I don't like the idea of having program in the background of the game. But if you say it is perfect and never crashes (even google sometimes crash), well maybe I'll give it a try.
But if I have the DVD. I install the game and I can play online on any steam account? Or I have to register it to one account? After registering, is the DVD of any use? If not then why do they sell the DVD?
Once you add the game to a steam account, it belongs to that account and that account only. You can log into that steam account from another computer and download/install the game any time as many times as you want. You can still use the DVD to install the game. Which should be faster than downloading all the files before installing. Of course you'll still want to download patches. Besides, some people have bandwidth concerns.
Steam really isn't bad, in fact it's good. I used to hate it though. I've never been crazy about leaving things I don't use running on my computer. I have a lot of resources available these days, and I use steam anyway, so I don't mind it running. I also hated the idea of all my games being digital. No disc, no paper manual. You get used to it though. Times have changed and it's rather convenient really. If I install steam on a computer, all of my 'steam games' are listed once I log into my account. From there I can select what I want to install and steam will download and install the game, and it will be up to date.
I still HATE having to read a manual on the computer though. I'd much rather have a book that I can flip through while the game is paused. Printing out big manuals for the games that need them is just not practical for me. Nowadays, I expect games to explain themselves through tutorials so I don't have to read a manual.
Anyway, I finally stopped resisting steam years ago. What won me over was the incredible sales that steam frequently offers. Kind of hard to hate on steam and digital purchases when the same games I want can be had on the cheap. You still get the game, it works just the same. It's actually kind of spoiled me. Because the sales are so frequent, I feel like I can't buy a game unless it's on sale. I've seen so many games wind up being 30-75%+ off that I'd feel like I was throwing money away if I didn't wait.
So yea, steam is pretty cool. The only big problem I've ever had with steam; purchasing Battlefield 2 on steam and getting kicked from every server because of the steam overlay. Simple enough fix, just disable the steam overlay. I also had problems with the cd key apparently. It was an ordeal. I also hated how every time I tried to start BF2 it would try to get me to install 'Gamespy Comrade'. I finally installed it just to make it quit asking.
Edit. I just realized something. Red Orchestra was the first game to make me use steam. I wonder how much longer I would've put steam off if RO didn't require it. heh
