There are always at least six games "featured" on the front page (14 if you click next). Usually indies are featured more because Skyrim and CoD don't really need exposure.

Currently 4 of the six are indies (11 of 14 if you click next). In addition to that all games pop up in the new release tray. And there are more games in the "sliding banner" (which is usually the place were you find the AAA titles).

OK granted, I hadn't seen that immediately, and you are right - there are plenty of indie titles in that box down there.

The main window up top is what catches everyone's attention though. I see Dear Esther and - if you wish to count it as "indie" - Shank 2. Everything else is mainstream, and the first thing that appears in that big window is - ta, daaa - Skyrim.

I scroll through that lot on a regular basis, and there are almost always only mainstream games in the main window. And if you look at the top sellers, you'll always find a surprising correlation.

Wrong. That big box at the top uses a random order. Right now, I opened Steam store and the first thing that appeared there was actually Dear Esther.

He's right though, the top banner shows only AAA titles or already well known indies.

However the featured box right below it is usually mostly indie titles, but I don't know if many people look at that one. I usually don't (I also don't buy Steam games when they're not on sale so I have no reason to look there).

You can backup and restore installed games on Steam, however having not used that feature myself I'm unaware if you need to be on-line or not during the restoration process.

I would personally love the ability to legitimately create an off-line installer for games I've purchased on Steam, for the unlikely event that Steam becomes unavailable in the future, however the peculiarities of Steam's particular distribution method, however flawed they are, do not themselves constitute DRM.

I have no fondness of the drawbacks that arise from the fact that Steam provides no option of having detached installer for the games you purchase, particularly since if you lose access to your Steam account, you lose access to all the games you've legally purchased on there, with no way of legitimately recovering them. However when arguing against something, it is important to be factually correct about the things you're arguing against.

Save for the technical differences in the protocols used and the interface provided, there is no difference between Steam's distribution method, and GoG's, the difference comes in what is distributed. GoG distributes pre-packaged installers for games, where as Steam distributes game files which are 'installed' on the fly.

My argument isn't in defence of the flaws of Steam. My argument is about making distinctions between what is DRM, and what is not, and when I say DRM, I'm not talking about the three letters, I'm talking about the practice of "rights management", the active restriction of how media can be used by legitimate customers. Something which I strongly object to, along with other restrictive and obnoxious practices used by publishers, such as EULAs.

Steam is activation DRM just as SecuROM is. Everytime you launch a game through Steam while online it connects to the Steam servers to make sure your account owns the game and that your account is not suspended. For example, if you issue a chargeback to your bank even for a valid reason such as being double charged, Steam will automatically suspend your account and you won't be able to play ANY of your games. If that isn't Digital Rights Management to you then what is?
Also, game executables are encrypted and will only be unlocked when you launch the game for the first time while being online and the Steam client is running. The exception being games that use DOS Box because Valve can't add Steamworks to a GPL project without violating its license, flash games because Steamworks doesn't work with flash, and games which the publisher/developer decided explicitly to make DRM-Free (one such example is Super Meat Boy).

This thread is about a game which is stated (at least by the claims of the OP) to be DRM free.

I didn't see the OP saying that Dear Esther is DRM-Free but it seemed to me that you were arguing that Steam isn't wasn't DRM in any case sorry if I misunderstood.

Well, technically speaking, developers can CHOOSE to include Steam DRM in their games - they can also use Steam only as a distribution platform, when the executable file of the game itself doesn't require Steam. Basically, if you copy the folder of the game somewhere ... Not Steam and then uninstall Steam, it would still work.

I don't know all it does, but it does more than that even. It probably checks your IP address and hard drive s/n to see if you're using other people's computers. Somehow it's figuring out if you're sharing your games and then knocks out your account for that.

I have used my steam on a few friend's and a brother's computer before and never had problems, but I did have to activate the account through an emailed message from Steam.

It also spams you ads when you're done playing a game.

Steam has a lot of nice features. But it's also one of the most intrusive forms of DRM there is. Even SecuROM doesn't spam me with ads or try to destroy my entire library of games if it autotomically decides that I'm sharing a game.

Is your SteamGuard on?

In my original post, I clearly state at the start that Steam offers DRM to publishers. What I was arguing against is the idea that Steam itself is automatically DRM.

Like I said, I don't care how it's called, I only care about what it means to me as a user. And from that point of view there is a big difference in the methods that Steam and GOG use and I much prefer the latter. Is it possible for me to back up each and every game I buy from Steam and run it independently on a different computer that doesn't have internet connection without any issues? If your answer is no, then you know where that big difference lies, beyond any semantics, technical or legal details.

Are we talking about the same Steam here? Because no, it doesn't. And if you mean that announcements window, that can be turned off in settings. And SteamGuard is an optional feature, too.

I don't mind when people bash Steam, but not when they do so with arguments that are demonstrably untrue.

If you are talking about what I think you are talking, there is a checkbox somewhere to stop those ads from appearing.