Why attaching game modes to online only is a mistake

[Phreak50]

Before I take a breath and type calmly, I have to firstly say. If any other big name game (non-sports especially) had basically an online only DRM, they would be torn a new one and absolutely trashed by every man and his dog online...

Ok.

So we've all seen how bad the servers are. And obviously just how little of the game we can actually play when the servers (or our own net) is down. You can't charge full price for a game that can be so unstable and inconsistently accessible for starters.

Secondly, I'd suggest to everyone to try these two things...

1. Have as much of your bandwidth taken up as possible (through backgrounds downloads or throttling or whatever) and try to play this game.
Even something as simple as going into the options menu can have a 30-40 second delay due to the game constantly checking in with the servers.
If your network is slow, it takes this much time between each menu. Hell, it even takes 30 seconds to exit the game.
*Obviously if your connection is super quick you will never notice this, but for people who do have slow connections, try to imagine how annoying this is when loading between menus and game modes takes so long.

2. On the other hand, try either unplugging your network or simply running Steam in offline mode. The game suddenly runs flawlessly in the menus. No delay, no communication between servers and back.

I am yet to notice, but wonder if even some of the micro stutter is due to all the network stuff going on in the background.

I don't like to bash a company. But it's clear 2K is really slipping here. If the spiral continues it won't be long until we see an EA Sim City type media explosion. You simply can't keep treating your paying customers like dirt.

[skoadam]

Oh this is good find, i must check this because right now im playing with offline status on steam....because my god damn pad cant work in myPark for some reasons. So u are saying, that when i will be online menus freeze? I saw some freeze earlier but i would never connect this issue with my network. Damn 2k.