Well, let's see...

Oh shit, that many?

I can safely say that I "own" about twice as much games on steam as on GOG, and I own quite a bit of them on GOG.

I still value the games bought here much more than on steam.

And the reason why games on PC are so much cheaper is that the PC is an open system which allows for competition. Steam is going the closed system way with the non-optional client and the Steamworks library and the Steam exclusives releases. It will be interesting to see how this will develop. I hope one day there won't be any Steam exclusives anymore and people really have a choice. I am absolutely happy with choice, only it will probably not happen.

@Trilarion

took the words right out of my mouth ;)

There aren't that many Steam 'Exclusives' are there?

If you mean 'Need Steam to play Exclusives', that's not a closed system that prevents competition, it's a closed system as to how you play your games. When it comes to selling the game the game can be sold where-ever the publishers want to sell it, and that's why you see Steamworks games sold on competitors sites as well.

I would agree that it might curb competition though, since someone with a Steam account *is* more likely to make more purchases there, and getting those games does force people to do that.

That said, a lot of games these days make use of Steamworks because it's very beneficial to the developers to do so, yet I don't see any competition making any strides in that department.

I do boycott, although I own three Steam games. Two of them because I wanted to learn how Steam works and one of them because, well, because Magicka was too good.

I made it my new year's resolution this year to not purchase any DRMed games, which of course means no Steam purchases. It's been very easy to keep to, and I expect I'll extend this policy indefinitely.

Yep!, I started buying EA games on gog when they started the releases, but soon after I realized I was paying money to EA and had to stop. However, I don't mind for the most part buying good games from big publishers here, because this is the best business model I can accept and, well, I think it helps the cause more than it hurts it.

Besides, it feels great to send a mail to a studio or a publisher and tell them: "I want to buy your game, but I wont because of the DRM. Oh well!, I'll have to wait for the unavoidable gog.com release."

I think the two things (can be sold where-ever, can be played where-ever) aren't independent from each and both influence the possible competition. After all, selling Steam-exclusives through other shops is just selling a serial number. The profit margin for such a thing cannot be very high and there competition only has a small effect. But if Steamworks (and all the systems of the competitors) would be open and usable by competitors the prices would probably drop.

Adding Steamworks comes at no cost to the developer as far as I'm aware, so I'm not sure the developer/publisher incurs any extra cost selling it's Steamworks game through other portals except what those other portals ask for selling it. I'm not sure it cuts into their margin in that sense. (but I could be wrong, but not aware of the contrary at the moment).

I already admitted it probably affects the competition, I disagree it's closed though, which I don't think it is. If it's closed in any way, it's because the competition can't offer the same service (Steamworks) that Steam can, else the developer could simply make their game without Steamworks and sell it at the competition, of which there is still plenty. In that sense, you could argue Steam is in a dominant position, but considering that is because they are actually offering something that helps developers make better games I feel it's up to the competition to come up to speed on that, not for Steam to lay off on it.

I haven't been able to find it for the life of me but I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that even games made with Steamworks don't *have* to be linked to 'need Steam to play', but I can't find the post anymore, and I am not sure that if it were the case if that's still true, or perhaps they're offering other benefits to those people that tempt them to make it 'steam exclusive' anyway. (less profit margin or something perhaps)

Woah, thats interesting. I know that alot of countries use English as a second language, (alot of Germans spoke decent enough English when i was there). But i was thinking it'd be like going to Japan and using symbols and cheesy iphone gadgets so you could find a laundrette etc. lol, i forget we are living in a global world, and of course, GOG uses English as it's main language :)

Japan is *not* the country to go if you expect a country with a decent handle on English. Netherlands would be great since the bulk of the populace has a decent grasp on it but why anyone would like to come here is beyond me :)

I think Steam is the modern gaming equivalent of AOL. AOL was the biggest and they were everywhere, to the point that many people actually believed that AOL was the internet. I actually talked to some people who were genuinely confused at how some people could access the internet without an AOL account. However soon other companies were able to rise up with new ideas and better service and in the face of open competition AOL went down. The difference with Steam is that if the service goes down it will hurt a lot of gamers, but I won't be one of them because I only bought on game that required Steam and I took it back to the store unplayed once I found out what Steam was, that game was Half-Life 2.

Also I believe that a lot of the DRM nonsense that gamers don't like, such as activation limits and always online, wouldn't exist if not for the success of Steam. The gaming community has already proven that they don't care about mandatory online activations so the game companies are seeing just how far they can push it. I won't buy any game with online activation of any sort. Anytime a game comes out that I want to buy, if it has mandatory online activation I send an email to the developer and publisher asking if/when the DRM will be dropped. Most ignore me but I do get responses sometimes. I think that if these companies got enough emails that they could look at competing nubers of Copies Sold, Boycott Emails and Times Pirated all side by side that it could could change some minds.

Depends which parts you're talking about. I grew up near Rotterdam (Krimpen a/d Eijsel) and absolutely love the place.

Hmmm, i'm saying nothing, lol. :D