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[fredreed]

This is a poll to see which one offers the best service in terms of downloading and tech support.

[Virmin]

I'm curious why you don't have Impulse on there. After getting a game from Impulse not to long ago I'm inclined to think that its better then Steam. But of course Steam still has so many sales that it still is the one I'll use most. Out of the 3 listed I have only used Steam and I am pleased with it thus far.

[City Builder]

Well, if you're ready for a long answer... Here we go...
Remember these are either my opinions, or from experiences that I've had with each service.


Steam: 
* Excellent platform to buy games from, offers many many games in all genres.
* Often has sales on their games
* Excellent implementation into steamworks games for the things like an in game web browser, messaging somebody on your friends list.
* Prices are standard for U.S. customers
* Prices are not good for non U.S. customers (for some reason, Steam values the $1.00 the same as €1, pissing off EU customers at times)
* Support has always returned my inquiries in an acceptable timeframe.
* Fast download speeds for me.  With the rare exception on release day of some games that the server pukes up and tells me it's too busy and to try downloading the game again later.
* Steam client will automatically patch my purchased games, although sometimes I do have to restart steam if I don't want to wait for the client to get around to downloading the patch.

GamerGate:
* Support 'usually' answered my inquires in an acceptable amount of time, however sometimes they didn't answer at all.
* Download speeds were often limited to 160kb/s and sometimes as low as 85kb/s while I could download from steam at 1.2MB/s to 2.2MB/s
* Easy to navigate the 'My Games' page that lists all the purchases that I've made with GG.
* Sometimes patches are severely delayed making it up onto GG web site, even though the developers swear they gave the patch to them days before.
*  Selection is limited somewhat, not nearly as comprehensive as Steam and D2D.

A bad experience with GG:
They sold me a 'golfing' game.  I went to the official developer forum for that golf game and learned that Gamersgate did not have the rights to sell the game.  I contacted GG and told them what I was told directly from the one man development team and they sent me back and email telling me that it was impossible, I was wrong, and that they could not sell the game if they didn't have the right to do so.  I sent them the link to the developers forum that had my discussion.  Within 5 hours I had another response telling me that it must have been a miscommunication and that my credit card had been credited back the money.

Direct2Drive:
* Good download speeds, easily rivaling Steams.
* Support is an obnoxious [*******] service that the employees don't give a damn about customer satisfaction.
* Easy to navigate my purchase page on D2D
* Selection is pretty good, though in my opinion, not as good as Steams.

A bad experience with D2D:
I bought a game from them that was clearly marked to have multiplayer support.  I installed the game and when I tried to play the multiplayer I found out that UBIsoft had turned off that server a couple years before.  I contacted D2D and explained the situation and told them that I had only bought the chess game for the multiplayer for without it, there was no fun, no challenge, and something I didn't want.  They basically told me to take a hike and that it's not their fault that the multiplayer servers had been taken offline.  I expressed my opinion that since the servers were taken offline several years ago, that they should not be advertising the game with multiplayer support as it does not exist.  They basically told me that I'd have to take it up with UBIsoft to get a refund as they would not be issuing one as it's not their fault that there are no multiplayer servers to play on anymore.  I asked them if they would be removing the info on the sales page about multiplayer suppport, and they stopped communication at that point.

I won't buy from them again.

Impulse:
* (IMO) A poor selection of games, not anywhere near as complete as D2D or Steam.
* Good support services and responds in a timely manner.
* Good download speeds
* Lists the games release date as the date that they put it on impulse even if the game is several years old, sometimes making it confusing whether a game is old or really new.
* Not sure that the patch process always works the same as it does on Steam, what I mean is there have been times where I've had to redownload the entire 12GB game over again as the patch.

A good experience with Impulse:
I bought a racing game from Impulse that showed that showed a release date of like 2 days before i bought it.  I thought it was a brand new game, however it turned out to be a couple years old and the multiplayer that I had bought it for was non existant (everybody played it and moved on I guess).  I contacted Impulse and let them know that I had purchased it for the multiplayer but that the game was actually a couple years old and not what they listed as the release date.  They promptly credited my credit card for the purchase and let me keep the game (at least until I uninstalled it, the game was actually removed from my impulse account, but obviously they couldn't uninstall it from my computer).  Overall, although I don't like the way they list the release dates as when they get it on Impulse, they did right by me by giving me a refund when I let them know I was disatisfied because of this issue.

So... If I had to choose the one that is the best for my money, it is Steam all the way.  A great selection of games, often has great sales, no problem with me and support there, good forums for the more popular games, and a client that works to patch my games in a somewhat timely manner.

[Khalan]

I use Impulse > Steam > Gamers Gate.

Edit:
Touching on what CB mentioned below:  Steam is usually great with prices (often $40 US for new games, equals about $45-50 AU, locally new games are $90 AU).  For some games though, they hike the price way up.  For example, currently Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is on sale (33% off) for $60.29 US - full price $89.99 US.  I don't think anyone in the US would pay that much for a new game.

[CoconutKid]

To broaden the question a bit, I wish to ask about the efficacy and safety of remote sites for storage.

I vaguely understand that there are sites for uploading material for "storage" - are they called "cloud storage?" With an internet connection, they act as a part of your PC to provide more secure and less hardware intensive "space" for your data.

That seems to me to be a logical extension of the long-term aspect of the service "Steam," etc. provide for the games they sell you.

While it's a pain in the butt to keep order in a pile of CDs & DVDs, at least they are under your control -- until your house catches fire from someone else's screw-up. But my concern is the security of these on-line outfits. Like a big physical storage unit site, how secure is it from theft and management default? For example, how financially secure is Steam? Will it last as long as I wish to play those games? Or is it subject to sudden collapse and either transfer to a less helpful ownership or outright disappearance?

I'm trying to understand the wave of the future. 

[Virmin]

Well I think Valve, which makes steam is in a particularly good situation for this kind of program. Unlike most companies that are branches of some higher corporation and rely on that corporations funding, Valve was built by a few devs who got rich from microsoft and decided to make their own gaming company. So its all internally funded. And I think the success of Steam is really unparalleled. They aren't relying on steam for income as it was mainly a side operation that they used for their own games and eventually they started adding games from indie developers and then more mainstream devs joined them as time went on.

But really the thing to consider is that no matter how turbulent Valve were to become financially (as unlikely as that is), the success of Steam means it would be pretty much guaranteed to be picked up by another company if need be.

Whats more is that due to the amazing sales on Steam, I could lose my whole game collection and still be satisfied with what I got out of it.

[CoconutKid]

Thanks for the reply.

That's interesting. I have to admit that I am suspicious of "hobby" operations. I have been bitten by too many of them.

But I suppose that 'Steam' is susceptible to being sucked-up by Google or Yahoo or someone when the filthy rich ex-developers get bored.

[RhiannOn]

You can save your downloaded game content in your steam directory so you do not have to redownload your games. 
Just copy your .gcf  and .ncf files  in your steamapps folder and save your "common" folder as that is where the 3rd party games  go or just copy  the "steamapps" folder (which includes everything within it and does the same job).

If you do a reformatt of your harddrives all you need to do then is reinstall the steam client and paste the above files back into the steam folder directory overwriting the mew steamapps folder and folders within.

It saves having to download  your full game content again, although steam will still probably have to re-update other stuff but that is normal with a new install.

Yeah, the steam sales were great. 

[CoconutKid]

You can save your downloaded game content in your steam directory so you do not have to redownload your games. 
... is reinstall the steam client and paste the above files back into the steam folder directory overwriting the new steamapps folder and folders within. ...

That's interesting to know, and thank you.

I understand most of it. But what is "the steam client" ??

[crowebird]

I understand most of it. But what is "the steam client" ??

The steam client is the platform that you need installed to download and launch the games you buy through steam.  (You can buy games directly on the website, but need the client to download).
www.steampowered.com

and this should help -> http://store.steampowered.com/about/