For instance, I have to wait for the service to load before the games I've bought through the service do, adding anywhere from a half dozen to several dozen seconds launch time. There's no unbundling Steam's austere, utilitarian wrapper, even if the game happens to be available through a storefront retailer, or some other digital distributor that takes its hooks out post-delivery.

Then there's managing the data you've downloaded, say you rebuild your PC fairly often, as I do. You can backup your Steam games offline in convenient CD or DVD sizes, but you can't decompress or install them without installing Steam first.

Once a Steam game, always a Steam game, for better or worse.

And if the service ever goes belly up permanently? Valve's end user license agreement says you're guaranteed nothing. You're not really buying anything, in other words, but rather "renting" games on an indefinite--but viability-constituent--basis.

It'll surprise no one, then, that reselling Steam-bought games is impossible. Blame probably lies with the publishers on this point--some of these guys think reselling games (and purportedly draining off new sales) is the devil. Nonetheless, an artifact of using the service.