Reasonable stance. The problem is the bait and switch - most people assume they still buy the game and own it, when in fact they purchase a license to play it, which can be revoked at any point (Ubisoft removed games from their platform e.g.).

Without that expectation of ownership, it's perfectly fine to spend money on a temporary joy. Gaming is still incredibly affordable as far as hobbies go.

@Volkish_Observer @37712 @DigitalYankee @mk @Titanbreakerkun Except they don't bill themselves as renting or selling a license, they bill the game to you and imply implicit ownership, where there is none. It's a scam. Theft, in other words.

Absolutely. I agree 100%. In my case, the games I targeted were online, so I technically would be at the mercy of a server in order to play it, no matter what. But once I realized I had no ownership of my games, I pretty much stopped buying the digital copies, all together.

I just happened to come from a generation that got excited about not having to swap between six disks in order to play the games. Once other platforms rose up, though, Steam was trash in my eyes.

Another thing is, you have platforms like PlayStation 2~3, Nintendo DS, WII, etc. that all tried (and did, in most cases) to shutdown, thereby making millions of people lose games they had legitimately paid for but didn't "own".

Steam claims to have a policy in place that would render all games playable offline, permanently, if they ever went down as a platform. Whether genuine, I have no idea.