My guess would be that lots of people are unhappy about cheap AAA games bought in countries with low regional prices.
I don't love Steam myself but as long as there is no third party DRM (and Enhanced Steam always kindly warns me against this) I can totally accept it.

Yeah of course you are right. But what I meant was that there is no need to constantly have these threads popping up where people clash with each other just because some people use steam and some not :-)
And yeah... it would be great if there would be not steam exclusive games anymore so that everyone really had free choice for every game.

Threads that educate the masses to Steam (and Valve's) actual failings (like blocking regional trading to regions with a higher than US Price) is one thing. General bashing of the service seems weird, like they raped your mum or something and this is your only recourse for therapy. If you don't like the service, NO ONE is force feeding it to you (unless you spent $60 on Skyrim or its like at launch for a physical copy only to get the "INSTALLSTEAMLOL.exe" instead). It is a pretty good service over all, which is why it's popular. It benefits the publishers and smaller devs who want widespread exposure, and it benefits customers by giving them options and pretty sweet sales. Their refund policy should be made clearer ("you don't get no stinking refunds") and their policy on bundles sucks (If you already own one or more parts of this bundle, PAY AGAIN. You get no further copies to share, and no further discount!). But that used to be stated right out on the payment page (now you get a generic blurb not stating those things, but rather chick this link to see if you do), but now seems designed to infuriate confused buyers. But they also offer online matchmaking for many games and have pretty stable servers most of the time.

GoG on the other hand has some pretty decent customer service (not the best, they do have some big failings). They also help people get some exposure and such and also offer some pretty sweet sales. But their service comes with a big risk to companies, and that's that the games have to be DRM free. And no matter how you slice it, that means people will steal them. Even though every pirated copy is not a lost sale, and sometimes pirated copies mean more sales (or less if your game is absolute shit) but ultimately, there are people out there that don't care about buying and will take for free whatever they can, regardless of better means to get it.

So GoG is a bit better from the consumer standpoint, no doubt, but there are very few developers/publishers that would prefer GoG to Steam for the simple fact that Steam allows them that one extra step between them and thieves. And while that DRM isn't terribly effective, nor is it terribly invasive. The best DRM isn't NO DRM, but rather the one that is not invasive at all, but yet allows Devs and publishers to protect their work.

I disagree. The one game I have purchased on Steam, I couldn't play because of Steam DRM.

That's pretty invasive.

i am perfectly capable of making my own decisions thanks

and i will buy from steam
from gog
from humble
from bundle stars
from origin
from squaer enix
and hard copy anyway and any time i damn well please

Out of sheer curiosity: what game was that exactly?

Guns of Icarus Online.

My girlfriend thought I would like it and wanted to play with me so I did this:

1) Install Steam
2) Create a Steam account for me
4) Add GOIO on my Steam account
3) Create a Steam account for her
5) Add GOIO on her Steam account

And then Steam wouldn't allow us to play together. I emailed Steam support and Steam support told me it was intentional.

(Sorry for the emphasis but I've tried to explain this before (on another forum) and even including the bit where Steam themselves confirmed it was Steam preventing my completely legitimate use, they couldn't comprehend or accept that Steam was the problem.)

Hey guys. To be honest I did not read everything since I am a little drunk. Anyway I would also would like not to purchase from Steam, but I just did recently. I bought some games that are not on gog and were on discount on Steam. Those games probably wont be on gog for some time. I also bought Shadowrun Dragonfall which is on gog, but I thought the games workshop on Steam would make some things easy.

Anyway. The problem with Steam is that you have to be online. Of course there is this crap talking with offline,. but really sometimes there are some problems with it. I don't think I need to explain further why this is shit to require online in single player. Also Steam was suppose to be only DRM. Or maybe I got it wrong? The reality is that you have Steam, but also others DRM types. Sometimes you even have other services, like games for Windows, or Uplay through Steam.

The prices were also suppose to be low since you don't have to pay for physical copy. The reality with this is that we have been fucked up. The prices are not low. Well maybe if you count discount there are of course common.

So overall this is another example of slow enslavement of humanity. Because some comfort (which is debatable) humans give away their freedoms. Like in religions or government. Here you don't have any rights, The can take away what you bought wherever they want. You just rent it for some time. Before that you had physical copy. And it is suppose to be better,.. Also... When you buy games the creator don't have any responsibilities, They can sell you you whatever shit they want and want give you your money back. It is like buying a cat in a bag like they say in my coutry. He might be blind without legs and dying but the seller don't give a shit. But the buyer has many responsibilities...

Also I wanted to make clear I am not talking about Seam only, but overall the game industry. If you buy a wash machine and it is shit and does not do what it was suppose to do you can give it back legally and have your money back or the thing that actually works. In games it is like - Please buy great customer. Please. You buy and now they rise hand and put a middle finger in front of you and say: Get lost fucker!

Oh there's problems there, but Steam is just a distribution service. Their policies are pretty straight forward if you look for them, and some are pretty shitty, but they never tell you they offer a satisfaction guarantee, or even a functionality guarantee. It's really quite clear that some people assume they have rights that they don't, and while Steam, Valve and many others are shitty to take advantage of it, it's not illegal or exceptionally dishonest compared to some things out there. I really wish they'd print it on th purchase page "Are you sure, because we will not offer a refund for any reason whatsoever. All purchases are final as is" to at least remind customers "hey, once you click buy for me, the money is gone."

I buy from Steam, GOG, Humble, GamersGate, GMG, Amazon etc. This is more about assclowns like you trying to dictate where I spend my money.

I have around 460 games on GOG. I have around 650 on Steam. Take your fanboyism BS elsewhere.

FFS, never buy from Steam, and then you go on to list ways to buy from Steam. Mixed signals much?

Sounds like a cheap assblasted shill thread to me. Today, OP is a fag.

I've never had any problems with steam. Sure, it was crap.. 6 years ago. Those times are gone.
I've never had any of the currency issues you talk about.
I've found some of the cheapest sales were actually on steam, not steam key resellers (Although I do use them on a constant basis).
When me and my brother had an issue with him buying a game I already had, that was a hard copy, they refunded him the money, no questions asked.
Never had a problem with any sort of hacking attempts. Im also not a dumbass who has a simple pa33word, and I DON'T accept new friends I don't know or chat with anyone I don't know. Any links that are in chat, I do NOT click. Ever. That goes for ANY site.
There ARE laws that protect people from steam, at least in Eurozone countries, and Canada.

This is the truth about steam. It's a fine platform. Not for everyone, but It gets my games to me quick and with little hassle.

Why people shouldn't buy from Steam.....
A: Because you should be getting everything on it for free through trading and tactical deal hunting.

Simple as that. Rants or emotional appeals are silly and ineffective.

Please.. go and find someone who has been affected by something you haven't and say "well, I've never had a problem with X, so it's fine" to their face.

Repeat until you realise that just because you've never had a problem with something, doesn't mean it isn't crap.

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