The occasional outage is not a reason to wish Steam didn't exist. It is however a reason to wish they improved offline mode support. For example, you should be able to get login credentials from another, less robust server, just to authenticate who you are, and then you can launch Steam in offline mode where you couldn't actually update, etc., just play your single player games.
No, it's not a good reason to wish Steam didn't exist. The reasons to wish Steam didn't exists are that it's an intrusive, backwards mess that, like most DRM, makes things more difficult for paying customers and doesn't stop pirates at all. This outage is just an example.
Wow, you're clueless. For one, Steam wasn't designed for DRM. DRM is their last concern. For two, it's hardly backwards or a mess, tens of thousands of people use it seamlessly and effortlessly. For three, it provides endless benefits that it WAS designed for that are necessary for the game and franchise Half-Life is today. But I guess since you can't play your game for one evening Valve should consider dumping all that. Because even if you've been playing it without problem for years, or for years to come, this ONE evening makes all that not worth it, right? But I guess you'll tell me you experience problems all the time, which is unfortuante, since most people don't.
Were all 7000 posts of yours that worthless, or are you just astroturfing for Valve? Of course DRM was their primary motivation; there's no other reason to have a centralized authentication system that locks down every aspect of the technology. What are these "endless benefits"? Automatic upgrades? Yeah, no software has ever had that before. Buying new software? Yeah, online ordering and download is so hard with just a browser. Getting randomly booted from servers when the Steam ID server flakes? Got me on that one, couldn't get that without Steam!
Obviously a lot of what Steam provides is available via other methods, but none of them are as convenient or hassle free for the community as Steam is. And if you think Valve shouldn't have implemented ANY encryption on their files than you're an idiot, why would they shoot themselves in the foot when there's an easy opportunity to help curb piracy? Fact is, I and most other users WANT Steam. We prefer it. It makes getting new games and keeping them updated completely hassle-free. Eliminates the need to keep track of CDs or even downloaded files. And if I ask what the downsides are of Steam, nights like tonight are pretty much the only one. I think that's a fair trade-off.
But it doesn't actually curb piracy! Like other DRM, it's touchy-feely pointy-haired-boss crap. "Let's have a central authorization scheme! People will get an ID from their serial key, and that way we can lock down the whole system! You can't join a game or download updates without being logged in!" So regular users have this hoop to jump through, with this bloated memory hog running when they want to play, get flaky errors in game or with components like the friends list when the ID server messes up, or at times like tonight (or however long) just can't use their purchased product at all. Meanwhile, the pirates immediately hack the program to avoid the login, and play on hacked servers that don't require a Steam ID, and take updates from a single legal copy and hack to as many copies as they want.
And no, you don't want Steam. You may want a program with similar goals for program maintenance and purchasing, but Valve's actual implementation is terrible.
And no, you don't want Steam. You may want a program with similar goals for program maintenance and purchasing, but Valve's actual implementation is terrible.
Yes, HL2 has still been hacked like all other games. But from what I've seen it took much longer to get working copies out there, and they also don't have the benefit of immediate updates and patches, or the ease of installing said patches. It didn't eliminate piracy but I'm sure it helped limit it a bit and maybe also encouraged more users to legally purchase it. And, as I've been saying, Steam offers so many benefits for Valve and the end user far beyond curbing piracy. Even if it didn't help piracy AT ALL, the benefits are many.
You have to explain to me how Valve's implementation is terrible because I'm not seeing it. I agree they need a better offline mode for nights like tonight, or perhaps more servers worldwide so that if a whole cluster goes down they can still support the system, but other than that I see no problems at all. In its early days it was definitely flaky, but now it's very fast and functional. Memory usage is not bad, if you X out the GUI as the game is launching maybe 10 MB or so. And I have never had any of these "server ID" issues you keep speaking of.
The alternatives you've listed are not as easy, streamlined, or convenient, and a system similar to Steam but without any encryption of any kind would only be shooting the developer in the foot. As I see it, the perfect implementation is one exactly like Steam but with fixes in place for the issues you speak of and ones like tonight.
To those who couldn't connect last night, try again. And to those who did get a connection last night, you lucky bastards 
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