Unfortunately you are right, but I do not surrender - waiting for Hexen and Heretic games on gog...

On one level I boycott Steam games and on another I don't.

I was forced to use Steam many years ago through ignorance and their aggressive behavior, and it was a time when for a few years still I was stuck on a 56k modem connection, as most were where I lived. Even when I finally got a broadband connection, I was so far from the exchange, about the maximum you would want to be, that on a good day I might get close to 300 kb/s download speed. Luckily, for almost year now that has changed and I can download from GOG on a good day, which is fairly regular, at almost 3 Mb/s.

Anyway, not really knowing what Steam was, I bought two game collections on disc back in 2008 or 2009 - The Orange Box and SiN Episodes Emergence, which came with Sin. When I finally got around to installing one, Sin, I discovered to my horror that something called Steam was required and what it was. Some of you will understand how frustrating it was to download an update at 56k modem speeds before I could even play the game ... and to top it off Steam seemed memory hungry and nothing was working properly. In the end it was so painful, I just gave up on it, after spending a few days attempting to get an update or two. That's how I left it until about midway last year. My beast of a desktop PC also died somewhere around then. Yep, I avoided Steam like the plague, and they helped put me off gaming for almost 10 years. I was sick of the whole DRM thing, and the issues I had with getting No-CD executables and running from virtual drives. In short I left games to the province of my kids, who basically used consoles ... most of them (PS, N64, Wii, Xbox & descendants).

Sometime back around then, I recall discovering the fledgling GOG, but it seemed non legit to me, and with my 56k modem, not really a good option anyway, and to top that off, it was still a few years before I started doing online purchasing. In fact, I thought GOG was just another of those sites for Abandoned games, but had a lot more polish than the usual ones and somehow managed to get away with selling them. I just couldn't believe at that time, that a store could be DRM-Free legitimately.

Anyway, everything changed for me on 1st May 2017, when I rediscovered GOG, having been pointed there by a friend when searching for a copy of Shadow Warrior, which is available at GOG for free. I joined up and grabbed a few other freebies, and then within weeks I started purchasing a bunch of Star Wars games and more. Many of the games I already had on disc, but I wanted updated ones already setup to work on newer Windows. Most were damn cheap too, so I didn't and haven't minded re-buying them. I have more than 500 GOG games now, in just over a year.

Around that time, I decided to see if my Steam account still existed and worked. I was back in a gaming frame of mind. I'd also read here at GOG about many Steam games being DRM-Free once activated, and no longer requiring a Steam connection, plus relocatable to non Steam PCs, so I wanted to check that out. And almost to my surprise, my account was still accessible and far easier to work with this time around, so I finally activated The Orange Box collection, and downloaded some of them (slightly updated since 2008/2009). I was also entitled to some extras.

All that said, I was still not enamored of Steam, and remain that way. I have however managed to pick up many Steam freebies since that time, most via the Humble Store. And I even made a purchase once from Steam, for the Complete Valve Collection, which was going at an incredibly low price, for a ton of games ... around $17 USD. A bargain I could not miss, as I doubted I would ever see any of those games at GOG, and I was a big fan way back when of Half Life.

So there you have it. In essence I boycott Steam, unless I can grab a good freebie. And I have spent a ton of money here at GOG, who are more deserving of it.

P.S. I often see cheap bargains for good games at Humble and elsewhere, nearly all Steam ones, but I just cannot abide paying for and supporting DRM. And while I am sure that at least some of them are DRM-Free supposedly at Steam, it all just seems like too much hassle to me.

P.S. I also live in hope of GOG Connect eventually allowing me to grab some of my Steam games here at GOG.

Much like GROOT's answer, to me, any game tied to a client is a waste for me. My library of Steam games is small compared to my GOG library, so it's obvious I prefer GOG over anything else.

That being said, there are plenty of games that are client free but of course, that has the potential to change with updates. I pick up some that are on sale to try to see whether they would run without the client. That's the part I enjoy.

Finally, it's hard to totally ignore the sales and the selection but overall, I think I've done a good job. Last year, I picked up the first Styx game which only requires the client to download the game, so I could play it without having to log in and that was a deal I was incredibly satisfied with.

Overall, hard to ignore Steam totally because of selection and prices but I could at least pick and choose what to risk because I like playing my games without being tethered to a client.

They're consumer products with statutory rights stuck onto them which is why you get lawsuits like Australia forcing them to create the sketchy refund option.

I boycott them. Don't own any games and never will.

Australia didn't force them to do that at all. The only thing that the ACCC gave them a penalty for was misinforming AU customers of the consumer rights they had. It's explicitly forbidden to have a 'No Refunds' disclaimer in AU, even if you're giving refunds to AU citizens anyway. The cases of denied refunds they showed were not considered improper denials since none of them were covered by the AU consumer protections.

The only thing Steam had to do to comply with the ACCC was give a localized version of the EULA clearly stating AU rights to anyone with an AU IP. It did not require the current refund system.

That would be right, but I can see where grounds for a refund could be invoked if a game had a significant bug which wasn't fixed in a timely fashion ... or if there was something sexist or racist etc ... or even just a misleading description of the game at the time or purchase ... they would need to be specific enough though.

Well, you're not good at reading.

I said I don't use Galaxy. I did use Galaxy. I don't use Galaxy.

https://www.gog.com/u/Atlantico/games

Any of this getting through?

The profile page tells you when I played those games. I haven't played Expeditions for 5 months according to that list. Because that's the last time I used Galaxy.

I've played many games since 5 months ago. Not tracked. No they're not. Your pathetic doxing attempt would display that.

So again, you're not good at reading. If you *choose* to use Galaxy, you're being tracked.

With Steam, you don't have a choice, you have to use the client.

I mean good grief man, your argument is pathetic.

Steam now actually allows you set your privacy settings to hide all your gaming, which games you own, etc.
Ok, I really don't understand what you're saying here. It sounds like you're complaining about the dev not releasing on GOG at first, and then you're complaining about the dev releasing on GOG later. Make up your mind?

While I don't agree with your view, there is some merit in it .... at least if a DRM game is free or only a few cents.

If I get to play that game or part of it at least once, then who can say I didn't get my money's worth.

But the issue for me, is when I really like and want a game, and want no imposing on my freedom with that game. That is when it needs to be DRM-Free, so I can have peace of mind, etc.

Paying a fair price for a game has never been an issue for me. If I get one free or super cheap, that is just a bonus.

So I would rather pay to have a game DRM-Free, given the choice.

P.S. I have somewhat over 40 or 50 Steam games, only roughly half of which I paid for, at something like just under a dollar each, which they are all easily worth way more. I would not have even paid that though, if I had a choice ... it not being likely we will ever see the Valve Collection here at GOG.

If GOG stay the distance, and I am eventually able to get some of my Steam freebies via GOG Connect, then really I am laughing all the way to the bank. Here's hoping ... so count me in for a Steam Freebie anytime. :)

I often post when I see huge 60-90% discounts on 5+ year old games I've read what you've said about Steams DRM. If it doesn't affect you then great for you.

You pay for what you get, which is license locked to a subscription. I'm more than happy to pay extra for or wait for a license with out the need to be dictated to by Valve.

Steams DRM does get in me and my families way. Its not a minor inconvenience but a huge pain in the arse.

Not only that but my personal dealings with Valve has been unpleasant with them being offensive and outright refusing to adhere to their own SSA.

Lastly, just because it doesn't affect you now,doesn't mean that will always be like that. If Steam worked like it did 10 years ago, I'd still be using it and would have had Thousands of games rather than less than a hundred. But they changed it and it became unsuitable for me. There is nothing stopping them doing it again. Gabe is 1 pie away from the game over screen of life, once that happens its highly probably those that take over will cash in and float/sell the company.

I did boycott Steam for YEARS when they started up and ignored mine and many other people`s complaints on it. It was not easy since there were no other alternatives. Steam had enough rabid fanboys shielding them that they simply ignored anyone with an opposing view, so I walked. Thankfully I have other hobbies and work that took up my time.

Y`see, for me there are several reasons why I hate Steam:
1. They don`t care about people who have limited internet, can`t afford internet or even no internet where they are. It don`t matter what they say- their actions proved it.
2. They don`t care to make it optional - they did at the beginning then once they had enough addicted fans they stopped it which shows what Steam is really up to.
3. We pay money for these games and should not be held by a leash every time we want to play them (multiplayer games are an obvious exception).
4. Steam, like an increasing number of Devs ( Paradox and EA, etc), stopped caring about their gameplaying customers.

I thought gaming was over for me at that point, back to football.

Thankfully, GOG saw an opportunity and grabbed it, to my happiness, and I simply dealt with that.

It wasn`t until really late when Steam allowed REFUNDS that I started buying the odd Steam game. And there refund system is really good, I must`ve refunded 5 games for every one game I decided I liked.

I still hate being collared by their DRM (or any other) though - having Steam tell you, "You can`t play today, m8, because I feel like it! Oh, no internet, NOTHING for you, and you can`t do anything about it! Haha!" Makes buying even a super-cheap Steam Sale game painful for me. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth and stops me bothering. It`s a mobster type routine, like I`m held hostage to Steam`s whims. You shouldn`t have to go through this for fun in your spare time.

I just installed some new hardware into my pc tried starting a Steam game offline and I got that same shit from them- Went to a GOG game, no problem. It makes a BIG difference. Some Game publishers get way too big for their boots.

Today I buy Steam games very, very rarely. Same with EA/Origin, Paradox, even UBI- for years. They could have had so much cash from me had they not been such greedy gits.

exactly the reason, why i am not buying any games from steam anymore for years now ...

recently i had an internet outage by my provider .. which lasted almost 2 weeks! wouldnt be able to play steam games in the meantime ...

This is the typical nerd behaviour about "his" something: we use mobiles phones, whatsup, facebook, gmail, on line banking and whatever.
We are exposed to the net in every way possible... now steam is the devil.

I'm happy to pay cents for 20 games that, in the worst case, will remain in my library for years. If something turns out to be worth more money, I'll be happy to shell a few quid more for a DRM free version.

Having lost the physical packaging, all games are, more or less, the same to me, nowdays: I will not pay a premium for them.