This is indeed the main gripe of many people. As for myself, I have no issue with Steam itself, but I loathe the fact that I'm forced to install it and use it just to play some games. If I don't install it, I can't play... This goes for any third party software, it's nothing against Steam personally.

The point is, I don't care about Steam. I don't use it to buy games, I'm perfectly happy to pay the retail price. I very rarely buy new games anyway.

I have absolutely no need of Steam, other than the fact that it is forced on me by some games... If I don't use it, those games can't be played. If I actually were interested in digital copies, it would be different, since then Steam would actually have a purpose for me. As it stands, it doesn't, instead serving as an inconvenience.

It's say that's a pretty legitimate issue indeed.

Thank you.

Partial omission and outright disregard of facts to support antipathetic bias towards Valve.

He seems like a nice guy, but he trashed my chosen gaming console. <_<

Plus, it's either been four years or it'll be four years soon since Half-Life 2: Episode 2 came out and we STILL haven't heard ANYTHING about the conclusion to Half-Life. Yet in that time, they've been able to make two zombie games back to back and a sequel to a puzzle game which I personally wasn't too impressed with.

So yeah, he seems like a nice guy. But he's a nice guy who's a jerk. :stare:

Episode 3 Forever is a lie!

I'm Pro-Steam. I love their service and I really have no issues with having to have Steam run to play my games. I love that if I ever want to install my game again, I don't have to keep track of my CD and just double click "Install".

But enough about that, it's great to hear of their success over the past year. If they can pull in that profit after giving so much away for free (Left4Dead expansions and soooo many updates to TF2), I'm even more excited for what the rest of 2011 may bring.

People are "forced" to do certain things all of the time. Most games "force" me to keep the CD/DVD in the CD/DVD-ROM drive to play it. Steam eliminates that issue, which was fantastic two weeks ago when both of my drives died on me, so I couldn't play any of my games that require the CD/DVD in the drive.

When I used to order my games online, I hated being "forced" to wait a week or two for them to come in the mail, unless I paid extra for shipping. Nowadays, most of the games I want I can download straight to my computer. It saves me a lot of hassle and, most importantly, it saves me money. In these times, every cent saved from shipping costs and burning gas to go to the store is worth it.

The reality of the matter is nobody is "forcing" anyone to do anything. You don't have to buy the games that use Steam. There are plenty of games that don't go through Steam, that are excellent games. Regardless, being "forced" to use an amazing service is hardly something to have an issue with.

Part of it, I imagine, is not being told about it. When Steam first popped up and people were talking about it, I didn't pay much attention, having no money or credit card or any other reason to care about electronic purchases. I did hear lots of raving about Half-Life 2 and Portal, though, so when I spotted them cheap at a going-out-of-business Circuit City sale I grabbed them. Then got home and found out I had to install some third-party program and register for it to be allowed to play the games I bought. The word "Steam" does not appear on either of those boxes, and I was pissed. Especially since I prefer signing up for as few things as possible to limit throwing my email out to the spam masses.

These days I use Steam regularly, and can actually buy games through it and all to take advantage of the deals. I don't hate it anymore, but I still find it rather dishonest as I did then for them to require you to use this program and not even tell you about it.

Oh, yeah, when Steam first came out, I hated it along with many other people. It was a complete disaster. I had known about Steam before I bought the game, so I sort of knew what to expect, but it was still a terrible experience. Seven years later... Steam has improved significantly. I can forgive and forget its rocky beginnings at this point. Pretty sure games let you know on the box now that they're going through Steam. Not that I would know, because I don't generally buy games in the store anymore. Last game I bought in the store was Risen. :shrug:

"A onetime manager of a Waffle House in Florida is now a lead software developer on Half-Life."
Nice to know somebody's still working on it!

Gabe Newell also hated multi-core processors. He said something about Intel promising faster and faster clock speeds, but as they couldn't keep increasing them they turned to multiple cores, putting the onus on developers to manage them for performance. And I seem to recall he wasn't impressed with Windows Vista (he' s not alone there ), as it didn't do anything to make developers' lives easier.

Now he seems to love the PS3 (mainly because it doesn't use a closed system like Xbox Live), despite saying in an interview on Game Trailers last year that they didn't have anybody looking at developing for the PS3 in 'any real way'.

I do like Valve, but I wished they'd say something about Half-Life Episode 3 / Half-Live 3 ...

Every time a fat joke is made about Gabe , Episode 3 is delayed a month.

What if I'm an all time fan of TES and learn that Skyrim uses Steamworks? I'm not just going to forget this game that has been on my mind ever since I stopped playing OB. Oh looks like I have to install Steam in order to play it which is just dumb.

Steamworks is forcing people to install a program that isn't needed at all.

And using your silly shipping argument, you aren't forced to purchase the fastest shipping possible. And just because you are unable to find your cds, don't try and blame the mandatory cd check.

From what you're saying, I should hate Dell for selling me a computer that requires Windows to be usable. Or hate my ISP because without an internet browser, I can't use the internet.

If you don't like installing software to make things that you buy work, then why even use a computer?

It's called using another os.

That's completely dodging my point. Nice try, bro.

I'm gonna have to agree here. It's not the end of the world to download Steam, or would you rather something like SecuROM? (which they don't even tell you it's installing, btw)

The only way to talk to a company is to speak with your wallet, so yes, if you want them to not use Steam for whatever reason (going under the assumption that they are using Steamworks you should not buy Skyrim. I haven't bought a number of games I have been looking forward to because of DRM or other features. I was really looking forward to Modern Warfare 2 but didn't buy it because I didn't like the direction they were taking multiplayer. I was looking forward to Splinter Cell: Conviction and didn't buy it because of Ubisofts DRM. Likewise I was looking forward to Assassins Creed 2 but didn't buy it due to the DRM. I'd say it's a reasonable expectation that if you don't like something you shouldn't buy it. What message would complaining to Bethesda but still buying the send? "We're unhappy with the direction you've taken, but we're still going to buy it." I don't think the company will particularly mind that, whereas if enough people said "We're unhappy and won't be buying it" they would at least consider changing their business practices.

No, how about Ubisoft's DRM?

At least Steam even has an offline mode. Like seriously, it isn't that bad.

Also, @ Capitol: A better anology for Steam with games would be buying an iPod and thinking you won't have to use iTunes. Because in all reality, Steam is the iTunes or Zune of the gaming world.