Piracy are never justified. But I know what you mean. But also, why buy something on steam if you are agaisnt the drm? go buy the retail.

valve games still require steam. :(
the thing I can't agree with morally though about pirating games you bought, is that by downloading you're helping in keeping that link or torrent alive for non-purchasers.

oh yea forgott that. But I actually dont mind Steam. And you can use offline mode.

I get from Steam only games that aren't available elsewhere, or those games that are offered at ridiculously low prices.
Yeah, i got sucked in the crazy offers too sometimes, but I take my time to check if the game offered is interesting first, and than look at the price later :)
I try to purchase all my games from retail, (i like to own asomething i can TOUCH when i spend my money) and than get ultra-pissed when they force feed me the mandatory registration to Steam.
That's why I love GOG so much: games that aren't available elsewhere, that come at ridiculously low prices and that you can actually OWN after you buy them.
All my dreams come true, really :-D

Just read a piece on the escapist about digital downloads and the end of "big box" games.
Actually makes me feel quite sad.
I remember buying games in the 90s where you would get a few extras that you would now have to buy "collectors edition" versions for.
At the moment, I can buy retail for less than digital for new games (in general, sale prices may vary), it's the older games that are becoming digital only, as well as indie games.
If gaming is bigger and better than it's ever been, when will I see a similar offer to when I bought Ultima 7 with its cloth map, detailed manual et al, for normal retail price? (forgive me if I don't remember exactly!)

Currently the value I place on my time is much higher than what I'm paying for most games, and this is probably only going to become more pronounced as time goes by. As such, low prices aren't even close to being enough to get me to deal with a third party app always linked to my games, or moreover the potential to have to deal with online activation issues at some point in the future. I will admit, though, that I've bought a couple games through Impulse when prices were extremely low, since it isn't necessary for me to even touch Impulse once the installation is complete, and because I only foresaw myself playing through the games I bought once and the prices were low enough for what I considered little more than a rental.

102 games on steam. Mostly purchased as large packages, or small indie titles.
The last one being 'Harvest: Massive Encounter'. Easily worth the $9US for taking up most of my weekend.
However, since it's account tied, I've become more cautious about adding extra titles, and really only do the <$15 games now. It's a LOT of content to loose should something negative happen to my account or the company. That and the whole, regional restriction, let's charge the Aussies more than their retail situation...

I dropped quite a bit of money on Steam during Christmas last when everything (EVERYTHING) was 25% to 75% off. Killer deals. I always check every weekend to see what's on sale, you can often find some really nice bargains. Between GOG and Steam you can save a ton of money.

I occasionally look on steam for new games but it'll have to be a good deal to overcome the regional overcharging and shit exchange rate.
This weeks ubisoft 50% off thing is the kind that might make me spend the cash

With so many killer deals popping up everywhere i'm actually spending more money than i used to. On the bright side, my 'to play' pile keeps getting bigger every day.

ive tried a whole bunch of games that i would never have played if they hadnt been a steam weekend deal or bundle. it gives games a second life even after they are long forgotten. i think it's a damn service to the gaming industry. and i dont have problems with steam, it can be downright convenient sometimes. kind of a slow program for its function though.

Well I for my part can't stand steam anymore.
I'm German and that means that I can only get censored games from them unless I have a boxed version. Even if I do though it means I always have to install from Cd and that kind of defeats the purpose.
I also had a rather unpleasant experience with Steam and Dawn of War. On their website they stated that the game could be downloaded in every major European language. But when I tried switching to English I couldn't. To be precise Steam acted like I did but just kept the game in German, no matter what I did or how many times I reinstalled. In the end I had to contact tech-support to be told that since I am German I am tied to the German version because of some weird licence issue.
If I would have know that beforehand I surely wouldn't have bought the game through Steam.
From personal experience I can also say that it is rather annoying to know that there are some games out there in the net that you could theoretically play if the fascist Japanese university network would allow it. With a service like GOG this wouldn't have happened.
(Yes I know, that was rather the university's fault than Steams but still, it was annoying as hell)

I tend to buy off steam very seldom these days some of the weekend deals are good and i am interested to see what ubisoft games are on offer this week. I wont buy a full game off Steam again as the price in £ is too high compared to the shops £10 more for empire total war that play.com.
With more games using steam for activation its a program i will be using more i just hop that nothhing happens to steam or ill end up with a lot of useless games i cant play