As readers of this blog should know, I recently built a new computer, and along with it got some new games. One of those games was the Orange Box from Valve. I’ve heard many good things about this package and had high hopes for the game, and to this point the games have certainly not disappointed. I am very disappointed, however, with Steam. During the installation it asked me to register for the service, which I dislike doing as a rule but was willing to overlook in this instance. I soon realized, however, that in registering for Steam the game was tying itself to my account, meaning that I will never be able to resell these games. Every time I want to launch one of the games I need to go through an authentication process that is at the very least, annoying, or, at the most, an invasion of my privacy. Steam itself is a good idea and a decent enough program, but it is clearly just one big DRM machine. I know that in the future I will avoid any game from Valve, or any other game that uses Steam.