So, will Frayed Knights end up on Steam, then?
 

A whole lot of people have been complaining about Steam for quite some time now (for reasons both legitimate and entire unreasonable), so I suspect that it'll actually take much less than five years for Valve to become the evil overlord.

I'm not in the game industry, but I am a programmer, and to me Steamworks seems like a ridiculously awesome deal, like having a box that contains the solution to the boring half of a program given to me for free. I'm really curious to know what your opinion is, though, since you're someone who's actually dealt with (or at least has a better idea about) the sort of things that Steamworks is supposed to solve.
 

As a member of the target audience, I have a lot of problems with Steam.

Some background: I buy a lot of computer games, and these days buy most of them online. This is partly from convenience, and partly so that more of the money can go directly to the developers.

There are no pirated games on my computer, and it's highly unlikely there ever will be.

I've used a lot of different delivery services, including Steam. After using them for the Orange Box, I do not intend to ever buy a game on that service again.

* I'm entirely fine with restrictive 'license' schemes, such as Strategy First's 'one install, that's it' system, especially if it's reflected in a lower price.

* I grudgingly accept CD checks, though I'll admit to downloading 'fixed' executables for my legally purchased games whenever possible.

* I don't mind ultra-long passwords, such as Neverwinter Nights's, when it doubles as an unique online identifier for games with an important online component.

* I don't mind the requirement to be online to play games when there's a clear reason to do so, such as Gametap's monthly subscription service. (Since you can sample ANY games you like for your $15, it's entirely fair that they monitor everything carefully to make sure these games aren't creeping onto more permanent storage.)

What I DO object to, and find insulting to the point of not wanting to bother with any game published exclusively on Steam, is what I went through with the Orange Box:

I bought the game at a bricks-and-mortar store, on physical media, with the aim of *only* playing the single-player, offline portions of the game.

First off, I was *required* to install Steam, even if I didn't feel like patching. Why?

Second, I *HAD* to be online whenever I wanted to play the offline components of the games I had purchased. Why?

Finally, the whole thing was much, much too intrusive. Steam insisted on running whenever possible, and it often refused to uninstall games after I became fed up. I uninstalled it two or three times before it finally 'took', and I had to manually delete its files and wipe the relevant registry entries.

Whenever I wanted to do ANYTHING with the games, Steam insisted on showing me its interface, even if there were other ways of doing things which I preferred (e.g. starting the games, patching).

Every step of the way, Steam insisted on treating me like a thief instead of as a paid-up customer. The only other software to be this insulting was Starforce, for very similar reasons.

Starforce acted as if it were the only thing that mattered on your computer, and Steam does the very same thing.

I've boycotted games with Starforce protection, and I'll do the same with Steam exclusives.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other online distributors, such as Gamersgate and Totalgaming (not to mention Rampant Games), who are HAPPY to take my money, and are actually *respectful* of their clients.
 

Coyote, you must live in a different reality than mine. Steam has been the evil overlord since I had to start telling people regularly they couldn't trade the (come out next week) Half Life 2 on GameTZ.Shamus Young (twenty-sided, DM of the Rings, Chainmail Bikini) has only recently given that Steam may not be the piece of evil it was deployed as.

- YaVerOt (glad GameTZ changed the rules)
 

I think that Steam is going to become for the PC what XBox Live Arcade is for the XBox 360. But I think they do have some deficiencies I'd like to see addressed:

* Steam "playing nice" on your PC. It needs to be less intrusive.

* Transfer of license (has this been fixed already?) of used games. I know this is a sore spot for the games business in general, but the cool thing that COULD be happening with Steam is that it could make sure that transfers are "legit" - the previous owner no longer has access to the game.

* Offline play. Like totally offline. If Steam is down, if my Internet is down, I should still be able to play my game.

* Dealing with life after Steam: If Valve goes out of business next year (yeah, not gonna happen, but how many game juggernauts have fallen in the last twelve years?), I want to be able to continue playing the games I've purchased. Yeah, I'm a weird retrogamer, but that's besides the point.

Those are my key issues. And I don't think they are insurmountable problems. If Valve addresses these, I think we'd be in good shape.
 

being mostly a mobility gamer, and a lazy one at that who's nearly always connected to the internet, I find steam to be of the better protection schemes, as my biggest pet peeve is needing the disc in the tray to play, and if I get a game on steam I'm guaranteed that I don't need to do this.

I really don't mind that much, as if my internet connection is down, usually at least one of my neighbors unsecured wifi networks can still get a good enough connection to steam to launch a game.
 

You guys have a different Steam to me...my offline mode works fine. I'd be happy for all my games to come via Steam.

@freit, the reason your hardcopy needed Steam installed is because part of the whole concept is to eliminate 0-day piracy. The DVD doesn't have the full executable - Steam drops that in afterwards. If the DVD version didn't need Steam, it wouldn't have any bette protection than the next game.
 

@dhruin Thanks for the explanation - that still leaves me with the sour taste in my mouth of Steam assuming I'm a thief from the moment I buy one of the games on its service.

Regarding the offline mode, it never worked properly for me (maybe because I was using it on a computer with wireless access and it thought unsecured nodes in the area were valid connections?). IF they can get this working properly, I'd give Steam a second look - but it would have to be in the form of a button to click that stopped Steam from accessing or trying to access the Internet, on the understanding the gaming experience would be appropriately limited.

(By 'appropriately', I mean that offline single-player games should run flawlessly.)

Steam games compete not only with pirated games and games on other services, but with novels, movies, 'quality time', creative writing, painting, cooking, etc.

The moment any one of those alternatives becomes more attractive than paying to deal with Steam, there'll be trouble.

In my case... the Orange Box sits on the shelf. I uninstalled it without even playing through Portal. Meanwhile, after finishing this comment I'm off to a coffee shop to enjoy a fun novel from 1917 that I picked up for a dollar at a thrift store. Lack of draconian license protection is exactly why I can enjoy the first edition of this forgotten author's novel almost a century later.