[flickr id=”8291537733″ thumbnail=”original” overlay=”false” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”] Hi everyone – I’m Lucy Bradshaw and I lead the Maxis Label here at EA. Last week, we held a Reddit Ask Me Almost Anything (AMAA) where we gave fans a chance to speak directly to the development team creating SimCity. First off, I want to personally thank everyone who asked us questions and participated in the event –the team really appreciates your feedback. We received some great questions on a range of topics, including the city size, the GlassBox engine powering SimCity, and even how many splines we’ve reticulated over the years (short answer: a lot).
One particular topic that was brought up during the chat was our decision to require an online connection to play the game. I’ve also been talking to fans directly on this subject and I wanted to put some of my thoughts on this here on our blog. I understand why this may be a concern for fans who have been playing SimCity for decades now. Like all of you, I’m a long-time SimCity fan. But it’s not just me – we have several veterans from previous versions of the game here at the Maxis studio, and we are all proud and excited about the game we’re making and we think you’ll really love it.
Creating a connected experience has always been a goal for SimCity, and this design decision has driven our development process for the game. This is easily the most ambitious game in the franchise and we’ve taken great care to make sure that every line of code embodies the spirit of the series. To do this, we knew we had to make sure we put our heart and souls into the simulation and the team created the most powerful simulation engine in its history, the GlassBox Engine. GlassBox is the engine that drives the entire game — the buildings, the economics, trading, and also the overall simulation that can track data for up to 100,000 individual Sims inside each city. There is a massive amount of computing that goes into all of this, and GlassBox works by attributing portions of the computing to EA servers (the cloud) and some on the player’s local computer.
Perhaps Ocean said it best when he said that real cities do not exist in a bubble; they share a region and affect one another. GlassBox does more than just segregate computing tasks, it also allows us to make it so that you can create specialized cities that are visually unique and personalized, and that can be economically integrated into a larger region. You’re always connected to the neighbors in your region so while you play, data from your city interacts with our servers, and we run the simulation at a regional scale. For example, trades between cities, simulation effects that cause change across the region like pollution or crime, as well as depletion of resources, are all processed on the servers and then data is sent back to your city on your PC. Every city in the region is updated every three minutes, which keeps the overall region in sync and makes your decisions in your city relevant to any changes that have taken place in the region.
Running the regional simulation on our servers is something we also use to support features that will make this SimCity even more fun. We use the Sim data to update worldwide leaderboards, where you get to see your city or mayoral standings as compared to the other cities in your region and between all of the regions in the world. And since SimCity is a live service, we’re also using the data to create weekly global and local challenges for our players that keep the gameplay fresh and surprising.
We think this is the best SimCity ever and it wouldn’t be possible without the technology that powers our game. SimCity was designed to be connected from the ground up. We built the game around GlassBox, which takes the game to another level. And, we’ve given the player control over how to play. You can set your region to private and never interact with other people, or you can play exclusively with friends or join a public region.
We’re entering the final stages of development. We’re still tuning and refining the game but already it has that special magic that sucked me into the franchise in the first place. We really look forward to seeing what you will create and how you will Mayor come March 5th.
Thanks,
Lucy
One particular topic that was brought up during the chat was our decision to require an online connection to play the game. I’ve also been talking to fans directly on this subject and I wanted to put some of my thoughts on this here on our blog. I understand why this may be a concern for fans who have been playing SimCity for decades now. Like all of you, I’m a long-time SimCity fan. But it’s not just me – we have several veterans from previous versions of the game here at the Maxis studio, and we are all proud and excited about the game we’re making and we think you’ll really love it.
Creating a connected experience has always been a goal for SimCity, and this design decision has driven our development process for the game. This is easily the most ambitious game in the franchise and we’ve taken great care to make sure that every line of code embodies the spirit of the series. To do this, we knew we had to make sure we put our heart and souls into the simulation and the team created the most powerful simulation engine in its history, the GlassBox Engine. GlassBox is the engine that drives the entire game — the buildings, the economics, trading, and also the overall simulation that can track data for up to 100,000 individual Sims inside each city. There is a massive amount of computing that goes into all of this, and GlassBox works by attributing portions of the computing to EA servers (the cloud) and some on the player’s local computer.
Perhaps Ocean said it best when he said that real cities do not exist in a bubble; they share a region and affect one another. GlassBox does more than just segregate computing tasks, it also allows us to make it so that you can create specialized cities that are visually unique and personalized, and that can be economically integrated into a larger region. You’re always connected to the neighbors in your region so while you play, data from your city interacts with our servers, and we run the simulation at a regional scale. For example, trades between cities, simulation effects that cause change across the region like pollution or crime, as well as depletion of resources, are all processed on the servers and then data is sent back to your city on your PC. Every city in the region is updated every three minutes, which keeps the overall region in sync and makes your decisions in your city relevant to any changes that have taken place in the region.
Running the regional simulation on our servers is something we also use to support features that will make this SimCity even more fun. We use the Sim data to update worldwide leaderboards, where you get to see your city or mayoral standings as compared to the other cities in your region and between all of the regions in the world. And since SimCity is a live service, we’re also using the data to create weekly global and local challenges for our players that keep the gameplay fresh and surprising.
We think this is the best SimCity ever and it wouldn’t be possible without the technology that powers our game. SimCity was designed to be connected from the ground up. We built the game around GlassBox, which takes the game to another level. And, we’ve given the player control over how to play. You can set your region to private and never interact with other people, or you can play exclusively with friends or join a public region.
We’re entering the final stages of development. We’re still tuning and refining the game but already it has that special magic that sucked me into the franchise in the first place. We really look forward to seeing what you will create and how you will Mayor come March 5th.
Thanks,
Lucy
Well that tears it. It breaks my heart, but if an online connection is required to play, then I won’t be playing.
But it doesn’t need perpetual internet connection? I mean, what if the connection failed at some point while playing, what will happen?
I have faith that the modding community will find a loop hole and allow us to play the game without a constant internet connection.
They should have given the option to turn off all the wonderful online features they they know we will love and let us play in our, “bubble” like we always have and love.
What’s next Sims 4 will have constant online connection so we can Woohoo with sims across the world? It’s just a plain stupid idea, I don’t want some people ruining and affecting my city, and likewise and don’t want to wreak someone else city…
It seems foolish, and I’m probably blowing this out of proportion, and by next year we won’t even care about this nonsense and be more concerned about how EA still hasn’t fixed those bugs since the games release. 🙂
Have a good day.
This requirement is not going to change. They’re just trying to put a spin to the story in their favour. Cities in SC4 didn’t exist in a “bubble”; it’s just an excuse for EA’s DRM campaign.
Maybe I don’t want to play with other people. Maybe I play SimCity to get away from other people. Maybe, just maybe, I want to be anti-social which is why I purchase games like SimCity in the first place. I just can’t help feeling like I’m going to have to interact with people for no other reason than because they’re there. Bottom line – not getting this game.
It’s very simple to me. Always-online singleplayer means I’m not buying.
Very disappointed. I think the online features sound cool, but they should NEVER be fully required. I don’t buy that a “massive” amount of computing has to be done and that they had to use the “cloud” to accomplish this.
In fact, if you read what she says, it is only required for other cities in the region. If you didn’t have other cities, then you wouldn’t need their servers at all. Turning this on or off should be an option. Period. And if it isn’t, even as a loooong time SimAnything player, I will not be getting this incarnation of Sim City.
I doubt Lucy or anyone else from EA/Maxis will see this, but if you do, know that this type of DRM turns off people who actually want to play your games, and who would be buying them if the DRM didn’t exist…
Unless EA decides to allow players to play offline, this will be the first Sim City I won’t be purchasing (or at least I won’t purchase until I find it at the bargain bin for $5 or less, the same way I only purchased DarkSpore when it was that cheap).
BTW: If we can set our region to “private”, why not allow players to run their private region simulation on their own machines?
That’s it – I’m out 🙁
Going to cancel my pre-order from Amazon.co.uk right away…
If this game is set up similar to an online game such as Guild Wars, it won’t be so easy to crack. The playing server may have to be fully emulated in order to play the game “offline”, so to speak. I thought I read that SimCity was to require online connection to authenticate first before each time you play. After that, you can go offline. But if not, then SimCity is just a new form of SimCity Social. It’ll be interesting to see, and if it falls flat on its face then it won’t happen for Sims 4.
If sales for this new SimCity tank, then I seriously doubt we’ll see the online features for Sims 4. Remember when Sims 3 was about to be released and they were going to have a nasty version of SecuRom on it, limited activations, and ingame advertisement? EA caught on quick enough to realize that they were going to lose a lot of sales unless they changed stuff, and they did.
It what Lucy is saying is correct, and there’s no reason to suppose not, then there would be no way to mod the game to play offline at all.
She is saying that the game actually runs both on your PC and on their Servers, true cloud computing, so without an internet connection live the game simply will not work. The CD/DVD you install won’t contain everything needed to make the game work basically, what you have installed on your PC will send chunks of data to EAs servers where it will be processed and sent back.
It’s a great shame that they’ve chosen this method as PCs are more than capable of running the software.
Sadly that means I’m well and truly out. I have zero interest in online gaming, like many in the UK my internet connection is flaky at best (and it’s too expensive to upgrade to fibre), lastly I simply don’t trust EA or any company with my data or to keep the game running for years.
Oh and only 100,000 Sims per city?! Seriously?!
If the game flops, which I suspect it will, EA will turn the servers within a year of release and everyone will be left unable to play.
@EA, just because an idea is technically feasible and is powerful doesn’t mean the majority want it… Also the people who post online about wanting it are going to be a minor proportion of the user base so shouldn’t you shouldn’t target their wishes…
I am so disappointed in EA right now 🙁
I will not buy this game.
Always online is big NOOOOOO!!! For me. I will never buy always online game.
I’m sorry I was looking forward to this game but I will not be purchasing it. It’s hard to always be on a steady internet connection, especially in my house we have 4 computers, 4 tablets, and 3 phones al connected. (sorry I’m not trying to brag) If I get this game it will crash on me non-stop. 🙁
I torrent games from EA except for The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. I’m such a badass. 3:D
@ItsMarvinAbel Torrenting Sim City won’t help you in this case because:
a) You’ll need an authorised account at EA to play.
b) A legitimate registered game to play.
c) As half the games code runs/exists only on EA’s servers it can’t be modded to run offline at all n matter how clever the hacker…
This is probably one of the big reasons EA have done this, the others being to monetise DLC (extra buildings, etc), and to be able to decide when you have to upgrade to new version. IE if EA decide to bring out New Sim City 2 in 3 years then they can switch of their servers and everyone will be forced to upgrade to play the new version…
I’m wondering if they’ll close Darkspore when SimCity comes out, I mean, EA don’t even seem to care about it since Maxis.com doesn’t even link to the site. Hope not though.
Personally, I don’t mind the online requirement as long as it’s online for years and years to come. I may be moving when it comes out though, so I will be annoyed then, but otherwise I don’t mind.
Damn, and I was so excited too. 🙁
I’m glad I decided not to pre-order, what a shame.
It’s even worse than we though, read this article:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/new-simcity-players-will-need-an-internet-connection-to-save-the-game/#ixzz2Ffhhbzta
The jist of it is:
The game needs a persistent Internet connection.
Players who lose their connection mid-game will be allowed “to play for as long as we can preserve your game state” a period that will “likely be minutes.”
A user playing SimCity using an unstable web connection, is at risk from losing progress in the game simply because their connection dropped out.
The rigid nature of the persistent connection, is to the extent that the game can’t be saved if the player loses their Internet connection.
The upshot is if your internet connection goes down and doesn’t come back on within a couple of minutes all gameplay since the last save will be lost!!
What this means is:
– You will need to be connected to play; no offline play.
– You will need to be connected to save the game.
– If your connection goes down, progress will stop, unless it is down for just a few minutes.
– When EA closes the servers (which will inevitably happen), the game will be unplayable unless it is patched.
– Modding is a touchy subject.
– There probably aren’t going to be any cheats.
With features like that “ABCRic”, I’m definitely losing my interest more and more.
Arrrgh, EA! I really wanted to like this game. You spoiled it! If the game was around $25, then I might consider. No way for $60 or $80.
It seems like a lot of the simulating is happening on the server side from what EA are saying, as MaxisKip has been commenting on the blog post @ simcity.com.
Hmm.
It will be my first SimCity game; at least we can play in our own regions (a region to ourselves) but this constant connection thing really winds me up. I don’t want to play with others because nobody’s gonna want exactly the same thing for the city/region. Merry Christmas.
Even though Im not really affected by the constant Internet thing, it is stupid of them to do this. They always say they look at what the fans want, and 80% say they want to play solo, offline…
I am not a huge Simcity fan but am liking the idea and understand why they are having the online feature the way they are and can’t wait to test the waters, even though in Aussie land the internet connections aren’t that stable either 🙁
I wonder if Sims 4 will be a similar platform and wonder if this could mean a return of Sims online 🙂