
DISCLAIMER: I don't have an issue with always online nor an mmo stance on a game. This is not a witch hunt against EA. I play a lot of their games and enjoy them. But what prompted this article to be written is having a problem with false information given to sooth the public outcry.
General manager Lucy Bradshaw began fielding questions via Twitter this afternoon. When asked about an offline mode patch for the future, should the servers go offline in a few years, Bradshaw responded with the following:
We have no intention of offlining SimCity any time soon but we'll look into that as part of our earning back your trust efforts.
Red Flag number ONE. How many times have we read a post or press release telling us from Quigly or another that the game was built to be ONLINE and OFFLINE could not be a possibility. Ok so to me we have a moment of "Let's (EA) say whatever we can to appease the massive amount of pissed off people". Sure good PR move.. but it continues:
Bradshaw says:
Oh OK. Well that makes sense. Not gonna throw a flag on this play, all seems well... or IS IT!?!?"an online interconnected world has been part of our design philosophy since day one."
She continues:
REDFLAG 2"It wouldn't be possible to make the game offline without a significant amount of engineering work by our team,"
The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible
So what the hell is she talking about that she will look into it? She just said THERE it is JUST NOT POSSIBLE. That means you CANNOT DO IT. In case you needed another word to mean IMPOSSIBLE.
Now here is where I call some serious BULLSHIT:
RED FLAG # 3Bradshaw added that the game's online only design "is on Maxis," and that EA did not "force design" upon them.
Is this real life? I heard a lot of We, Our, Intentions, Etc.. then I hear Keanu Reeves screaming in the distance, DO NOT GO UNDER 40 MPH!!! And there you see little Maxis... trying desperately to connect to home in SimCity, but alas the GIANT BUS with Bradshaw doing a really bad Reeves impersonation in it beats him to it as the servers are once again down and his key just won't connect. As the Maxis guy turns, he sees blurry eyed and on his last breath the side of the Bus saying: EA's Next Title.
Ok extravagant stories aside, what is my point here?
I worked in the gaming industry, there is NO FUCKING WAY any designer is stupid enough to want DRM on their product. Sorry. NO.
For EA to say they had NOTHING to do with the online part of this game after all the quotes above saying "we, us, our" etc that they were involved is TOTAL BS.
But then they follow up with:
Oh yay a free game! Now I am not pissed off anymore that the game I currently own STILL doesn't work. And features I paid to have working have been removed from the game for "an unknown amount of time."You'll be getting more information on the March 18th. And you will have choices.
Take articles like this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...stizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/
A supposed EA employee posted some very public thoughts on what he thought happened... I will let you read it but here is an idea:
You take that with the multiple EA statements we have seen released to the press and public about the amazing online features etc, and you look at that simple quote from Bradshaw:You can’t even pretend that you didn’t know consumers would be angry about this. Common sense aside, consumers complained about this during your public betas. In fact, when one of them posted his criticisms on the forums, he was banned! You tried to silence your critics. The same thing is happening now as users write in to demand refunds. What part of this behavior aligns with our company value to Be Accountable?
What you’ve demonstrated with this launch is that our corporate management does not believe in our core values. They are for the unwashed masses, not for the important people who forced this anti-consumer DRM onto the Sim City team. This DRM scheme is not about the consumers or even about piracy. It’s about covering your own asses. It allows you to hand-wave weak sales or bad reviews and blame outside factors like pirates or server failures in the event the game struggles. You are protecting your own jobs at the expense of consumers. I think this violates the Act With Integrity value I’m looking at on my own coffee mug right now.
And you need to really question here, is EA trying to fix the problem, or is EA blowing more smoke up out asses, giving us a free game as a pacifier, shifting blame, and hoping this shit will just blow over sooner than later. Because if it is the latter, ohhhh man oh mannnn, the internet is NOT dumb, gamers are NOT dumb, and god I hope we can wake up and stop being so forgiving, time after time... when nothing changes. Our mystery poster sums it up the best:Bradshaw added that the game's online only design "is on Maxis," and that EA did not "force design" upon them.
Finally I’d like to ask you to follow the last company value on the list in the future: Learn and Grow. When you made this mistake with Spore, the company and all your employees suffered for it. You didn’t learn from that mistake and you are making it again with Sim City.
So please, learn from this debacle. Don’t do this again. Grow into better leaders and actually apply our company values when you make decisions. Don’t just use them as tools to motivate your staff. With the money, talent and intellectual property available to EA, we should be leading the industry into a golden age of consumer-focused game publishing. Instead we’re the most reviled game publisher in the world. That’s your fault. Things can only change if you actually start following the company values and apply them to every title we launch.
Sincerely,
A Disappointed But Hopeful Artist at EARS
Maxis I salute you for a great franchise that is SimCity. I am just sorry it is getting spoiled due to EA's incompetence. But also as a company in charge of a great game, you too should have put emphasis on what you believed it. Look at the history between Blizzard and Vivendi. Stick up for your ideas or don't publish IMO.

Sources: http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/9/408...of-offlining-simcity-but-will-look-into-it-to