Convenience is key...

The only reason I use Steam is because I dont need to insert a disc when I play games. I have no brand affinity to Valve nor do I enjoy there products.

@ryanwho said:

Steam understands how to operate in a modern market, and they're about the only ones in the games industry who do.

This. I would say Good Old Games does a pretty solid job too, but for the most part Valve is really the only company doing digital distribution correctly. Steam is the best system in gaming, so it's a huge deal.

Because of steam sales and steam works integration I have 113 games on steam.

Convenience is why it's best on steam, but it doesn't really matter to me if a game isn't there. If it's not I just get it off Amazon. I only get digital only copies of games that I kind of want but only if they're on sale or something. Otherwise, if it's a game I really want to own, I get a retail physical copy from amazon regardless if it's on steam or not.

Convenience

Reliability

Better pricing (up to a third the price of retail in my country some times)

Massive awesome sales that save me hundreds upon hundreds of dollars

Stat tracking

Automatic updates

Achievements

Socialization

Easily accessed DLC

Space saving in my already over-cluttered house

Trading

Easy and convenient way of sending gifts to friends

Access to a monumental amount of obscure indi/low budget titles I otherwise would not be able to

Access to betas I otherwise would not be able to

Hmm, I think that's all the reasons I love steam, probably more but eh. And yes I am increasingly getting to the point where I am seriously thinking about not buying PC games that aren't released on steam.

it's good because it's a good client to have. every game is on there. friends list is in one thing, instead of every game. 

PC gamers love Steam because Valve is just about the only big publisher left on the planet who hasn't completely dicked over its fans.

Why do you have to wave your constitutional rights to log onto PSN?

Because Sony hates you.

Why do you have to pay for online play with Xbox live?

Because Microsoft hates you.

Why did you only get 1/3rd of the game when you bought Starcraft 3?

Because Activision/Blizzard hates you.

Why can't you play a football game with your favorite pro athaletes unless it's madden?

Because EA hates you.

Why did Duke Nukem Forever suck?

Because FUCK YOU George Broussard that's why.

Why is Red Dead Redemption not on PC?

Because Take Two Interactive hates you.

Why does Fallout 3: New Vegas have content locked away on the disc to be used as $DLC later?

Because 2K games hates you.

"Dick-Tits"

Why? Because Cliffy B. is a raging douchebag.

Sure Valve has been making fans wait a long time for HL2:EP3 but they make it up to us with wallet raping sales, good free games (Alien Swarm), and ZOMG HATZ!!!

PC gamers love Steam because Valve knows how to give a proper reach around.

I rest my case.

Steam screws offline users, which is why i dislike it.

You shouldn't be forced to go online and download massive patches just to play the game you bought with your hard earned cash.

gotta support the indies yo!

@Buzzkill said:

PC gamers love Steam because Valve is just about the only big publisher left on the planet who hasn't completely dicked over its fans.

Why do you have to wave your constitutional rights to log onto PSN?

Because Sony hates you.

Why do you have to pay for online play with Xbox live?

Because Microsoft hates you.

Why did you only get 1/3rd of the game when you bought Starcraft 3?

Because Activision/Blizzard hates you.

Why can't you play a football game with your favorite pro athaletes unless it's madden?

Because EA hates you.

Why did Duke Nukem Forever suck?

Because FUCK YOU George Broussard that's why.

Why is Red Dead Redemption not on PC?

Because Take Two Interactive hates you.

Why does Fallout 3: New Vegas have content locked away on the disc to be used as $DLC later?

Because 2K games hates you.

Sure Valve has been making fans wait a long time for HL2:EP3 but they make it up to us with wallet raping sales, good free games (Alien Swarm), and ZOMG HATZ!!!

PC gamers love Steam because Valve knows how to give a proper reach around.

I rest my case.

L4D2.

Because Valve hates you.

Because those people are whiny kids or crusty curmudgeons who don't think things through.
 
edit: Also awesome job mixing together all PC Gamers and people who won't buy anywhere other than Steam as the same group.

@Towers said:

@Buzzkill said:

PC gamers love Steam because Valve is just about the only big publisher left on the planet who hasn't completely dicked over its fans.

Why do you have to wave your constitutional rights to log onto PSN?

Because Sony hates you.

Why do you have to pay for online play with Xbox live?

Because Microsoft hates you.

Why did you only get 1/3rd of the game when you bought Starcraft 3?

Because Activision/Blizzard hates you.

Why can't you play a football game with your favorite pro athaletes unless it's madden?

Because EA hates you.

Why did Duke Nukem Forever suck?

Because FUCK YOU George Broussard that's why.

Why is Red Dead Redemption not on PC?

Because Take Two Interactive hates you.

Why does Fallout 3: New Vegas have content locked away on the disc to be used as $DLC later?

Because 2K games hates you.

Sure Valve has been making fans wait a long time for HL2:EP3 but they make it up to us with wallet raping sales, good free games (Alien Swarm), and ZOMG HATZ!!!

PC gamers love Steam because Valve knows how to give a proper reach around.

I rest my case.

L4D2.

Because Valve hates you.

I constantly see players with 1200+ hours in L4D2 and I myself have 800+ hours sunk into it. L4D2 raised the bar in co-operative deathmatch to the point it's far exceeded anything there is to date, including Counterstrike's legendary dust map in my opinion.

Oh and btw we can all thank valve for Counterstrike.

Because Valve loves gamers.

@Buzzkill said:

@Towers said:

@Buzzkill said:

PC gamers love Steam because Valve is just about the only big publisher left on the planet who hasn't completely dicked over its fans.

Why do you have to wave your constitutional rights to log onto PSN?

Because Sony hates you.

Why do you have to pay for online play with Xbox live?

Because Microsoft hates you.

Why did you only get 1/3rd of the game when you bought Starcraft 3?

Because Activision/Blizzard hates you.

Why can't you play a football game with your favorite pro athaletes unless it's madden?

Because EA hates you.

Why did Duke Nukem Forever suck?

Because FUCK YOU George Broussard that's why.

Why is Red Dead Redemption not on PC?

Because Take Two Interactive hates you.

Why does Fallout 3: New Vegas have content locked away on the disc to be used as $DLC later?

Because 2K games hates you.

Sure Valve has been making fans wait a long time for HL2:EP3 but they make it up to us with wallet raping sales, good free games (Alien Swarm), and ZOMG HATZ!!!

PC gamers love Steam because Valve knows how to give a proper reach around.

I rest my case.

L4D2.

Because Valve hates you.

I constantly see players with 1200+ hours in L4D2 and I myself have 800+ hours sunk into it. L4D2 raised the bar in co-operative deathmatch to the point it's far exceeded anything there is to date, including Counterstrike's legendary dust map in my opinion.

Oh and btw we can all thank valve for Counterstrike.

Because Valve loves gamers.

And there was still a pretty big backlash considering they released L4D2 as a new game when they said they wouldn't doesn't mean it's not a good game. It means they said something and did something else. Is RDR a bad game? Is F:NV a bad game? No. They did something shitty and people still played their great games.

Just because a game is good doesn't mean the company didn't do something shady.

Would you like it if some AAA game wasnt supported on Xbox live? if you wouldnt care then you fall into the catagory of PC gamers that dont care about steam. If you would care then your like people who enjoy steam. Regardless you fall into the catagory that is an ass.

@Towers: I'm sorry you're bitter man. Valve charged full price for an expansion, once...

Valve also went onto sell 4 packs of games for the price of an expansion.

Why? Because Valve loves gamers, and gamers love Steam.

Edit: I would gladly go so far as to have an Orange name to support Valve and steam, much like others around here have green, red, and blue ones.

@Buzzkill: Not bitter at all. I had no problem buying L4D2 but some people were really choked at what Valve did.

I'm just saying don't pretend Valve is holier than thou. Companies are in the game to make money and create good will. Valve is great at creating good will but they're not exempt from making poor decisions.

@Towers: Yes I'm glad we agree Valve is run by human beings. I'm just thankful they are not run by douchebags.

@Buzzkill: Agreed. Far to many companies (EA, Activision) are doing a great job at destroying their good will with gamers. Doesn't mean they don't release good games that I will buy. I have no problem with Valve. I just don't like Steam.

@jetsetwillie said:

@BabyChooChoo said:

Because unlike a certain thread, it doesn't suck. And yes I would really not buy a game if it wasn't on Steam. I want BF3, but not enough to sign up for Origin so I said screw it, there are plenty of other games anyway. I do make exceptions though as I bought WoW, Guild Wars(at the time I wanted to buy it, it was a lot cheaper to get elsewhere), and LotRO from their respective services.

but whats so bad about Origin. will you not be playing Diablo 3 as that won't be on Steam either. does battle.net offend you too

I'm so fed up with having to sign up for more and more services that I would rather pass on BF3 than sign up for Origin. Like I've said many times before, I know it won't kill me to take 2 seconds to launch/log into Origin or whatever, but I just don't care. I would like to play BF3, but I'm in no way hurting myself if I don't get to play it. It's like if I get to play it then yay, if not then oh well.

And I clearly just said I've made exceptions before. I already have a battle.net account and I'm extremely excited for Diablo 3. I've been looking forward to this game for years. I don't care if it's on Steam or not, I'm getting that game because I really want to play. I don't really care whether or not I can play BF3.

Steam is a great service with a large library of titles and a very good interface. I personally don't use steam that much because I don't buy newer PC games as my computer can't run them well, but the few games I have purchased on steam are easy to find and run well. For older PC games I wait for sales at good old games because they give you extras such as soundtracks and reference cards et al.

As for your question, I don't really want another competing service to deal with similar to steam. Good old games feels sufficiently different from steam and it has titles that steam doesn't. Other services like EA''s Origin seem to be attempting to copy Steam's business model but with a far more unattractive and clunky interface. The only way I ever see myself using it is if I happen to buy an EA game that requires it.

Steam screws offline users, which is why i dislike it.

You shouldn't be forced to go online and download massive patches just to play the game you bought with your hard earned cash.

@AhmadMetallic said:

There are two sides to Steam: The one where it is the greatest platform to ever happen to PC games because of their prices and support, interfaces and user friendliness, and the one where it turns the PC into a zombie console platform that revolved around ease of use and exclusivity While I love Valve and Steam for single-handedly keeping the platform alive and well, I dislike how PC gamers now do not fathom the brain cells to mess around with game files and update shit on their own.

That latter part is entirely untrue. Check out the Steamforums for proof. PC gamers haven't been dumbed down by Steam at all.

As to why PC gamers love Steam:-

• Value : Sale prices are often unbeatable.
• Service: Social aspects noted.
• Support: Steam will often respond personally to complaints and queries. Gabe Newell will too.
• Uptime: Steam rarely goes down for long periods. Servers are localised and regionalised.

So because I game on PC I now have a hard on for Steam? And here I was, willing to be happy to live without it untill this news were brought to me. Would much rather have a service where you don't have to fire up a silly client to also be able to play the games.. Oh wait, I've got two of those clients already.

@MrKlorox: I honestly don't remember. I look back and think about it, and as crazy as it sounds, can't recall a single game EA has put out that I've bought this generation lol. Not out of hate or anything, just turned out that way. The point is, the fact it's not on Steam, that little stupid detail, means so much more to me than BF3 itself. It would be fun to play it, I'm sure, but I just don't care enough about the actual game that I can bring myself to even go to their website to get the process started. It's like I'm somewhat interested in the game, but not interested enough, to the point I would let even the pettiest of details get in my way. I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but that's just how I feel.

edit: wait, duh, stupid me lol. Totally, somehow, forgot about MIrror's Edge, Mass Effect, Burnout Paradise, and Dragon Age. My original stance still goes though. The fact a game is not on Steam can and often is still enough of a barrier for me. Go figure...

Cuz.

Steam is da best?

Because Steam is sexy.

I get the love for Steam, even as a super parttime PC gamer I can appreciate it.

What I genuinely don't understand is why people react so violently when another digital distribution services pops up - why would you ever want Steam to be a monopoly? No matter how good a company is you don't want them as your sole source of products.

Because it's a damn good service?

@SteamPunkJin said:

I get the love for Steam, even as a super parttime PC gamer I can appreciate it.

What I genuinely don't understand is why people react so violently when another digital distribution services pops up - why would you ever want Steam to be a monopoly? No matter how good a company is you don't want them as your sole source of products.

Because so far other services haven't come about because of companies trying to provide a better service, they just want all the profit and most people don't warm to naked money grabbing.

@SteamPunkJin said:

I get the love for Steam, even as a super parttime PC gamer I can appreciate it.

What I genuinely don't understand is why people react so violently when another digital distribution services pops up - why would you ever want Steam to be a monopoly? No matter how good a company is you don't want them as your sole source of products.

There was never a big stink over D2D, GoG, Onlive, or other digital services that popped up unless they were run by douchebags who wanted to play the exclusives game. If EA would put Battlefield 3 on Steam, I would purchase it. As of now, I won't, along with the 3.5 million average daily Steam users.

@Buzzkill said:

@SteamPunkJin said:

I get the love for Steam, even as a super parttime PC gamer I can appreciate it.

What I genuinely don't understand is why people react so violently when another digital distribution services pops up - why would you ever want Steam to be a monopoly? No matter how good a company is you don't want them as your sole source of products.

There was never a big stink over D2D, GoG, Onlive, or other digital services that popped up unless they were run by douchebags who wanted to play the exclusives game. If EA would put Battlefield 3 on Steam, I would purchase it. As of now, I won't, along with the 3.5 million average daily Steam users.

You don't even talk to 99% of those people on steam so how would you know anything about those numbers? Don't tell me you're part of a "Boycott" club on Steam because those never work.

@Buzzkill:

I agree with this statement completely. Valve is one of the true fan-appreciative companies left.

@louiedog said:

@lavaman77 said:

Steam screws offline users, which is why i dislike it.

You shouldn't be forced to go online and download massive patches just to play the game you bought with your hard earned cash.

What? Right click on game, properties, updates, do not automatically update this game. The only games that require patches are online games for obvious reasons. Since you don't want to be online I'll assume those don't apply to you.

You don't seem to understand, let's assume for a minute that a person doesn't have fast internet connection right? or no connection at all! he pays 59.99 for his game with his hard owned cash only to his surprise he finds out that he has to go online, when does steam installs and then updates itself. the older the game is the larger the steam update.

steam whether you like it or not updates your game with 1-5 gig size updates and locks you out of the game until the update finishes, the same crap happened to me with Episode 1. i only had a dial up connection at the time and i couldn't even play the game without installing updates, a regular steam client update will take 20 minutes+ and 1 gig 4-5 weeks of constant downloading.

Any DRM that requires you to go online to play the game you bought is bad and people who say otherwise obviously haven't lived over-seas. to make matters worse steam sometimes refuses to go into offline mode and spits out errors, i have only manged to take my steam offline 1 time in my 2 years of using it. whenever my ISP is down steam spits out error and tells me i need to go online to be able to go offline, what kind of logic is that?

Before you say it's the users fault for having dail-up, broadband is still pretty expensive in a lot of countries. i pay 120$+ just to have a 1 mb broadband connection and im lucky to not get capped before finishing my steam updates.

@MrKlorox: I honestly don't remember. I look back and think about it, and as crazy as it sounds, can't recall a single game EA has put out that I've bought this generation lol. Not out of hate or anything, just turned out that way. The point is, the fact it's not on Steam, that little stupid detail, means so much more to me than BF3 itself. It would be fun to play it, I'm sure, but I just don't care enough about the actual game that I can bring myself to even go to their website to get the process started. It's like I'm somewhat interested in the game, but not interested enough, to the point I would let even the pettiest of details get in my way. I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but that's just how I feel.

edit: wait, duh, stupid me lol. Totally, somehow, forgot about MIrror's Edge, Mass Effect, Burnout Paradise, and Dragon Age. My original stance still goes though. The fact a game is not on Steam can and often is still enough of a barrier for me. Go figure...

Steam sales!!!! Borderlands for 5 bucks? Hell yes! Battlefield bad Company 2 for five bucks? Hell yes.

The past 2 months I've gotten 90 hours of great fun out of these two games combined.

@Onno10 said:

Some love steam

Some like steam

Some don't really care

Some dislike steam

Some hate steam

Stop generalizing

Dude just download the steam client and figure it out for yourself if it's good for you.

"DRM done right," "anti-cheat done right," "convenient," "cheap as hell."

It's piracy resistant enough that pirates usually resort to other sources for pirating; dumbasses who cheat get banhammered in such a way that the specific cheat tracked is not as easy to find and make VAC proof; easy to download, update, track and carry PC games around; notorious Steam sales with dirt-cheap games.

Yeah, how dare people like a fantastic service right?

@Tennmuerti said:

In addition to all of the above it arguably saved PC gaming from a dark place it was headed towards.

I don't think it's arguable much at all. I think it's pretty clear that Steam did save PC gaming. That's not to say something else might have saved it if Steam hadn't come around, but PC gaming was certainly in trouble, and Steam has definitely made a huge impact. I have mixed feelings about Steam, but any issues I might have with its features are well overshadowed by the fact that PC gaming not only still exists, but is thriving. That's more than could be said about it five years ago. We're not completely clear of DRM hassles, but we're on our way out of the woods.

@jetsetwillie said:

and why is it such a big deal if some games don't go to steam.

would you really NOT buy a game purely because it wasn't available on Steam?

to answer the original question, which people seem to ignore, no, i wouldn't not buy a game just because it's not on Steam

i probably won't buy a game if there isn't a PC port at all, though

I think Steam is great but if a game I wanted wasn't on it, I would have no problem buying it. I always prefer a Steam version though so everything stays in organized.

You can add non Steam games on Steam too if that helps. Worked wonders for me with my gog.com collection. Enables use of the fantastic Steam overlay w/ web browser goodness for quick while gaming faq lookup.

@jetsetwillie:

• Updates applied automatically
• Low prices (frequent sales)
• Portable library (no more discs... just a login that works across all PCs)
• Steamworks (Achievements, unified Friends list, built-in text and voice chat, easy joining of multiplayer games)

Usually, they are not intrusive on the DRM side. However, some developers feel the need to foist extra DRM on top of Steam. I think Valve would be doing the right thing if they prohibited any extra DRM from being implemented.

Steam works well and is easy to use. It's like most video game related things, people can get carried away when they talk about it.

That's like asking a Christian why he loves Jesus. Steam is our lord and saviour.

this shit again? jesus christ