I thought so!

Authentication mainly. Every once in a blue moon you might have to login so Steam can update the game and make sure you still have an official copy. That's about it.

o.O you must live out in the wops

Actually according to the publishers even if you buy a retail copy of a game without DRM your are still only buying a licence to use the content for personal use. DRM just enforces the conditions that they put in the EULA, try reading the licence agreement that comes with any game some time.

for example this is an except from my DRM free copy of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 

"Westwood Studios inc. hereby grants you, the end user, the limited, non-transferable right to use this single copy of this software product, on any single computer, only for your personal use"

and the kicker

"you have no ownership rights to the product, other than the physical media that hold the product."

it also goes on to state that you may not loan, rent or resell the product etc. note that the product is stated as the game it's self not the physical media with which you are protected by law in most countries to do what ever you want with. but the game it's self you are only licensing and have no rights to what so ever other than personal use. You don't own any game just the physical media and a licence for personal use whether it has DRM to enforce it or not. 

So feel free to "feel like an ass" for paying full price for content licensing.

there are also some advantages to both the end user and publisher that come with encorperating steamworks.

They include automatic updates, steam cload, punk buster anti-cheat for multiplayer, access to the steam server browser for multiplayer, Steam achivements, the ability to download another copy without access to a disc (even if you brought retail), some games offer free access to win/mac versions and there are probably a few I am forgetting.

I just tested it out, you can play them offline! :D 

You learn something new everyday ^^. I'm back to buying the PC version 

Haha, that I do. Pretty sure the only place on the East Coast without broadband or 3G internet >_<

that might eventually change, maybe the country will get its 1mbps wireless internet that Obama wants. While there is more important things for the USA to spend money on, it wouldn't be that bad for people in areas like you.

Steam is great as long as I can decide myself whether I want to use it or not. Right now I can't, and that simply makes it DRM to me. A horrible kind of DRM.

Can you play your PS3 games without being forced to put the disc? Can you even choose the DRM of your console games? In my eyes, consoles have a more draconian DRM than Steamworks, and far less choices of DRM. With Steamworks you can at least play the game without needing to put the disc, on any machine you want to.

The biggest advantage of Steam is that it gives a LOT of great benefits in exchange of Steam integration, more benefits than any other service gives.

1. I don't really mind disc check. It's pretty annoying but at least I have the disc with me all the time, unlike access to some online servers. Besides, Steam can be incredibly slow at times - especially if I have a slow connection. Anyway, I don't really understand what part of console 'DRM' you consider bad (except for downloadable stuff of course).

2. Like I said, I want to be able to decide myself what kind of a deal I make. A forced deal is not something I'm going to make, not for much more than a few euros at least.

Choice is not something you should be trying to kill. How could it hurt if I could choose whether I want to use Steam or not? If you were still able to use Steam for your games, would you really mind me having a choice?