badhabit wrote:
TL,NR: Steam technically nice, political highly debatable
I used to be a Steam hater, in fact I only started using Steam to get my LoG 1 mod on the Steam Workshop and because I was annoyed that some people could use the beta editor while I couldn't. But now, after two years with Steam I can say that most of the complaints people have about Steam are unfounded. To reply to your specific post:
1. You always buy a license to use a game, that was even the case back in the last millenium when you bought a nice boxed set with a manual, a CD and some other goodies. So Steam didn't change anything in that regard, you never 'buy a game'. Not on GOG and not anywhere else.
2. Games getting revoked for no valid reason is fearmongering. I have never heard of anyone who got a game revoked he legally bought. That just doesn't happen. The worst thing that can happen to you is that they'll lock your account, which means you will still have access to all the games you bought, but you can't add any new games, can't use your inventory or the market anymore. And they'll only lock your account if you do something clearly illegal.
3. Never heard of a game where modding or hex-editing wasn't possible. Why would that be? I mod quite a lot and so far I didn't find any game that was unmoddable on Steam. Only multiplayer games can be problematic since the cheat protection system could give you a VAC ban if you played with a hex edited exe. But come on, not being able to hex edit multiplayer games is hardly a disadvantage I'd say. Not sure what you need local backups for when you can download the game at full speed anytime from anywhere on the world. Local backups are needed if you fear that your CD may get scratches and cease functioning, but thankfully those days are over.
4. It's true that Steam by itself is a kind of DRM, but compared to all the other crap we've seen before it's one of the best DRMs out there. In fact once you have Steam installed you won't even notice there is any DRM. You start the games you want to play and you play them. And that's it, no other hoops to jump through. Compare that to those weird copy protection attempts from the 80s/90s (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_wheel), the shady StarForce DRM, the 'install only 10 times' copy protection from games like Bioshock or the 'always-on' copy protection Ubisoft came up with a while ago. Only no DRM is better, but if you want to make use of the Steam service you naturally can't do that.
5. The refund policy...I currently have 616 games on my Steam account. Do you know how much I paid for those games? I guess around $300 maybe. That's an average of 50 cents per game. Do you really think the
extremely low prices on Steam would be possible if people could sell their used games? Certainly not. Whether I buy 'used' copies from random people or whether I pay only a few dollars for my 'own' copy doesn't matter to me.
Overall I have no idea how Valve doesn't treat their customers 'not respectful'. In two years I didn't have a single problem with Steam, I got hundreds of games for what is basically pocket change. And I can download them from anywhere anytime I want with full speed. Updates get automatically added, so I don't have to constantly look for patches to keep my games up to date (which can be very annoying especially for multiplayer games). Yes, a big company from the USA could theoretically remove all my games and laugh in my face afterwards. But a lot of other companies could do even more threatening things. They could cut me off from electricity, they could turn off my phone or the government could even invalidate my passport. But they won't. Because it doesn't make any sense.
e.g. a return policy, no 1€=1$ stupidies, no account lock outs, no upgrade enforcements, no drm