Disaster Strikes Sim City/The Real Danger of Piracy

We are seeing it everywhere, and it has no doubt happened to most of us. After the long wait for that next great title to be released, we go to our local game store and plunk down our hard earned cash. After fighting the release day crowds, and reflecting on how you could have better spent 60 dollars, you get the game home only to realize that an online connection is required to play.

Now, the game you have purchased is not an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online). It is a single player game that requires an internet connection. Why is that? Sure, the obvious answer is to help prevent piracy, but does that really justify infringing on the rights of consumers?

A couple years ago, a friend and I were gearing up for the release of Civilization 5. Both being long time fans of the series, we couldn't wait to delve in Sid Meier's new masterpiece. We even went to a midnight release, eager to raise an empire worthy of Augustus and Rammesses.

Upon installing the game we were prompted to register with Steam, which was required to play the game. Both being avid gamers, we had an ever present online connection so this proved to be a mere inconvenience. However, after jumping through the redundant hoops that were required, we learned that Steam had not yet released the game therefor we were unable to play it.

Let me repeat that. We both possessed physical copies of the game, had installed individual copies on our respective computers, and had even complied with the required registration with a service that served absolutely no purpose. Despite these facts, we were not allowed to play the game that we bought, simply because Steam said so. My reaction could only be summed up in one way...

It is a trend that is becoming more popular in the industry. In fact, there have been rumors that next generation consoles will require an active internet connection to run at all. This whole idea is baffling to me. Imagine if you were suddenly required to have access to the internet in order to watch your local television channels. It is a cheap marketing ploy that allows partnering companies to make double the money off of the same product.

Now I understand the importance of preventing piracy. It is a very real danger in the gaming world and damages the industry as a whole. However, the result of these measures is the assured alienation of the core fan base.

Video game giant EA is currently learning this lesson the hard way. With the release of the long awaited Sim City, Tuesday should have been EA's finest hour. Instead, they have become the textbook example of how to NOT launch a video game.

Anyone who bought the game, or follows gaming news, knows by this point that the launch of Sim City was a disaster. The sole problem comes from EA's insistence on using a DRM (Digital Rights Management) system. Used as an anti piracy measure, the implementation of this system means that your single player game is now, essentially, an MMO.

Instead of existing solely on your computer, your game world, along with everyone else's, is now housed on EA servers. Anyone who has played an MMO on the day of it's launch has learned that millions of people logging into a server simultaneously can, and will, cause some major problems. Unfortunately, this fact seems to have escaped publishers.

From the moment the game was launched, players were greeted with error messages, faulty connections, and slow download times. Furthermore, EA is using a cloud save system which, occupying the same server space, is also being overloaded. This effectively means that, if you have managed to successfully play the game, your saves may be unavailable, or gone entirely, upon rebooting the game. The use of a DRM has, for the time being, turned Maxis' chief title and largest franchise into a playable demo.

These problems continue to persist and gamers have no choice but to sit back and patiently wait for the problems to be fixed. In the meantime EA has disabled components of the game, and are refusing to give refunds. While the company is currently working on ways to fix the problems, if you manage to log on you will be playing an unfinished game that may or may not save your progress. To be clear, the game itself is fine. The problem lies entirely with the servers. Now I have to ask, why the hell did this need to be an online game?


Again, piracy is bad, blah blah blah, but lets think about this logically for a moment. All of the gamers I know do not pirate games for several reasons. First, there are those who simply lack the knowledge. They would rather just buy the game than to deal with the hassle of learning how to do so. Those that do possess this knowledge just don't want to bother with it. If a game comes out that they are really looking forward to, and plan on playing extensively, they have no problem plunking down the 60 bucks.

In my opinion there are two types of games: Those you don't mind paying for, and those you aren't interested in enough to steal. I've never once known a person who would go through the trouble of pirating a game they didn't want to play, or the fan who wasn't willing to pay for the product. It's as simple as that.

I understand that these people do exist, but I think it's safe to say that the overwhelming majority of the gaming community are not like that. So I have to ask once more, are these few people really worth alienating your entire fan base?

The whole fiasco has cast a shadow on the games release. Longtime fans of the series are calling for refunds, and promotions for the game are being halted. It's actually kind of fascinating. I've never seen a game that was released and then almost immediately pulled from the shelves. It's a shame because, from what I understand, the game itself is really quite extraordinary.

Launch problems are understandable and even expected. No MMO in history has had a flawless release, but, and I can't stress this enough, Sim City is not an MMO. There is no reason that this game should have required an online connection. Unfortunately, this is the gaming world we live in. We can only hope that publishers will finally wake up to the reality that gamers are no longer the huddled minority. We are a generation of consumers that expect a reliable product. Until then, there are plenty of other ways to spend our hard earned cash.

Will Sim City's problematic launch prevent you from buying the game?  Should companies be rid of DRM's once and for all? Please leave a comment below.