entr0py wrote on Dec 23, 2012, 01:17:

RollinThundr wrote on Dec 23, 2012, 00:39:

Verno wrote on Dec 23, 2012, 00:27:

entr0py wrote on Dec 23, 2012, 00:03:
You don't know that Steam, Origin and GFWL all have offline modes? I believe Steam has some requirement whereby every couple of months you have to authenticate or offline mode stops working. But that is pretty friendly to people with laptops or crappy connections. Still bones people with no internet access at all though.

Yep exactly. The comparison between something like Steam and an individual game like Simcity is completely flawed anyway. One is a service to sell games, the other is an actual game. There is a pretty big feature gap between them. Digital distro services have to implement DRM as per publisher requirements, publishers on the other hand get to choose what goes into their games.

EA chose this path because they like under pinning their games with online connectivity now as it gives a convenient excuse to retire unsuccessful ones that aren't generating an ongoing revenue stream. Look at the rather pitiful list of online features and tell me with a straight face that they couldn't have done that on demand instead of requiring always on.

Anyway sorry Rolling but you're 100% wrong here. People definitely hate EA for a variety of reasons but in this case it's 100% justified, their rather long standing tradition of shitting on older franchises is pretty well documented.

Oh well hopefully they learn their lesson from this. I'm off to my familys place for a few days, merry christmas everyone!

Honestly, how many people use offline mode for steam on a regular basis? Or GFWL or Origin? Unless you're traveling prolly not very often, or live in the sticks with shit for internet.

I really don't think this is as big a deal as you guys are making it out to be.

Verno is right that the real issue is game specific always online DRM, and distribution platforms are a bit of a tangent. But did you play Diablo 3? Even if you have a great internet connection, you'll still often have your single player game ruined by server maintenance or server side lag. There's no benefit for the player, just unpredictable inconvenience.

That's part of why I don't think EA/Maxis should take D3's success as encouragement to try the same shenanigans. A lot of people who hoped it wouldn't be so bad were burned by D3 and learned their lesson.