Pros:

- Regular and easy updates to games
- Makes buying games way easier
- Cheaper games (well for us here in South Africa anyway)
- Easier access to games
- Large amount of games available on Steam

Cons:

- Needs a decent internet connection

Head on over to http://www.steampowered.com to see just what is on offer.

Pros:

- same as above
- usefull friends list
- ingame chat
- ability to add non-steam games to the list, allows chatting ingame there too
- micro-phone chat

Cons:

- same as above
- friend list has no block option

Since me and Souls Stream started discussing Steam in another thread (it is sort of a pros/cons discussion), I decided to move it to here:


The other thing I don't like with Steam is that for some games you don't have the choice, you have to install it...
[/quote]

This is called a contract between developer and publisher. If you buy a Steam-exclusive game, you have to use the client. This is no different from what we are used to: Do you have a choice to not install copy protections and other bullshit? No, it never has been optional.

Ooh, sorry, didn't saw this one, I should have continued here.

Well, it's my opinion. Now I know poeple loves it, some don't, I'm amongst the one who don't
Still interesting to see all those comments about it.

I don't think this thread existed when you logged in the last time.

But hey, we all have our experiences with the various software and hardware. My experience with Steam and nVidia is good so I have no reason to dislike them, while others aren't as lucky. It is one of the things that create market competition.

Pros - Easy to use
- everything else stated

Cons - need internet to play any of the games.
- I'd rather have a DVD of it and not some digital copy. I don't trust it.

small pro(for some the internet connection can negate this)but you don't need the CD to play.

You can back up Steam games onto a DVD.

It's the kind of answer I really like

True, it makes market compition.. Oooh yes, I'm for Nvidia too ! Hooray !

And let's thank ATi buyers for how good nVidia products are.

Ah true... Thank you out there !

But maybe thanks to Nvidia, ATI will get a lot better ? OOoh, anyway, I'll stay a Nvidia user !

need Internet connection!! AAARGH!!

You already have an internet connection, what you want is something faster.

uuuh for steam games you dont NEED internet. Only to buy them

You can log onto steam OFFLINE and play some games ^^
I did that when my internet went out for a couple of days.

Since I'm an ATi/AMD user, I'm against the kind of systems like steam. Altough I have to admit, it's better than paying for WoW or some other MMORPG every month, or those free2play games of korean origin. Those guys spew out games like crazy.

As I said, the internet connection requirement is a serious drawback. Maybe if you had somekind of Phone activation possible and that it's supported in more countries (I guess they'd involve Micro$oft in this and try to dominate the world )

Internet requirement isn't really a serious drawback for Valve, there are so many people that do have internet that game. But I agree that there should be a different activation method than just online.

Pros-

can download games and demos

Cons-

SLOW