I hate Steam and loathe Valve for it. I won't bother getting into the industry and consumer philosophy that spawns that, and most people won't care enough to look past the surface of the situation anyway, but any game not on Steam is a happy point in Que's book. I say no to games I don't own, that I don't have a hard copy of, that I can't use the way I want, that are tied to the internet and/or other overarching programs, and that are sold to me at the same price as an actual retail unit despite all the money the online distributor saves avoiding those complications on their end. They don't give a @$#! about you as a customer.
Anyway, Stardock is an excellent example of online distribution done right - you can use their program to buy games, download them, update them, and launch them... but you don't have to if that isn't your deal. Stardock Central doesn't have to be open for the game to run, you don't have to be connected to the internet, and not only can you can get a download version of the game by itself (for *less*), you can get the download version of the game right away while the hard copy is shipped to you in the mail! Even better, for Galactic Civilizations II, Stardock allows you to download the video tutorials and such before the rest of the main game content, which means you can actually watch the tutorials while you wait for the rest of your game to come down the pipeline. That's a thing of beauty, friends.
Just say no to Steam.
