I buy almost all my games via steam or impulse. I loathe discs, and much rather trust that they don't go bankrupt than that I wont ruin or lose the discs. The prices vary quite a bit (compared to stores), but since I tend to stay away from "AAA" titles (with some notable exceptions) it's not that bad. There are also loads of games on steam that I couldn't get in a store or other digital medium.

Never really had problems with the DRM. The only game I can think of that's been hassling me is Dawn of war 2, which disconnects multiplayer sessions if you lose connection with steam (which is a fault in the game I'd say, since no other games does that). It's a good middle ground imo.

I also actually use and enjoy the extra steam features like achievements, "join friend", in-game overlay chat, screenshot system etc.

My only real gripe is that it for some reason stops downloading games as soon as I start up a steam game If I want to play an MP game, I'll stop the download myself thanks.

I play all my steam games with no net connection(single player, of course)

Of which, it tries to go online so you can go offline... That's the catch 22 I was talking about.

What I'm saying is that it's not Steam who sets the prices. Go to the Steam forum and inform yourself. Valve for example sets the prices correctly (Portal 2: 45$, it's correctly set at 38€ (45$ = 31€; 31€ + 18% VAT = 38€)).

It really dependes a lot on the game company. Looking at current prices for example: Dirt 3 is cheaper on Steam than on retail, while Fable III has the same price, and Portal 2 is a lot cheaper (the retail price here is set at 50€). [edit] And Brink is more expensive on Steam Oh no, it isn't, I was looking at a "discount".

The fuck they do, and the hell it is. 49.99€.
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WTF? That is messed up.

I got the game for free (legally)! The game was $9.99 for a single copy or $29.99 for 4. I chose the 4 copy option, kept one copy for myself and sold the other 3 copies to coworkers (within minutes) for $10 each. My copy was therefore 'free';D

The game itself is quite fun. Who wants to set up a server?

I wish that crappy platform was mine... Or in a future be able to release a game on it...

Steam games are connected to the Steam user. That user can only be logged in once, AFAIK. So you would need 4 licenses (and 4 users; though perhaps they have a sub-user concept, like PSN?) if you wanted 4 people to play simultaneously, but if you just wanted to be able to play one person at a time from many different computers then Steam makes this easy (especially so if all 4 computers are connected to the Internet).

While you may be able to do it, it's probably against the license terms, and therefore somewhat of a gray area. One license is not the same as four. This is basically just bypassing the Steam DRM, which is basically pirating 3/4 copies. Of course, since this is an indie game, it's possible that the license terms are more lax, but I'm assuming they aren't.

I would only be running it once, but on many computers.

btw, once you've bought the game, is multi-player free? I couldn't find anything useful on how multi-player on steam works or whether you use p2p or central server.

Currently, multi-player is not through Steam.

3. Multiplayer Hosting
Hosting a server in the release build will not use steams built in server system, and requires you to port forward and use IP addresses to connect. You CAN start two clients of Terraria at once on a single PC from steam and use one of those to launch your server and the other to launch a client. However, it is not possible to use ONE steam account to launch a server on one PC and a client on another PC at this time, as steam will think two users are using the same account at two separate locations, which is not allowed. Also, until the stand alone servers are usable, the limit of 8 players per server will remain intact.
What you can Expect : We will be creating a stand alone server launcher within the next few weeks. And we will be integrating steams Server lists and removing the cap of 8 players per server. ^[1]

Edit:

Speaking of that... make sure to bring thick acid proof gloves when you drop by this weekend. I err need your help disposing something

I bought Terraria last night. So far I'm not overly impressed. I would have liked some sort of in-game tutorial to guide you. There is apparently a guide NPC there in single player, but he doesn't seem to interact with you at all. I was pretty lost so I just fumbled around a bit. Managed to kill some green blobs, but eventually died too. I deleted my first world and generated a second. This time I did a bit better, figured out crafting, but still managed to not have very much fun. I imagine that it will be much more fun to play with friends online though.

OK.

That's not necessarily Steam's fault. That's probably the developers' fault. That's the risk you take when you purchase an indie game (the developers have fewer resources to test). That's not to say that you will never have issues with mainstream publisher games either. You will occasionally, but it still isn't Steam's fault. You would have had just as much trouble had you purchased the game through another publisher.

You need to right click on him to talk to him.

I'm finding single player to be tons of fun, but I have a feeling that all the 'Lets Play' videos served as a tutorial for me.

Basically, to start out you need to chop down several trees (the bigger the better). Then you get a crafting table, make a sword, kill a bunch of slimes and make torches using their slime gel. Then you should make a wood house to start... just put your wood directly on the ground to make the floor, craft a door and wooden walls. Next step is to start exploring. Hopefully there is cave nearby where you can venture in and find some easily accessible ores (and stone). If you come across ledges you can't jump over, make wooden platforms and stick em on the ledge.

I'm going to try summoning the 'Eye of Cthulu' tonight with a coworker (who is in the same boat as you as far as progressing through the game). You should join us. It will be fun!