8. Online-Only Games With Unstable Servers - Diablo 3 & SimCity
Blizzard NorthIt's just something we have to accept nowadays that game developers are investing more of their time and money than ever before in online play. While this is fine when it's optional, it's not so great when, short of an MMO, a game won't allow you to play offline and on your own. Two recent examples are Diablo 3 and SimCity: each game required an Internet connection upon launch to play, meaning that if there's a server crash or your own Internet ceases to function, you're essentially locked out of a game that you've paid good money for. Now, are these games better when playing online? Absolutely, but it's essentially a form of not-so-stealthy digital rights management, to try and police everyone's consumption of the game. Ironically, all it does is punish those who paid for it, because pirate copies of both games showed up online shortly after release, each with an offline patch: basically, those who paid nothing for the game also had a smoother single-player experience, even if it meant they couldn't play with buddies. SimCity did eventually gain an offline patch roughly a year after release, but did anyone really care by that point?