I've never bought a game from Steam, and don't know if there are reasons NOT to buy from them.
They have Dear Esther at a really good price.

I've bought quite a few games from steam and never had any trouble.
Richard

I too, was hesitant to start buying from Steam but I had a couple of games on disk that required Steam and had no problems and now I have about a dozen games in my Steam library and I have no problems. I still prefer downloading from DRM free sites like GOG, but you take it where you can get it if you really want it. (wow so profound)

What I don't like about Steam is that you have to log in with them to play your games.

I could understand it with games bought through them (especially downloads) because I buy downloads from BigFish and they have a similar requirement.

But I recently bought the disk version of Skyrim from Amazon - where there was no mention of needing a Steam connection. So I got quite a shock when I came to play it and found I could only do so via Steam !!

[Having said that, I haven't actually encountered any problems so far.]

"I recently bought the disk version of Skyrim from Amazon - where there was no mention of needing a Steam connection. So I got quite a shock when I came to play it and found I could only do so via Steam !!"

Trying to corner the world of gaming an inch at a time, are they?
That's what's known as a stealth manuever and it seriously bothers me.
I foresee the day when I'll be playing only games I can buy at a DRM-free site like GOG and if they don't have it, I'll do without.
Even a copy of Grim that runs perfectly without any need to download a patch or a launcher.

Gil.
On the battlements

There is an Offline Mode for Steam. Once you set up your game, apparently you don't have to be online to play. I've never tried this myself, but I've read that some people prefer to play their games offline.

"Offline Mode allows you to play games through Steam without reconnecting to the Steam Network every time you wish to play - this is particularly useful if you do not plan on playing over the internet and would prefer not to download new updates for your single-player games.

Please note that you must connect to the Steam Network and test each of the games you would like to use in Offline Mode at least once to set up your account and configure Offline Mode on your machine."

Steam Offline Mode

Everyone knows of all the down sides to being required to connect to an internet connection to play a game however, there are up sides. The most obvious is updating your game. When you are connected to steam your game is automatically updated with any patches or DLC's that you are authorized to have plus it is much easier to purchase any additions or DLC's you might want.

So there is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It all depends on your preferences as to whether the good outweighs the bad.

I always use offline mode.

While we're talking about Steam, you can get Deponia (the first one) for 4.99 Euros at Steam untill MOnday the 22nd of July

I, too, have never had any troubles with games from Steam.

There is a Daedalic bundle here too!

Relatively new to Steam (after Nov 2012) and never had any problems with it. It keeps my games up to date and the Steam Cloud helps with progress and settings and so on. More and more companies are releasing their own download managers (Origin, Uplay) trying to copy what steam has done and has been very successful.

I always try to buy a boxed version of the game even if it has Steam/Origin required due to the fact that I won't have to download everything again each time I want to install the game. I just install through the disc and just download the remaining data which is usually not that much.

Unfortunately (in my opinion), digital content is becoming even more common and many companies release exclusive collector's editions only as digital downloads in order to promote their managers.

Even Big Fish has a Game Manager for their casual games. There's a way to work around that, but if you start a Big Fish game with the default shortcut, the manager will open with all its latest advertisements. It does check for game updates too. The Sims also has a launcher.

Another big enticement to be online while in-game is the "achievements" you can earn during your game play. Players love those shiny badges!

I didn't know Steam had an "off-line" facility. I might try that at some stage, then.
So thanks for that info

[Of course, the total of everything I know about Steam anyway would fit on the back of a postage stamp !! I'm a mere Steam Newbie ]

I had no problem with playing or buying games from them.

I am normally always connected to internet, then I do not know about this type of requirement, but sometimes the connection falls down for a reason and I don't remember that I had to stop playing because being offline.

In the few weeks since I registered with Steam there have already been two occasions when a connection was "not available" and I couldn't play my game.

I had to reboot my computer (both times) before a log-in was possible