why does anyone WANT to have extra junk running in the background?

why does anyone WANT to have extra junk running in the background?

Imo steam is a essential for pc gaming.
Its not extra junk , It has a friends list and has a list of all my games with the overlay i can bring up to quickly access my friends list. It shows up all the sales for games and you can gift games etc.

Steam game prices are regularly higher than retail prices, and the "sales" are few and far between. Steam is not an essential in PC gaming, it never was. Its simply an easy way for publishers to earn more money for less. In almost all cases you pay the same price as retail, but dont get any physical medium, and can not resale the game if you so choose.

For those that scoff; Re-selling games has been happening since day 1 and will continue, and many stores still allow trade-ins for 2nd hand PC games. Publishers DO NOT WANT you to resell the games without them getting money from it. That is why when they lost a highly publicised court case to get a cut of the pre-owned games market they started using digital downloads more, and 1 time ownership passes for online play.

Anything that removes or negates the rights of the consumer as they are enschrined in law is bad in my book, regardless of its bells and whistles.

Yeah.... I usually buy games that i know i will like and play so i have no problem with that.
But i see what your saying.

Steam game prices are regularly higher than retail prices

Are you kidding me?

and the "sales" are few and far between.

Are you kidding me?!!!!

You have obviously never used Steam, their prices are pretty much always on par or lower than retail, plus there is no sales tax. Amazon probably has more sales, but many times they try to price match Steam, and don't offer the security/features of Steam.

Also, they have a sale almost every week, you, and games (even triple A titles) go on sale multiple times a year. The only exceptions are highly regulated titles like Call of Duty, since Activision is a bunch of greedy A**holes, and those game rarely go on sale even in retail.

And if you can last it out until winter, you can pretty much get most games for $5-$20

Steam game prices are regularly higher than retail prices

Are you kidding me?

and the "sales" are few and far between.

Are you kidding me?!!!!

You have obviously never used Steam, their prices are pretty much always on par or lower than retail, plus there is no sales tax. Amazon probably has more sales, but many times they try to price match Steam, and don't offer the security/features of Steam.

Also, they have a sale almost every week, you, and games (even triple A titles) go on sale multiple times a year. The only exceptions are highly regulated titles like Call of Duty, since Activision is a bunch of greedy A**holes, and those game rarely go on sale even in retail.

And if you can last it out until winter, you can pretty much get most games for $5-$20

I own a number of steam titles and have done for years but I still dont like it. Infact I have probably had a steam account a lot longer than most of the forum members here and have seen it evolve from a niche platform to its current state as one of the main digital download suppliers. And they are not "on par" with retail. They are either IDENTICAL to retail or cost more. Thats the same price as the physical medium, or more expensive. Steam does almost all of its sales on titles that have little or no retail sales, or on titles it creates. When not on sale older games cost almost 50% more than current retail prices. I mean just take a look at the prices for games released this time last year, and compare it to current retail prices. There is a big discrepancy that cant be ignored.

I live in the UK and we dont have sales tax, we have VAT (20%) which is applied to puchases in the UK. You still have to pay it when buying games on steam. Even Tesco is cheaper than Steam in the UK. A full retail box thats cheaper than a electronic download version should not even be possible (once you take manufacturing and shipping in to account).

If you stop the fanboyism and actually take a look at the bare facts, you would see that.

you guys saying steam is expensive
thats probaly because you arent us citizens and the prices are because of this
and those saying steam has no good prices or no sales
you gota be freakin joking

Steamworks should be at the very least, optional on all games IMO.

Crysis 2 sadly does not support Steamworks, I've heard it's using GFWL (FFFFFFFFFFFFF). :/

Also in the UK steam has great prices, they're usually equal to or less than retail.

It better not be Games For Windows Live. That is not a good move.

Its a good thing to see kids excited about steam, and I can understand it. But tell me when does it becomes alright to force steamworks on ppl who buy retail or dont like it. I know some ppl like gabe and whatever he does, but there are some of us who see what steam is a gaint drm box. Pardon me if i think my freedom is more important than auto patching, friend list and silly achievements.

BC2 has atuo-patching which works perfectly fine. Steam just baits the publishers because it is free.
As one enlightened gentleman posted steam is just a low-cost solution. EA being a market leader in pc game publishing can do better. EA is perfectly capable of have it's own cloud save, voip, auto-patching and friend list solution and I would like to see that.

Most ppl might not understand why some of us dont want steam but atleast you should try to respect that. Why do I need to install steam when I have not downloaded the game from them??