Well my beef is that I'm prevented from buying a lot of retail games because I have to activate them on Steam. So in a lot of cases there's no difference between a retail disc and a Steam download. Of course, like I said, under the cost of a pint is rental price to most folks, so meh, I get it, even if I'd rather Steam die a horrible death.

Gabe stated that if Steam ever did go down, he would 'unlock' the games, giving everyone the chance to download it on a disc or on their HD.

*headdeak* I had talked myself out of Guild Wars, but with lots of people here saying it's great, I'm tempted again. Ar, is the stroy/characters any good?

And I'm sorry I keep asking that about every other game, I'm just horrible at making my own decisions. :P

The story in Guild War: Prophecies is soooo awesome. I must have play it like 3, 4 times just because it's that good. My heart always break down because I get sooo emotional. Also, the interface is very easy to use.

Factions is pretty fun and has neat story but it's very very very short.

Haven't play Nightfall but Eye of the North is very spectacular expansion. Has lot of mini games that are soooooooo fun.

Guild War pwned! Been playing it for few years now. :D

Thanks for recommending Mr Robot. Starscape is on my wishlist and I just noticed it's also from Moonpod. I'll check out the demo ASAP.

Now you get it! Come over to the dark side!

Well, I have the complete Guild Wars collection (non Steam) and I can tell you it's an excellent game. What I really like is that it is really story-driven and you can choose to play with other people only if you want. When you're accustomed to the game (and there's a nice tutorial), you'll see that you can now pretty much do it entierely solo (that is, with a group of NPC bots of course).

Plus, the ambiance is really different between the extensions :
- Prophecy is the core game and has a nice story about a Charr (the furry bad guys) invasion, leading to political and emotional choices.
- Factions has a chinese/japanese atmosphere. Yes, it is the shortest of all the collection, but it is still worth playing it.
- Nightfall has an "african" setting, something rarely seen in video games and that's nice. The story is quite long and very interesting.
- Eye of the North is an add-on, in fact it adds areas to Prophecy. It is the occasion to meet 2 of the races that you will be able to play in Guild Wars 2 : the Norns, a viking-like tribe who lives in frozen mountains up north, and the Asuras, high-techonology oriented little creatures. Here too the story is excellent!

And cherry on top of the cake, there's no monthly fee to play Guild Wars ! ;)

I have bought one game on the summer sale so far, that being STALKER.

Only thing I use Steam for: games I don't really give a crap about if I lose them. It's an awesome service in that respect, because I won't pay more than a few bucks for games I don't really care that much about. Steam sales are great.

So far I've bought on steam:

Fallout New Vegas w/ DLC
Grand Theft Auto Classics
& Beat Hazard w/ DLC

I plan on buying the Meridian 4 Complete Pack on the last day of the sale unless something else catches my eye. I may also pick up a couple of cheap games like RUSH or maybe the Oddpack. RUSH looks like it could be interesting.

I can't find a public quote at the moment, but there is a standard response from support for this question. Send in a ticket.

The actual Gabe quote has since been purged from the steam forums, being so old. Here is what is said.
"Unless there was some situation I don't understand, we would presumably disable authentication before any event that would preclude the authentication servers from being available. We've tested disabling authentication and it works."

Here is a support response. http://lh4.ggpht.com/_NRflXhEVEqs/TC5ShOl5TUI/AAAAAAAAAFs/azzZVUFtRuM/Capture2.PNG

after only buying one game for $5 the first 4 days, I've gone (relatively) spend crazy the last 2 days. Coudn't resist Singularity, AI War, Call of Pripyat and King Arthur collection for $19.

Must... resist...

It's a curiosity that's so tempting.

Edit: Damnit.

OMFG, I just tried the Beat Hazard Demo... Why didn't anyone tell me how awesome and amazing this game was?!? There goes all my free time. :D