Digital Handcuffs

How many of you know Steam - the Steam client? Probably it's something that is only gamers will come across. It's also the cause of much annoyance to gamers. Why? Because it makes even a legally purchased game a pain in the arse.
To fully appreciate this you have to know some background of copy protection mechanisms.
The earliest I know of is the product key, a long string of characters that you'd find on the packaging or manual of the software you purchased. To be able to install the software you have to enter the correct key. Clever hackers get around this with key generating programs, lists of OEM keys or even by applying a patch (crack) to the game executable itself. You do this once and you could play the game in the same way as a legitimate version.
Some games (I remember Flashback) would ask for keys from the manual during game play but you could just copy the manual from someone who had it.
With Windows XP and Office XP Microsoft then came up with their activation mechanism. You still had to enter your product key at install time. But this would only allow you to use the product for 14 days. During that time you should connect to an online service of Microsoft and let Windows authenticate your copy. However, not all users have access to the Internet, so there was also an option to activate Windows by phone where some values had to be entered manually. Together with some registry tinkering this could then be exploited to get a pirate copy activated. Since no Internet connection was assumed the keys would not be checked a second time.
Back to the present day. Some time ago Valve came up with a new method to authenticate a game. They developed a client program - the Steam client - with which each game would integrate. At install time you'd still enter your game's product key. This must then be associated with a Steam user account. The game can then only be launched through Steam. To play, the Steam client connects to its server somewhere and checks the running game's product key against the logged in user account. The idea is obviously that to create a pirate copy of the game you not only need the product key of the copy you're using but also the credentials of the user who first registered that copy. You couldn't even feasibly lend a game to your friend without giving him (or her) access to your Steam account. And to make sure you always play with a legitimate version Steam does the authentication every time you play the game.
If this was all, it would be annoying but I guess I could live with it. But it's not.
Steam wants your games to be up to date. This means if there is an update for a registered game available it forces you to download the update before you can launch the game. You can't say no, you can't postpone (even Microsoft lets you do that). If that then means that you have to download an update of several hundred megabytes, tough shit. You then have time to go and have dinner or something. To give you an idea, the first patch for Dawn of War II was about 1000mb. I read a blog entry by a user who still happened to have a dial-up connection. You can imagine he was not happy (he did use the f-word a lot).
Steam itself also wants to be up to date. When the client starts it insists on checking for, downloading and applying any available updates. Again, vetoing or postponing are not possible. If the update fails for any reason (and the Steam website lists a number of them) then the client will not start and you won't play your game either. This happened to me yesterday. Some Windows 7 permissioning or AVG's resident guard function interfered with the Steam update. The problem fixed itself eventually but I was left sitting there for one hour or more not being able to play a game that I had acquired perfectly legally. You can imagine I was not happy (and I also used the f-word a lot).
What's my point with this? My point is that I'm annoyed and a lot of other users are, too. On their Steam website Valve may go on and on about the benefits of Steam like creating a gamer community, having a central facility to manage your games and their updates, buying games directly through Steam and various little discounts and perks. However, I can get a lot these in other ways if I want them. All this does not compensate the fact that I have here a legally purchased game and I'm having trouble accessing it. There have already been reports that Steam authentication for various games has been cracked. Those who play the pirate versions may not be able to use the online features but they don't have to put up with the Steam client's whims either. I've read various comments by users who bought a retail copy of a game but then downloaded a crack because Steam was making it difficult or impossible for them to play. In the end, the ones left looking rather stupid are those gamers who buy a legal copy and then sit in front of their computers swearing and cursing Steam. I realise, like many gamers do, that piracy is a problem but like this game developer companies are basically punishing those gamers who choose to buy a legal copy of their games. It's a bit like putting handcuffs on me every time I want to ride my own bike and then forcing me to polish it and the handcuffs before I'm allowed to set off.
My conclusion: I love the Dawn of War series but that is the only reason I put up with this. I will not buy any other games with the Steam logo on them.