I really want to buy that game but i am so so mad at the steam client, i have already wasted money with GT4 (purchased never played because of steam)
What should i do?

The problem with those clients is simple, to play game A you need steam client, to play game B you need impulse client, what next? in 2 years you will have 10 clients on your computer!
And finally i don't understand, i am buying the box in a store, a real store why the hell on earth i would need to acces another online store to play the game?
ALL stores, should ban steam/impulse etc. games. as they are offering their customers to a rival store.
I will send an email today to main stores companies of my country to warn them about this thievery.

'kay.

Just so you know, Steam has been out for years and it's everyone else that is copying them. Origin is evil.

Well steam is the biggest of its kind by far, and I only know of a few really significant one out there. Retail stores are in the process of decline. Devs only get about half of what they get with a digital purchase. I have used steam for about 4 years and find it to be useful. If you like to play some old games every once in a while but don't want them on your computer all the time it's rather convenient.

edit: gamestop legally cant do anything about the steam validation, that's beth's choice. and retail stores have evils all their own. I would rather make valve rich since they make good games than some leach of a store.

this is still a theivery as the stores are offering their customers to those online strore i am writing an email right now to warn them once and for all.

They think they don't know about Steam?

You want to warn them about the Online Authentication that is listed as a requirement on the box/case/store page?

Thievery? Are you joking?

Steam is primarily a DRM and secondarily a digital distribution platform. How on Earth is it thievery?
You're saying they're stealing from you, because you need an authentication client running to play the game? Tell me, when games ask you for a CD key do you report them to the police too?

The human race never ceases to disappoint.

You are buying the box in a store but to play the game you must open an account in an online store call it the way you want this is still an online store, so the original store by selling games with such a client is offering his cutomers to their rivals.
email on the way, i warn them about selling games with a steam client, they should boycott those games if they want to save their PC games department (maybe already too late)

Steam is very good and makes PC gaming very convenient. When I 1st joined many years ago i felt same way; however, its made PC gaming soooooo much easier than b4. I'm 50 and have been gaming for 30+ years. In addition to this it lowers the cost of PC gaming in general as they have daily deals of all sorts of games, holiday sales that are just plain sick. In addition a very helpful community.

To go on further ... automatic downloading of patches. You never have to put a CD in the drive ever again (this alone is worth the price of admission which is .... er ... free).

Yes, they are really going to destroy their own business by boycotting such games.

Ubisofts Always Online system
Games For Windows LIVE
Steam
Origin
Even some basic CD_Key systems need you to be online to check the key.

That would pretty much destroy the PC games retail industry. It would all go online then and you'd be left a bit red faced.

I am 48 and i am playing games since apple 2E
And of course steam is huge since they have been offered customers from all stores on the planet.

No, that's completely ridiculous. You are buying a box in a store that lists as a requirement that you must install Steam, an anti-piracy device.
Not to mention, Steam has been around over a decade, if you knew anything about the industry you would've sent your little letters ages ago - ie; your insight into what this will do to PC games aren't exactly well educated.
Furthermore, what they are doing is telling you to install Steam, not forcing you to pay a single cent for it.
Not to mention, the PC games industry has been moving towards digital distribution for ages now, and it's causing a massive influx of indie titles and the industry is rapidly growing thanks to how cheap it is to run digital distribution. We're getting hundreds of games - literally hundreds, that wouldn't otherwise have been made. Often they cost $5, and are highly original.

What you're doing is.. so.. silly. It's like buying WoW and then calling the subscription fee's theft. What you paid for is a game that requires Steam. If you bought it, you "accepted" that condition. It's that simple.

Take it or leave it. Steam is here to stay.

I don't know if the same is true everywhere but here the PC departments are shrinking, guess why..
I am a D2D.uk customer & i have no problem with them because they are not intrusif like steam.
i have no problem with online stores i just don't want to have a client runing on ym computer.
what are you going to do the way you will need 10 or more clients to play your games or use your softwares?

this is the lamest hypocrisy ever.

Console bubble is going to burst sooner or later, but I believe you only need to run steam once to validate. I don't think it has to be running at the same time as skyrim, even if it does theres an offline mode in steam so they cant tap into your brain and steal you personal thought.

Unfortunately, this actually isn't far fetched some time back I was inh a store near me shopping and this guy came in and had a go at any member of staff within reach demanding to know why He was required to make and account and subscribe to play a game 'he'd already paid for'

Upon being told that the subscription/account requirement was displayed on the box AND on the display next to the WOW stock, he then screamed that they were 'thieves and liars' and that they'd be hearing from his soliciters, knocked over several displays and was wrestled to the ground by security.

I think I am being a bit thick but what is GT4?

If it is Gran Turismo 4 then i wasn't ever released on PC IIRC

If it is GTA 4 then it was a games for windows live game, and not a steam game (although you can buy it on steam, but then you would have steam installed)

Because most of the money is console and second hand sales.

This was true before Steam gained popularity.

Please google "Define: Hypocrisy". That made no sense.
Being a hypocrite doesn't mean being unfair.

This thread is pointless, and inane. Look; if I buy a game, and it requires me to use Steam - if I don't like/want Steam, then that's annoying. But its fair, and its reasonable. Steam functions very smoothly and can be disabled in nearly every way so it doesn't impede your experience whatsoever. You set it to autolaunch and autologin, and you just run Skyrim from your desktop shortcut same as any other game you've ever owned.
Calling it theft - saying that someone is somehow stealing something from someone else, makes no sense.
I bought the game, not the distributor. My patronage is not their right, it is their privilege.

In other words, saying Steam is stealing customers makes no sense whatsoever - in fact, its entirely self contradictory. If I buy from somewhere other than Steam (indeed I did) then that means that store, not Steam, received my money. So if anyone lost a customer it was Steam.
A shop doesn't get the right to have me buy something from them - I buy from wherever I want. If I think Steam is better, I'll use Steam. That's not stealing from local stores in any sense whatsoever.
While you're googling, google "Define: Theft".

A developer of a game however, does retain the very reasonable right to protect their intellectual property. So if they want me to use a DRM, I have to swallow that pill.

Thank your lucky stars they picked Steam. It functions essentially flawlessly, and is very well maintained. Origin for example, barely functions and EA themselves have to post work-arounds to cheat it into working at all.

D2D games are even worse. You still have to deal with any additional DRM that the publisher wants.

Games bought D2D will still use Origin, GFWL, UOOS and Steam. And the exe is encrypted so modding is restricted and patching is often difficult.