I remember hating Steam at first, as I bought the boxed version of HL2, and had to go online to activate it. I remember being so annoyed that I legally bought the game, had the box in front of me, yet still couldn't play it until I signed up to Steam. I was only on a 56k modem then as well (shared flat), which made it all the more painful. I pretty much just left it alone until a couple of years ago, when a sale dragged me back in. I'm impressed with how well it all works now, and I own close to 60 games I think too (bloody Steam sales!).