Some might argue no one's obligated to publish through Steam. That's true. Except everyone's going to be obligated to publish through Steam or something like Steam sooner or later. You can't sell what you can't distribute, and even with the grass-roots, democracy-thumping, indie-rific internet, service providers still divide into access "haves" and access "have nots."

So is Steam really "dangerous for the rest of the industry"? I can only speak to my personal experiences using the service. Most of the time it runs fine. Occasionally it crashes (though maybe that's my Windows 7 release candidate, who knows). Occasionally I grapple with one or two of the issues described above.

On balance, though, it mostly works.

Do I want content delivery out of the way of my game experience? Sure. I don't care about Steam awards or friends lists or messaging tools. I have a dozen other better ways to do any of that.

But then I guess it's that "mostly works" mentality that empowers companies like Valve to keep doing what they're doing. Because it works, and because if it ain't standing outside our front doors with a search warrant, why fix it.