What’s up with the 'toxicity' around Cities: Skylines II?

Cities: Skylines II Developer Colossal Order maintains a particularly close relationship with its community. The original Cities: horizons was released in 2015 and swallowed up the audience left by EA SimCityreleased in 2013 and which was a disaster. Cities: horizons has scratched that urban planning itch, and it only costs $30. The game first came to PC, Mac, and Linux with modest hardware requirements, and it came to consoles within two years. Critically, Cities: horizons also supported mods through Steam Workshop, allowing players to add their own tools to the game and share these features with others.

“With Cities: horizons, the audience grew and modding took on an even bigger role, enabling a huge amount of creativity and inspiration for us developers,” Mariina Hallikainen, CEO of Colossal Order, told Engadget. “Whether it's quality of life improvements or ideas for DLC content, we've gathered a huge amount of information to help us create the game that Cities: horizons it's today.”

Colossal Order and its publisher, Paradox Interactive, have continued to support Cities: horizons with consistent game updates and DLC drops, and its mod community has continued to grow. The game attracted a ton of new players during the 2020 pandemic, and around that time, a number of now-prominent content creators leaned into Cities: horizons for streams and videos.

In the months leading up to the launch of Cities: Skylines II In October 2023, Colossal Order partnered with a handful of content creators and gave them access to in-game assets early, so they could create YouTube videos showcasing specific features each week. These partners included Biffa, two dollars twenty, YUMBL, Infrastructure specialist And Town planning games. City Planner Plays has a smart advantage in this space: Philip, the man behind the builds, has worked as a city planner for over a decade, and his videos often include information on how real-life cities are designed. He launched his channel in mid-2020 and is now an enthusiast Cities: horizons streamer and video editor with nearly 650,000 subscribers on YouTube. Like many other members of the community, he has a history with Colossal Order that spans several years.

“Before Cities: Skylines II “I think almost everyone in the community viewed them incredibly positively, seeing them as 'one of us' and the type of developer you want to make a game you love,” Philip said. “They were considered responsive and generous. … I don't remember a bad thing being said about them.”

This is exactly what did January 15 so surprising.

“We have seen a growing trend of toxicity in our community, something we have never experienced to this extent before,” Hallikainen wrote, clarifying that the negativity was directed at both developers and players. She continued: “We have always valued the presence of developers on different social platforms and direct communication with the community, but our biggest responsibility will always be to protect the team.”

Tensions have been high within the Cities: Skylines community since the sequel's launch in October. Although the game was initially presented as a simultaneous PC and console release, it is only available on PC and there is for when the other versions come out. On top of that, Colossal Order increased the game's minimum and recommended specs just a month before release, and the new requirements made it out of reach for a large number of players.

Cities: Skylines II
Huge order

Even with a capable platform, the game is riddled with visual and mechanical bugs. Philippe said Cities: Skylines II put its RTX 4090 graphics card to the test, running it at 100% in the main menu, and it couldn't play in 4K at launch because the game was too GPU-bound.

Simply put, it seems like the game required more development time.

“Since the launch of Cities: Skylines II, things have definitely become trickier,” Philip said. “While many people appreciated Colossal Order's transparency with weekly updates as well as frequent bug fixes, many seem to view Colossal Order as being too willing to release a game that wasn't ready for release.”

Hallikainen acknowledged that the game is missing some promised and much-publicized features, like mod support.

“Of course we're disappointed that we weren't able to achieve everything we wanted, but it's fantastic to finally be able to release the game and continue working on it with more openness,” she said.

The problem, according to Colossal Order, lies in the community's response to Cities: Skylines II. Players vented on social media and on Steam and Paradox forums, and comments reached toxic levels, according to Hallikainen. She cites a surge in personal attacks against developers and other players.

Cities: Skylines II
Huge order

Cities: Skylines II attracted a lot of attention and very high expectations were raised,” she said. “When the game didn't deliver on all its promises, it was natural to cause frustration among the audience. However, gaps should spark conversation about ideas for improvement, constructive feedback, and respectful discussion within the community.

For City Planner Plays and others in the community, the problem is the game itself. Where Colossal Order sees toxicity, Philip sees justified frustration.

“I admit that I was taken aback by this description of what is happening in the Cities: horizons community regarding Cities: Skylines II,” he said. “I've noticed an increase in negativity. However, I wouldn't say I've noticed increased toxicity. And frankly, I think the negativity is completely understandable and predictable.

Philip identified four factors leading to this negative sentiment: the game is PC-only, it is buggy and unplayable on many common hardware configurations, there is no official support for mods, and Colossal Order is not supported. is not held responsible for game errors.

“Colossal Order has been transparent, talking with the community, but has not taken responsibility for the game's release,” Philip said. “I hear this over and over again. Many players seem to want them to admit that the game's release state was poor, to be sorry, and to make some gesture to make it up to them. To date, they've delayed the release of the DLC – which was actually a huge negative for people who purchased the Ultimate Edition of the game – but haven't made amends. (They haven't) provided the information that people are looking for.

Cities Skylines II
Huge order

The biggest misstep on Philip's list is the lack of mods. Colossal Order plans to add an official pipeline for mods directly through Paradox, rather than Steam Workshop, which hosted mods in Cities: horizons. Moving to an in-house modding platform will ensure parity across all platforms, bringing mods to consoles and players outside of Steam. However, the Cities: Skylines mod community was built on Steam Workshop, a popular and easy-to-use platform, and with the delay in the console release, the current player base is simply inconvenienced.

“The maps that come with the game aren't great – incredibly high difficulty, unforgiving weather – and many of the core features need refinement,” Philip said. “Mods provided this opportunity and they are not available yet. Worse still, early posts made it seem like modding was imminent, weeks after launch (but it was delayed) to an unspecified date in Q2 2024.”

Collaboration with the community is what made the original game successful, and the sequel could certainly benefit from participatory improvements. For now, some players use a third-party tool to operate the mods. Cities: Skylines II.

“The technology is new, the simulation has been completely rewritten and the game has all the potential to become the city builder of this decade,” Hallikainen said. “What we failed to do was get modding support available for the release, and we're doing our best to catch up. We're excited to see that the modding community hasn't been waiting for us, but is already creating amazing mods for the game.”

Cities: Skylines II
Interactive paradox

This is just the beginning for Cities: Skylines II. Colossal Order plans to support and expand the game over the next 10 years. The original Cities: horizons didn't have all the bells, whistles, and mods when it first released in 2015, and the sequel starts in a similar position. The Colossal Order sees Cities: Skylines II as a new foundation, but its core community expected a more complete experience.

“The feedback we received from content creators and modders helped us immensely to move in the right direction, and we enjoy working cooperatively with different parties,” Hallikainen said. “There is a lot of work to be done and we plan to continue over the next decade. »

Cities: Skylines II has improved significantly in the months since its launch, thanks to a slew of Colossal Order updates. It's on the right track. Huge order updates on the game's progress every week, but it will take time – and perhaps an apology, a plan and free in-game perks – to rewrite the narrative around Cities: Skylines II.

“I think the most toxic people right now are the biggest fans of the game,” Philip said. “And frankly, they're just disappointed that the game isn't going well for them or that they can't play it at all. They are disappointed and lash out, which is not normal. But to me it means there is a way to fix the problems if the game is fully fixed and accountability is taken.

This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whats-up-with-the-toxicity-around-cities-skylines-ii-213034938.html?src=rss

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