Even though it would seem the worst of the SimCity woes are well behind PC players at this point, it would seem those same gamers enjoy beating a dead horse as they absolutely cannot let go the fact that EA wants the title to run as a game that is always connected to the Internet. In fact, a hacker was able to manipulate SimCity so it would run offline, resulting in even more EA backlash.
Maxis’ Lucy Bradshaw decided to attempt to put out some of that EA flame by responding to this hack by stating an always-connected SimCity game was always intended.
“Always-connected is a big change from SimCities of the past,” wrote Bradshaw in a recently published blog post. “It didn’t come down as an order from corporate, and it isn’t a clandestine strategy to control players. It’s fundamental to the vision we had for this SimCity. From the ground up, we designed this game with multiplayer in mind – using new technology to realize a vision of players connected in regions to create a SimCity that captured the dynamism of the world we live in; a global, ever-changing, social world.”
Bradshaw then lists a number of a few of the specific functions the SimCity servers perform, which include keeping the simulation state of the region updated for all players, allowing for trade, social features and the ability to visit other cities, just to name a few of the functions. That’s not to say the servers were a complete necessity as Bradshaw says SimCity can run without needing to be connected to the Internet at all times, “but we rejected that idea because it didn’t fit with our vision. We did not focus on the single city in isolation that we have delivered in past SimCities.”