I just found out the hard way about steam. I bought HL 2 the big deluxe issue game a few years ago. Tried to run it but it would not run well on my old computer. So last week I find the game in my old CD, DVD storage box reload it but guess what, I load it up create a new steam account but know it want take my game because I forgot I made a steam account years ago so I never will get to play a game i payed for.