I'm sorry but this 'ugh EA' stuff is bullshit. I know you don't like them but there a massive failings here, they hold responsibility sure but actually understanding these seem more important than 'fuck EA'.
Why has all this happened?
End of the day Maxis was aiming too far at the start, a lack of oversight from EA meant that the actual feasibility of the project, costs and technical needs went untested or investigated. Maxis thought it was just making an ambitious online game, and all games are online right? Neither them or EA successfully identified that games with this level of online and interactivity tend to need a lot of money behind them and this money in the long term comes from subscription, DLC or micro-transaction payments.
Not only that but Maxis failed to actually understand what they were building. I feel, as I did when they announced the game, the interactivity felt bigger in their heads and more feasible. They never thought about how much people would have to play to be interacting in a meaningful way.
Truth is that the social side of this game is a button. Its not interaction, its generally a button where the game gives you stuff you can't do yourself.
The game was built around an online system that was unsupported and even worse a gameplay mechanic that was fundamentally broken. Everything else with the game is a trade off, small cities to support interactivity (not realising the interactivity was broken and fundamentally flawed and quite frankly - lacking anything of interest); meaning no positive outcome in exchange for the negative.
EA's got serious problems.
Maxis has seriously mishandled this game to a significant degree.
Neither party attempted to change the game, make fixes or even adjust...anything. Its clear they didn't think about the consumers actions. Just this floaty idea of a game with heavy social interaction and cooperation. I honestly can't say 'EA should have delayed/cancelled this!' because I honestly believe they and Maxis thought the product was as close to perfect as they could make it.
Project failure on so many levels. Driven by fundamental flaws in Maxis's development process and EA's general lack of care/attention and overall cultural failures at the organisation.
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What would be the better SimCity? Full control of the region. Single Player availability; but allowing City Management to be done like a Google Document. You all control different aspects.
If I want to create a multi-City region and compete...I CAN! In fact allow authorisation stuff (e.g. I can edit here, you can't). Basically you run the region together.
Why didn't Maxis do this? It wasn't some evil scheme, it was because they wanted all players to have the same experience. They wanted to make the social side more casual and not involving a lot of discussion/setting up servers. It was suppose to be like Journey, not getting in the way but promoting cooperation. A sort of 'oh hello, whose over there?'
The flaw here is that without the above...its not multiplayer. The positive outcome...isn't felt, instead as I say it becomes a 'button' to the general casual player. A weird fucking over rule and removal of general functionality.
Its just the wrong direction entirely.
