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Forums - Gaming Discussion - EA boss proudly refuses to publish single-player games - single-player on the way out?

TWRoO on 05 September 2012
okr said:
Soleron said:
TWRoO said:
okr said:
"...it seems that the idea of solo-oriented experiences is now dead to EA. As is variety, it seems. The inexorable march towards videogames becoming one indistinguishable mass of grey sludge continues."

Ridiculous. The upcoming SimCity (release almost 10 years after SC 4) looks great and if I'll ever play it, it will be in endless single-player sessions.

Isn't that the one that forces you to be online so your city can be affected by other players?

Yep.

Yes to the 1st part (always online, don't care about it), the 2nd part (affected by other players) is news to me.

Well I think that was EAs excuse so they could shoehorn in an always on online system.

I can't remember the specifics but it may not be a huge deal... It could just be that the citizens of other people's cities come and work in yours and vice-versa, kinda like they do in SC4 if you build two of your own cities next to each other. If it actually affects anything in your own city though then that alone would be a dealbreaker for me (for example maybe you don't have a choice which cities you get connected to, what if you end up saddled with a city that doesn't match your needs: ie taking too many jobs from your own people, or maybe city connections like roads are partially controlled by others (if they destroy their road connection, does it dissapear on your map too?)) The always on online is already a big turn off to me buying the game even if the "new social aspects" don't affect the 1-player experience.



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megaman79 on 05 September 2012

The sooner EA crashes and burns the better.

Praise be Nintendo for their wisdom over Origin.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

wfz on 05 September 2012

As long as other publishers pick up the single-player torch, EA can do whatever the hell they want with their franchises.

Things like this make me love companies like Nintendo that are supposedly "stuck in the past."



NintendoPie on 05 September 2012
TWRoO said:
okr said:
"...it seems that the idea of solo-oriented experiences is now dead to EA. As is variety, it seems. The inexorable march towards videogames becoming one indistinguishable mass of grey sludge continues."

Ridiculous. The upcoming SimCity (release almost 10 years after SC 4) looks great and if I'll ever play it, it will be in endless single-player sessions.

Isn't that the one that forces you to be online so your city can be affected by other players?

Yeah.... :/



F0X on 05 September 2012

EA is doomed.



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okr on 05 September 2012
Soleron said:

These great works cannot be built if you’re trying to play a single-player game?
Our single-player is still considered multiplayer, because everything you do, you’re still part of that SimCity world. You could play by yourself in a region, but play multiple cities. ...

So it is technically possible to play single-player if you don’t want any outside interaction?
... When you create your region, you could just set it to private and play any one of those cities by yourself. You’re jumping around between the cities and playing that way. And later on, if you want to invite a friend, you can invite a friend to your game if you’d like. ...

Looks like you can play on your own but you have to keep switching cities and pretending it's multiplayer to make it work.

Which means I'll have to keep other people out of my life to enjoy my single experience. No problem. I'm used to it and do this in RL all the time. My expectations to game sequels these days are low anyway (especially to a SC without Will Wright), I'm not expecting the new SimCity to become one of my all-time favorites like SC 2000, I'm just mostly curious to play it. The game looks promising. If I don't like it I can always return to Anno 1701, 1404 or 2070, city building/econimic sim games which still heavily focus on single-player.



HappySqurriel on 05 September 2012
wfz said:
As long as other publishers pick up the single-player torch, EA can do whatever the hell they want with their franchises.

Things like this make me love companies like Nintendo that are supposedly "stuck in the past."


The odd thing is that when Nintendo sells millions of copies of several single player only games to the broader market EA will claim that (for some odd reason) these people were only looking for Nintendo games ...

The big players in the industry abandoned 2D gameplay, local multiplayer, and accessable gameplay which opened a huge hole in the market that Nintendo has filled; and rather than moving back into this space and challenging Nintendo they're abandoning single player gameplay leaving more space for Nintendo to take up.



iFlow on 05 September 2012

Single player games won't be leaving anytime soon, due to the fact that a lot of gamers aren't even online. EA is just being a money addict right now, and they think that they'll make the most bank from multiplayer games (possibly of add ons).



joesampson on 06 September 2012
okr said:
Soleron said:

These great works cannot be built if you’re trying to play a single-player game?
Our single-player is still considered multiplayer, because everything you do, you’re still part of that SimCity world. You could play by yourself in a region, but play multiple cities. ...

So it is technically possible to play single-player if you don’t want any outside interaction?
... When you create your region, you could just set it to private and play any one of those cities by yourself. You’re jumping around between the cities and playing that way. And later on, if you want to invite a friend, you can invite a friend to your game if you’d like. ...

Looks like you can play on your own but you have to keep switching cities and pretending it's multiplayer to make it work.

Which means I'll have to keep other people out of my life to enjoy my single experience. No problem. I'm used to it and do this in RL all the time. My expectations to game sequels these days are low anyway (especially to a SC without Will Wright), I'm not expecting the new SimCity to become one of my all-time favorites like SC 2000, I'm just mostly curious to play it. The game looks promising. If I don't like it I can always return to Anno 1701, 1404 or 2070, city building/econimic sim games which still heavily focus on single-player.

I was excited about the new Simcity until I read through their blog and watched their videos. The new game has tiny cities, no control over regonal connections, cities are separated by empty space, no highways, no subways, and limited density zoning. I could go on as there are many more disappointments but to go back on topic I blame these changes/omissions on the multiplayer. The game is built specifically for multiplayer and they had to compromise the depth of the previous games to make room for it. Screw EA, they ruined Simcity. 



Corey on 06 September 2012

Screw em, all my favourite games are purely a singleplayer experience.