Yesterday, it seemed that SimCity offline play is possible for 20 minutes, with no definitive consequences on gameplay.

Today, a modder has reported cracked the way to play SimCity offline for an indefinite period of time. EuroGamer reports that a YouTube member, UKAzzer, has posted a video of SimCity where he was dabbling with the debug mode.

"So with a little bit of package editing within SimCity, and a little playing about int eh code, it's possible to enable debug mode," UKAzzer said on his YouTube page.

"You can edit the highways ANYWHERE-even outside of your city boundary. And even if you quit the game and log back in later, it's all saved safely on the server."

Of course, it's not a perfect system. TechCrunch reports that the mod blocks key game features, and saving a game requires a re-connection with the Internet. But what it did was extend the 20-minute offline gameplay that other testers have tried before. Here's the latest mod hack video so you can check it out.

So why the always-on policy?

Considering how easy it the mod hack was done, it's still a wonder why EA is still adamant about the fact that offline play is just not possible.

TechCrunch also reports that the always-on policy may be more of a piracy protection for the game than about user experience-which, in essence, is just what UKAzzer has overturned.

EA has already created a webpage for server status updates, and it has even reportedly claimed that server upgrades have been implemented to address all the problems.

And while SimCity disaster has mellowed down to a meeker glitch, the potential of offline play may be raised time and again, especially when the next SimCity installment gets launched and a possible server disaster starts up.

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