On mandatory internet connections and gaming

So I'm browsing the latest offerings on Steam the other day and I happened on to the new Driver: San Francisco.  Looks like a fun game with just enough of a storyline to be interesting without being boring and lots of cool cars to run around in as well. 

I watched the gameplay videos and thought to myself, "Hey, This might be worth a look when steam does a sale on it"

Then I told a friend about it and he informed me that it required an active Internet connection to play it.

What!

Really? So if I want to play a game I have to constantly siphon bandwidth from an already overpriced and over-capped broadband connection struggling to stream netflix and YouTube videos?  I understand game updates and such, that's fine.  In fact I love the fact that Portal 2 saves my game online so I can pick up where I left off from anywhere that's got a connection to my steam account. 

You already know how I feel about moving saved games between PCs so to avoid such annoyances is a welcome feature.  I don't have to be online all the time just to play it however!  There's even an option, "No Steam" that will let me play Portal 2.  Truth be told I ran into it by accident but it's there nonetheless.

So why do I have to be constantly connected to the Internet to play a game??  I've accepted the phone home aspect of modern gaming but this is less like checking your voicemail and more like calling your mother.

How is this reasonable when we have broadband providers defending bandwidth caps while in the same breath raising prices without improving the service.  It seems to be another example of a game publisher getting between the developer and the customer just to fatten profits.  I would bet that ISP's like ComCast and Time Warner will soon start offering games like these for free or reduced cost if the subscriber would just "upgrade" their broadband connection.  All under the guise of supposedly charging commensurate with heavy usage while offering the game publisher a captive market.

Broadband providers sell their services knowing full well that they promise more than they can deliver.  It's called overcommitment and based on a model where the majority of users will pay for bandwidth they'll never use.  Let me rephrase that.. The core business model is based on the hope that you never get what you paid for. 

Since Broadband providers are technically not "utilities" they don't have the restrictions that say your water or electric utility does.  So they can set their prices arbitrarily with only market forces to say otherwise.  Since many broadband providers operate as virtual monopolies the "market" is largely non-existant. 

With that in mind I can only think that there's some kind of backroom dealing going on or that Game publishers are totally disconnected from the economic reality of their market.  Forcing a constant connection does not benefit the consumer in fact it hurts the experience.  Who among us hasn't run into downed game servers or an over-committed ISP degrading our Internet connections.  It's an indefensible position.

Well, I can say this.  If I'm forced to use up my bandwidth "allotment" just to play a game I might as well stick to Lord of Ultima or Armor Games. It'll cost me a lot less...