Couldn't they... not make a single-player game require a permanent connection to the internet in order to work? (Shocking idea, I know.)

Yeah, GOG thought the same XD (c'mon, guys!)

The fact that 8 years on this is still happening however is laughable - heck if Valve released HL3 tomorrow and it had the same problems I'd be laying into them too...

I have the feeling that the day Half-Life 3 comes out it won't be just Valve's servers that will be severely hammered, but the ISPs' too...

I didn't know. In all the history of SimCity has it ever been online-always and mulitplayer? I mean sure it's a feature, but I'm surprised that the game itself is a MMO. WTH? It's always been a single-player experience. I don't think I'd rag on someone for assuming the thing.

To be fair the 'always online' thing has been reasonably widely put about (the SimCity team did an AMA on reddit which basically became a 'wtf always online?' steam) and complained about for some months now and with this release it seems the complaints are justified somewhat...

That's my point pretty much. It think it was known since its announcement that it would require an always-on internet connection.

Just marketing departments relentlessly trying to solve the wrong problems, as usual. DRM cannot. be. resolved. in. this. way. While physical objects are difficult to replicate, information can be efficiently copied with perfect accuracy. It is not possible to apply the same copyright methods to those vastly different forms of media. Every popular game that has come out equipped with some form of DRM has been stripped clean by various organisations with very little effort. Every single one of them. Is this because the developers suck? No, it's because their approach is fundamentally flawed and cannot succeed. It's time to stop making token efforts which do more harm than good, and actually try and be intelligent and adapt to the digital world, instead of struggling to bend that same world to our corporate will and ideals.

/sigh

People whine and complain about games that pull this kind of thing, and yet people still buy those offending games. Look at Diablo 3. Hideous launch problems, constant whining about how this is an abomination that must be ended... and yet one of the largest single-day sales records ever. Really? I mean, not to trot out the dead old D3 horse again, but this SimCity thing is the same exact thing, the same exact user abuse. And yet, people still bought it. As long as people continue to buy this shit, they are going to continue to stuff it down our throats. We're rewarding bad behavior. And yes, I'm guilty. I did buy D3, even against my better judgement. That was the last AAA game I've bought, and that will probably be the last game I ever buy from a AAA publisher. I just won't reward this stupid crap any more. Despite the fact I own the previous SimCity games, and despite the fact that I enjoyed the hell out of them, EA (and Actiblizz, and Ubisoft, and every other asshole company that wants to treat me like a criminal and disallow me from playing games I purchased) won't get any more of my money. I'm done with it, I'm done with them.

/soapbox

@Bacterius -- arguably that's why they decided to make a multiplayer game rather than a single-player game. Cracking the MP part requires fooling the online authentication, which can be practically impossible (when was the last time someone cracked your online bank account?)

To be fair the 'always online' thing has been reasonably widely put about

And when I saw the box on the shelf at EB Games, it had a huge sticker on the front warning about this.

People whine and complain about games that pull this kind of thing, and yet people still buy those offending games. Look at Diablo 3. Hideous launch problems, constant whining about how this is an abomination that must be ended... and yet one of the largest single-day sales records ever. Really?

Aren't the follow-up sales more applicable than the first-day sales?
The people who bought it on the first day are the people who suffered through the problems after they'd put down their money.

If they had the ability to play for the first week free and then pay, then the "first day sales" would probably look pretty different (especially as D3 isn't a very good game after playing it for a week... )

I've not even played, let alone bought, an EA game since FIFA '95 was far far worse than the original FIFA soccer ;) Slow, and nearly every game ended up 1-0 or 0-0. And the graphics were like, exactly the same... Yay, I could play as Everton. but they were rubbish compared to everyone else in the game since it was based on 1994 season (although we did win the FA cup beating Manchester United in 1995 of course - Paul Rideout goal...).. And no Big Dunc special headbutt move :(

@Bacterius -- arguably that's why they decided to make a multiplayer game rather than a single-player game. Cracking the MP part requires fooling the online authentication, which can be practically impossible (when was the last time someone cracked your online bank account?)

Of course, I'm talking about games with a significant single-player component which force you to be online "for authentication purposes" (e.g. "I want to check if you are playing this single-player game legally"). Multiplayer games obviously require you to be online while playing. Though this rush towards "you must have/purchase an account to play" is not always warranted, people care so much about stats, they've apparently forgotten what it means to have fun, and, really, so have I, to some extent, after so much bullcrap. I know money has to come from somewhere, but.. come on, this is getting stupid. I know this is old, but does nobody remember playing UT99 with their friends? Did we want to deal with this crap at the time? Do we want to now? We play games to escape reality and enjoy ourselves alone or in groups (or with strangers), not to be presented with endless error messages of "this cd key has already been used", "your account has been banned", "the servers are down", "we have detected your authentication key is invalid", "your password has been reset", and so on..

I'm fine with connect once to launch the single player game but if you always have to be online after launching it that sounds even worse than the FIFA 95 travesty...