Well if games were clearly identified as DRM-free, then i could cut them slack for my own incompetence in that area. But i got burned 7 TIMES in a row trying to avoid installing or using steam for a few games i had bought and transferred over the network as zipped files.

If you have to get burned each time you transfer a zip to a non-steam system to know if it's DRMed or something, then you'll get tired REAL FAST. Believe me, i rage quit steam due to that.

k

Too late. But better late than never... When you buy a game that requires Steam...

1) You do not buy the game itself, or its files.
2) You buy ONLY the LICENSE to USE it (much like a renting service).
3) You NEED steam to install it (even if only to start or finish the installation), to play it, etc.
4) Your product is VULNERABLE to enforced REMOVAL OF ALREADY EXISTING GAME CONTENT, WITHOUT WARNING or COMPENSATION, even if you PURCHASED the game WHOLE quite some time ago, much like the latest GTA Vice City and San Andreas cases.
5) Games that already come with DRΜ measures, are twice the pain to deal with, while using them on steam.
6) Steam keeps track of your activities constantly while you on it, like the hours played. It also collects data dealing with your tastes and preferences, so it can advertize to you "recommended" items to buy. Something that when generic webpages do to your system, leads them to your black list (or your antispyware's/antivirus').
7) You do not have direct control over your saved game content, because it uses a cloud to store them. The procedure to start a game anew by deleting your saves, if and when desired, is quite a pain.

You also run certain risks. Like when you use a code activation of a game, it is already used/redeemed by another account. Case in which, you have to return the product to the place you bought it, and struggle to have it changed, or if you aggressive enough, to get a refund. Steam support washes its hands of any responsibility and doesn't help, not even by telling you WHICH account "stole" it from you.

Also, steam support is quite chaotic; i once asked them for help, and they ridiculously demanded that i contact the company whose game i needed support on. Thankfully, i found an article that solved my issue, and guess what, the solution needed only some tampering from the steam environment. Those people do not even know their damn job.

Be careful when buying from steam. Think of it as encouraging the further trampling of DRM-Free titles. Last but not least, a great deal of games sold here, DRM-Free, suddenly were removed from our store, and either appeared on steam, or existed there already. Don't support the monopolies, and the bashing of the excellent, DRM-Free service.

Thanks for the laugh of the day. I spilled my coffee giggling when reading this :)

Most games give you the option to save on your Hard drive aswell as in cloud. Even then you can turn cloud saving off.


It's all a conspiracy! Steam is bad mmkay. That is all you had to say really.

and overwriting it is really a simple 2 step process :)

It makes you wonder sometimes doesn't it. Some of these guys are acting like GOG is perfect. Far from the truth! *head explodes*

*shrugs*
Either spend some time verifying your facts or don't use facts at all. You really can just say "I don't like Steam", it's fine.

Been, and unfortunately AM, still, a steam user/customer etc. If those things weren't in effect, and i did not bother to notice them personally, i would never, ever bother posting them. Typing long texts is not exactly my no1 form of entertainment, right? But helping people avoid an abusive service, or helping people in general, is...

And all this aside, No4, even only for No4, steam should be avoided like the plague.

(4) Your product is VULNERABLE to enforced REMOVAL OF ALREADY EXISTING GAME CONTENT, WITHOUT WARNING or COMPENSATION, even if you PURCHASED the game WHOLE quite some time ago, much like the latest GTA Vice City and San Andreas cases.)

When you want to play a game that requires Steam, you have one of two choices:
1. Play the game and accept the limitations.
2. Don't play the game.

I can't see how (2) can be superior to (1).

1) Seek services which offer the same game, or interesting alternatives, WITHOUT limitations, or with as few as possible.

2) Play the game, if it is unfortunately an exclusive to the abusive distributor, but not pay for it.

There, corrected.

And still, no one talks about the removal of already existing game content. This, this a conspiracy, too??? Latest Rockstar issue never happened. And cannot happen with other titles in the future. Ok...

Well there are countless games out there, more than you could likely play in your mere lifetime. so not playing one or two games is really no big deal.

Which, of course, doesn't excuse spreading misinformation. The first point is just not correct, you do 'own' (within the standards of owning when it comes to softwaer) the game files and you can do whatever you want with them, within the same terms as with a game purchased anywhere. As for the second point, that's not just Steam, read EULA of any game bought here on GOG. Third point is just a half-truth. Seven is false again, you can even turn the cloud service off altogether. The rest could be argued about, altho I don't see a point of doing that, or are of genuine concern (like the fourth point)

Not if one takes proper procedure, seeing as you can copy them as much as you want. Have a personal back up, perhaps a cloud backup, your standard GOG backups. Have like 3 or 4 backups and if one goes you should be fine, and if GOG does shut down you know to create more backup places to be on the safe side. :P

I would only use Steam if the user:

- Wants to play a free online game like DoTA 2/Whatever/Insert F2P game here.
- Wants a DRM-Free game that isn't available on GoG.

I hate Steam as a service, as a platform and it's very existence altogether. I can't stand the thought that a user is renting his games not owning them. I've only bought a handful of games from Steam itself and they were mainly known DRM-Free games that I could play without ever needing the client and that was more than a year ago.

Secondly, I agree with everything that KiNgBrAdLeY7 said so far. Why most people don't care that their library and game content can be removed and modified anytime a developer wants to is beyond me.

I refuse to use the Service anymore.