always-connected
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SimCity GM: 'In many ways, we built an MMO'
SimCity has not had the smoothest of launches. Players were (understandably) frustrated by connection woes, most of which seemed to be due to the always-online component of the game. In an interview with Polygon, developers framed the always-online component as an integral part of the game structure, saying that "it wouldn't be possible to make the game offline without a significant amount of engineering work by our team." This statement was later thrown into question as a Maxis insider claimed that servers were "not handling any of the computation" of city simulation. Now Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of Maxis, is stepping up to re-frame the situation. In a "straight answers" update today, she pointed out the gameplay reasons for building SimCity to be always connected. These include features like collaboration between cities in a region, social perks like world events and leaderboards, player gifts, and the global market. Additionally, cloud-based saves make for easy access anywhere. "In many ways," she concludes, "we built an MMO." Somehow, we don't think MMO gamers would agree
Single-player games will be dead in three years, says industry analyst
So game development studios desperately want to move the entirety of our hobby online in order to mimic the recurring revenue model of MMORPGs. That's not exactly news, but it is news when an industry analyst makes an eyebrow-raising claim regarding the immediate future of the genre. To that effect, Eurogamer recently attended a "closed-door, Sony-organized panel discussion on the future of video games," which featured an analyst predicting the end of single-player titles by 2014. Mark Cerny, a "veteran video game consultant," used the 2009 single-player RPG Demon's Souls as an example, saying that its mixture of traditional offline gameplay and social connectivity to other gamers experiencing the same title is the wave of the future. "The funny thing here is, we don't even know what to call this. Is it single-player or is it multiplayer? We don't even have the words. It's kind of Orwellian. If you don't have any word for freedom you can't have a revolution," Cerny said. What exactly is that revolution, and will it be good for gamers? Check back in 2014 to find out.
