Steam or other DRM's have nothing to do with copy protection. What they want is that you cannot sell your game anymore and that they have full control how long you can play the game which is even more important. With DRM you do not own the game you just rent it.

Well, yeah if Steam goes under, then you might not be able to play those games any more, but selling games? You can't re-sell GoG games either, and the only service I know of that allows (limited) reselling is Greenmangaming.

That makes me wonder though. Even in retail markets, which stores buy used PC games and resell those? The only store that I know of that allows it in Texas (where I used to live) was Half Priced Books and they gave you a terrible trade in value.

Also GoG is far from optimum. But the main reason i get games here is because these old games run on win 7 and you do not need gog to run the games. Optimum is a physical copy of the game and without DRM; it is really as simple as that.

Honestly if steam didn't sell it's games so cheap i wouldn't be using it. However because they do i really just can't help myself when they have their deals going on, i was only going to try to limit myself to about 5 games this sale but that's gone out the window.

Not to mention there were a couple of games i couldn't pass on that required steam (Empire: Total War, Fallout New Vegas).

Btw can anyone answer me this because i genuinely don't know; Is it possible and How can you get banned from steam legitimately? Also if you do get banned can you still play games in Offline mode?

Guys, relax a little. :) Yes, DRM is bad for the customer, in general, but it is not going to eat your babies. ;)

No need to be exaggerating that much. :)

It's not bad it is a scam. And why not warn everyone i think that it is important.

Dude, you're kinda starting to sound like a broken record now... I'm sure everyone respects your opinions and decisions but not everyone will agree with and/or follow them. You've made yourself clear now -- no need to keep repeating yourself.

I don't get what is so scammy about it... They do show you the EULA / TOS / TOA, so you're free to choose whether you agree with those things or not.

And how many gamers read EULA/ TOS/ TOA ?
At least they should make it clear that you only rent the game.

I really don't care one way or another about Steam. It's great for some and seen as a rental service by others (yes,myself included). What turns me off about the service, much like Apple and Linux, is the adamant defense that some fans display during a discussion of the service. There are legitimate issues with the service as well as great perks / positives. Denial of either is somewhat useless and turns many discussion threads into a waste of time.

Many of my friends and several family members use Steam. They are constantly looking for the "game" that will make me create an account and make a believer out of me. So far . . . I . . have . . resisted. Having a huge backlog of GOG games helps . . . =)

It's not so much getting banned from Steam, it's more a case of having your account terminated. I don't think there's anything stopping you from making a thousand Steam accounts if you so desire (or one account for every game that requires Steam, or whatever).

The last time I flicked through the Steam Subscriber's Agreement, you could lose your account for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I admit this is highly unlikely, but Valve can close your account from now until the end of time on a whim.

As for actual reasons that don't involve bugs in the system, these include being banned for cheating in online games, failure to pay, things like that.

As for bugs, well, 12,000 accounts were banned due to a fault with VAC, and I'm given to understand that some of those were not/still haven't been reinstated. There was a recent problem with PayPal payments, resulting in quite a few people having their accounts suspended/banned.

Also, a few years ago, if I recall correctly, Valve removed Windows 98 support from the Steam client. Now, this wasn't simply "will no longer release updates to deal with Win 98 issues", this was "remove support for Windows 98". The end result, as I recall, were a few thousand people left unable to play their games until they upgraded to XP. Don't know about you, but that is not a precedent that particularly impresses me.

I would very much doubt it. As I understand matters, you need to be logged into the client in order to play the games. If the client has been told that your account is no longer valid, I doubt it will let you play them.

Of course, a quick trip to... certain places on the internet will solve that problem if you wish, but being given the choice to either pirate or be banned from playing your games (unless you want to buy them all again) is hardly an ideal situation.

By the same logic, you don't need DirectX or Havok for you 3D graphics and physics, since you can code those yourself... Steamworks, and every other framework- middleware of the same kind, are a nice productivity asset from the point of view of a developer that wants to integrate MP server browsing, achievements, VOIP comunicantions and stuff like that into their games at low (manpower and money) cost.

The annoyng part is that it is tightly integrated with the Steam client, but as a SDK in itself, is quite useful.
Since i'm paying all those at rental price, with no need to even "return" them, i don't see a problem with that.

If everyone is fully aware that DRM games are only rent games and only pay 3-5 $ for them then i think it is fully ok.

I dislike Steam for many of the reasons mentioned here.. but on the flipside, I never pay much for my Steam games.

I generally buy bundles for like $10 for multiple games, or other really great deals.. so you know what, if all I'm doing is 'renting' the game, that's worth it to me... Especially as many of these games as I end up playing for an hour and deciding they suck.

And especially doing a Blog of reviews of cheap games.. Steam, and Steam sales, are an excellent tool for that.