You do know that the Steam client is skinnable, right? quite a few of them out there already and you can always edit the configuration files for them to suit your needs.

So while it may suck for you by default, it's not lacking in customization options.

I know it is. But configurating the fonts for the client, the chat etc is not an easy task for a layman. And the client will just not work properly in case you just edit the font size and modding the whole client is task too big for me (and I could not find a skin that would make the fonts big enough for my needs). And the skin, font size etc keep switching back with every update. Sure, I can create a profile and simply switch back, but this is not always working and by the way annoying.

Anyway, forcing your customers to jump through hoops in order to obtain something that is not only resonable, asked for a bazillion times by many customers and could be easily fixed is not a very good business conduct.


You know, one of the few cars produced in the former German Democratic Republic was a car called "Trabant".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant
You had to wait up to 15 years to get your car and when it arrived it came with a note in the glovebox, saying something like "Congratulations, you are now the prowd owner of a brand-new Trabant! Now please get some sealant and seal the following places in order to prevent water from soaking into the interior..." No, both statements are not a joke. Depending on personality most people would spit into the manufacturers face or start laughing frantically in disbelieve nowadays. And now you are asking me to get a tube of sealant.

I already invested a lot of time and money in steam to just stop using it. Recently I only have been purchasing drm-free games, so no more steam purchases for me.

I would love to say I boycott Steam as I find anything that wishes to constrict my existence and rights to be a problem that needs fixing. Yet for the moment as I have Hitman Absolution on Steam I have to put up with it.
I also have a few games from HB or Groupees which I have redeemed on Steam as they were cheap and are easily lost should Steam decide to close my account on me. Even so, I would happily rebuy all the good games DRM-free so that I could actually feel as though I own them, not rent them.
As it stands Steam is the last point to play a game, nothing more.
I just feel indifferent to them, and annoyed at developers who claim that having Steam keeps their games safe. You only need to look on a torrent site to see it just does not work like that.

I find myself using steam much more these days. In the end GOG has become boring, all of the indies here are over there as well, except... get this... they work on my linux box!

In most cases, my games that I have on Steam are DRM free anyway. So... I see no disadvantage.

If steam starts having the older games on (like wizardry and the 7th guest have), then I'm pretty much done with GOG.

=/

This is pretty much me in a nutshell when it comes to Steam.


I suppose the question for you guys is - would you even buy anything on Steam if indie bundles didnt exist?

Let's start by Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D as what Steam has is a superior version to what GOG offers...

Not I.
Though some DRM systems may be bothersome, I haven't had a negative experience with Steam.
My only problem is the fact that every game I "own" on Steam can be removed from my possession for relatively any reason deemed worthy of such punishment.
I've learned to accept the world for what it is and adapt to it instead of fighting against. This is my decision, and the decision is my own.

May you be triumphant in your goals, and your efforts rewarding.

I pretty much do boycott the "service that makes piracy tempting to me" AKA Steam I have one steamworked game (it's on disc) & I greatly regret trying the service out.

Nope. The one game I bought cheap outside of a steam bundle in the last year and a half I just gave away. Even for bundles I've only bought two steam only ones. Warner Bros in case I might ever want it later on, which went to all charity, and THQ because they seemed like a charity case themselves at the time.

A 360 for me and maybe a Wii U soon, but even there I've been finding good deals. This past month I've bought 12 games from Gamestop while they are clearing out end of generation stock for about $55 total. Between consoles and PC options outside of Steam I'm not running out of games to play any time soon.

You want to hear a funny thing?
I used to boycott Steam, then I started visiting this forum more frequently and the boycott thing went down the drain.

I don't know really. I used to, but I doubt that I would now. My sole interest in Steam used to be very cheap games, but since good sales of games not available elsewhere have dried up on Steam and Steam sales are pretty meh nowadays, I don't really bother like that. Most of the good indie stuff (what little there is) that I want seems to eventually appear on GOG, most of the mainstream games appear on PS3 and WIi U.

I've picked up a couple of games off Steam over the past year that were very cheap (Dust: An Elysian Tail, Papo & Yo), but other than that it's all been bundle keys or PS3 games.

Just replying to the initial question, without reading the rest of the pages:

Add one to the list. Not only that I won't consider actually making purchases from Steam (despite the fact that, unlike GOG, they do offer payment methods I could actually use), but at some point I was interested in a game this gaming magazine from here that includes full games came with, yet when I looked up on their forum and saw that it required activation on Steam I didn't even get that. Wouldn't even touch the stuff for free games, so any sort of sales they could come up with definitely won't change that. Have absolutely no interest in any social aspects, public records, achievements or anything else of the sort, so definitely no benefits it can offer, and either way I won't support DRM. And let's not even mention the fact that the games you bought may be denied to you if your account is deemed to deserve that sort of punishment, or is hacked, or has some other issues, or of course if/when the service itself will go down the drain.

I buy my games wherever they're sold the cheapest at the time (in case of same price drm-free always wins though).

Completely unexplainable. Must be a miracle! I wonder if there have been concrete reasons for the change. :)