EA: "DRM is a failed dead-end strategy"

Couchpotato

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Get ready it's yet another EA article and post. I know we all hate them, but I decided to post this anyway. Let's just say EA Labels president Frank Gibeau responds to "conspiracy theories" about SimCity and puts his foot down when it comes to DRM.

Link-http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-27-ea-drm-is-a-failed-dead-end-strategy

Oh EA……how much I detest thee but you own game franchises I like. The agony.:raincloud:
 
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Crazy stuff.

"It started with the team at Maxis that had a creative vision for a multiplayer, connected, collaborative SimCity experience where your city and my city and others' were [working together]; for better or for worse, and for right or for wrong, the lead designers and the producers and the programmers felt like they wanted to tell us a multiplayer, cooperative city story around SimCity.

A few lines down:

"At no point in time did anybody say 'you must make this online'.

They had a creative vision for a multiplayer, connected, collaborative SimCity and nobody had the idea it would mean online.They knew how to deliver that offline.

Crazy stuff.

Game is selling well so it suits the consumption habits of many players and the technological issues are resolved. Time to move on.
 
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They had a creative vision for a multiplayer, connected, collaborative SimCity and nobody had the idea it would mean online.They knew how to deliver that offline.

Here I fixed it for you because it seems you missed it.
"At no point in time did anybody [from EA] say 'you must make this online'. It was the creative people on the team that thought it was best to create a multiplayer collaborative experience and when you're building entertainment."
 
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Oh and I thought it was like "hey let's make a Facebook game that works outside of Facebook".
 
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Here I fixed it for you because it seems you missed it.


I missed what?

Commonly, players like to blame many decisions on EA when they actually come from the studios themselves. That article just tries to pass a message: the studio Maxis decided by themselves that they would go for an online feature. There was no big, bad publisher forcing that down their throat. That EA guy went out of the woods to try to correct the false perception players have, blaming anything on EA when they are not involved.

I dont see what I missed.
 
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And I have a nice bridge over Brooklyn that I can sell you for cheap.
It's obvious the requirement for online is DRM, plain and simple. Disguise it as 'social aspects' (who probably nobody asked for or wanted in their SimCity game) all you want, but fact is, it's DRM.
 
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It is obvious. That is part of the crazy stuff. Noone on the developpment team could ignore that the requirements they cast out meant online.

Players permanent blaming on EA for decisions that did not come from EA has led to this crazy situation: the publisher EA, as powerful as they are, cannot tell directly that the decision came from the studio.

That EA guy should have stated "Maxis took the decision, we did not" Instead of that, he turned and turned around.

It is developpers who want to turn their business a certain way to protect it. Publishers simply follow the flow. And it might be part of their job to collect the blame for decisions they did not make.
The "ruining" of the franchise doesnt come from EA, it came from Maxis.
Obviously.
 
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The sim franchise has been crap for what, fifteen years?

And I'm sure EA doesn't stick their noses into what their studios are doing. Why I've heard many reports about the level of artistic and creative freedom EA lavishes on their people.
 
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I missed what?

Commonly, players like to blame many decisions on EA when they actually come from the studios themselves. That article just tries to pass a message: the studio Maxis decided by themselves that they would go for an online feature. There was no big, bad publisher forcing that down their throat. That EA guy went out of the woods to try to correct the false perception players have, blaming anything on EA when they are not involved.

I dont see what I missed.
You went and quoted the article with the following response in your post:

"At no point in time did anybody say 'you must make this online'.
They had a creative vision for a multiplayer, connected, collaborative SimCity and nobody had the idea it would mean online.They knew how to deliver that offline.

You answer make it sound like you didn't understand that part of the article. Seems like you did following your other posts though.
 
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The sim franchise has been crap for what, fifteen years?

And I'm sure EA doesn't stick their noses into what their studios are doing. Why I've heard many reports about the level of artistic and creative freedom EA lavishes on their people.

The Sims 4 will be an excellent study case. If you follow the design pattern over the three iterations, the Sims 4 shall be about building a vibrant communauty. It involves deep work about NPCs.

At the moment, transgenerational play is poor. The Sims that you do not control are totally inept. If you start a family, choose to install one grow up sibling (in excellent conditions), you will notice that after one generation or two, they disappear as they cant handle basic tasks like progressing in their job, acquiring new abilities, bringing up their children etc

The current trajectory is demanding. Considering this, it will be no surprise if Maxis chooses to make The Sims 4 an online game, learning from their last attempt. Players will developp their Sims into a neighbourhood and will be able to send some of their Sims elsewhere, to trade them with other players.
From that point, it will help evading to implement a lively world where NPCs are able to a similar level than the PCs.
 
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They don't tell you about the 700 game ideas they rejected due to not being online. We can't help it if no one comes up with good game ideas!

For a sim game, online play is a nightmare scenario. I can't wait to make my n scale mayberry mockup - what the hell? Lesbian bikers with mohawks?
 
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Sounds like a good setting for another Tarantino movie. :p
 
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