Sim City is back in 2013!
- Thread starter green.pixel
- Start date
I believe they said this is to detect "cheat programs" or something similar.
Blizzard also has a similar thing called the "Warden." However, to my understanding, they at least hash those application names (although, there are not too many different application names out there, and if they don't salt it, it's easy to make a rainbow table).
Also, if you agree to "send crash report" on some applications, it probably will also send a list of your current running applications. It's somehow reasonable because sometimes a crash may be caused by some incompatible applications running in the background. However, if you don't want others to know what you are running, don't send crash reports.
Warden RECEIVES a blacklist with hashed names, and checks if any currently running processes (or window titles, web page URLs and whatnot) match that list. Only if there is such a match does it communicate back to Blizzard HQ, probably by just using some ID code for the corresponding hash.
So your privacy isn't really breached at any point, because no living human gets to snoop through all the stuff on your system, and no permanent record is created/stored anywhere either.
Comes out in three days, is no one interested? I've been watching some videos from the beta, and it looks very cool. Got my order in.
In regards to the OT discussion, Origin seems to have gotten a lot better since launch, and the "always online DRM" simply means that your game saves are in the cloud instead of local. Steam already does this for most of its games, so I fail to see what the fuss is about.
In regards to the OT discussion, Origin seems to have gotten a lot better since launch, and the "always online DRM" simply means that your game saves are in the cloud instead of local. Steam already does this for most of its games, so I fail to see what the fuss is about.
but on steam games i still can play the game while offline (or atleast when the offline mode is working)
A lot of people say that, but I fail to see the point. My computer is on, and online, 24/7 anyway. Even if I play a game "offline", the system itself is always online. What's the big deal?
Hey, I got a brilliant idea... how 'bout we discuss the game instead of business decisions made by the publisher?
Hey, I got a brilliant idea... how 'bout we discuss the game instead of business decisions made by the publisher?
I watched several beta gameplay video, and some of the "Let's all be mayors" video. I'm impressed, especially if the simulation is done as they said. Performance seems to be quite good too. The city size limit seems a bit too small though, and that's my biggest concern.
Otherwise, everything looks fine. Roads can now be in arbitrary shape, and the idea of upgradable buildings is very good. The loss of subway is an unfortunate one, but that's probably a system limitation which may be quite difficult to overcome. On the other hand, I like the idea of city trams embedded in the road.
For other downsides, I think it'd be much better if buildings have more variation. I don't know how much variation those DLC (London city packs, etc.) brings, though.
Otherwise, everything looks fine. Roads can now be in arbitrary shape, and the idea of upgradable buildings is very good. The loss of subway is an unfortunate one, but that's probably a system limitation which may be quite difficult to overcome. On the other hand, I like the idea of city trams embedded in the road.
For other downsides, I think it'd be much better if buildings have more variation. I don't know how much variation those DLC (London city packs, etc.) brings, though.
jedi, human lifestyle is not the same everywhere.
for example, i play SimCity 4 most of the time on laptop. No internet.
for those like you, sure the DRM wont be any problem. For people like me? it is a problem. Even steam offline mode is a problem when it randomly failed to go offline.
back about simcity 2013. The reason they make the game always online is not because just the savegame, but because the game single-player is affected by other player.
what i still dont know is, whether SimCity 2013 will allow realtime multiplayer.
Many years ago i play Capitalism with my friend in multiplayer. It awesome to built the city business with friend and killing the competition (AI/CPU).
for example, i play SimCity 4 most of the time on laptop. No internet.
for those like you, sure the DRM wont be any problem. For people like me? it is a problem. Even steam offline mode is a problem when it randomly failed to go offline.
back about simcity 2013. The reason they make the game always online is not because just the savegame, but because the game single-player is affected by other player.
what i still dont know is, whether SimCity 2013 will allow realtime multiplayer.
Many years ago i play Capitalism with my friend in multiplayer. It awesome to built the city business with friend and killing the competition (AI/CPU).
Depends on what you mean by "realtime", since SC isn't really a real time game. You can plan ahead and share resources with other cities in the area, so if each of you specializes in a different area, the whole region will benefit from all of it. It's a cooperative game, not a competitive one; there's no "killing" the other players. You either help them, or you don't.
And single-player is still solo. You don't have to play with other players in your region if you don't want, so it's not necessarily "affected" by what other players do unless you're in a Public region.
And single-player is still solo. You don't have to play with other players in your region if you don't want, so it's not necessarily "affected" by what other players do unless you're in a Public region.
Steam games save locally, they just have an option of also upload the saves to steams servers as a backup and for easy use on an other computer, nothing like forcing you to have the saves online!
The DRM forces you to be online to play, Steam cloud saves do not.
It is not matter if your PC is online!
What matters is that the game is tied to EA's servers, if they ever go done for any reason you will not be able to play the game and what happens when EA takes the servers for the game down, I will tell you what, you lose the game!
Please. At EOL, the game is patched to allow it to play offline. It's happened before. Enough with the fearmongering. It's the 21st century. Online is here to stay.
you mean official patch or unofficial patch? it will be nice if official patch can give better experience (still retaining the ability to MP) than the unofficial patch.
Which is not to say the game part of my budget is here to stay in the 21st century.
How should I know? It's not going to be for another ten years or so. By the time they shut the servers down, it will be because there's only about thirty people still playing MP. I'm talking about single-player, since SC can be played that way. It's MP-only games that suffer when the servers go down. SC is a SP game with MP components.
To play the SP, SC 2013 need to be online. The game suffer (cant be played) when the server offline.
if the official offline patch from EA completely disable the semi-multiplayer-thing feature on SC3, then the single player mode will suffer (loss of feature).
on MP game that also have SP like BFBC2, i still can play the SP offline without server with no feature loss.
in the case of BFBC2, EA server already shut down in less than ten years. I think EA server is closed almost the same time as BF3 release.
and what EA do? Nothing. They did not update BFBC2, they did not release "offline patch" for the MP. Luckily there some unofficial group working on that, to make the MP available offline just like the majority of PC games many-many years ago.
but yeah, looking at their plan for SC2013, the EA server should be online a lot longer than BFBC2. Although it's impossible for me to buy SC2013 with the need of always on internet. Maybe i'll buy it later, when offline patch is released and the game got a lot cheaper so i don't mind loosing some semi-multiplayer-thing on SP game.
if the official offline patch from EA completely disable the semi-multiplayer-thing feature on SC3, then the single player mode will suffer (loss of feature).
on MP game that also have SP like BFBC2, i still can play the SP offline without server with no feature loss.
in the case of BFBC2, EA server already shut down in less than ten years. I think EA server is closed almost the same time as BF3 release.
and what EA do? Nothing. They did not update BFBC2, they did not release "offline patch" for the MP. Luckily there some unofficial group working on that, to make the MP available offline just like the majority of PC games many-many years ago.
but yeah, looking at their plan for SC2013, the EA server should be online a lot longer than BFBC2. Although it's impossible for me to buy SC2013 with the need of always on internet. Maybe i'll buy it later, when offline patch is released and the game got a lot cheaper so i don't mind loosing some semi-multiplayer-thing on SP game.
I don't think this is the best thread to discuss the pros and cons of "online only" games. Similar discussions already happened in other threads (such as the Diablo 3 thread). I think it's better people take these discussions elsewhere, as these are mostly independent of the underlying games.
I don't think the game itself is worth subscribing to always on DRM. I personally not subscribing to any of this kinda stuff. especially knowing how they manage their servers. People can choose to get it if they want but I would not recommend getting it before that patch is solid - more than likely a trap.
So, let me get this right.. I really want to play the game, but I should wait a decade or so until they shut down the servers before I can play it? Screw that noise. I'd rather play it on Tuesday.