Steam General Talk aka Give Gabe Newell all the money

I've never used Steam, and in fact, have only even visited the website once because I heard that Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Generations were available there.

I'm hesitant to buy or download any games that bundle some required piece of additional software.  Perhaps this is just the nature of PC gaming nowadays and I've been out of it for too long, but I just don't see the rationale in having to install a game as well as some kind of platform whose sole purpose appears to be a vehicle for purchasing more games.  (I hate iTunes for the very same reason, and only use it because I see no other way to manage the content of my 5G iPod Touch.)  This is actually one of the reasons I stopped playing an FPS game I used to really enjoy, CrossFire -- recent updates of the gaming engine bundled an extra piece of software, Pando Media Booster, which remained on one's system even after uninstalling the game that put it there in the first place.