A Steam-y question...

[Hundane]

According to the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Steam's availability is not guaranteed and Valve is under no legal obligation to release an update disabling the authentication system in the event that Steam becomes permanently unavailable.

If you buy all your games thru Steam, that could be a Huge risk.

[Hullu Hevonen]

I dislike steam, I have bought tittles through steam and I use it, but I dislike having it run in the backround while i'm playing. Also I have not allways had a 'fast' internet connection and every time I/steam want to download the game or patch, I had to wait many hours, some larger games even days before I got everything. So having a Steam free retail version might be good, then you patch more flexibly and not have to download the game everytime. Then again the retail version is not available every where where steam is. But if Gamersgate exist, then I don't need steam and if a retail version is available then I don't need GamersGate.

Also, I have experienced that Steam have bad costumer support, I one got a problem with a purchase and it took 3 weeks before I got any awnser and help. Gamers Gate is by my experience faster on that point. This has annoyed me allot.

Steam would decrease the number of pirates, but if a retail version would require GamersGate serial registration or some BG serial registration with user names and passwords to install, then this could also decrease pirates.

Also as mentioned before, if you have a slightly less powered comp then you might suffer from slight deceased game experience due to steam. Steam Sys. req..

And if you happined to forget your steam passwords you could loose all your games(if you lost your password to your e-mails etc too), eg. if your comp/steam gets hacked. Also some people may find steam invasive, though I don't find it so. Also Steam can close your account for any reason, though not heard it happening, but point is, they can if they want to, meaning you loose your game(s).

So personally, I would really dislike a steam-integration move, but I would swallow it.

[Fistalis]

According to the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Steam's availability is not guaranteed and Valve is under no legal obligation to release an update disabling the authentication system in the event that Steam becomes permanently unavailable.

If you buy all your games thru Steam, that could be a Huge risk.

Ya the whole SSA is pretty much just a middle finger to consumers. You should read it sometime.
Thats the exact contract I don't want to agree to in order to play.

things like

Either you or Valve has the right to terminate or cancel your Account or a particular Subscription at any time. You understand and agree that the cancellation of your Account or a particular Subscription is your sole right and remedy with respect to any dispute with Valve.

don't exactly make me want valve controlling access to games i purchase, link that with the fact that you HAVE To agree to that contract in order to play a steamworks game.. is why i refuse to buy steamworks games.
But ya /end derail.
Back to other peoples opinions

[Ruges]

According to the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Steam's availability is not guaranteed and Valve is under no legal obligation to release an update disabling the authentication system in the event that Steam becomes permanently unavailable.

If you buy all your games thru Steam, that could be a Huge risk.

Thats normal. Infact its allot like most EULAs. They throw it in there so if somthing catastrophic happens they cannot be held accountable in the court of law. However it does not mean they wont disable the authentication system.

And for steam support, What support? Steam has the worst support out of any I have ever ecountered. Sorry but when it takes days to respond to an issue, that is not support. However you should not really be needing steam support, Except maybe in the mater of billing and such. Acual game support should be done with the developer of the game.

[Balthagor]

Where we use steam it will be playable in "offline" mode. Impulse has been a good community for us so at the very least that will be a non-steam version due to their requirements. This discussion is really about the "boxed" copy.

[tkobo]

Which should stay independent,unless you have to deal it away to get steam to handle a digital copy.

[Theguvna]

Where we use steam it will be playable in "offline" mode. Impulse has been a good community for us so at the very least that will be a non-steam version due to their requirements. This discussion is really about the "boxed" copy.

Impulse has been terrible for me. But whatever floats your boat. I would still seriously consider steam over impulse, putting it in the community for a vote is extremely dangerous

[Theguvna]

According to the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Steam's availability is not guaranteed and Valve is under no legal obligation to release an update disabling the authentication system in the event that Steam becomes permanently unavailable.

If you buy all your games thru Steam, that could be a Huge risk.

Thats normal. Infact its allot like most EULAs. They throw it in there so if somthing catastrophic happens they cannot be held accountable in the court of law. However it does not mean they wont disable the authentication system.

And for steam support, What support? Steam has the worst support out of any I have ever ecountered. Sorry but when it takes days to respond to an issue, that is not support. However you should not really be needing steam support, Except maybe in the mater of billing and such. Acual game support should be done with the developer of the game.

Steam support is for billing. If you have a actual community, E.G. battlegoat, then thats that.

[Hundane]

This discussion is really about the "boxed" copy.

If the boxed copy requires that I have to have Steam then Ill buy a digital download thru Impulse.

[JPerkins]

I have steam and that's how I found this game.

However, I wouldn't require people to use steam, choice is good.

Definitely don't force people who buy the box copy to use it, it would peeve me to no end.

[Balthagor]

Impulse has been terrible for me. But whatever floats your boat. I would still seriously consider steam over impulse, putting it in the community for a vote is extremely dangerous

My experience has been the opposite, but this is not a "vote", we're doing market research...

[Theguvna]

Sorry, I'm being an idiot.

[Fistalis]

Which should stay independent,unless you have to deal it away to get steam to handle a digital copy.

I concur with this.

[nghtmre15]

I'm fine with a retail game requiring Steam in the event that it has full Steamworks integration. If you're not going down that route, then I'd honestly much rather have a copy that isn't tied to Steam at all. This is coming from someone with a huge Steam account. I love it for its community features and good digital sales, but still maintain a sizable assortment of non-Steam games, both retail and from other digital distributors.

[Ivan]

Steam is cool, as long as you also make it on gamersgate as well it should be a good enough compromise for them. Personally I don't care I will buy it off of gamersgate. Either way you got my buck.