BAD!!!!
THIS IS REALLY BAD!!!! "Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region."
We want to make our own neighbor connections.
I thought the idea of having the game online was to allow players to work together. Not fill in conections that are premade.
"Lead Designer Stone Librande
"Lead Designer Stone Librande: Each city is connected to other cities in the region through a combination of roads and railroad tracks. Some centrally located cities may have access to many different connections, while cities located on the fringes of the region may have only one. Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region."
From this are we to understand that cities in a region are essentially isolated from one another? Say for example I have a single player region (not online) with 40 tiles, can I spread my city over 40 tiles or will it essentially be 40 separate towns of 2x2km? If it's the latter you can't really call this simcity, more of a simtown. Though saying that most towns are larger than 2x2km in real life.
I really want to like this game, I want it to be a success so I really hope there has been a misunderstanding, if there hasn't been I can guarentee you've just lost 1000's of sales.
Unfortunately the buzz is
Unfortunately the buzz is regarding the fact that intercity travel will occur on land which cannot be controlled. Simply put, Simtown :(. Seeing a multitude of skylines in 2x2 areas does look a bit oversimplistic. A dumbed down region system like SC4 would be the least we could ask for. By the way, they said that regions can support up to 16 players. I wouldn't be surprised if this meant 4x4 cities in a region. I love Maxis but the sacrifices that seem to be happening here in preparation for online gameplay seem to give me de ja vu...Monte Cristo Games :(.
Simcity Social was a failure.
Simcity Social was a failure. So why try and incorperate ideas that failed in that release into this new simcity release. If everyone wanted to play simcity with a bunch of people involved Simcity Social is the game for them. Millions of die-hard sc4 fans still play a decade old game but won't go near the Simcity Social game. Why? because Simcity is a franchise that has succeeded because it allows the player so much freedom in their game play. Many play because their ego enjoys having so much power. We love seeing our decisions play out, knowing we were responsible for our success of failures. While many of us think it would bee a great idea to be able to work with friends to create a region, we are not excited to give up full control. Make it optional to choose who, if anyone, can participate in your region and this feature may have a chance of being the great feature EA feels that it is.
EA, The customers that are
EA, The customers that are complaining about theese features are the ones that pre-order the Digital Deluxe copies, and actually care enough to comment. By ignoring our request for making some features optional your company is turning away the key demographic. I have pre-ordered Simcity, and I am seriously considering canceling my order because it appears this new title is not built for loyal fans. Since EA won't listen to the many fans concerns. EA has let us down with Simcity DS, Simcity Creator, Simcity Societies, Simcity Social, so the new Simcity will make or break the future success of the franchise. I am at the point if EA continues to ignore its customers by not making changes customers request before release I will definately cancel my digital deluxe copy, and may never purchase another Simcity title.
I have enjoyed playing
I have enjoyed playing Simcity for twenty years... please listen to the community and make a game we, the true fans, want. The last titles since sc4 have been a slap In a loyal customer's face. EA will loose a loyal Simcity fan forever if they continue developing the new simcity without really listening to what we want.
I have played Simcity since
I have played Simcity since SC2000 came out. I still play SC4. I love the two games.
I WILL NOT BUY THE NEW SIMCITY!
EA Games will not listen to their customers.
We do not want forced online play. We don't want forced connections, roads, rail between regions. We have spoken and EA "PRETENDS" not to hear our concerns.
EA has DESTROYED the Simcity franchise!
This game is not called Simcity 5 or 6... whatever it is. because it is just a combo of Simcity Social and Simcity Socities. Two horrible games that show the direction of this new title.
SAVE YOUR MONEY! This new simcity will be a disapointment!
Why write a comment? EA WANTS
Why write a comment? EA WANTS YOUR MONEY NOT YOUR COMMENT!
Thousands of comments from players are IGNORED.
Speak with your wallet...I
Speak with your wallet...I bet they will hear you if no one buys the game. I'm serious people don't buy this game, you will be disappointed. At the very least cancel your preorder and wait for the reviews to see how good the game is. They keep refusing to listen to what the loyal fanbase wants. Go read Simtropolis like a bible Maxis. The forced online play was bad enough but now they are getting rid of things players want so they can make it work. You don't need premade regions if you can play in solo mode where there are no worries about everyone having an equal amount of resources and a connection to other cities so they can make their friends waste money too. I'm telling as many people as I can to boycott this. This isn't SimCity its SimCity Societies 2.
Totally agree. Let's vote
Totally agree. Let's vote with our wallet.
Lead Designer Stone Librande:
Lead Designer Stone Librande: Each city is connected to other cities in the region through a combination of roads and railroad tracks. Some centrally located cities may have access to many different connections, while cities located on the fringes of the region may have only one. Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region.
They didnt seriously just say that? No control over placing roads rail and waterways? WTF, why did they bother making this game? Thats a game killing mistake.
#LostmyBusiness
You can't control what's in
You can't control what's in the region, but you can control what's in your city area.
SAVE YOUR MONEY!
SAVE YOUR MONEY!
EA customer support is allready poor quality. (try and get support for Simcity4)
EA will not listen to customers. (see above blogs)
EA's latest attempts at Simcity have been massive failures. (EA made Simcity Societies, Social, Creator, etc. and each game has been a failure.)
EA's special announcement about the release of Simcity in March (was hours of "special guest" talking NOTHING about Simcity) (but a whole hour about the Inconveinent Truth documentary) (proving that EA is disconected from its fans)
DON'T LET EA FOOL YOU INTO ORDERING THIS GAME
there are other city simulation titles by other companies that fall short. (waste $20 on Cities XL and be dissapointed instead of $60 w/ the new Simcity and being heart broken that EA ruined Simcity)
Question?
Question?
:Why does EA ignore their customers?
Answer:
:because once you buy their product and the seal is broken you cannot return the product. So once you buy a crappy game your stuck with it and EA keeps your cash.
From the beginning, I was
From the beginning, I was almost proud that all of the important factors of bringing SimCity into the web enabled present and cloud based future were being supported.
To specifically say you could make a Tycoon game.. and then say.. oh no oops we wouldn't want to do that.. is nothing but a slap in the face. I wasn't actually planning to abandon all hope.. but ok.
I am disconsolate with the reduction of the games scope. With the nacent "retake simCity from forced online" movement that is inevitable because this issue is being so poorly handled... are you people not aware of Mass Effect 3's debacle.. or was that, and this, just 'clever' marketing?
Granted, because Maxis says so, that the game's simulation is hosted partly or mostly in the cloud.. there is no apparent benefit to this if there's no offline component. That's as far as I care to comment on that topic. Just say that as simplified as it is, the game can't run (for long) offline. Otherwise the 'feature' is just the worst DRM EA has come up with yet.
But with the game itself being smaller in scope, automatically veterans and advanced players will have something real to complain about, and the focused on casual gamers is just disappointing. After years waiting for Maxis to be able to dust of the PC classic, which is an essential pillar in PC gaming... with so much apparent potential.. I don't know. I can only ask why the game is being designed with casuals and apparently the next generation of children in mind.. when veterans are left with the same experience. Where's SimCity 5 then?
Even though thousands of
Even though thousands of customers don't like many of the new restrictions on Simcity and feel that it will negativly affect the gameplay of the new Simcity. EA continues to charge ahead with the development of the features that we the players do not want.
WHY IS THERE A BLOG SPOT ON
WHY IS THERE A BLOG SPOT ON THIS SITE?
IT ONLY PROVES THAT EA GAMES WILL NOT LISTEN TO ITS CUSTOMERS!
Exactly.
Exactly.
Maybe we're just supposed to accept it as fair warning.
I was so excited to hear that
I was so excited to hear that a new Simcity was comming out.
Untill I read all of the blogs. EA is so disconnected with the wants of their customer. The more I read the more I get dissapointed. Why won't you listen to what your customers want EA?
My order is CANCELLED.
Simcity Societies, Simcity
Simcity Societies, Simcity Social both failed.
Bet this title will also.
I placed a pre-order with the
I placed a pre-order with the expectation that this new game was going to be more of what I loved about SC4. It appears that much of what I enjoyed about SC4 will not be there. This new Simcity should not be called Simcity at all. (Maybe call it Simcity Societies 2) So we know that it is a completely new game that limits you the same way societies did. EA I am afraid this new release will not deliver the same satisfaction that Simcity 4 did. It seems too restrictive. I can't even decide my neighbor connections... I am saving my money for the new Cities XL.
EA, Maxis: Why do you believe
EA, Maxis: Why do you believe that online, constant connectivity is more important than allowing at least the same amount of freedom SC, SC2000, SC3000, and SC4000 allowed players, if not taking this great opportunity to expand upon that freedom?
Why do you believe online/multiplayer experiences are mutually exclusive with open ended, unlimited, unconfined sandbox mode? Some agree with you, but most people disagree with you. Why not give something to both parties?
The fan base has two primary concerns:
1) SC4 is probably one of the single best valued games out there. You are severely reducing the value of SC 2013 for fans by limiting when, where, and for how long customers can play the game.
2) You further reduce the value, by a significant amount, by limiting gameplay to fit cities into a multi-player region.
These two reductions in value clearly outweigh the additions in value that awesome things like glassbox regional co-operation, and a global economy provide for most in the SC community. It would seem to make more business sense to, instead of focusing on only the online aspect, you would focus on the core sandbox aspect, and then add-on the online aspect to provide additional value.
A great example of a franchise that has done just this is Halo. First is was FPS, then they added online matchmaking, then they added forge and theater, now they are adding episodic co-op. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to follow this model of game expansion. It would seem to me to be more profitable, and keep more if not most of your customers happy, while adding customers. Further, customers would go from, 'expletive, expletive, I'm canceling my pre-order' as in the case of this very forum, to 'shut up, get to work on the next awesome game, and take more of my money already!' as is the case right now in most of the Halo forums.
To summerize: 1) it would make you more $$$$$$$$$$$$$, 2), it would create a better experience in the minds of a broader customer base.
Please, address this issue with more than just sticking to your guns and doubling down. If not for the customers out there who love SC, then do if for the man, who loves more $$$.
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