Why is it only now that people start complaining about always-online DRM?
Whether there is some trouble due to a server being down or not, for me there is no difference. DRM that requires you to be always online for a single player game is already broken without the server being down imho.
Why is it now? If you haven't read any online news lately, as in the past few years, people have had fits about this since it was introduced. Diablo 3 for example.
More people are complaining about it now since with SimCity they didn't expect it to occur. Additionally how bad EA at keeping the game online too.
Whether there is some trouble due to a server being down or not, for me there is no difference. DRM that requires you to be always online for a single player game is already broken without the server being down imho.