I use STEAM because:

a) I have friends and I love playing and chatting with them -> fun times! :D
b) I like the way my games are in order and updated all by itself without me doing anything else.
c) I like the way I categorize my library and can find any game I want to play
d) Steam gives me access to game workshops so I can enhance my gaming experience
e)Backups!!! One of my hard disks went BOOOM.... and I had to re-download around 1TB of Data - so easy with STEAM and I haven't lost any of my saved games that were in the cloud :D
f) Without Steam Linux Gaming wouldn't exist!!!

I understand that is not good to have a monopoly in games but I dont understand why GOG is not giving a steam key as well with my purchase ... whats the big deal????
I dont buy all my games from Steam... I buy from humble or any other valid providers that can give me a steam key in a good price.

I don't use any DRMed services as a form of voting with my wallet. That's why I don't use Steam. Using GOG I support their efforts of moving DRM-free gaming forward. Those who use DRMed services unfortunately help proliferating this unethical practice.

I understand that is not good to have a monopoly in games but I dont understand why GOG is not giving a steam key as well with my purchase ... whats the big deal????

Why should GOG promote their own competitor? If you want Steam games, buy them on Steam. Humble is a different case since they are Steam reseller and are not really competing with Steam. GOG do.

I also see some issues with Steam exclusive titles, but usually it is done because of the developer's convenience and is not due to of some "evil" DRM scheme.
If Steam's competitors would get their act together and release a similarly useful platform both for users and developers, this would be much less of a problem.

What I would like to see though, is Valve opening up the Steam machines to other vendors. Sure there is probably nothing stopping a hardware vendor to install another online-shop besides Steam on the Steam machines, but it would be great if Valve would decouple the big-picture mode UI from the shop and/or allow a back-end for external sellers.

Last but not least, do we really need to worry so much about DRM in many games?
I see a big gulf in games today:

First the ones that get hundreds of hours play-time, mostly as online games. Here DRM can really hurt, but so does dependence on company owned servers and lack of available source-code. For those (few) games, being against DRM really isn't enough, and we should rather insist on an open development style and the right to set-up unofficial servers etc.

On the other hand, there are the majority of "play through once and enjoy the experience" type of games. These are really a bit more like movies of books, where badly done DRM can hurt the legal customer's experience a bit and the right to re-sell is limited (which is fine if a low initial price makes up for it).
Overall I would say though, that for these games "convenient" DRM (as in the case of Steam, i.e. it doesn't really get in your way as a legal customer, and prices are generally lower), is a fair compromise between the users and the developers.

So to sum it up: being against DRM really isn't enough for some games, but for the bulk of "play through once" games Steam is ok as it is.

Well you might need steam client to get the games, but you need a web browser to use gog. So both need internet connection and a program of some sort to download the games. Gog also have a client that will eventually be on linux aswell, and I will definitely use it to avoid manually updating/patching games.

The games on steam that are drm free, don't need steam even installed once you have them.

People worry/complain about some pretty silly stuff.

No, that's invalid comparison. Using the browser is needed to buy the game. That's not DRM. It's not needed to install it, restore it from backup, play it and so on. DRM is something that restricts your usage after you already bought it. And Steam does exactly that.

No the DRM free titles can be backed up and used with out steam once you have it. Steam is only needed to buy/download them in the first place. With gog you need a browser to buy/download them. So my comparison stands.
Any game that requires steam running to play is entirely the game developers choice. Steam doesn't force them too. So put your blame on the game devs where it belongs.

No the DRM free titles can be backed up and used with out steam once you have it. Steam is only needed to download them in the first place. Any game that requires steam running to play is entirely the game developers choice. Steam doesn't force them too.

Not according to the official Steam backup tool documentation. It claims Steam is required to restore your backup. Also, it's against the TOS to backup it manually (of course you can say "who cares about the TOS", but I don't have respect for services with such rules). Regardless, with Steam they don't warn you whether the game uses DRM or not before you buy it. So all this combined makes me view Steam DRMed as a whole.

Without Steam Linux Gaming wouldn't exist!!!

Makes me wonder what I was doing with my life before Fall 2012... oh wait, I was playing games on Linux. Take the hyperbole down a notch before trying to rewrite history.

The games on steam that are drm free, don't need steam even installed once you have them.

Most modern releases on Steam are DRM encumbered as it is one of the core features of the service. The fact that Valve sells and promotes its own DRM layer as part of its Steamworks API should tell you that:
https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

Buying DRM free games on Steam is like buying candy from a crack dealer. The candy may be all well and good, but you are still propping up the guy who likes to deal in the harder stuff.

On the other hand, there are the majority of "play through once and enjoy the experience" type of games. These are really a bit more like movies of books

Do you really want to live in a world where art is considered to be disposable? Because I don't. But then, I almost never play through a game just once.

Any game that requires steam running to play is entirely the game developers choice. Steam doesn't force them too. So put your blame on the game devs where it belongs.

There is such a thing as aiding and abetting. Valve provides and promotes its own DRM service to developers. They can hardly be absolved of blame by those of us who do not consider such actions to be blameless.

I can only consider a game DRM free when;

1. I can store copies of it locally.

2. Even if I gave up internet access for the rest of my life, those games would still be fully installable and playable from said local storage without the need for a client or 3rd party program.

3. This process can be done as many times as I want, on any machine running any user and no checking of regions, accounts or other BS, totally unrestricted *as you would handle all your other files.

*Unless of course you're one of those people who only ever used your computer for gaming, in which case you may not have a reference level as to what real digital ownership entails.

How you acquire a game doesn't matter. It can be through an ad-ridden, proprietary awful service as long as it can meet the above criteria it is DRM-free.

I hope all of you are aware that it is 100% legal for Valve to discontinue Steam right now, and you wouldn't have the right to get your money back.

I love it. Lol.

I love it to see you all to say: "Steam is not a DRM", "Steam is full DRM" and "my games are not on GOG".

I can understand you, thats you want your games on GOG, but you don't get all titles on GOG.

The best exemple here is Wolfenstein the New Order and his successor.

So why you don't get it on GOG? The reason is the publisher and his legal department, who can not read the German law correctly and understand.

So for germans Bethesda put in Wolfenstein: The new Order and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood hardcore DRM in his games.
So whats they do?

1. They sell it as a Steam only game
2. They put a region look in his games (Germans can't activate the ROW version of this games. So germans CAN'T import the ROW Version of this games.

And the Poit 2 is DRM, yes. But not Steam put the DRM in this games, the publisher do it.
Ok Steam offers this possibility, but it is up to the publisher whether this is also used.

Rebellion goes a other way:

1. They sell it as a Steam only game
2. Germans can get a Gift for Sniper Elite, Sniper Elite: V2, Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army and Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2. So a German can activate and play the ROW version of this games.
3. Germans can't buy the ROW Versions in the german store, because the german LAW prohibits the sale or advertising of games include swastikas and other symbols of the Nazi germany.

Yes Rebellion use the DRM Mechanisms offering by Steam, too. But in a different way as it Bethesda does.

Then we have games on Steam thats use the VAC System from Steam for the MP Gameservers and we have games on Steam which have no DRM Mechanisms include.

So Steam self is not a DRM, but it's provide DRM Mechanisms for publisher and/or developer.
They can use it or not.
Steamworks is not a DRM, it's provide DRM Mechanisms.

That's Steam.

So you will never seen Wolfenstein: The new Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army and Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 on GOG.

What can I as a player do about it? Don't buy this games as exemple from Bethesda if you don't like the region look DRM.
If you don't like DRM generally, don't buy games that includes DRM.

For me as exemple: I don't buy games from Bethesda. I boycott this publisher.

Topic backup: Yes i can Backup all my Steamgames without the Steam client.
I can copy with cp my Steamgames folder on a second Harddisk and back on a new if i needed.
You must copy only the SteamApps folder, because in this folder are all game files.

If you want delete games from your Harddisk to save space, but you will play this games again you can use the backup without a new download of this game.

You need only a Update of this game, should a newer version be available.

The only thing you have to be afraid from Steam is having your account banned permanently but in order that to happen you have to do something extremely bad like using BOT's for cheating or marketing items - buying and selling at higher prices or try to sell your steam account in ebay etc.

If your Steam account itself is disabled, you won't be able to login to your Steam account, and you can't access any of your products bought on Steam*, including chat, inventory, cloud saves etc. You cannot even buy new games to add to your library!!! Steam TOS is very strict , if you violate Steam TOS you get banned without a warning and without a reason why you got banned. As I said before this only tends to happen in serious cases!!!

(*Some games on Steam can actually be launched without Steam, such as Eve Online, so you'd be able to play those normally. However, you wouldn't be able to log into your account to redownload the games, and I'm not sure whether you'd still legally have the right to play them or not.)

If you're banned by VAC for cheating in a VAC-enabled game, you won't be able to play some of your games' multiplayer modes. Which games are affected depends on what game you were banned in.

If you're banned from a forum on the Steam discussions system, nothing happens except that you can no longer post in the affected boards.

f) Without Steam Linux Gaming wouldn't exist!!!

That is in fact not true. There were games before Steam. What about ported titles like Gorky 17? Or for example X2? They existed long before there was a Steam-client for Linux. With that argumentation you ignore complete that DRM is also some kind of decision made by customers and not only companies. Supporting / buying those titles give them more feedback doing that one right and the customer has no problem with that at all. Your decision is not only for you because your purchase is also a voting.

Look my friends ,we are not gonna live forever in this planet unless some of you are immortals and planning to do so ? :P

Atm I am enjoying whatever games I can play on steam or not steam, as long as they are playable on Linux.

Lets say tomorrow Alien Isolation is gonna get released on Linux and is not on GOG or anywhere else - just on Steam...

For me is something that I waited for a long time and is gonna happen tomorrow....

So you suggest to me :

DONT PLAY THAT GAME BECAUSE IS ON STEAM!!! MONOPOLY!!!! DRM!!!! PLAY SOMETHING ELSE!!! YOU SUPPORT STEAM, DONT PURCHASE!!! YOU VOTE FOR THEM !!!!

Well I am sorry to say that but I am gonna play and enjoy the game - get my jump scares , laugh a lot about myself and have a lot of fun kicking some Alien ass... ^_^

Cheers :D

Look my friends ,we are not gonna live forever in this planet unless some of you are immortals and planning to do so ? :P

Oh the arguments are not to be relativized. DRM won't stay just only on games or some other products used for entertainment. Proof for that are Adobe or also Microsoft. Even some kind of photosuite-software has to be activated today. Do you want your refrigerator buying everything from your shoppinglist and aftwards contacting your health insurance because you ordered way too much cheese? Okay that is some kind of a horror scenario, but the mechanism is a centralized service or intelligence. And just guess: It is only some kind of software today or tomorrow but based on your single decision als consumer for that. Steam is also based on that: Centralized management for your games combined only to your account and if this goes wrong no software is accessible for you. You have even no further right using the license you've bought. You just rent the software!

Atm I am enjoying whatever games I can play on steam or not steam, as long as they are playable on Linux.

That is your right to do so. :)

Lets say tomorrow Alien Isolation is gonna get released on Linux and is not on GOG or anywhere else - just on Steam...

Then I won't buy that kind of software.

For me is something that I waited for a long time and is gonna happen tomorrow....

So you suggest to me :

DONT PLAY THAT GAME BECAUSE IS ON STEAM!!! MONOPOLY!!!! DRM!!!! PLAY SOMETHING ELSE!!! YOU SUPPORT STEAM, DONT PURCHASE!!! YOU VOTE FOR THEM !!!!

As you've even mentioned: That is just a suggestion combined with possibilities and thoughts. You could also just ignore that for now but it won't get better. Okay: You had your fun, but for what price at all? Freedom is something most valuable. But you could shut your's eyes (and ears) to that and relativize the problem to its non-existence for you. As mentioned above: Your right to do so and also my right to argument against that. :)

The only thing you have to be afraid from Steam is having your account banned permanently but in order that to happen you have to do something extremely bad like using BOT's for cheating or marketing items - buying and selling at higher prices or try to sell your steam account in ebay etc.

If your Steam account itself is disabled, you won't be able to login to your Steam account, and you can't access any of your products bought on Steam*, including chat, inventory, cloud saves etc. You cannot even buy new games to add to your library!!! Steam TOS is very strict , if you violate Steam TOS you get banned without a warning and without a reason why you got banned. As I said before this only tends to happen in serious cases!!!

(*Some games on Steam can actually be launched without Steam, such as Eve Online, so you'd be able to play those normally. However, you wouldn't be able to log into your account to redownload the games, and I'm not sure whether you'd still legally have the right to play them or not.)

If you're banned by VAC for cheating in a VAC-enabled game, you won't be able to play some of your games' multiplayer modes. Which games are affected depends on what game you were banned in.

If you're banned from a forum on the Steam discussions system, nothing happens except that you can no longer post in the affected boards.

That's not entirely true. (Maybe you shouldn't have just copied the first hit google gives you :P ) A couple of years ago Steam changed the rules so that now when you get banned you still have access to all your games. Developers can ban you from their game's multiplayer, and if your account is banned you can't make purchases, redeem keys, or trade, but you don't lose your whole library like you imply.
Valve has also claimed that should Steam go under they'll change some setting so people will retain access to their games. I'm not sure I'm convinced by that, Steam doesn't hold the rights to all games they sell, they can't just switch off the DRM on somebody else's game.

Still, I do use Steam, and I think they've done good things for Linux. I also use GOG, because they do good things for DRM-free games. I'm always torn when a game releases on both. If it's a good game I often double-dip, get it on GOG to put it on a harddrive as backup, and play it on Steam for the save backups and the friends list and those things.

GOG buyer only here, (with rare cases of Humble Bundle), I don't like the thought that I have to rely on someone else to play a game (unless it's online or an MMO). I don't hate Steam but I refuse to buy from it no matter which and how many Linux games they offer, simply because it's more of a renting service and I don't like that, the only ones I make an exception for are the known DRM-Free ones that I can't find on GOG.

Quoting Wolfyrion "Without Steam Linux Gaming wouldn't exist!!!" - I agree to a certain point, Linux gaming did exist before Valve stepped in but it was Humble Bundle that lit the spark with gaming in Linux. (from my point of view) Valve then made the push and brought Linux gaming to where it is now, would we have the same amount of Linux games if Valve didn't make a native Linux client? Probably not, the Steam-Runtime was also a good idea as it gave devs a point of focus during development.

I think the matter of DRM is really complicated. As a Consumer personally I hate DRM thats going overboard and hinders the rightfull buyer to use software as it was intended. Like 3rd Party DRM ontop of Steam or the Starforce DRM which 8 years ago completely wrecked my Windows installation several times. On the other hand as a Developer you somehow want to atleast protect your software a little. Frankly it's a matter of Days if at all before those mechanisms are hacked, but the first Days after Launch are the most important. Even CDPR themselves used some kind of "DRM" on their Witcher 3 CD's.
So going forth and back I compromised by using Steam because it has the most (all) Games available and it's really easy to use, Cloud Backups, organised Library etc. And I also (somewhat) believe that if they should go bancrupt sometime in the future (highly unlikely) they have a solution ready.
Sure I could buy from GoG and then backup everything, but that would mean costs for the Storage and maintaining a redundant Backup. I can't even use my old Game CD's right now because I don't have a Drive right now :)
I mean GoG could also fail and I would have to make sure the Backup Drive doesn't go to hell or everything would be lost as well.
So in the end nothing ist guarenteed, but the good time I had playing all those Steam-Only games and the fond memories I still have can't be revoked again :)