Sigh, yes I knew Steam existed but i never suspected it would be required for a single player game that I bought with a disc. I thought Steam was just a discount download service mostly for older games. And Origin, GFWL, Rockstar Social? I don't know what you mean. I've played Origin games in the past but there wasn't anything like Steam there.
From a "casual player's" point of view, this is acceptable. Imho. Because - where from should "Casuals" know what Steam actually is/does ? They are merely interested in
playing, not in the tech behind that.
It's the gamers that help Steam establish their role, because they are
informed. They do know what Steam is, and they consciously accept it.
It's a bit like … Someone is putting something into an microwave oven. How is the person supposed to know that some things must NOT be put and "heated" (however this ominous "heating" process works) into the oven ? That's tech.
And there is always a
practical side and there is always a
techie side.
Gamers are "techies", because they usually do know (at least to some extend) how stuff works.
Casual gamers are not. They
are not interested in how disc mounting in Linux works. They just just want things to be done.
"Ignorance is bliss".
But those who are informed ignore that some people just want to turn on their TV and watch movies without it booting up from one operating system and connecting itself to the internet to download the newest codecs or whatever.
What I don't quite understand is that - if you're working in the computer indistry, how comes that you've never heard of what Steam does ?
"But everyone knows this !" - This would be the usual reply of the informed ones.
I thought Steam was just a discount download service mostly for older games.
Yes, I kind of thought it once, too.
But that's long ago.
Perhaps you had mixed it up with GOG ?
Whereas GOG is commercial, too …
As is Games For Windows Live, Origins, Gamergate, OnLive …