Well, getting the game through Impulse also required an internet connection- and it's kinda hard to get a game without an internet connection if it's not sold at retail...

Steam does have its annoyances though, which is why I wish there will be an option to run the game without Steam.

Be careful with statistics...that is NOT 14% marketshare, which is meaningless anyway since many people likely have games on several different clients...I for example have several steam games, but also some in impulse, origin, and desura...gog also sells some old classics that steam does not, so in some ways they aren't even direct competitors...

@ Seleuceia

Valid point. I can see how that number can be misread. I'll make a point to try to re-check my info.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do that for any of the games I have from Steam.  That's why I won't be buying GC3 if it's Steam only.  The Steam client has pissed me off one too many times, and I'm seriously considering just looking for cracked copies of all the games I've bought through it, so I can actually play them instead of just waiting for them to load.  The developers and retailers have my money, but I don't have the ability to play most of my games.  Even the GameStop client is better than that.

Something wrong is whit your pc, or just send ticket to steam support. Im using steam since 2004 (~2008 to buy games from there), never had any problems whit steam itself. For me its best "gaming platform" on the market. When i changed os or hd (recently i buyed ssd/win8) i didnt have to install all that games, i just copied entire steam directory (120gb) and everything works. Very usefull.

But always good to have a choice, so non-steam ver would be nice.

Having trashed many games (CIV V and Skyrim coming to mind, and reason I won't be getting SimCity V) simply because I found out after the fact they can't be played without Steam, running, I'll just accept my loss in paying for the Elite Founders version of GCIII.  As suggested however, if Steam is just for downloading/updating and does not require a check prior to running the game then I'll grudgingly accept it.  Simply stated - I do not Trust Steam and has slowed down every system I've had it on and is constantly using bandwidth which considering my limits and slow connection is more than a minor annoyance.

People are living in a world of dreams to think this will not be a Steam Release. Its a financial no-brainer for a Games House to have third party distribution etc.

There is no way this will be independently released - not a chance in hell - get used to it.

Here's the problem, and I used to post about this regularly as a warning to the industry; Steameorks.  We need it. It's not just good, it's amazing. And it's free except that it relies on Steam to be installed.

This is why I was pouring so much effort into impulse::reactor. I put my best game developers on it. I basically sacrificed Elemental for it. But GameStop abandoned it. 

Sometimes I wonder if Brad wishes he'd never written that thing.  The only references I ever see to it these days are to throw something back in his face

As he said above, Steamworks just works.  That's how all great assimilations have worked throughout history - make it not only painless to join, but also the best choice.  Then, eventually, make it the only choice.

I understand peoples' concerns with Steam being a SPoF, and it could happen, even if it's something like Gamestop when they ruined Impulse. But, in the mean time, I'm one of those weirdos that likes Steam and have re-bought games when they've gone on that platform (on sale, of course.)  I've never had an issue with the service and it makes migrating to a new machine a breeze.  (Even with Impulse, I still had to go through and detect each game install individually.)

You disagree with what? Please reread what I wrote, specifically the first sentence you quoted.  Here, I'll retype it for you with with emphasis added:

-> IF THE GAME REQUIRES STEAM RUNNING IN ORDER TO FUNCTION <- it directly violates Stardock's own "Gamers Bill of Rights".

How does this differ from what you said?  You disagree then restate the same thing I said.  I did NOT say EVERY Steam game violates the "Gamers Bill of Rights" and I did NOT say I knew how GalCiv3 specifically would use Steam.  The FAQ is somewhat vague in that it doesn't mention Steam at all and I for one would like explicit clarification that the game can be run without Steam running (not just running in offline mode) and still function.

My bad.  I misread what you said and thought you were saying that Galciv3 will violate the gamer's bill of rights.  Rereading that, I see your point.

It shocks me to see Frogboy come out and post this, and then everyone just... ignores it.  Some people continue to argue the point for him, but no one directly responds to / acknowledges his actual point:

Steamworks is just too good to pass up.  Whatever he might want.

I acknowledged it above, because it is a very good point. 

It certainly can be done without Steamworks, but Brad is pointing out that it makes life a lot easier to do what he's trying to do.  Also, Star Citizen and Minecraft are both true indie projects.  One is super-low resources, AI, etc and was able to be organically grown along with the user base.  It was never intended to be what it became - a release like GC3 will need to be planned from the ground up.

And Star Citizen...well...that shouldn't be used as an example for anything.  That guy was going to make the game the way he wanted to make it with no regards to ease or good sense.    He's a mad man...and then, we kickstarters went and gave him a $20M (and growing) budget...

EDIT:  And, it should be noted, Star Citizen hasn't released anything except for a hanger simulator so far, and even that's really rough.  It's a long, long way from release, so we shouldn't put too much stock into promises and plans until things get nailed down a bit more.