[Aristotle Gumball]

The only thing I don't like about Steam is it's holding your games hostage pretty much. My first account, which had 5 games that I'd paid for, became inaccessible to me at one point. Maybe someone got into it, I don't know, but I couldn't resolve the issue with Steam at all. Their customer support is notoriously shitty. I also know people with over 30 games who have been banned, and that means you lose all your games. People say that's a really rare event and you have to do something really bad, but that's all bullshit. IPs from Eastern Europe are always associated with shady activity because of scammers. I always have issues with sites wanting more verification from me and I get banned quicker, just because we have a lot of scam artists here. Lost some money on Paypal recently and their customer support for EU citizens is basically non-existent. US companies will always prefer US citizens over everyone else.

The end result is I pirate every triple A game to this day unless it's on GOG. Don't want DRM and don't want to risk losing my money when I'm not even considered an equally valued customer.

I also think about where my money is going, if it's to a giant conglomerate or straight to the dev's pocket. Something like Dusk was an easy sell in that regard.

[MusicallyInspired]

That has never happened to me. The one game I lost access to was Codename: Gordon until I found out years later that you can readd it easily by just clicking a specific link (and it was only removed because it was a Flash game and Flash has exploits 'n all that). I've never had a problem with Steam. Anything I did have a problem with I had resolved. But generally know exactly what I'm doing and what I want. I've only had to deal with like two refunds in my entire 16 years on the platform. I'm not saying problems don't exist, but they just didn't for me.

I'd also suggest adding ZoomPlatform to your trusted list along with GOG.

[Aristotle Gumball]

Yeah, I don't mean to say Steam is terrible. For most people it isn't. Will check out ZoomPlatform - thanks, man.

[Forge]

personally never had an issue with steam.

i have a few games that were 'discontinued' from distribution (megaton & a cabela's hunting game among them), but they never deleted them from my library.

not gonna lie though, I miss the days of opening a box and holding the disk in my hand

[MusicallyInspired]

Heck yeah. These days you buy a DVD case with a download code. Or worse, just a card on a rack with a download code. And at that point, why pay the retail markup just for a card?

Still trying to recollect all my old game boxes I lost over the years.

[xMobilemux]

Been on a huge physical game collecting spree myself as well as DRM free back ups via GOG for preservation's sake.

One thing I REALLY hate is when physical games have DLC content forever lost due to no longer being supported which is horrible for preservation, as I've noticed with some of Pandemic's best games like The Saboteur and Mercenaries 2.
In Mercs 2's case the DLC is forever lost to the point where even images of said content doesn't even exist online anymore and the update for the game that enables cheats and more costumes will likely stop being supported very soon, wish I knew how to back up game updates on Xbox 360.
The Saboteur's console releases are forever censored due to the Midnight Club voucher included with the game is useless due to the servers being forever shut down, thankfully the GOG version comes with all that intact, so I've backed up the Saboteur GOG installer on a flash drive and put it in the game case, but even the GOG release is missing some DLC content that requires work arounds with the Origin release to get working.

I not only miss the days of holding the game in my hands, but the WHOLE game in my hands.

[Jimmy]

It's all a slippery slope though. In just a few short years we went from "games as a service" to "immunity as a service." Are you ready for your fifteenth booster?

[Danukem]

Some posts were disappeared because they were off-topic and worthless, or responding to other OT worthless posts.

[H Edit: Split to https://forums.duke4.net/topic/11849-/ ]

[Mark]

MusicallyInspired, on 30 September 2021 - 09:53 AM, said:

Heck yeah. These days you buy a DVD case with a download code. Or worse, just a card on a rack with a download code. And at that point, why pay the retail markup just for a card?

Still trying to recollect all my old game boxes I lost over the years.

What game boxes are you looking for and are you in the U.S.? Send a PM.