The cd-key thing isn't what I meant, lol. I'm so used to games needing cd-keys it doesn't bother me. I just meant needing something like Steam to install the game (boxed versions, not online download).
Creating an online account to play online isn't bad, more like expected and needed. But to create an online account to play offline? No thanks, not interested. That's what I was talking about with BF2142. You needed an online account just to play offline, and I didn't really like playing that game online. I just played for a short-while before declaring the game a failure. The maps were so big, and the game was pretty oriented around the machines more than the human bodies. 'Course they might have changed that in patches or whatever, but I never grabbed the patches.
Though I do have to say BF3 looks fairly interesting so far. I have a friend who's really interested in BF3, too. He was pretty interested in BF2 for a good while.
You didn't need an online account with 2142 or BF2 for offline play.
When you ran the game, you chose offline account and played with yourself against the bots.
When you played online, you need an online account and then the CD-Key gets tied to your online account so the only way to sell the game is to give the account with it.
BF2 was awesome, we spent countless hours playing that game,