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[Simmura McCrea]

it made ice cream come out of the computer.

Oh god. I would pay so much if it did that.

[tomas1297]

it made BACON come out of the computer.

Oh god. I would pay so much if it did that.

 And on a more serious note, Steam works fine for me.

[ToonyMan]

I've been using Steam since 2007, never had a problem with it.  In fact I actually like Gabe Newell.  I think he gets picked on way too much.  He always looks so sad...

[Sowelu]

Steam is the Wal-Mart of computer game retailers, and it is good.

I dunno.  Sometimes I regret buying games off Steam because of the low prices.  I should have barely been able to get The Void for $5, let alone a pack of games including it.  How much did the original company even get for it?  I have to keep wondering if Steam is simultaneously helping and killing the indie market, by devaluing their games.  These sales are starting to feel morally on the level of piracy themselves.

[ECrownofFire]

My only complaint with Steam is that it doesn't support Linux, but that's more of a complaint for gaming in general.

Steam is the Wal-Mart of computer game retailers, and it is good.

I dunno.  Sometimes I regret buying games off Steam because of the low prices.  I should have barely been able to get The Void for $5, let alone a pack of games including it.  How much did the original company even get for it?  I have to keep wondering if Steam is simultaneously helping and killing the indie market, by devaluing their games.  These sales are starting to feel morally on the level of piracy themselves.

From what I've heard, the indie gamers get a lot more from Valve than they do from other publishers. No idea about the sales, but publishers actually get a HUGE profit margin, and digital distribution cuts costs a lot (packaging, shipping, etc.). Valve can afford to cut their profits, they're in the big-business now.

[Cecilff2]

They do not force you to download the game from the server if you have the disc; only updates.
Install it from the disc after you install Steam and register your key.
Don't click Install on Steam itself.  It doesn't even look at the disc drive when you do that, as that is for games sans physical media.
Valve's games themselves are pretty good about installing correctly from disc with Steam, other publishers it seems not-so-much.
A vast majority of my Steam library is comprised of games that I do not own a physical disc for.  And that's okay, because I can download and install them as many times as I want on as many systems as I want, at uncapped (on their end -- will slow down with your connection and server load obviously) download speeds, as long as I have the Steam software on that system.  Which is also okay, because it really doesn't use any resources whatsoever on any somewhat modern computer.  If I don't have the rights to install the software on a system, I probably shouldn't be trying to install game X either.

Civilization V.  All it does is install steam and then download the game(Or if you already have steam, starts the download of Civ V).  No option whatsoever to install from disk.(No files even)  Hope it doesn't become a habit of game devs.

[Sowelu]

It's mostly the sales that bug me, but it seems like PC gamers are just plain coming to expect lower prices.  I think they said that L4D sold 2000% more copies (not a typo) when they halved their price from something like $40 to $20, and I really don't see how it's supposed to be less fun than the latest $60 Batman game.  Indie games have even lower prices, and people still largely get them on sale.

(Hmm... Is that true?  I mean, I pretty much only ever get things on sale on Steam.  There's SO MANY sales.)

It's really cool that Steam cuts out a ton of the middle-man that console games would normally have, but I wonder if it's made up for by the lower prices.

[LordNagash]

Indie games get infinitely more sales when placed on Steam than they would ever do otherwise, especially when they're on sale and they dip under that $10 price point where most people will just buy anything that looks vaguely good, because it's under the threshold where you get all outraged about buying something that sucks.

[Sowelu]

You know, that's true.  I've gotten a few games that were serious turkeys (sometimes of the 'this doesn't even run' variety) and I don't think I ever experienced more than slight irritation.  When it costs less than I would pay for a new dish at a new restaurant that turns out to be pretty bad after all, it's really hard to rile me up, and consequently I keep buying the things.  "Don't piss off your customers" is a surprisingly effective strategy, and keeping the prices of your riskier offerings low is an important component there.

[Neyvn]

I don't understand the hate for Steam.
Some retail games require it.  So what?

They do not force you to download the game from the server if you have the disc; only updates.
Install it from the disc after you install Steam and register your key.
Don't click Install on Steam itself.  It doesn't even look at the disc drive when you do that, as that is for games sans physical media.
Valve's games themselves are pretty good about installing correctly from disc with Steam, other publishers it seems not-so-much.
A vast majority of my Steam library is comprised of games that I do not own a physical disc for.  And that's okay, because I can download and install them as many times as I want on as many systems as I want, at uncapped (on their end -- will slow down with your connection and server load obviously) download speeds, as long as I have the Steam software on that system.  Which is also okay, because it really doesn't use any resources whatsoever on any somewhat modern computer.  If I don't have the rights to install the software on a system, I probably shouldn't be trying to install game X either.

Steam really is the most useful DRM out there, if it is used correctly.

RE: Microsoft --
You might not have done the pirating personally, but I've used official student versions of Windows before (despite the fact that I'm not a student..  nevermind that), and never seen anything of that sort, so I suspect what you had was not truly legitimate.

With the steam, I was Installing from the disc... It would then start the install via Steam, it was an odd and annoying thing happening...

With Microsoft, Personally I believe I had been lied to by my friend who helped me build up this computer, but I am sure that the copy used was legal and such...

[Zai]

Steam seems to be very flighty and capricious.  Some people (Like me, thankfully) could only love it more if it made ice cream come out of the computer.  For other people it eats their games and blows up their computer.

Spoiler: From the Steam summer sale (click to show/hide)

That is all.

[GlyphGryph]

Apparently, Steam is releasing a Linux version "soonish" (valve time).

So three or four years from now, they might be getting regular infusions of my money as well.

Microsoft, though?

Never again!