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Annoying experience with non-pirated software

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jgpaiva:
[I know this topic has been around for a few times already, but mouser's "don't revive topics" alert told me to create a new topic :P ]

So, here's my recent experience with Portal 2.
I had bought Portal 1 and loved it, so as soon as Portal 2 came out, I really really wanted to buy it.
My problems at the time were that:
1 - I have a not so good computer (which to make matters worse is a mac)
2 - Valve decided they would not create a demo for portal 2
So, when the game came out, it cost like 50€, and I had no way to know if it would ever run on my computer. Thanks for that, Valve, you've just lost part of my money!
Also, the computer being a mac, there were no pirated versions of portal for me to test it.

Ok, so three or four weeks ago, a pirated version for mac came up on the internet. I downloaded it in 4 hours, took 20min to understand how to install it, and after another 30minutes of installing it, I was happily playing portal 2 on my mac with no problems.
I figured that as it ran so well, I should buy the original version and buy another copy for a friend of mine. Since it was selling at amazon for 20€, less than it was on steam (WHY??? If they sell it to amazon, why it is more expensive for us to buy the digital version which has almost no costs for them?), I bought the two copies there and waited 4 days for them to arrive.

Now, what happens after it arrives is just incredible. First, I install it from CD and it takes the same 30min it took to install the pirated version. Then problem was that after it installed, it had to download an "update", which was downloading at 6kb/s (even though everything else on my internet was working at 1mb/s) and took 4hours! I was mad as hell, the pirated version took me 10 times less time from "buying" to "playing". Good thing I didn't buy it online, downloading 10GB at 6kb/s would have been fun.

To make this really hilarious, when my friend tried to install her copy, steam informed her that her key is invalid! Then, for two hours we tried all possible interpretations of the characters and none worked (there was really only one interpretation, but we figured it shouldn't be a problem on steam's side). So, I went to the online support of steam, used a really nice contact sheet with places to put all the info (saying which game it was, which problem, which key, which user, etc) yesterday morning. The problem is that a full day has gone by and I had no answer :(

I'm really sad that we couldn't play the co-op this weekend as planed, and after this, I get the feeling that something is seriously wrong with the way software is being sold...

Ath:
What a horror-story, and if it where from a low-end games creator it could have been a little bit acceptable/understandable, but getting a pirated copy easier and better (working) on your system just shows how the games industry is failing as a whole. I never play/buy games, nor 'acquire' pirated commercial versions, but experiences like these scare me even further away.

I know it's a complete industry, games software for PC's, but I guess it is time for a good set of free offerings in this area.

fenixproductions:
@jgpaiva
I believe, that a least you will be able to run it. All I can get from P2 is first loading screen. Worst spent money ever!

Lashiec:
Some ironic coincidence :D

worstje:
Ugh, that sucks jgpaiva. :(

The reason that Steam actually has higher prices than other outlets is because otherwise other outlets would not be able to make a profit on them. If Steam has the lowest price, people have no reason to buy it anywhere else unless they want a physical box. Don't forget Steam is pretty much its own advertisement platform once you have it installed. And in the end, there's big money involved in letting other major retailers sell games like Portal 2.

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