Yes Steam is preferable to buying a retail copy that you are forced to register online anyway. I didn't say otherwise. What I am saying though is that Steam doesn't get a free pass just because it's less evil than the status quo. Believe it or not, there are still DRM-free games out there without even a disc check. And EA has went back to using the old standard disc check DRM instead of the install limit crap after they got all that shit from Spore (disc checks I can live with. I could live with that even without a NO CD crack. I live with the disc checks all the time when playing on my 360 since that isn't modded. But when there's a NO-CD crack available for a game on PC, I'll download it to convenience myself and so I can just keep the disc stored away). If you want to do things legit, Steam is preferable to this install limit and online registration crap. But gamers have other options than that: Piracy. And if the torrents stats are any indication, many PC gamers are going with that option and telling the PC game publishers to go fuck themselves for treating gamers like shit (and rightfully so).
Personally I like the idea of having actual property that I can sell if needed. Even if doing so many be illegal according to the EULA, people are openly doing it on ebay and amazon marketplace. It's not an issue. Game publishers seem to bitch a lot more about the used console game market than they do the used PC game market (I never hear any bitching about the latter).
The whole discs getting wrecked thing, it's not an issue with me. I've never once had a game disc wrecked under my care. A friend of mine who borrowed one of my games wrecked the game but that's because he's an idiot. Maybe if I had small children in the house that would be a concern. And you don't have to worry about the disc wearing down if you play off the hard drive. If you install a game fully to the hard drive, the disc is only required to check to see that you are indeed playing a legitimate copy. Everything else is run off the hard drive.
My hope is that console gaming doesn't turn towards the business models implemented in PC gaming these days. I have faith that console gamers will reject full-blown DD though. The console gaming culture is different from PC gaming culture. There will be riots if used games and rentals were phased out on consoles.
