A couple weeks ago, the SimCity gang at Maxis held an AMA at Reddit. That may not have been such a smart idea. They donât like DRM over there, for any reason, and SimCityâs gonna require an always-on Internet connection to play it, in any mode. Itâs no surprise that this comment, a compendium of anti-DRM remarks, was the most upvoted question of the entire AMA. Or that it went completely unaddressed.
Well, Maxisâ Lucy Bradshaw has responded to this DRM food fight, sort of. Earlier comments on the always-on connection attributed it to the fact Maxis is building what it considers to be a multiplayer game. To this, Bradshaw adds the always-on connection is necessary because thereâs an enormous amount of cloud computing required to power this game, billed as the most advanced in SimCityâs history. Itâs not something your individual PC will be able to handle on its own, not when the cloud servers are handling up to 100,000 Sims inside each city.
https://lastchance.cc/simcity-is-online-only-but-it-promises-not-to-repeat-d-5915377%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
It may be that this is a city-building MMOâand server downtime notwithstanding, you donât hear people complaining about an always-on connection in that genre, right? Right. But SimCity isnât really an MMO, because games in that genre can only be played in a world populated by other connected players. Maxis makes a point of saying you may play SimCity solo in a private game, like Diablo III. Which had an always-on connection. Which everyone hated.
Bottom line, weâre talking about Electronic Arts, an always-on connection, and a game utterly dependent on servers that the publisher could one day shut down. Thatâs enough to kick up a stink no matter what the game is, even one as loved and anticipated as SimCity
The Benefits of Live Service [SimCity Official Site]
