Ok, thanks.  Steam is DRM, so there is no need to read the thread.  I want the ability to play the game in 20 years if I want...and who knows if steam will be around or who will own it.  Sad to see they abandoned what attracted so many people to them in the first place.  I will stick to AI War I guess.

AI war and Valley Without wind have an insanely fast and easy updater, easy to use multiplayer, and I could buy my multiple copies directly from the developer.  Perfect.

Forum dwellers... you mean fans.. actually defended a company?  That is a first for the internet!

Cynical.

Well, I just find two points of Froggy's argument concerning Steam to be odd. First, he said that he doesn't want to pioneer some great philosophy, but rather spend his time making great games. I can't help but think then there shouldn't have been a need for a gamer's bill of rights. Second, is that the backlashed pretty hard against people offended by the move to Steam, stating that people have constantly used the GBoR as justification to whine about anything they do that others might disagree with. This is unusual to me because I was practically unaware of the GBoR and have been on the forum for some time, never noticing anyone bring it up until the Steam move. So this 'i don't care anymore' vibe I get feels like it comes out of some delusional reality.

And I expected that they would make fistfuls of cash going to Steam. I never abandoned them thinking it would put a dent in their pocket. Granted, digital distribution is not difficult and doesn't require some stand alone client. Patches don't need to be streamlined through some automated method. Everybody insists on going with the new, although it's actually more complex in many situations than the old.

Using steam in addition to a DRM free client would be fine.  Using it exclusively simply abandons the whole indie mentality that stardock became noticed from.  Elemental was a sign that the company was no longer a quality company that cared about their consumers and this just confirms it.

My comment is that only fans hang around these forums, so of course they will mostly be supportive.

I only use steam for $1 games through sales or multiplayer only games where I need to be online to play anyway.  The idea of giving control what I buy to a company makes it buy to rent and I won't support that.  If Arcen with a handful of people could do both DRM free and steam, so can these devs.  Withotu steam, Arcen's auto updates are super fast and easy.

Steam is a necessity in today's PC market. If you arn't on Steam then you arn't going to do well in this PC market. The only ones that can pull it off is either EA or Blizzard.

And even then, you can sell through Steam and direct marketing, especially with a product which relies on a known customer base. And I'm not convinced that it's a necessity (especially since games before and since have managed without), but I understand that it takes more effort than letting Steam do it for you.

Even if Steam were a necessity and all games were to be sold through it, I would still understand that some are willing to sacrifice access to those games in order not to bother with Steam.

I don't see Steam as a DRM platform but rather a distribution platform. Honestly, the only reason people download games from torrent is because there are so many games that are crappy and cost like $50 just to play for a few hours. And with these days with dlc packs, it is just too hard just to keep up paying for content that should have been released free of charge or should have been part of the original release. I think price has to do a lot with the amount of torrenting of the game you are going to get. If you price it at like $60+ people are going to torrent, price it at $30, people are more than likely to buy.

If you are going to play for like hundreds of hours, it more than worth it to pay for the game.

I know it's a business decision and I'm fine with them going Steam. I know they'll make money and I have no problem with that.

I have my differing opinion, like you point out, and I know that it's just an opinion. Knowing that this game is niche, it would be nice (for some of us) if they made a simple means of getting the game to us without steamworks. If they don't that's okay too, cause I'm not required to buy the game, and I haven't. I don't complain and then go ahead and do it. I know where I stand and I stand there.

Well, I didn't see anyone bring up price, but that's true. A good value is what it is. That's what really keeps Steam afloat, recognizing limited playability and offering sales to make it worth it. Everyone that I know who uses Steam feels the DRM and Sales on the primary level and MP Matching and Community on the secondary.

All this comes down to choice. Everyone has it and everyone should be willing to stand by theirs. Some go left; some go right. Neither should care about the other, especially in the case of something as trivial as gaming.

Yeah, well, my dad would rip the computer from the wall and toss it across the room if he had to deal with that. He doesn't have the greatest patience and Steam likes to argue with his computer every once in a while. Between that and dickhead Steamers he runs across, he has to take breaks from certain games lest he decide to make use of his shotgun for something more than home defense.

They don't distribute it, they allow you to download it while using them.  You are renting.  It is 100% DRM.  GOG.com is a distribution platform/service.