STEAM IS AWESOME.

Folks saying that it's intrusive? I have to disagree. It sits there quietly keeping track of updates, telling me amazing offers (for example, oblivion for ￡3.74?!) and manages my screenshots/achievements.

Totally love steam.

@Earthworm: this interview says that piracy is small enough to neglect. Interestingly enough he didn't say black on white that this is thankfully achieved by the "great" Steamworks. Why is it even necessary to force people to use Steam if it is such a "service" to them? Why is there a need to forcefully activate a Singleplayer Game if Steam is oh-so-great and people love it so much? If it were that way people would try it out themselves e.g. Games could be provided with an optional installation of Steam during the installation process. Many games offered that years ago, e.g. "Gamespy" Tool etc. The point was: it was not forced, it was optional!

Again, if piracy is so neglecting small (as Gabe claims) then why is there still reason to insist on Steam? There is one thing I missed: some rumors claim that Steam is a way to prevent 2nd hand market sales. Maybe that is the real reason... but this doesn't justify in any way the harassment with Steam and the fact, that your purchased product is unusable without the Steam mess. Maybe I am oldfashioned, but I do not sell any games I bought... so why the f... do I need this useless Steam for a pure SP game!?

As I've said, Steam is far more than a DRM solution to prevent piracy/second hand sales. It has sales, demos, and community features, as well as trading in game items with other people between certain games.
And my experience with anything including gamespy is I've had to have an account with them anyway if I wanted to do multiplayer (Borderlands comes to mind)
Other than that creating two versions of the game (one with steamworks and one without steamworks) would require extra time as that is code implemented in the engine and it's probably not worth it. There are steam games that also have Games for Windows Live or SecuROM (or all of the above)

Why, pray tell, are consumers subjected to unnecessary inconvenience for "copy protection" that is wholly ineffective and did not stop this game nor any other game from showing up on certain sites the very day it was released? The only way to ensure you're paid is to sell a service as with an MMO, Battlfield 3, Heroes of Newerth, etc. No form of protection exists that stops a game which can be played offline from being acquired and played offline without purchase.

That includes consoles.

P.S. I personally like Steam, I have hundreds of games on it including this one. But DRM is, was and always will be idiotic because it's attempting to solve the impossible by crapping all over the people who actually pay.

I do wish Steam would allow me to select where my game is installed though, sometimes I want to drop a certain title onto one of my SSDs.

Because people couldn't possibly browse forums / check email / etc, at a school computer lab / at work during a break / at the internet cafe / etc, while not having great (or any) access at home.