That is incorrect. In order to play your Steam games, you need to be signed into your account and be connected to the internet and synched with Steam. You can play in "Offline Mode" where you don't need a constant internet connection, but in order to play in that mode you HAVE to be online to synch up with Steam first, and then you can disable the connection.

So no, if you have no internet or aren't signed into your steam account, you cannot play any games downloaded onto your computer.

Man that sucks. So you can't play if you're internet is down. Consoles got this one beat in that aspect at least.

Really? Because it seemed to work so well for 360.

Peer pressure that was created out of the online capabilities, cross game chat, and social structure of the 360. So many people looking to buy a console in the US were all but forced to get a 360 over the competition. I know this from college being someone who wanted a PS3 but couldn't afford it or any console for that matter. The main reason people would suggest getting a 360 is because all of their friends have one, they never bothered to figure out the good qualities of the other systems. I suppose I'm mostly talking about the people who only play Halo and Call of Duty. But that's what my experience was for 3 years in the US at least. 

Yeah, I found this whole thing a bit silly. You 'buy' games under one set of rules; the rules change, if you decline you lose access to everything you'd 'bought' under the old rules.

I do try to buy everything physical these days if I can, because I doubt they're going to come around to my house to strip me of a physical game (although, I hear they're working on it with all these DRM's! And also, I guess I'm old fashioned but I still like holding a game in my hands)

There's a point of digital distribution I like though, namely downloading straight to a memory card (i.e. PSP games on Vita). There's no way to strip that away from someone (as far as I know) and I assume a memory card can last as long as any kind of physical media, although I'm unsure on this.

Still, Steam has brought me some great games at even greater prices so I guess I can't really complain too much.

That sucks. I never knew you had to check in with Steam to play your games. I thought the games were all yours when you downloaded them. My view of steam has crumbled. )-:

I don't play PC games much at all. The only game I have on Steam is Portal. I got that when they were offering it for free.

I setup a wish list for the PC games that I think I need to play, but so far I haven't bought anything. I have always been a little wary of digital distribution, and this does not help.

You can play offline games when your internet is down. Mine was down for a week and i could play the offline/single player games just fine. Just have to log in steam offline mode. 

You have to check into steam every 30 days to authenticate though. So offline mode is temporary.

you can stay in offline mode between boots or really indefinatly i was in it for about 6 months when I was really into empire total war, it just takes a connection to move into it at first or out of it. 

is that new its been awhile ... about 2 years since i last really used offline mode, but i swear i was in it for about 6 months without connecting