Because it's publishers shitting on consumers in an attempt to combat piracy. The game is worse than it would have been without the always online DRM. And if you sit back and say "Oh, it's just their vision!" then publishers will continue to try and find new ways to shit on consumers and limit their games. If people tell EA, Activision or Ubisoft that this stuff is shit then maybe they'll cut it out, but it's pretty unlikely at this point with how many people are keen to eat it up.

If it wasn't always online, it would still have DRM, it would still install via Origin. The DRM is irrelevant. That's not why this is always online. As much as business is the reason for it, it's not DRM, but game-as-service stuff like selling DLC and otherwise controlling the user experience. And yeah, it's a valid design choice if you do it right.

Out of the maybe 5 hours I've spent actually playing SimCity, I find myself half-liking it and half-disliking it. It is in fact seriously broken. Some of that I expect will probably get fixed over the next 6 months. Other parts are part of the game's design.

I keep building cities that fill the whole map, with populations stagnating around 5,000, because everyone has chosen to live in houses and not apartments. And I still don't understand how the game decides one over the other, because I have low-density housing next to high-capacity roads. And then I plop down 8 parks, and half of my buildings jump to maximum desirability, and the other half don't. And the traffic problems, what the fuck? And sometimes roads don't connect right. And yeah, the cities are too fucking small. Is the low-level simulation perceptibly any better to justify this limitation? No it isn't.

They should have named this game SimCity Online. If they want to make a SimCity game that uses a non-broken version of this engine and complies to the established model of SimCity, then that's a game that could unashamedly be called SimCity, but it's too late for that now.

I knew this game was going to be multiplayer-focussed, but I didn't realise it would be mandatory. I didn't realise the cities would be so limited in scale. I also didn't realise that creating a single fully-functional city would not even be possible. EA didn't make those things clear, so I bought into a game I am now only interested in playing in an attempt to get my money's worth. Not even enjoying it. My only hope now is that this investment will pay off in the long term should they fix a few more of these issues. Otherwise I wasted my fucking money like a sap.

I can completely believe they had good intentions of capitalizing on this new-wave always-online connectivity frenzy. I just thnk the actual process of trying to capitalize on that has been what's crashed and burned. The city size constraints, the griefing, and the server problems has seemingly led to them getting caught with their pants down.

When I think of city interaction, I think of the ambitious regions of Sim City 4. What I see with the latest Sim City is a reduction of a feature set to literally force someone to play a certain way. I don't think that's draconion DRM, I just think that's bad design.

Though I would argue that the whole social connectivity success is attributed to the dirty tricks that were used by these free to play games in the first place, but that's a whole 'nother can over worms.

It's entertaining with some great dialogue, the other guy stopped making the other videos then VGCW filled in the gap, I don't see the problem, if the other guy was still making his I would see your point. Would be cool like WCW\WWE beef =)

But it 100% has, look on any pirating site and you want find a Sim City 5 download. Not saying it will last, they might crack it eventually.

@ilovevideogames: Dude, go away. Every one of your posts have been the exact same thing, and at this rate I'd guess that is all you're ever going to post about.

Great article, i think you guys should all right columns, discussing what you're doing outside of reviewing games. This article made me feel like i can feel where you're coming from. Peace Jeff

Collusion!

Excellent article. Some very interesting thoughts that made the multi-topic thing work well. I'll absolutely have to check that Wrestlimng show out. The examples discussed here sound just fucking incredible. I'm looking forward to giving that a shot.

You sir have won all my internet points I have to give. Ganadorf will be the first VGCW Hall Of Fame Inductee and deservedly so. In the short time VGCW has been running Ganondorf has proved time and times again why he is the greatest in the business. He's willing to put others over knowing he doesn't need that extra rub, which is the mark of a great wrestler.

I do really enjoy Jeff's writing, and wish he would do more of it outside of reviews, but I understand that he's god enough on his plate with all the video stuff, reviews and going to meeting and you know, running a business.

I usually shrug off the thousand-viewer streams on twitch. Chats are usually incredibly spammy and ignored by the streamers themselves. I generally prefer a stream with less than 200 viewers, as it leads for a better experience overall.

However, VGCW is the exception to this rule. I love the spammy idiots in its chat - every single line of text in full caps - it's like an arena full of rowdy wrestling fans, shouting their memes and in-jokes - and it adds to the experience. Bazza has injected a healthy dose of originality into the streaming community - and he does it by ripping off long loved video game characters, and now VGCW is one of the highlights of my week.

@jeff : The thing I've learned about machinima is it obeys Sturgeon's Law x10. For every Mage in a Blue Dress, there's 99 shitty WoW machinima videos for example. Same for webcomics.

I think I'm going to have to look into watching more VGCW...

Thank you for introducing me to VGCW. Ganondorf vs Waluigi made my day yesterday.

In your description of Machinima as "recording dumb shit that somehow involves video games," you've also managed to pretty much define Giant Bomb.

I think Jeff is only against "dumb shit that somehow involves video games" when it has a pretentious name attached to it.

Though Jeff does make odd comments like this occasionally... comments like he's just an outside observer peering into some bizarre circus, when he is clearly the ringleader.

My friends and I fell into this VGCW vortex last Friday and it's been god damn insane. The show from February 28th was absolutely fucking nuts. We were losing it at Barkley trying to pull off the hat-trick and the back-to-back title defenses in what were the most entertaining wrestling matches (real or simulated) I've watched in a decade.

Also, Ghost Nappa and his god damn theme song almost made me shit myself with laughter.

@russcat: I hear ya man! Hopefully they can start redeeming themselves in the next gen with Dragon Age 3...

Good stuff. I'm certainly interested in VGCW now.

I would love to see Jeff make an appearance in the VGCW now, there has to be a model for him floating around somewhere... If Game Grumps can be in it, then someone needs to represent Giant Bomb! :P

So, any internet sleuths out there have any idea what mystery game he might be referring to?

Quick looks are both funny and informative. Recanting fanfiction or some lame attempt at comedy with Garry's Mod is just dumb shit.

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT JEFF. WHERE ARE YOU.

Excellent article. I know Alex usually writes these but this is the first one i've actually read. Although i'll definitely be checking these out in the future.

Decided to check out with VGCW thing and was not disappointed, in fact I haven't laughed so hard in a long time seeing the detail put into characters (Dan's super taunt for eg.) and the use of video game battle musics occasionally synching incredibly well. What's so great about it is that it's not just fan fiction like most machinima, as its mostly AI driven you just don't know what will happen.

Watching Tingle do a "sexy dance" after K.O'ing Phoenix Wright on "table-san", left me in tears.

I also noticed the chat refers the referee as REF GERSTMANN.

I went to peruse the archives of the live stream on Youtube, and the first thing I watched was Waluigi's entrance and the entire chat spamming "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH". I had trouble breathing I was laughing so hard.

Needless to say, I've been hooked ever since. This coming from someone who's never cared to watch a second of wrestling in his life.