your name is justified... if you'd read even the first page you'd know that it's free

This reminds me of my wonderful experience with World in Conflict and SecuROM via GamersGate.

makes me believe those rumors from yesteryear that MS were going to try and get PC gamers off the PC and onto their dedicated gaming console.

personally I like direct2drive along with sometimes buying the retail version of the game (usually on impulse when at best buy or wherever, and some games like left4dead are not available on direct2drive). I log in and can download as many times as I want for years (my oldest games are 4 years old and still DL just fine), I can find almost any game and all I have to do when I install is enter a code and it works with no front end software (steam) needed at all. It just works as if the DVD is in the drive and runs flawlessly.

I already think Steam is a step in the wrong direction (it has caused my comp to crash on more then one occasion and even when it works uses up system recources in the already hungry Vista that I really would prefer it leave alone) and Games for Windows Live only makes the problem worse by adding Microsofts clumsy hands into the mix. I don't see why games that can be UPDATED by a client (ala Impulse) but don't require the client to play once its downloaded/updated can't be the wave of the future. I love Impulse and Direct2Drive, tolerate Steam only to play Left4Dead and despise windows live.

The perfect system would be something just like the PSN network but for PC. Super easy to buy games, easy to use interface with every game self contained....why PCs can't manage a simple seamless experience like that is beyond me.

As a quick summary of the above, any game delivery system that makes me feel as if I pirated/hacked the game, but still lets me pay legitimately is aces in my book.

By that I mean you install the game, maybe enter a code ONCE and then it runs with no DVD, no extra client, no log in, nothing. You just click twice on the program and it opens and runs the way a DVD game with a noDVD crack works. That I have to spend hours looking around the internet for cracks to games I actually DO own like Neverwinter Nights 2 or whatever is annoying beyond belief just as having to use a peripheral system like Steam or Games For Windows Live is. If buying games legit doesn't even have convenience over piracy (like say, the itunes store and its 20 second high quality DRM downloads of almost any song for 99 cents) then what the hell does it have to offer?