14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Maxis and publisher Electronic Arts have announced that they are launching a new update for SimCity, designed to allow gamers to run the entire experience offline, with no Internet connection.
The community that still plays the city builder has welcomed the news and the fact that fan-created mods can now be used to add more content or to enhance gameplay as long as the guidelines are not broken.
But the fact that an Offline mode for SimCity is coming raises a deeper question: did the two companies initially lie when they said that the only way to play was to remain always connected to the Internet and a central server?
Maxis clearly stated before the city builder was launched that it needed the connection to make sure that regions are working as they should and that players can collaborate on the bigger projects.
Both are features that required a few patches to become fully coherent and contributed to a less than stellar reception for the title.
If the online requirement was a lie, could the limitations placed upon city size fall in the same category?
Could it be that the entire SimCity experience has been restricted in various ways just so that it could fit into a vision that Electronic Arts had about the future of gaming, one which involves constant connections and social links between players?
Recently, Maxis has said that the new Sims 4 will be entirely offline, apart from an one-time check for authentification.
This suggests that the company has learned an important lesson and understands that it needs to listen to its fans.
But the mistake lies in the past and it made a potentially great experience like SimCity a lesser game, one that true fans could never love as they should have.