What are the pros as consumers for a software like Steam?

[wolfigor]

Damn!
I wrote a long reply and got "lost"... damned server overload.
Now I have to write everything all over again.

It doesn't stop anything. The pirates/crackers swiftly crack and prepare the pirated version for the non-tech savvy masses allowing them to get the pirated version.

Sure DRM doesn't stop pirates and tech savvy people.
It just make it a bit more cumbersome for the average dude that prefer to use steam to get easily games instead of searching, downloading, risk viruses, etc.
As I said in many cases DRM is seen as a way to keep honest users honest.
Very few people really believe that DRM prevents piracy (if they do, they have no clue about what they talk about).

As a friend mine said DRM could very well mean "Doesn't Really Matter".
He was trying to offer DRM free content to his company's subscribers, cosidering that ease of use a good pricing makes much more to prevent piracy than DRM... Unfortunately content providers wouldn't provide any content without any form of DRM.

DRM all too often does little but to inconvenience honest customers. Of course the publishers (who are more often than not the ones insisting upon strong DRM schemes) don't realize this and now I think that might be who's perspective you're referring too.

Publishers and broadcasters are really slow to adapt to the new business models emerging from digital distribution and internet.
Only now they start to wakeup, but dealing with them can still be highly frustrating.

And the information they collect is entirely about the games, and the completely optional voluntary hardware survey which is used to help Valve know what kind of hardware their users have so they can develop their games with that in mind.

That's an accurate view of the reality right now.
However the EULA and service agreement that every Steam user subscribes too allow Steam to collect ANY data at any time without any need to inform the users about it.
I'm complaining not about what Steam does not, but what we are allowing Steam to do.
It's a matter of legal rights.

Because if they priced them lower than the retail stores the stores would (and probably rightfully so) consider it unfair competition and no one wants to deal with angry retailers.

that's simply not true on many fields.
In first it's not unfair competition, only that one business is more efficient than others.
Second, there are many online stores that routinely sell goods at lower price than retail shops... Amazon has rather competitive prices compared to the average store (due to distribution efficiency for physical goods).

There are, however, many sales that get ridiculously cheap and most games aren't really worth full price anyway.

YES!
I completely gave up buying games on the first day.
The last one I bought as soon as was released was CIV IV.
Steam, like all digital delivery shops, is perfect to get special offers on old titles.

You pay for the exact same license you would be paying for if you bought it retail. The only difference is if the digital service goes down you can't redownload it again.

with a full real copy you don't have to rely on an online service that is completely outside your control.
It's all about your own capacity to administrate your own properties.

Although by the time that happens there will be many other options for getting the game quite cheaply.

Meaning buying it again at bargain (pay twice for the same good) or get a pirate copy (illegal).
But far from optimal solutions.

You can get around that on Steam by getting a trusted North American friend to gift you the game in exchange for the money or something.

I know all the tricks here.
Having a branch of the company I work for in USA makes a lot of things much easier.

However Steam may be blocking subscriber from USA games if the connect (authenticate) from a different country.
As far as I know Steam applies this "safeguard" only to Thailand and Russia afaik.

I've never seen credit card verification for physical sales,

Dell USA for laptops (just as an example, it was during a special sale).

 

[deanej]

Dell USA for laptops (just as an example, it was during a special sale).

Just another reason to avoid Dell. Restricting sales and content based on where someone if from should be illegal.

 

[Maniacal]

that's simply not true on many fields.
In first it's not unfair competition, only that one business is more efficient than others.
Second, there are many online stores that routinely sell goods at lower price than retail shops... Amazon has rather competitive prices compared to the average store (due to distribution efficiency for physical goods).

Amazon only recently added digital copies of games (and I haven't even looked at it yet so I don't know what they sell). When I said digital retailer I meant Steam, GamersGate, etc, not online stores selling physical goods that get shipped to you. Amazon also prices new games the same as everyone else from what I have seen, with 10% off for pre-orders. The other major game retailers are like Game/Gamestation, Gamestop/EBGames, Futureshop/Best Buy, etc.

It isn't the only reason, but its one of the major ones. The others include there are tonnes of server costs involved in delivering the product (electricity, bandwidth, server maintenance, physical cost of buying the servers, staffing them etc). Valve has a couple hundredish (I didn't count exactly) servers. The prices are also once again set by the publishers.

with a full real copy you don't have to rely on an online service that is completely outside your control.
It's all about your own capacity to administrate your own properties.

You obviously have not bought a Bioware or EA game in the last few years. To use the DLC (some of which is free if you buy the game new) you have to be online.

 

[GenMarshall]

The thing that I can think of that Steam has an advantage is ease of installation of my steam games in the event I reformat and reinstall windows. Though the only pain in the butt is transferring my steam games from my external HDD to my main (Don't want to tie up my cable bandwidth or exceed the GB cap limit).

 

[Maniacal]

You have a GB limit in the USA? I wouldn't worry then. I worry about mine in Canada but even then I've never gone over it.