I'm missing one of my FS2004 disks. I've looked everywhere... can't play it.

Ive never had any issues for steam, been useing it for around a year now... Kind of like it actualy...

Sale prices on good games is my main draw to Steam. Just got Stalker: Call of Pripyat for $19.99 USD because I had purchased Stalker: Clear Sky ($9.99) on Steam. And I too used to be a hard copy fanatic, but truth be told most brick and mortar stores are carrying less and less PC games in their inventory. I still order boxed games via the interwebs but I have an instant gratification problem. I don't want to order it and wait a week for it to get here. I either jump in my car and go get it or hit Steam or Impulse or even GOG so I can have it NOW.

Like most people have said, I rarely buy new games on Steam, just the deals and they are usually very good.

Il-2 1946 is my best example. I had a case here with all of the disks from the day Forgotten Battles came out, every expansion.. was getting to be a good stack. Then I saw the whole lot for $4.99... done.

I used to hate steam. Now I see it as a sort of all in one game program where I can easily find and communicate with friends as well as purchase, update and install games without really doing anything. I used to be pissy about needing steam to load up to let me play something but now I kinda don't care as I tend to leave it running anyway. I mostly like it now because of the ridonculous deals that are oh so common on there. over the last year I've been buying a lot of games on steam. I would have passed on all of them for retail price, but jesus man when it tells me I can get this that and/or the other for less than 30, 20 or 10 dollars I can't stop myself. I can't remember the last time I paid retail price for a video game.

I do still hate how a game's files are buried under the steam folder. Somehow I never get used to that. So if I know I'll be poking around in a game's files I have to make a shortcut to it.

I'm sure steam wouldn't like it, but I wish I could pass off steam games I no longer want to friends or even let others borrow them.

Ah, Impulse is great place. Nice they convert the prices from $ to € instead of having the Steam way of having the same price for the same game i.e. $49 and 49€. The downside is that many of the new/better selling games are only available on that side of the pond. Otherwise very nice place to buy games from. :salute:

I like the deals at steam. Also I like how its DRM is effective but gives lots of choice to the owner and customer.

I have spent over 700USD on steam so far. I don't regret spending that much.

I tried to by SH4 UBM from them back when that was the only way you could get it. For some weird reason their system thought I lived somewhere else and wouldn't talk to me. The customer service girl was very nice and did everything she could to help, but no dice. When SH4 Gold was released I bought it in a store.

I like owning things. Property on my computer just isn't the same.

Yep, me too. I only buy stuff from/on steam if I have no alternative. Lets say I buy Napoleon: Total War on steam (I didnt, got the dvd) and my computer implodes forcing a reinstall of OS. Well, that means downloading damn close to 20GB while with a dvd its installed in 2 minutes. Sure, i could backup the game files and put them on an external hd, but why should i have to?

http://static.flickr.com/18/24172962_451f34da6e.jpg

QFT.

As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, Steam's prices (at least for UK residents) are a bloody rip off. They are often twice, or even three times, what the same game is selling for on Amazon UK. I just cannot see the advantage of paying more, and also being tied to the Steam client.

I'll use it if forced to, but only under protest, and I sure as hell won't buy from them if the game is available elsewhere for much less.

I'm guessing I will be echoing a lot of what others have said:

I only buy Steam games when they're on sale. Also, I can't "lose" the game.

That's about it.

I can also chat w/others w/their IM!! :D

If steam was ever forced to shut down they would likely do a patch to make the installed client work in offline mode permanently. Tho even if things went really south for the company it would be what a decade before that would happen?

I doubt they're going anywhere yet, but there's always the chance that someone messes their finances up in a big way (stranger things have happened lately). A lot of big companies have gone bust recently, for one reason or another, so it's illogical to assume that even Valve are completely immune.

If they fold, who's going to be on site to make the patch? Would you come to work after being made redundant? I know I wouldn't.

I don't think we need to fear that just yet though. I've watched Steam grow for the past 5 years or so, and it seems to be nowhere near having trouble. My understanding is that it's racking in a lot of money for Valve and its catalogue has practically exploded in the last year or so. So I'd take any death-of-Steam predictions as a really distant possibility for now.

Indeed, but nothing lasts forever. Personally, I try to stick with discs as much as possible, as I feel that I have more control of their use than with a system like Steam. Not to mention their insistence on charging on a basis of $1 = £1, which is just damned stupid.