get a grip

Now, take a deep breath and repeat after me - it is only a game, it is only a game.

There is nothing inherently wrong with Steam as long as you accept that:

1: it won't be around forever

2: they may or may not live up to their promise of unlocking everything if it does go belly up (who knows)

3: you can't resell Steam games (I don't remember Gamestation or anyone else ever buying 2nd hand PC games tbh - but that might just be in the West Mids).

However there ARE some advantages (personally I think the pros outweigh the cons):

1: no CD is in fact an advantage - I'll take Steam over Starforce or TAGES any day thanks - at least Steam isn't going to break my optical drive with variable spin timings. Also the lack of a disk means that there's no disk to get scratched beyond playability (my M2TW disk is getting a bit worn I've played the game that much).

2: anything you buy over Steam is licensed to the account, not the machine, and can be downloaded and played on any other machine (with Steam installed).

3: Steam doesn't REQUIRE an internet connection - it has an offline mode - unlike Assassins Creed 2 (although buying Assassins Creed 2 through Steam won't spare you that). Or take Dragon Age - if you install any of the extra shiny DLC on it then you need an internet connection to use that DLC as it is tied to your Bioware account.

4: You can have the "best of both worlds" - some games you buy on disk can then be (optionally) registered with Steam after the fact meaning you get the advantage of "download anywhere" combined with owning the original disk.

5: Steam has added "fluff" that goes beyond the game itself, like achievements, giving you bragging rights over your mates (assuming you have friends of course). Oki, not a huge issue but it's quite nice - I've ported my X3TC install into Steam with the latest patch for that reason.

6: Steam is a good platform for finding and joining games - for instance you can see when a friend pops onto a TF2 server and just go join them.

So - get your head out of your arse please - as a Steam user I KNOW there are disadvantages and that it will eventually die... but they are ONLY games! There are games that won't run because they're not compatible with newer versions of Windows, (really old) games that won't run because the game speed is tied to the processor speed and we're not on DX2/66 any more - there are a load of reasons why games become obsolete or unplayable, Steam going belly up is just another one, big deal.

Conversely however, some really old games that you probably couldn't get anywhere else are now available on Steam for a couple of quid (the entire X-Com series for instance) - how can that be a bad thing?