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[Taricus]

I don't really use it, 1.5 Mb speeds do that.

As well as a dodgy WiFi network connection.

[Sowelu]

Steam is the best thing that happened to the gaming industry in the last 10 years

At this point I literally never buy non-Steam games (excepting indie ones), because they aren't worth the hassle.  Steam gives me absolutely zero hassle and always works.  Plus, it's really nice to say "Oh, I'll be going somewhere for a while and taking my laptop.  Let me fire up Steam on it, and kick off five or six downloads, hey look I have all my favorite games now."

Offline mode is totally sufficient.  The friends network is surprisingly usable and very well implemented (especially in Source games) without being in-your-face.

Holiday sales beat everything.  I own more games than I have time to play.  I had to force myself to stop looking at them.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but Steam tends to work as a half-decent quality filter, too.  For the most part, if a game is on Steam then you know it doesn't suck too bad.  It might not be your thing, but it won't be a low-quality game.

Also it's worth it just for L4D2 alone.

[Soulwynd]

Oh yeah, the drm everyone loves. :3


/spit

[Zangi]

Oh yeah, the drm everyone loves. :3


/spit

It is a sound strategy to lace the DRM with beneficial stuff, more then enough for people to overlook it.

And yea, Steam is fine for valve only games.

[Sowelu]

Look, it's just a different business model.  Maybe you don't want it, but it has some pretty big advantages.  Steam's servers trust that you aren't a pirate, so they are willing to shove an enormous library of usually-cheap games at you, anywhere that you have an internet connection.  If they didn't have that technically-enforced trust in your system, they wouldn't be able to offer the things they offer.

Maybe you're paranoid enough to worry about being hacked, and that's okay, but what's more likely:  Losing your whole game collection to oh-no hackers, or losing your whole game collection to burglary/fire/flooding/where-the-fuck-did-I-put-that-CD?  Yeah I think I'd rather keep it online.  It's better than having to swap out a disc all the time, too.

I guess some people are seriously worried about game ownership vs. personal liberty, and how this somehow means they don't actually own their games despite what it looks like to all practical purposes.  (Do they complain about what happens if they lose a book, or someone steals it?)  Maybe it's just that I'm getting older, though, but I can't get my fur all ruffled by the personal liberty implications of my video game collection...

[Zangi]

I'd be pretty pissed if someone steals a book I'm currently reading.

When you consider GoG, you download the full game installer and still be able to download it again.  That is my favorite sort.  I don't remember how the other online distributors do it.

[Soulwynd]

I'm not all hate against steam tho. I just don't like it that people say it's all good, because it's not.

Here are the bad points in no specific order:

-Incompetent support. Took me a month to even get a somewhat decent answer for a BUG REPORT and instead of fixing the bugs, they wanted me to install drivers that have nothing to do with my audio hardware. I guess the concept of it being a bug report is too hard to grasp.
-You cannot trade/give your games. With a physical copy, you can uninstall your game and give it to a friend if you're done with it or don't like it. (Go DRM go. -_-)
-Cannot resale games. I'd love to get rid of a few I have, but... No can do.
-All the games are linked to your account. If you get unlucky with a trojan or is distracted and click some phishing link, well, good luck. The recovery chances range from recovering it at the same time and never again. If you get banned for some reason, which they can easily make up and support, bye bye games. Not only that, the jerks in most forums will say it's your fault.
-VAC bans. Once banned, bye bye all your multiplayer games that make use of VAC. VAC can ban you for modified .exe and .dlls and other things as well, so be careful with viruses or anything that might alter your files, even hd corruption when it's beginning to die. Again, jerk offs will say it's your fault. I hope they die because of a malfunction in their car.
-Not all download regions support updates to all games. If steam suddenly decides to redownload your entire game at an update, make sure you check that.

So yeah, buy steam only games and games on sale on steam. At least that's my opinion.

[creodor]

Steam is easier than driving 15-20 miles to the nearest Gamestop and rifling through their crappy collection, the wait is shorter than buying off Amazon/Newegg, they have yet to block my ability to download a game just because I've already activated it 5 times (looking at you, Direct2Drive. Ever heard of a reformat, assholes?), and their deals usually beat Impulse out. Steam also has a better UI than Impulse IMO. GoG is pretty awesome, but their selection isn't as great. I do go there for any older games I want though.
I can backup my games without fighting with CD protections. Offline mode + decent laptop means it's simple to take all my favorite games when I travel.
Yes. There is DRM involved. They don't want their stuff stolen constantly. But it doesn't interfere with how I wish to use the games, and this is after using the service for around...hell, how long has HL2 been out? However long that is. And it's basically my primary source of games, and my primary game launcher as well. Has been for around 3 or so years now. My account has never been disabled, I've never had games disabled or removed, and Steam itself has never had more than minor issues on my computers. In fact, the only game-interrupting issues I've had with steam, not counting serial shortages during holiday sales, have been caused by 3rd party DRM left in games by the developer or a game not actually being compatible with Windows 7.
For me at least, the advantages greatly outweigh the negative.

For ninja post:
-Never had to deal with support for Steam. No opinion.
-True. It would be nice. However, I can't remember doing that with any of my other games. Given the option though, I might now.
-Also true. I don't often resell, but I have a couple I'd like to sell back cause they suck.
-While this is true, I know no one it's happened to. My password for Steam is fairly good, and my steam account name is different from all my other accounts. Not foolproof of course, but that with plus paying attention when random links pop up has served me well.
-Once again, it is a possibility but I know no one it's happened to. I rarely play MP anyways.
-I've never seen that on mine. No opinion.

Yes, Steam has bad stuff. It also has good. It's a matter of figuring which way they balance for you.

[Soulwynd]

I just crack the games and good bye DRM. But that's just me.

We had a couple B12ers that lost their accounts. Had a few in another gaming community I go to as well. One got vac banned due to falling for phishing and had to repurchase the games he liked.

And for the record, I haven't bought a physical copy in a decade. There are other online distribution sites.

[PenguinOverlord]

Give in, but use Gamersgate and perhaps GOG primarily.

I used Gamersgate, up until the installer for Ruse wanted to install through Steam after finishing the download of it itself...

what
That is just stupid.

[LoSboccacc]

about the reselling ability:

what is better, to get just cause at 2.99$, or get it at 60$ and resale it at 20$?

used game of today doesn't drop down in prices like some time ago. gamestop is hoarding the used market, driving up prices, at least in my region. top titles of two years ago still sell at 45$ used.

[Zangi]

about the reselling ability:

what is better, to get just cause at 2.99$, or get it at 60$ and resale it at 20$?

used game of today doesn't drop down in prices like some time ago. gamestop is hoarding the used market, driving up prices, at least in my region. top titles of two years ago still sell at 45$ used.

Why would you buy PC games from gamestop/retail store when you can buy online?

Only possible answer is if you have bad/no internets and are getting single player PC games...  Does gamestop even buy/resell PC games?  I thought it was just console games...

[Sowelu]

EDIT:  You know what?  I'm going to take game resale into its own thread.

[LoSboccacc]

about the reselling ability:

what is better, to get just cause at 2.99$, or get it at 60$ and resale it at 20$?

used game of today doesn't drop down in prices like some time ago. gamestop is hoarding the used market, driving up prices, at least in my region. top titles of two years ago still sell at 45$ used.

Why would you buy PC games from gamestop/retail store when you can buy online?

Only possible answer is if you have bad/no internets and are getting single player PC games...  Does gamestop even buy/resell PC games?  I thought it was just console games...

amazon italy is a very recent thing. very few reseller sold/ship stuff here. even direct to drive has half its collection locked for italians.

[Rakonas]

Give in, but use Gamersgate and perhaps GOG primarily.

I used Gamersgate, up until the installer for Ruse wanted to install through Steam after finishing the download of it itself...

what
That is just stupid.

It's part of the ongoing problem of games being tied directly to steam. On the bright side, it's the same as having bought from Steam once you register the serial, and then you've got the game on both gamersgate and steam.

about the reselling ability:

what is better, to get just cause at 2.99$, or get it at 60$ and resale it at 20$?

used game of today doesn't drop down in prices like some time ago. gamestop is hoarding the used market, driving up prices, at least in my region. top titles of two years ago still sell at 45$ used.

Why would you buy PC games from gamestop/retail store when you can buy online?

Only possible answer is if you have bad/no internets and are getting single player PC games...  Does gamestop even buy/resell PC games?  I thought it was just console games...

I don't think you've ever been able to sell opened PC games, though you can always hand your PC games to your friends, even if it's digitally downloaded thanks to flash drives (Unless it uses steam or whatever).