It is worth considering that Gabe Newell quote in light of how Steam built its original install base: By strong-arming owners of retail copies of Half-Life (not

It is worth considering that Gabe Newell quote in light of how Steam built its original install base: By strong-arming owners of retail copies of Half-Life (notably including players of CounterStrike, a player-created mod) and requiring them to install Steam and create an account to update Half-Life / play it online. At the time this was as well-received as any other strong-arming.