I had loads of fun doing that. I agree that the concept of doing the same thing in a multiplayer setting with other people sounds like it could potentially be awesome, but...
Their failure in the online implementation was on many levels: design, programming, logistics, and mechanics.
Like I said, the potential for multiplayer awesomeness is there. BUT, they didn't have to shoehorn in the mulitplayer at the expense of the singleplayer gameplay.
They didn't have to have "always online". They could have given the players the option to handle everything client side, and this would have eliminated the server lag completely. They could have give the option for players to host their own private games on their own servers or shared folders so that they don't have to rely on EA's cloud servers, which has shown themselves to be much more of a burden than a benefit.
If the game didn't have to always sync to EA's servers, the problems like lag, desyncs, lost cities, and city interaction bugs would hardly be an issue anymore.
I also greatly enjoyed the single player aspect of the franchise up until now. Simcity has always been a relaxing sandbox game that I could go back to when I just needed a relaxing, pleasing stress free game night.
If the new Simcity ever gets to a point where it works without server issues and game breaking bugs, when it gets to a point where I won't want to throw the game out the window out of frustration, then I'll consider buying it. Until then it's a negative experience that I just don't have the time for, nor that I want to pay money for.
The root of the new Simcity's problems is this: Maxis prioritized monetization and DLC delivery over gameplay and player options. When you get down to brass tax that's really the issue here. Could they have incorporated an offline mode? Easily. The modding community did it weeks ago, blind, and soon they will have the game fully playable offline. So Maxis certainly could have done it. Could Maxis have allowed mods to be used in the game? Of course, they have all but admitted that it is easily enabled, the sticking point is whether or not they want to. The only reason they wouldn't want to is because they want to SELL you DLC instead of allow you to use free player made mods. That and modding online messes with their stat tracking. Again, if they had an offline mode this point would be moot.
An offline mode would have greatly diffused the server issues that plague the game, and allowing mods would have probably seen most of the bugs and traffic issues sorted out by the modding community by now. Both of those are rendered impossible due to one decision:
always online. Choosing DLC priority over gameplay was a bad move, and it's hurt them greatly.
When a game focuses more on restrictions and chains than it does on gameplay and player satisfaction, you get a debacle like Simcity 2013. Somewhere in there is a great game, but they need to change their priority's if they want to see it realized and accomplished. From Bradshaw's blurbs though, they have no intention of changing course or correcting their bad design choices. And that's a damn shame, because this is the first Simcity game I won't be buying at all most likely. Eh well, times change, and I'll always have Simcity 4 to play, so I'm not all too upset when I really think about it.
