And I still can't play the frickin' game. Unfortunatelly is all about risk management and cost, perhaps it's cheaper to risk having those kind of problems and have your image damaged than spend money on testing and buying extra hardware upfront.

Somehow I think focusing just on short term sales will get back to all those who damage their image in the long term.

Because Steam(mostly) does it right. I don't really mind DRM per se, I just hate crappy, bugged out DRM. Which is to say of DRM. I don't consider Steam to be more inconvenient than "please insert disc to play". If most DRM looked like Steam, I don't think there would be a lot of hate for it.

I think steam is more convenient than "please insert disc to play", or even DRM free games from for example gog.com simply because steam makes accessing my games from any computer, anywhere, easy and the DRM doesn't get in my way. (I've never even noticed it).

It is 2013 now so i don't have a huge problem with the always online requirement itself (I am always online anyway), but if i pay for a product and/or service i do expect it to be delivered at the date and time promised to me, there are no excuses, there is no such thing as an unexpected initial rush, with digital distribution you know exactly how many copies you've sold and you can stop sales in any region at any time. Blizzard failed with D3, EA failed with SimCity and i don't even care if Ubisoft fails or not anymore (I don't buy their games because of their past DRM fuckups and both EA and Blizzard has to be careful or i'll stop buying their games aswell).

If EA wishes to go down the always online route they need to commit to it, servers need to be up and running and can't be taken down just because a game is getting old, To get my money they will have to prove that they can deliver, not just on launchday but also 10+ years after launch.

What the flow of events Should have been:
Server is down: Ah, sorry, you will have to manage your city with whatever external data you had at the last server sync. Your local save will be synced up with the server as soon as we are back online. It won't be as fun, or cool, but you will still be able to get some enjoyment from the game.

As there are fewer and fewer places where one can be expected not to have internet connections there are fewer and fewer reasons not to require them.

I know my last comment got lost inbetween a hailstorm of other comments, so I'll just comment on this point again:

Yes, most people have constant internet access. Some of us do a fair bit of travelling however, and constant internet access, let alone fast internet access is not guaranteed, and I would personally find it very annoying to be unable to play a single player part of a game due to lack of internet. And to be fair, I've yet to purchase any game that required this - for that very reason. I've gone on without reliable internet for up to a week at a time, and while annoying, I'd be even more annoyed if I couldn't play me some games.

There's also the principle of the thing - you're talking about making content dependent on an internet connection, even though it does NOT have to be. It's not the same with GPUs, since modern games actually CANNOT run without them.

See, one is a technological limitation, imposed by the very nature of a game, while the other is an unnecessary limitation forced on for reasons completely unrelated to the game itself.

And the way you're reasoning is, I'm sure, what EA would want people to reason like, so that they can continue imposing whatever restrictions they want.

Also if you once bought a GPU for your computer its always there and even if it fails you can replace it. If that game is only playable with the server connection and the servers get offline, cause the company goes under or decides the game is 3 years old and only 10 people per day playing is not worth it keeping it online you can do nothing but curse them.

Exactly, my issue isnt with requiring a connection now... it is what happens once EA turns off the server once the product reaches end of life.

If you work at EA currently and have any say in the matter, your due diligence should really be in warning about this.

There is currently no system in place protecting gamers against *idiots* in the gaming industry and it is getting quite worrying.

Yes, most people have constant internet access. Some of us do a fair bit of travelling however, and constant internet access, let alone fast internet access is not guaranteed, and I would personally find it very annoying to be unable to play a single player part of a game due to lack of internet.