Exactly. When I buy a game I, as a gamer, want the freedom to be able to play it when and where I want. Or even lend it to a friend for him to play if I so wish.

I understand where Steam stands. And I understand their marketing decisions.
But, as a client, I don't accept their rules nor their way of making business. As such I buy elsewhere.

Their loss. GOG's gain.

Sure... they have thousands of customers. And Steam couldn't care less about a portuguese old-timer making his shopping elsewhere.
But truth is: all empires fall (the same way GOG can fall if it starts to loose its focus)

And I know plenty of folk who are migrating from Steam towards other online stores.

Ah, I see. Good thing I bought the Gold Edition a few years later then.

That was the first reason which led me to start buying here in GOG. That I could burn all my executables into a DVD and keep them in a "physical safe".

I would love to go through manual (when was the last time you saw one) instead now we have online activation.
Find these servers in few years, we will depend on cracked copies instead that publishers unlock them themselves.
That would put those games in abandonware sphere and there is no way for that.

Yeah I realized after hitting post that I should have been more specific about Steam being a digital distribution service, store, etc. because some people need everything spelled out explicitly.

Can you download games without Steam? Absolutely. I mean it's obviously dependent on the developer/publisher whether they provide an installer, but even if the game requires Steam (due to using Steamworks) like Skyrim, you can acquire it from other means than through Steam. I bought Skyrim at Target because I had a $50 gift card and nothing else I was interested in at the time. I could have cracked the exe (can still if I want, since I still have the disc) to not bother with Steam, but I went ahead and activated it on Steam as one of the first PC games I bought since Half-Life 2 in 2004 (which I did eventually later get the Orange Box because it was an insanely good deal), though I had participated in a couple Humble Bundles by then as well (pretty sure they started in 2010). Humble Bundles and to a lesser extent, Skyrim, really kicked off my return to PC gaming after I'd all but switched to consoles completely around 2005/2006.

I bought Portal 2 on PS3 and when Steam came to OS X in 2010 I was able to grab it on my Mac Pro as well.

As for what percentage of DRM free games on Steam work without Steam once downloaded? 100%? That's kind of the point of DRM free.

Oh crap! I totally forgot about those. Yeah I remember some games from the '80s even with challenge questions like that. The advent of usenet/newsgroups kind of made those pointless, and now PDFs readily downloaded :D

So much this.

Ok So, where to begin.....

Battlefield 3
Battlefield 4
Batman Arkham Origins
Far Cry 3 / Blood Dragon
Anno 2070
Mass Effect 1 / 2 / 3
Dead Space 3
Dragon Age 2
Metro Last Light
Child of Light
Arma 3
Dark Souls 2
Thief (Reboot Version)
Company of Heroes 2
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed Most Wanted (2012 One)
Civilization 5 (Shame I really wanted it)
New X-Com (Both this and Civ5 are awesome games and now have a Linux client)
Diablo 3
Simcity (New one)
Might and Magic X
Heroes of Might and Magic 6
Titanfall
Assassin's Creed 3 / 4 / Spinoffs
Starcraft 2 (actually I had this but resold it immediately as soon as I learned about the DRM)
Dishonored
Watch Dogs
Crysis 3
Wolfenstein
Rage

I used to tolerate Steam to some extent but that faded off too with time, I'm sticking to GOG and DRM Free alternatives now.

M&M X for me. I might play it at some point. But I went from "Take my $50 for a DRM-free version please!" to "Oh. Well, if it's in a bundle, maybe." They just kept layering on the clients and DRM on that one.

D3 as has been said by many. I just remember my brother and I being so f-ing excited about it coming out. I constantly kept checking the website for teases and art work blah blah blah. Then I found out about the online single player and I became one of those insane ranting people. I'll never buy the game for PC and that means something because I have clocked an insane amount of hours in D1 and 2.

On a separate note don't even get me started on the AH...

I don't play too many newer games because they tend to be over-hyped, DRM and DLC riddled, interactive cinematics nowadays. I don't get sold on graphics either.

With that said, I guess you could I've not bought many of them.

I have never been a fan of those DRM stuffs. I still got COD 4 (MW1), No DRM required, and doesn't even need the CD inserted to run the game. COD MW2 introduced me to Steam and Battlefield 3 to Origin. It's been 5 years I was stuck with those two, combining 60+ games, and didn't see myself living without either Steam or Origin. GOG just saved me from that. I don't plan on buying a DRM game again.

I felt the same way about Spore for like a year and a half before it came out, watching all the video presentations on it etc. About a dozen friends felt the same too, foaming at the mouth for it. Then it came out loaded with crappy DRM and to date I know exactly _zero_ people that bought it, one friend that pirated it and played it for a few hours and uninstalled it and said he didn't care for it.

I've still never even seen the game in person this many years after the fact.

Two Worlds.
I was considering a bundle that had both games and DLC but activation limits did not sound good. Luckily, tomorrow I'll get them here for a price not as good but less things to worry about.

I don't usually worry much about DRM because I'm way behind in the big games (that tend to have those DRM horror stories I read about).
From the games that have been circulated in this thread I have three of them and one was a gift.

Most of my games in Steam are small puzzle based ones and maybe I have bought some DRM-ed game that in the future will prevent me from playing it again but once you solve a puzzle is not that fun to solve it again and since most of that came from cheap bundles I can live with that.

I tolerate Steam due to the discounts and variety of games avaliable (I won't buy anything expensive though). If I lose my Steam games someday, I figure at least I just spent a rental price (or less) for them so the loss wouldn't be that great. Games I won't ever buy would be anything requiring Origin or Uplay. One DRM is enough for me, and Origin/Uplay are more limited due to only having EA/Ubisoft games. The new Dragon Age is the only game of those I will regret not being able to play. I could also add I won't purchase any Steam game that has another layer of DRM.

Man, you guys keep pulling out games I'd forgotten I passed on due to the DRM. Two Worlds and Spore were a couple more. I think after passing due to DRM, I kind of forget about them (although I bought the Two Worlds games here when they showed up).

All of them? When I started realizing that boxed games were just fronts for Steam, something just didn't sit right with me. Then some time later I found the GOG key in my Witcher box.