I don't so much boycott Steam, but I do allow DRM to guide my valuation of a game's worth. A digitally distributed game already has very little value to me, as it cannot be resold, has no collector's value and forces the buyer's risk wholly onto me. That means my price ceiling for Steam games is generally usually around €5, €10 at maximum for games I really, really want and aren't available elsewhere, although that is an extreme rarity and my last couple of experiences with that (State of Decay) mean that I'm moving away from this practice.
That threshold is a bit higher with GOG due to the DRM-freedom actually ensuring I can keep my games - around $20 - although my full-priced purchases of €40-50 are limited to DRM-free physical purchases nowadays.
I feel I'm sending a good enough message by doing this - if the publishers want to drastically restrict what I can do with my games and the benefits I get out of them, then the price I'm willing to pay falls drastically accordingly. I'll be paying full price on day one for the boxed version of The Witcher 3, as I will for Risen 3 assuming that Deep Silver keeps its promise. But until DRM-free becomes the standard again on PC, most of my gaming money wil be going on WIi U and PS3 games.
I'm fine with the 'convenience' of Steam when I have a DRM-free option through GOG, Humble Store, consoles etc. I'll often pick up the PC version of a game for $5 later on that I already have for console (Injustice, Mortal Kombat, Deadpool). But that convenience has often proven to be nothing of the sort, with the forced autopatching often borking games, Steam increasingly frequently going down for hours at a time and the horrendously bad and clunky Steam client. Steam versions for me are a nice bonus, but just having a Steam version is pretty much a last and desperate resort for me.
Post edited April 17, 2014 by jamyskis
