Except for the IP blocking they added on the quiet...

The above responses are the problems to which I was referring.
People excuse Steamworks because it's "tame." Yes, Steamworks is not as bad as Ubisoft's new DRM, but Ubisoft's new DRM is certainly an extension on the themes introduced by Valve. Steamworks, in essence, in a well-loved gateway to darker DRM systems. Publishers have seen the success of Steamworks and will wish to replicate its architecture.
Does anyone here honestly believe that Ubisoft would have introduced this new system had Steam and Steamworks not reached such popularity?

Best news so far this year.

The schadenfreude is strong in you young captfitz
In me too

Eh... Steamworks = one time on-line activation and extended services for the game.
Ubisoft DRM = you must be connected all the time. That is all.
So yeah, I think they would, 'cause the only thing Ubi has taken from Steam is the on-line part and if Steam wouldn't come up with that, someone else would - actually, when I have heard about on-line activation for the very first time, I knew someone would do this eventually. Also, Steamworks can still be considered a service with it's own advantages and disadvantages. I don't see any advantages in ubisoft DRM, which is making them incomparable.
I'm not trying to find an excuse or something for Steamworks. It's a service, like any other. You want to use it, you will, you don't, well... You don't have to. It can be beneficial for both customer and publisher, which is, in my opinion, how things should work. I don't feel restricted by Steamworks and so I will not hate this form of protection, on the contrary, I feel it makes my life easier. Ubi DRM on the other hand is only beneficial for the publisher and restricting for the user, therefore, isn't so... Good.

Servers fixed now apparently. Aw.

Doesn't it also need to re-verify on occasion for offline mode?

For now. I somehow doubt this will be only server outage for the game.

2 alias: Some games, maybe, I am not sure, since I am on the internets pretty much all the time. But I know I have been playing on my netbook for at least a month without connecting to the interwebz a single time...

Well, I think it has to do with a character flaw, which is rather common among the younger generations: inability to admit failure. When a consumer purchases a bad product, he can recognize his mistake or he can attempt to justify the purchase. Many users become extremely defensive when their chosen products have significant flaws, and viciously defend said products instead of admitting that the purchase itself was a mistake.
Ergo, those who purchase Assassin's Creed II may defend this new DRM in order to persuade themselves into believing that the purchase was indeed wise.

Can't wait for the next. :)

I bet my balls on the Ubisoft response to this: our DRM servers are broken? No problemo, we just need to build more servers....
When you use your ass instead of your brain and you are paid gazillion dollars per year for this, you keep up doing the same again and again and again until someone fires you. And if you are the big-boss-CEO well, it's pretty difficult to be fired until you end up killing the whole business.....

Actually Steamworks (and indeed Steam proper) checks your authentication every time you launch a game while in online mode. Only if you set the client to offline mode do you avoid having to reauthenticate. Of course, the second you go back online and launch a game, you'll be authenticating again.

Nah, that's just people in general. Admitting you're wrong hurts.
As for Steam, I had no preconceptions about Valve when I started using it as the only game of theirs I had played by then was The Orange Box. (And thus needed to use Steam anyway).
I use Steam because I find it to be an awesome service: great catalogue, good prices, frequent sales, fast downloads, automatic patching, excellent UI-community integration, no CDs... only thing I miss is boxes. New game smell, y'know, although technically game boxes don't smell.
I will admit, however, that this is the first time I've hesitated in buying a game because of DRM. While my "connection record" over the past year has been practically flawless in World of WarCraft, I have no idea how strict the Ubisoft servers are. Maybe I'll get AC2 on the 360 instead, although I hear the PC version is much prettier to look at...