I'm down to one game.....

that isn't played via an online distribution service and that game is DCS World. Do we have anyone on SimHQ who doesn't use ANY of the major services like Steam, Origin, UPlay or Epic? I think maybe MarkG is one of them?

There are a couple of newer indie games I've got through GOG which have no online service. Just an EXE that runs.

Il2 GB, not connected to Steam. I have Panzer General modded to Afrika Korp that runs from desktop but i can't remember if it goes through Steam or not.

On the plus side, services such as Steam make games very affordable after a year or two from release. Imagine paying 5 bucks for games back in the 80s. Unheard of. But Steam lets us acquire AAA games for cheap and I'm fine with that.

Me, I've only ever had one game on steam (Cliffs of Dover), and became increasingly unhappy with steam (multiple issues requiring 'messing around/reinstall). I currently do not have steam installed and do not intend to reinstall it.
I do not intend to buy any game that requires such odious online systems.

Ahhh yes...Panzer's long standing hatred of anyone that still likes to game old titles without being a slave to their gaming client masters! ...lol ...JK PM.

I have steam with a few games on it...but rarely fire it up. I still game plenty and enjoy many older games still...and also settle for playing some titles on my Xbox one from the comfort of my couch. So I guess Xbox live could be a service?

It's a good thing that DCS doesn't operate like steam...imagine firing up DCS and having a forced beta update jammed down your throat. "Wait!...I haven't saved my keybindings yet"

I remember when I was on DSL...fired up Steam to play Shogun 2 and even though I had it set to NOT update the game ever...a 20gb update started being downloaded automatically. Couldn't stop it and play as it said there was an update in progress. Couldn't play for a couple days til it finished.

In a lot of ways...older games were much more polished and more attention was payed to AI. So I guess my perspective is from someone that enjoys single player titles...I don't like relying on other humans for my gaming fun.

I don't use any of them.

I haven't bought a new game in years. All I even play anymore is an old car racing game, an old motorcycle racing game, an old dirtbike game, and I still mess with FSX maybe a few times a year.

Depends how you define "use"

I have a Steam account, and it has games in it... but the client isn't running.

Speaking of GOG, Metro Exodus and Prey were released two days ago there. You can get some really nice modern games these days "factory-DRM-free".

".imagine firing up DCS and having a forced beta update jammed down your throat."
You don't get betas unless you opt into the beta. I was flying X Plane 11, 11.49, until I decided to check out the 11.50 bets. I checked to allow betas, and installed. Now I have 11.50.

Oh yea... I forgot that my copy of Elite Dagerous with Horizons is direct from Frontier. No DRM store software in the middle.

Still, I can't complain much about Steam. Good for me, overall.

Yes...I know...but in the case where a game has a "patch"...you usually have no choice in Steam once it starts updating without your knowledge.

guys unless you use a retro pc this is the future, rockstar and ubisoft already release one single player game requiring always online conection to play (RDR2;GRB,) Now ubisoft is testing the waters for a subscription model with trackmania, the game is free, but to have (perks) like custom tracks, cups, i guess cars, you have to buy premium montly or yearly, funny thing is EA was way ahead of them trying these stuff way back in 2010 and everyone was against. now we dont care.
its over, truth be told we never owned any of those games, but now they can claim those licence back whenever they want. this is what the movie industry have been trying to do for at least 40 years.

DCS, IL2, starcitizen

I use Steam and sometime Ubplay and very rarely Origin which I hate with Uplay coming in second of disliked platform. I've got a lot of games at GOG.com but I have never used Galaxy. I download the game exe and install them to the pc which is great. I have a few games from Gamersgate which are just exe downloads too. I still have lots of older games installed via original disks such as H&D2, Mafia, Brothers in Arms, Titan Quest, Stalker SoC, The Thing, Wolfenstein 2009 so on and so forth.

I own a copy of Cliffs of Dover Blitz but I have never installed it. I paid around 7.00 dollars during one of the 777 Studios 75% off sales.
Nothing else I own is tethered to Steam or any of the other online services and unless Blitz removes its reliance on Steam I will not be installing it any time soon either.

I just hope that the Great Battles series never becomes a Steam exclusive title. Have too much money tied up it in just to shelve it.


Wheels

Il2 46, steel fury, steel armor blaze of war, falcon as pure offline.

DCS: can play 3 days max without internet, afaik.

The other day got a full weekend disconnected, still could play my steam games but without online features.

Didn't start dcs by fear my internet wouldn't be fixed within the 3 days.

Better have a 4G connection as spare nowadays :sicko

On the bright side, bargain prices on steam are much cheaper than 10€ sometimes: 10 was the cheapest bargain bin DVD games back in the day here, and quite often when one missed the offer some games were never to be seen again.... until steam. Have quote a few games there, need several lives to play them all seriously though.