Jamestown...is epic....

As far as I know, Steam's copy protection is built into their modified executables. Turning Steam off doesn't make the downloaded games start working, unless they're not really built into Steam at all (like some older games).

Steam is too big for people to let it go down quietly. Even if Valve officially dropped it cold, someone somewhere would distribute cracks for the client. But if they did shut down Steam, they would have no financial or legal incentive to enable a workaround. Think of all the games in the past that promised future patches and failed to deliver. When money isn't there, support disappears immediately.

Indeed. While they may give hints or assurances that they'll make everything right, I'd take that with a serious grain of salt. If a company's going bankrupt (about the only scenario I can think of that would take Steam down permanently), the last thing they're going to worry about is unlocking all your games.

I'd love to get Batman: Arkham Asylum but this is what scared me the most:

3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™
4 machine activation limit

X.X OMFG

So I can't decide if I should pull the trigger on some of these games. I've got Gothic 1 and 2 on my wishlist on GOG but I could get the Gothic Universe pack on steam which has 1, 2, and 3 for $5.74. Having a similar issue in regards to pulling the trigger on the first Far Cry. I would much rather have the DRM-free GOG versions but I'm very tempted on both accounts. Such a dilemma!

Tomorrow Sanctum will be -75%

Was that "Stronghold Collection" package ever a front page sale? That's what I wanna buy from this sale.

Yeah, I'm starting to realize that about Steam as well... Wish I'd waited to buy Witcher 2 on GOG :/

W/e, I really like Steam for the most part. Regardless of the DRM/account bs.

I think Steam is okay but it kinda scared me that they're layering DRM on game like cake. :( I heard that it's pretty quality game so that's why I'm interesting in it.

I find myself playing stuff from GoG more frequently than Steam.

I only picked up only one game from Steam sale, that's about it. Yay for Fallout 3.

If you're going to get one of them, take L4D2 because of the additional weapons and items and more scenarios (even one from the 1st L4D is in the 2nd game). The more recent game is just an upgrade to the 1st one.

Why does a thread discussing Steam always have to go into the "Steam is a rental service" and "DRM is ebul" arguments? WHY?

Guys, really, you can talk about that in other threads. We're just discussing the game sales here. :(

Wasn't that just a couple of posts a few days ago? Nothing to get worked up about, I think.

Edit: Okay, a few people mentioned DRM today, but it was hardly derailing this thread.

It would be also interesting why a discussion of steam rent service is on this forum and not on the steam forum ??

Who's arguing, and who said it was a rental service? He brought up Batman (because it's part of the sale) and a valid concern. I don't see any thread de-railing going on here.

Anyway, I'm reeeeally excited Batman is on sale but because of a login snafu I may be locked out of the rest of the sale :( The one game I actually waited till the sale to buy, and I can't (bought Witcher 2 and Braid literally the day before they went on sale, as well as a few others in the weeks prior)...

The first rule of a Steam Sale is this: Do not buy ANYTHING that is not a daily deal unless it is already at 80% off or something. Especially not a high profile title.

UNLESS it is the last day of the sale. Then all bets are off.