To echo what silencer said, what's the issue with steam?
That's a fair enough question. First, let me say that I am happy for those people who like Steam. It indeed is a service that some believe contains benefits. However, I personally believe that the costs outweigh the benefits. Why, you might ask?
1. Steam is a purposeful attempt to kill the secondary (used) market in PC games. By requiring each purchaser to tie the game to an individual account, it makes it impossible to transfer the ownership of the game through sale or simply give it away to a friend or relative. I find this business practice--that is, killing the resale rights of a legitimate buyer--to be unethical and anti-consumer, especially for people who buy boxed retail versions of games.
2. I do not like having a third-party program running in the background as I play my games. Further, the advertisements that pop up when you log in regularly remind you that Steam is a business trying to sell you more products.
3. I am troubled by the possibility that Steam could go out of business some day, and game ("license") owners may lose access to any games tied to their Steam accounts. Steam has never denied this possibility, at least not in writing. And the Steam subscriber agreement (http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/) is quite clear about your rights as a consumer: (2.A.) "You understand that neither this Agreement nor the terms associated with a particular Subscription entitles you to future updates, new versions or other enhancements of the Steam Software associated with a particular Subscription although Valve may choose to provide such updates, etc. in its sole discretion." In plain English, once you buy the game, Steam doesn't owe you a damn thing, not even an update of its own client software.
4. I have had a number of technical issues that have kept me from playing Dawn of War 2 (the only Steam game that I own or ever will) on various occasions. Whether having to update the client software, delete the clientregistry.blob file, reinstall the game, or simply bide my time until I can get pass the "Steam is unavailable. Try again later" messages that occasionally appear, I have had more trouble with Steam than I have ever had with a DRM system. In fact, Dawn of War 2 is the only game that I have that makes me nervous when I launch it, because there's always that possibility that the Steam servers are down, or being maintenanced, or being flooded due to some "free weekend" promotion.
5. Finally, I personally like the boxed retail version of games, so the whole digital download thing is not for me (though I understand why some people like it). However, I find it strange that Steam doesn't discount games at launch, since the publisher/developer and Steam do not have to pay the cost of packaging, shipping, shelf space, etc. There is no good reason--except for pure profit gouging--for a digital version of a game to cost as much as a boxed retail version at a store. However, the cost savings associate with digital distribution are not generally passed along to the customer, especially at launch time.
These are my main problems with Steam, and I suppose that there are others who have similar concerns. Please don't get me wrong: Steam is fine for people who don't mind dealing with any of the issues cited above. Personally, I would just rather not be bothered.
