I blame anyone keeping this company alive

The victims... Of the company that keeps doing the same thing over and over, and have for some time now, we'll before the current game they're "victims" of was even announced...

If only the leopard hadn't eaten their face.

Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me eight or more times; shame on me.

Yeah, this is a case of a company being misleading about its offline mode and what that means. Like the article says, it's supposed to be a one-time activation check. Not a requirement to play the game, they were supposed to have learned this lesson with Assassin Creed 2's DRM.

This should open up some trouble for misleading customers.

Yes.

Correct.

Unless you are literally a child, you should have been able to figure this out by now.

What are you a 'victim' of?

... False Marketing?

Sure, yeah, that's bad. But at some point, you have to be able to realize that the lying liars who lie, are, most likely, lying again.

How things should be != How things are.

You live in the latter. If you wanna change that, good! But the thinking alone doesn't make it so.

On top of that, if you can prove false advertising, such as an online requirement despite a claim of offline mode, you can claim a refund even after those two hours.

Sarcasm or a plea for help?

Play the pirate game the pirate way.