Paypal?

I use Steam, but I only buy stuff that's massively discounted. Since you're only "subscribing" to the games and may lose access to them in the future, I only pay for games that are less than $10. Luckily they have some pretty good sales sometimes, otherwise I wouldn't use Steam.

Oh yeah, and Steam's $1 = €1 policy sucks pretty hard, too. I sometimes avoid purchases if they feel like a ripoff of European customers.

I hate the concept of Steam, but their crazy sales mean that I now have around 200 games there, 95% of them were bought for $5 or less.

Wrong move :D ;) For me Steam is like DRM - often u need "to do something" to run the game. I prefer to have free will. If you are thinking GOG vs Steam then for me:

a) GOG is the only one "proper" DD, since buying the game on GOG it is like buying boxed game - in like 99% cases you are missing only physical copy but you can burn it yourself on DVD if you want to.

b) I do not like newest games - for me they are missing some "fun factor" and even in some cases they are buggy to start or play. On the other side there is still a lot of old great games I always wanted to play but had not time nor chance - now they are ready to play (and after all these years patched properly if they needed to be).

c) In my past in my country sometimes it was very hard to get the game I wanted (or it was translated to Polish, which I do not prefer) so now I have chance to buy the games I always wanted to have

I have around 100 games on steam. It's a very good gaming platform, which is, in fact, DRM.

But! You may often buy new games for exchange money. I've bought borderlands for 10 euros, Civilization 4 Complete for 7 euros, Mount and Blade: Warband for 5 euros etc etc.

Steam is one of the cheapest ways to buy new games. Just you wait for SUMMER SALE, you will go insane :)

I strongly recommend that platform, more than any other (except from GOG of course)

mine profile: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198012255075
(I most often play offline so there's not much statistics for me)

PS. With steam you may easily find your friends and play together online. For me, it's the most important factor.

I think it could also depend on what type of gamer you are.

I think Steam is great if:
- You have to have the latest games as soon as they are released
- You don't reinstall your PC a lot
- You have lots of bandwidth
- You tend to play the games you buy immediately
- You're a casual gamer or typically like FPS-type games which are quick to complete and don't have major replay value
- You don't view games as a long-term investment

For me, I like RPG's a lot. RPG's tend to have a longer playtime that other genres. And because I spend more time with them, I tend to be more unforgiving regarding the DRM. Fortunately, the gaming industry does realise the longevity of RPGs as well and they invaribly tend to kill off the DRM down the line as they know its going to create them support headaches.

Before I realised this trend, I bought three "Diablo II - Lord of Destruction" retail games a good while back as I knew I was going to play Diablo II for a long time and I wanted to ensure that if one of the CD's became faulty, I'd not be locked out of the game... and then Blizzard released the DRM removal patch... aarrrgghhh!

It's also a pity that GOG didn't arrive on the scene sooner as I'd already got DRM-free retail versions of most of their RPG games... except for Divine Divinity, so thanks to GOG & Larian for that! I've even gone on faith that Larian will remove the DRM from Divine Divinity II and have bought the retail version.

And no, I'm not totally opposed to DRM. I've bought games like Bioshick and Mass Effect... but at bargain bin prices!

And I've bought shooters as well. I had the infamous "Tom Clany's Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory", which had a cracked CD - and no... I mean a physical crack. Fortunately I found a box-set not so long ago that included all the Splinter Cell games - and DRM free! And the Starforce version is in the bin - where it rightfully belongs :)

So for me, Steam is taking me towards something I'm really trying to get away from... and there isn't that one I-must-have-or-else game on Steam that would give me the incentive to put Steam on my PC.

Obviously, once you've already succumbed to Steam, then it's a lot easier to buy your 2nd or 3rd game etc.

Wheres that image with the caption "Lawful Evil, just because its legal doesnt make it right."


As for me, I do use steam, i first used it because i bought a retail copy of last remnant and hadnt noticed it was steam. I have a few things on steam and i use their launcher as i have some 400 games installed at the moment. I believe part of my dislike of steam os that i dont trust thr digital platform (gog being the exception as i back everything up) the way i see most of the sites is as glorified rental sites. The only new game i have bought and (at this current time) would buy is fully drm free so i can back it up and use it even if the company o bought it from goes tits up. *glares at steam*

I used to like Steam, but since getting rid of my normal gaming PC and going exclusively netbook I don't really bother with it any more. Granted, if I still had a decent PC I'd probably feel quite different, but on the netbook it just takes up too many resources to be worthwhile. I installed Dark Forces off it a few days ago and, despite tweaking the dosbox config file, could never get it running very well. Just out of curiosity I took it out of Steam and ran it independently with my own dosbox installation and it worked perfectly with the same config. It seems as the years go by, Steam itself becomes more and more resource hungry.

Again, a complaint I would not be making if I still had a decent desktop, the system resources it would take on there would be negligible and not even worth mentioning. But it is a shame that I'm, as of the moment, cut out of games that should otherwise work fine.

WOW!!
You just killed Steam for me...

You're in Japan though, you get shafted on a regular basis on Steam there :)

Yes, but in case of GOG you can still play the game you've bought if GOG is "down" or something similar.

I think the argument that Steam could cancel your subscription at any time is a bit of a moot one. They could do it, but they're not actually going to. Unless they had explicitly good reason to do so (like your account was used to hack or it's a stolen account bought off ebay or something) they'd get absolutely massacred in the courts if they just cut off access as they like. Remember that EULAs (especially gaming ones) are not usually legally enforceable documents, and that they do not override your own basic legal rights.

1. Buy a game from Steam.
2. Crack it.
3. Compile a custom installer.
4. ?????
5. Profit!

I really like Steam, I haven't had any problem with it, but I take care of my Steam account like my own eyelid.

If you are careful with your account, legit and don't screw up in multiplayer (games like the CODs can easily fuck up everything), you'll never experience any problem. Moreover, with 100 euros and some patience, in a few months you'll have an awesome library of games. ;-)