Fictionvision: My feelings towards Steam are this.
I signed up for it and got some games. I admit I was weary from the start of having everything tied to a single provider on what was traditionally an open platform. Thankfully it seems other AAA publishers are more willing to open their own digital storefronts now despite the protests of your average "No steam no buy!" forum knuckle dragger. From what I've heard even ones like UPlay and Origin are decent now. But for Steam, I used it, had issues with offline mode and an account lock that left doubt in the back of my mind, but overall it was smooth most of the time. Thankfully over time, most of the games I "bought" had become available in DRM free form, or were already DRM free from buying elsewhere. I had already started using Steam far less anyways before they did the EULA lock out. Since then I haven't made a purchase through Valve on Steam.
Them hiding behind the subscription excuse to lock people out of their games unless they accept a new EULA was something I considered underhanded. I feel the same with Nintendo's way of locking digital purchases to the hardware they were bought on. Until they change that, I won't consider getting a digital game if I buy a new Nintendo console. If other companies can have account systems that let you use stuff offline and in single player without restrictions, Valve can to. Them being people's heroes for releasing 2 and 2/3rd Half Life games over 10+ years doesn't give them a free pass to do whatever they wish as a distributor in my book.
I'm sure eventually something new will come along I really want to play that is Steam only and I'll have to reinstall it again. When it does I will make sure to pay for it elsewhere like Amazon or direct from the publisher's website instead of through Steam where Valve gets a cut. For now my gaming habit is fed plenty between my 360 and PC distributors like GOG.
Not trying to question or disagree with you, but I would like to ask you about a few things.
How do you feel about console gaming?
Once, I used to be an avid fan of consoles like the PS2 and old Xbox. I have crates full of original games. Then, my Xbox broke down, and I realized, there was no one who would fix it, at least not without a ridiculous service charge.
And that's the thing about consoles. They die. They can last a few years, with good care taken, maybe they'll last 5 years, 6 years. But they will die out in the end. For PCs, they also break. But you can always replace them with better parts. For consoles, if it's gone, it's gone.
I personally gave up on console gaming because of that.
But there is another irritating thing that I have to note about Wii. Territorial/regional lockouts. Like I can't play a farging Jap game on a US console. Regional lockouts for games are almost as stupid as DRM itself.
Personally, I just try to stick to the PC as much as I can. But what about you? Would you still be willing to deal with the disadvantages that a console has? Such as dying out eventually, not just in terms of hardware, but game releases as well? Or not being able to play a game with a different region?
