What happened to the days when you'd buy a game, get that lovely instruction booklet, and then pop it in your console? I'm not aware of any other platforms. GOG is an excellent case since they've started including manuals on some of their DRM-free games again (which is great). Alternatively, there's Steam, which has services like cloud saving and robust social features.
Essentially, these new online services are impossible to use without an internet connection! If your connection is lost or destroyed, you're out of luck. You've been screwed, pal! Don't get me started on the spying element! I'm not sure how it functions, but I believe the game sends information such as "hey, this guy is playing game X!" to a random server. Users may be monitored and their gaming habits discovered. That's why, most likely, you see advertising for that one title all over the internet within a few minutes of playing it.
That's awful because we genuinely value our privacy. Don't get me started on the limitations of geography ... We're given features that aren't delivered (like cloud saving), services that are still broken as all hell, and functionalities promised across platforms yet unfulfilled. Or consider the cross-platform capabilities (cloud saves) that were supposed to be included in the game but aren't functioning on different platforms.
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