As the OP has probably have guessed already, these forums have a very high concentration of Steam haters. That said, I don't mind it. The client is the best client in digital distribution, in my opinion, and is excellent for organizing large numbers of PC games. The service itself itsn't great, as ever with digital distribution you have to wait for sales before you get bargains. Thankfully, there's sales literally every day, and there's two ubersales a year, and I suspect we are very close to one of the ubersales.

problem about it is service like steam makes the hard version the dvd less attractive these days, just look at you local store that there are less psychical games on the shell (what there are on the shell are mostly casual crap) wich i rather have, im still a manual nerd ;p

EA Games are still on Steam, Alice: Madness returns got released and is displayed on the main store page. It's Crysis 2 that was removed from the store and if you purchased it beforehand you still have it.

I'm not insanely happy with Steam, but I have a tolerance for it. The fears that Steam won't be there are founded, but as someone said, the community will make the games work regardless, because of how they exist. It's still open to the modding, so I don't lose anything there, and overall I am fairly happy with my purchases.

I can backup my games if I like, and the sales help keep me looking at the store. I do think it's too powerful but I think that something that would match it in scope would have to be similar in style, a whole encompassing unit. But it's not the only Digital setup, so that's a partial relief. I do have my issues when the friend's list signs out, but that's not a huge issue and personally the only other 'major' issues I've had are trying to get games to activate on the days of huge releases, because the servers get hammered.

I like steam, never had any trouble with the client, offline mode or download speeds (except during the holiday sales but I expect their servers might be really busy at those times) The community features are good as well. I originally found steam because of a sale they were having and that's honestly why I've stuck with steam. I don't buy new games on it (unless its something I am dying to play) instead I wait for things to go on sale, because they generally have great deals.

It's not a perfect system but I think it does pretty good.

Ahahaha.

Less DvD's on the shelf... you're not seriously putting that on Steam are you? Retailers have been dumping PC games left and right the last decade. And now they're complaining about the Steam games because Steam (and similar) have actually taken the place *they* dumped in the first place.

I've never had any problems with it either.

I love Steam but I am from the states so I think we get the better end of the stick here. :) I try not to buy any games that have the extra DRM stuff (no idea why, since I never use that many activations and such, I guess principle? Seems silly, though) and have had no problems yet (hope I didn't jinx myself!). Been using it since the inception but not as much until the past few years. I do love how everything is nice and tidy on there (extras) and cloud saving is a nice bonus since I like to go here and there on the whim. Also like the auto updates since I don't have to worry about going to such and such place every time to see if there is an update.

I have only use the offline mode a few times but never had a problem with it. :-\ Land of the computers is tricky, some people will have no problems and continue on where as the people who receive the problems will bitch to no end on this wonderful internet and have the loudest voice.

Now, if we talk about Xbox Live, do I have some personal stories on that service! ;)

no i dont blame steam for that, i think its more of the pirates who download there games for free and companies go to steam because most likely people buy there product more. Because i heard that companies shy away for my country because most people download those games.

I said earlier that I like steam, but I didn't really say much about why.

I get the complaints about the drm and how it's just a subscription and you never own your games and if steam shut downs you lose access to your games and it communism and and blah blah blah. If you're paying $50 a game for that, yeah I can understand being turned off of buying and thinking it's a bunch of bullshit. That's why i don't pay full price for games there.
I only use it as an insane deal store, and in that regard, it's freaking awesome. Here are some good deals that stand out in my mind from the past few years:
Stalker: Soc-$2
Overlord-$1.50
Overlord II-$2.50
Misdadventures of Harry Winterbottom-$.49
GTA Vice City:$2.50
GhostMaster:$.95
Mafia-$2.49
Commandos 2 Men of Courage-$1.69

8 games for $14 , so $14 for dozens of hours of entertainment right there. I consider that awesome and totally worth the money. Yes, you can say that they are rentals, but they a are like the longest rentals ever. The rentals, more likely than not, are going to last for years and years

Not the worst DD service by far, that spot is reserved for Impuse. However, one thing to consider if they (Valve) ever go under, say tata to all of you're games. I say Fuck you ya fat bastard.

I use Steam. I tolerate it, but I don't "like" like it.

Being in the UK, I don't get shafted on price or regionality nearly as much as Europe does (and nowhere near as much as Japan). And Australia. And the gods know where else.

I've no full price games (unless they were like <£5 to begin with) - everything I've bought has been on sale - in some cases like both L4Ds for a couple of pounds, were heavily discounted. Definitely got my money's worth and more out of those 2 games.

That said, there's a couple games I regret buying, even at a very low price - Burnout Paradise:Ultimate Collection for one. Abortion of a game - 3+ minute loading screens, can't login for online play, crashes to desktop randomly. When it actually works, it's not too bad. Just not worth the hassles. Yay for bad console ports :\

I've had little hassles with the Offline mode - I think I've had to use it maybe thrice in 4 or so years - ISP shenanigans and idiots wrecking the underground phone lines. In each case I was back online in 3 days at most. So can't comment on it blocking my games as it couldn't call home after a week, or month...

I use Steam almost exclusively. Compared to GamersGate, Direct2Drive, Impulse and Origin, it stands high above the rest. It also doesn't hurt that it's home to some of the best games ever made.

Haven't read all the posts. I started using steam in 2007 and I have never had any problems with it. It would be cool if the client was a feature and not a necessity, but to be honest I don't mind it that much - gives me an easy access to games and i can organize them as I want, and if you're a sociable person who likes chatting it has that feature too. I know that some games have additional drm, and there is a list of those on the forums, but tons of games that normally have some sort of drm like securom, don't have it on steam. Yes steam is a form of drm, but frankly if i have to choose between the steam's client and "proper" drm, for me it's a no-brainer.

Steam has an insane amount of users, and even if it goes down someday, I think it will be just taken over by some other company. And then by another, and another. It's way too lucrative. Ultimately if it fails, I'm hopeful that they'll enable us to get our games in some way to play them offline. And even if it doesn't happen, as some people pointed out, one can get so many games at insane prices, it is a cheap rental. It's worth getting it for their summer and xmas sales alone.

The only complaint I have about steam is their support, but that can be said for many services. The only exception is gamersgate which has awesome (and very friendly) user support.

As for the prices, I can't say that it goes for all games, but I know that for some games, even the super friendly gamersgate has (or at least had) the 1$=1€ policy. Don't ask me which titles because I saw that long ago so I don't remember anymore, and I haven't checked it afterwards. But it's easy to check for yourselves anyway.

edit: i forgot, one can change the server in the options. i had problems with speed just once, and once i changed the server it went back to normal (granted, my connection= 8Mbit, but when i had 10Mbit I had not problems either). but of course, if there is a huge sale with insane discounts and everybody is downloading games they bought, the speed won't be stellar. a change of server might help too though.

I buy my games for bottom of the barrel prices on steam. Sure if they take away my copy of thief i'm going to be pissed.

but I only Spent £2.50 on it. I couldn't get a Big Mac for that.

if I'm paying less for games than I can eat I have no problems that I might not actually 'own' the game.