This.

I don't think that's the point though, at least it isn't from my pov.

Boycotting Steam is really just step one, the real boycott is against the company which chooses Steam only.  Don't buy their game at all.

Personally I don't need every single game out there, no matter how cheap they may be, and I don't need to deal with Steam or whatever I don't want to deal with.  It's pretty simple really.  If that means I can't play certain games, oh fucking well.

Are we seriously at the point where people are so addicted to Steam that they couldn't live without it?  This isn't some 'get off your ass and go outside for a walk' point either.  This is asking the question that if Steam went away people (Kantok...) seriously think they wouldn't be able to get their gaming fix?  Do you honestly believe that without Steam PC gaming would be dead or would die?  That's a pretty strong statement, and a patently ridiculous one as well.

My argument is, there is no point in getting rid of steam. It causes me no problems, it instead provides a service.  When my computer went down, and I had to rely on my laptop, I decided that I should put some games on it.  I could of dragged out all my disk, but decided to put steam and the games on it was much easier, and because my laptop is often not connected to the internet, the offline mode allows me to play all my steam games without an internet connection.  Steam has only provided me with convenience and good deals on games, including indie games I doubt I would have had access to or knowledge of without steam.  Why would I stop buying games that use steam?  In fact, using steam is a selling point to me now. Actually don't answer the why, I know it's crap.

Why is it silly? There are already other threads on this site describing in detail why a great number of people will not purchase games through an online client like Steam.

If a game developer considers that population base acceptable losses for the sale of their game....well, that I think is silly.

As to your comment about retail sales; it's conjecture. If people decide not to buy games online, I'll bet you game developers will switch back to retail in a heartbeat.

There are plenty of people who don't believe in the moon landing, or who believe in ghost, and Sasquatch.  And there are a lot of people who don't like steam.  There are a lot more people who disagree, who like steam, and I'm sure developers like steam a hell of a lot more than retailers.

“On Steam, whenever a customer is unhappy with any transaction, our first goal is to resolve things as quickly as possible through the normal customer support process. However in those instances in which we can’t resolve a dispute, we’ve outlined a new required process whereby we agree to use arbitration or small claims court to resolve the dispute. In the arbitration process, Valve will reimburse your costs of the arbitration for claims under [$10,000]. Reimbursement by Valve is provided regardless of the arbitrator’s decision, provided that the arbitrator does not determine the claim to be frivolous or the costs unreasonable.”

“Most significant to the new dispute resolution terms is that customers may now only bring individual claims, not class action claims. We considered this change very carefully. It’s clear to us that in some situations, class actions have real benefits to customers. In far too many cases however, class actions don’t provide any real benefit to users and instead impose unnecessary expense and delay, and are often designed to benefit the class action lawyers who craft and litigate these claims. We think this new dispute resolution process is faster and better for you and Valve while avoiding unnecessary costs, and that it will therefore benefit the community as a whole.”

OMG, so evil!  If you sue them they are willing to pay your court cost, even if they win!  Bastards!

You are missing his point.  There is barely any retail PC gaming presence at all today as it is.  Most PC gaming sections in stores are half WoW, nearly half Sims and a couple other big titles. That's it.  In 2 years or less there will be NO PC gaming presence at retail.  It's dead Jim, believe it.  It's basically already dead.

Digital distribution is pretty much it for PC gaming already and soon it will be all there is.  So get used to it.  Be it Steam, Gog, GS or direct from the publisher it's going to be your only choice if it isn't already.

And as pointed out there are so many good games out there right now that just wouldn't exist if not for Steam or digital distribution.  You think an excellent game like Defense Grid would sell at retail.  Or Legends of Grimrock?  Heck no.  Even 10 years ago see the struggles of Stardock, one of the bigger Indies at the time (and still is) trying to get their games at retail let alone selling them.

It's just the reality we live in.

And I don't doubt the next gen consoles will go more toward digital distribution as well.  It will be a transition generation and the generation after that will probably be digital only.  10 years from now I don't think there will be any physical games sold at retail anymore, even console.

You know I used to have a problem with steam but have since changed my mind. Looking at this really reinforces my view that valve is one of the good guys. I can't see any reason why you would ever be wanting to get more than $10,000 out of valve. And they're offering to pay your legal costs. Besides for the most part courts are crap and as a form of justice laughable. I'd rather have arbitration and small claims court as my options especially if they're willing to pay for the arbitration.

harpo

Again, this is me speaking for myself.

The few people who refuse to buy a game because it's on Steam, GS, etc. are FAR outnumbered by the amount of people that a platform like Steam brings in.  

As the other person said, there is hardly any retail space left for PC games.  Been to a GameStop store lately?  How about Best Buy?  Every time I go to BB their PC section gets a bit smaller.  Lets not even get into the fact they will probably be out of business in a few years.  I stand by what I said, retail for PC games is over.  

This internet thing seems to be sticking around, so I would place serious money on developers sticking to online distribution.

I have no problem with Steam as a service, I have a problem with this policy.

The best solution would be for companies to provide alternative means of payment (does valve get the same money if you buy a Steamworks game through say, Stardock directly as they would through Valve?), or preferably for companies to provide a non-Steam means of purchase.

I know that this policy won't stop me from using Steam, but it will make me purchase very sparingly from the Steam store.

That's great, but in case you were replying to me and not just generally...

I'm not telling anyone to use or not use Steam, I don't really care if people love it or hate it, I made my own decision about it as did you and I'm more than happy with my decision as you appear to be with yours.

The larger point of this thread (I think anyway...) is that if you are unhappy with Steams actions then refuse to pay for products through them.  You could also simply refuse to use their service period, but that may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  I'm not sure that anyone even thinks that is so contentious, yet some people expressed the opinion that if not for Steam PC gaming would be dead.

That's a fairly large leap of intuition, and frankly reeks of utter bullshit.  There is plenty of PC gaming available without Steam.  Fair enough, 'plenty' is a wiggly word, but I'm not going to quantify it, I think people probably understand it in this context.

Yes, Steam may be the 1,000,000lb gorilla in the room, but they aren't the only monkey.

My other quandary related to just how many games people actually buy off of Steam and if it's really worth having a library of 100s of bargin games.  That's clearly up to each individual to answer for themselves, and not all games carry the same content load.  None the less, I do find it somewhat disconcerting that Steam has seemingly created so many addicts, even at pennies a pop.

What's your problem with the Steam store?  It's the No. 1 place to go for discounts of digital copies.  Did you miss the Steam Summer Sale they just had?  Plus Steam offers screenshots, system requirements, third-party DRM notices, Metacritic scores, recommendations by friends, and trailers in one convenient page.

I don't have a problem with the Steam store, hell I've never even put Steam on any system I own.  I don't want it and I don' t need it.

If you think it's great, great, use it.  If others don't want to use it, why do you even begin to care?

But I don't think this is really about pros/cons of Steam, at least it isn't to me, because I don't care what they are they are irrelevant to me.  This is about what Steams actual value to the PC gaming community is, and some peoples desire to express that Steam *is* the PC gaming community.

Bullshit to that.

Should Steam be the PC gaming community?  Ahh... that's a more interesting and likely charged question, but since it's hypothetical (at least for now) it's also not really worth getting undies knotted up over.

I was actually talking to Alstein.  You must have posted while I was typing.  He doesn't like the Steam store for some reason.