I purchased the game on DVD, from GameSpot (to get the Classic Pack addon). How I found I had to install Steam and register the game with them before I can even install!! So is Steam the copy protection for this thing?? What happens if they ever go out of business, or their servers are down when I want to play??

Or is this just incidental, and have nothing to do with the main game at all?

Yes, it is the copy protection. Once you sign in to install the game however you only need to go back if you want the patches.

you purchased the game on DVD, that isn't making any sense to me.

Valve going out of business?

That's blasphemy!

I think he means DVD-ROM

Steam only punishes people who buy the game legally. Hackers laugh at it as copy protection. I had to wait an extra 40 minutes to install due to nonsense steam's servers on release day and now I've lost a day of gameplay due to my steam account not syncing with my save files. Steam says I have 8 hours of play and the achievements I earned, but my save games are the old ones from Tuesday with only 3 hours of gameplay. Sigh, such nonsense.

theres nothing I particulary hate about steam, and nothing about NV that I've heard that puts me off (nothing that won't be fixed by a patch some time soon) but I hate that I HAVE to use steam. yes, its all for security reasons, but they could have just as easily taken another path thats just as good if not tried and true but doesn't limit the consumers choices.

It doesn't matter... the game uses Steam as its DRM, and also takes advantage of other Steam features such as an easy patch distribution system ans Steam Cloud.

As for the OPs concern about Valve going out of business... trust me when I say that not an issue any time soon. You're steam game list is perfectly safe. Not to mention Valve has already stated countless times that should they go out of business they would certainly make sure people could play all the games they have bought.

Though, it should be noted that when you buy a game you are NOT buying the game... rather you are buying the right to play the game (actually read the EULA if you don't believe me). So if the developer provides the game through a system that goes out of business and you can't play the game anymore... you're SOL and theres nothing you can do about it. But again, Vale (the owners of Steam) won't leave you hanging... they are the only company in the gaming industry that actually cares about its fan/user base.

Ok folks we have a ton of these "complain about Steam threads around. Find the longest one and post in it but we don't need a wall of threads about it.

Thanks