TB does have a good point, agree with his points. Steam fan boys are incredibly annoying but the reason why these people want certain games on Steam is because there are other DRM that are much more annoying than Steam.

Think about Starforce that destroy your PC, the early iteration of Securom that you only can install the game 5 times, the dreaded GFWL with a long list of problem or the lovely UbiDRM that used to required you to stay online all the time. Among of all these "evils", the only viable decent alternative is only Steam, unless you are going with the no DRM method which is no possible in today's market. With exception to CD Projekt Red.

However, i do agree with TB's point, Steam is way too big these days, which is bad for the entire PC gaming industry in the long run. The thing that worries me the most, it will be the day that Valve turn evil and started to act like EA. That fears me the most, but consider this, if Steam didnt exist in the first place, i bet PC gaming would be worse than what it is now.

Personally, i am fine with most DRM. It doesnt have to be on Steam as long as the DRM doesnt screw me over like GFWL with it's laundry list of problems. Origin is decent too, but EA has to stop thinking about money only to make a decent game.

In fact, i actually like clients from MMOs that does pretty much everything that steam do, like Blizzard's launcher, GW2's game launcher or the launcher that most F2P MMO uses. Steam, on the other hand, it is alright for me. It is nice to have cheap sale that made me discover games that i will never find. Or offering a central place to access my games, than having game icons everywhere on my desktop. Also the fact that it connects you with other people.

PS3 have PSN as their backend system, 360 have their own Xbox LIVE, while on PC, we have Steam. I think a centralised system is needed on PC in one way or another, considering the fact that how important these systems have been for console. I rather have Steam, than going through the whole DRM minefield with Starforce, Securom and so on. Steam is not perfect, but it is the best thing we have now.

Do not blame it on TF2 because the game has more depth than a lot of fps out there these days. Blame it on consoles for dumbing down the whole fps genre because they cant handle twitch games like Quake, Unreal Tournament and Tribes. Thats why slower paced games like Call of Duty were born.

I admit, the only FPS that i truly enjoy these days is Tribes: Ascend because it does something very different from other FPS in the market. Not like CoD, BF and so on are bad, but still, they are all pretty much the same.

Dota 2 is pretty exactly the same as the Dota in WC3, since when they did dumb down? LoL and HoN was never on Steam, so, when did Steam is responsible for dumbing down MOBA?

The problem we dont see many MOBAs other than Dota and LoL is because these 2 games have become an enormous player in the MOBA market to the point it is impenetrable for any new devs. Same goes with how Call of Duty and Battlefield have been causing the entire fps genre to be stagnant. Or how Starcraft 2 has pretty much killed other RTS because it is so popular, polished, and well balanced to the point that other RTS like Supreme Commander or Command and Conquer are dead now. WoW didnt get away entirely innocent because it causes the whole MMO market to keep on pumping the same WoW clone again and again. While other people tried to make something new to breath a fresh air on the same old ideas, tell me how many of them have been successful? Most of them failed terribly, with a few success stories here and there.

People always go back to the franchises they know, just how the movie industry trying to remake every single old movie due to the fact that people knows these names in the past. Or musicians taking tunes from old songs or remake the song. Or Activison/EA/Ubisoft keep making the same game again and again. People are more willing to try a brand that they knew, than a brand new IP that they never hear before.

This is not just Steam's problem, it is more people in general do not want to take any more risk because producing an entertainment cost a bomb these days.

As much as i want more Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, games with new ideas like Dishonored or Minecraft, or musicians like Explosion in the Sky, unfortunately these things just dont happen every often. It is a sad truth, innovation and new ideas doesnt come easy.

This post has been edited by Cheesenium: Jul 22 2012, 12:18 AM

I mean something as interesting as Nolan's take at the whole Batman idea. Rather than more Batman movies.

I would want Nolan's Inception 2, if he is dead serious in making it as a game. There is a perfect developer out there for making the Inception game, Remedy.

Yea, thats true, as some of the games, notably La Noire, Alan Wake franchise pack and a couple of other games are way too cheap in this sale. As much as i dislike EA with their "cheap sales like 75% off cheapens an IP", i hate to admit that i agree with that statement.

Yea, Steam is evil. EA, Microsoft, Sony and so on have been doing that for a while.

So, what can we do? Never put all your eggs in one basket.

This post has been edited by Cheesenium: Aug 1 2012, 09:01 PM

So, this also means my gifting games from Steam AU to low yat forumers service should also be stopped?

I gift games to people quite often and some times free to my brother.

Gawd damn valve.

This post has been edited by Cheesenium: Aug 8 2012, 11:31 PM

I am actually getting more and more games from GOG or better, Humble these days as i like to have DRM free copies of the games i own. Any site that gives both Steam keys and DRM free with good deals will be the place i'll buy their games from.

GOG doesnt just sell old games. They do have some new games but mostly independent games.

Cant do anything, the current Blizzard is a shadow of its former self but i think they might be doing something right with RoS this time round.

Hearts of the Swarm for SC2 is a pretty decent expansion too while I do kinda anticipating for both HotS and HS Beta access as they seemed to be genuinely interesting games.

And if HearthStone has a decent business model, it will explode with popularity on tablets when Hearthstone is released next year. Considering there arent any F2P card collectables on tablets that has a decent business model.

Removing Auction House from D3 was a good move though but i kinda hope that they will make the online requirement less stringent.

What is wrong with having multiple store front? It is not like you have to use each of them to play games. You only need a handful of them to play specific games like Battlenet, Oriign, UPlay and Steam while the rest like GOG, Gamersgate and Humble Bundle are just pay and forget because most of their games comes with Steam key if not just download DRM free copies and keep.

I dont know whats your problem with multiple networks to manage.

It is better for consumers at the end due to competition between different stores which resulted better deals and cheaper price.

Kinda expected it. You probably have to keep buying booster packs to be competitive but hopefully you cant buy cards outright.