Does not compute... Sure you do not mean Half-Life?

I am very positive.

you must not own many GOG games, then. Interstate 82 doesn't work on my W7x64 system. Interstate 76 hardly works before crashing. there are others.

fact is, GOG's miraculous compatibility with modern systems doesn't really exist. DOSBOX games are a non-issue, but everything else is hit or miss.

I quit playing when they changed the EULA.

Eh not quite, they bulge and are not easy to disguise. Useful for stray urine droplets but if you shit yourself in a diaper you are just gonna feel gross.


Edit: Unless you like the warm fragrance and the texture of freshly smeared feces.

It keeps updating, and usually with features I wish they'd stop putting in there. Like that stupid "recession" patch, or the "Hey rice cakes may cause cancer" DLC. Not to mention everything moves too slowly and the AI of all the other NPCs seem to have severe glitches meaning they can go from seemingly intelligent to pushing a door with a pull sign stupid in the blink of a second.

I've tried to ask for a refund, but no one seems to want to provide one, and apparently the EULA states I have to keep playing the game and be online (or awake as they call it) at least once a day.

As for Steam being convenient: Yes it is. It has it's fair share of annoyances. Slow as a dog, strange fetish with installing the same packages every time you try a new game, "Let me just update that for you" and similar things.
But what it does right is sales, ease of installation, patch management and in-game community features.

I do backup my Gog library to a harddrive or DVDs once downloaded, I feel obliged to since I can and if Gog goes down so do my games if I haven't backed them up. With Steam I know they're gone even if I did back them up. Not good, but at least it doesn't lead to obsessive compulsive backing up. Just worrying they might disappear.

And I've seen several Gog games get updates, which is good. I've rarely bothered to download and install the updates though, which is bad. Steam is a more fire and forget kinda service. You don't worry over where things are installed, because it handles it for you. You don't worry about checking for updates, it does it for you. With Steam Cloud you don't worry about backing up your savegames, it does that for you...
my god...the lack of choice. The control freaky nature of it. The completely horrid system of appeals if you feel unjustly treated. .Does Apple own Steam?

I don't own thaaat many and I surely haven't tried to see if all function. But there's even a thread where this has been discussed and most say there's rarely a compatibility problem.
Of course there are some who won't work on some rigs, but GOG can't account for all possibilities...

To be honest it does, Interstate '76 and '82 have always been unstable even back when I bought them new, so gog's miraculous compatibilty system works, the games are even compatible with 15 year old bugs!!!!
Blame Activision's dodgy programming and you must not have played not many games back then!!!!

I don't like Steam. I don't care if other people do like it though and I don't see why I should tell them to use something else. The main issue I have is putting Steam on games that don't need it. I didn't want Steam when I bought Half-Life 2, I wanted Half-Life 2. The game could have run just fine without it; the Steam requirement was just artificial and it WAS the reason why I couldn't play the game back then. Oh sure, if I don't like it I could just crack a game or pirate it, but then why would I even bother buying the game if that's what I plan on doing after I get it anyway? If I wanted Steam, I would have bought games from the Steam store and willingly installed it.

I shouldn't single out Steam though. This goes for anything that tries to change terms after the offer, acceptance, and consideration have already been made in a purchase (contract). Even if a party could claim a contract (laughable) that allows them to change the terms after the consideration, it's still a contract made under duress to goods.

Steam is my favorite digital distributor right alongside gog, The reasons are several, though there are some problems with it:

+ Best sales sales around. Their seasonal sales (like the xmas one, that one always leaves a black hole in my wallet) are just crazy.

+ Convenience. There was a time when I would gleefully fiddle with memmaker and edit autoexec and config.sys to make a game run, but I have grown lazy with time. Now, even manually patching things seems like a chore. Steam auto update is a blessing to me...
- ...but it can also be a curse since you cannot willingly chose a certain patch to use, or even to install and use
just this or that DLC. This can be especially problematic on games that you bought as a huge bundle with all DLC, and some particular DLC make the game considerably easier (example: free cash, xp or overpowered items DLC).

+ I find the Big Picture mode really convenient.

+ The community features are a boon, especially coupled with the fact that the community is huge (talking about the whole chat thing, forums and whatever)

+ Steam workshop is great. Some games can be really fiddly with mods (like Elder Scrolls), so having easy, one click installs is really nice.

+ The community guides are a very nice addition. Yeah, I could just browse gamefaqs instead, but even making this trip a few clicks shorter is already worth it. Besides, it works great on Big Picture mode.

+ Unlike other companies, I trust Valve, so I am not really worried about arbitrarily losing my entire game account (can't say the same about Ubisoft or EA, for example).

+ Steam Cloud is pretty convenient, especially for people who game on multiple PCs.

+ Offline mode is there and, at least for me, it always worked great.
- ...but I know it doesn't work for some people.

+ Games can be DRM Free as far as I know (System Shock 2 is an example - you can install it, then move it to a USB Stick if you want and play it, or launch it without steam from the executable itself).
- ....but most aren't, though I can't really fault Valve for this. This one is on the publishers, mostly.

+ Android app that allows me to buy games on the move, as well as talk to my steam friends. You can also install games remotely, but I think this is only for new purchases - not entirely sure myself (couldn't manage to install a game I already had on my library).

+ Steam wallet is convenient. It makes me avoid potential problems with my credit card RIGHT when that big sale hits by leaving a small amount there for emergencies.

+ Steam will e-mail me when something in my wish list goes on sale (add this, gog!)

+ Gaben personally answers my mails.

The bad parts:

- Not DRM free, but like I said before, I trust Valve enough to let them manage my games (no reason whatsoever for them to shoot their own foot - companies like EA do this due to a complete disconnect between the suits and the game devs, as well as expecting short term everything instead of building an ecosphere).

- Very old machines may have problems running the client. Steam should release a minimum version of their client with everything stripped down except the authentication stuff for such cases (like netbook owners).

- Can't pick and choose updates or DLC like I said.

- Steam offline apparently can be wonky (not for me).

- Can't resell games, can't trade games in your list.

Overall, the good points make it worth it despite the bad parts for me.

ding ding ding!! "You purchased the license to play this title under terms XYZ and then we changed the terms, in effect, retroactively to XYZ+UVW so that if you don't agree to the NEW terms, you are no longer able to exercise the rights to play that game under the license you originally bought." In effect, game over unless you acquiesce.

I really didn't have an opinion about the service one way or the other until that happened last year. Now?

I have a slightly less broken version.
When did that happen?

I have had a lot of issues with steam like you said constant updates, being forced to go to my email to login when switching PCs, not able to play offline when I have no internet, game crashes due to steam features.

I also upgrade my PC sometimes or switch hard drivers and despite having the game files losing my regedit will mean having to download the games all over again XD also Shogun 2 is heavier on steam than the cracked version so steam impacts the performance.

For me the only good thing about steam is the greater sense of community/ability to communicate with friends.

But personally I have stop using steam would rather hope to buy AAA games here if not will continue pirating, if I want to make sure a game plays on my PC I download the pirate version since demos that were used to check your PC compatibility with a game are pretty much gone.

So I advice you to pirate every game above 29,99€ before buying it saves me some serious money that otherwise would be bad spent money.

Plus they also milk too much games just the other day checked CiV 5 cost 40$+...