Have been using Steam myself for a few years too, without any real problems. Have only ever used it as a purchasing and downloading service though, so haven't had to rely on it as an online game-server facility or social-gaming stat-tracking type service as such. I just buy the games through them, using Paypal, download and install them, play them through, usually offline (Red Orchestra is the only one I've played online) then unininstall them again, all without any hassles.
There are some downsides to the overall Steam service though, which make me think I'll probably get CloDo in disk form as well. One of the potential downsides is the way Steam games get patched and updated. There's often a slight delay between a developer releasing a patch for a game and that patch becoming available to the Steam version of that game.
As far as I understand it, you've also got no ability to undo patches that have been applied to the Steam version of the game. All you can do is make a back-up copy of the game at each version, uninstall the later version, re-install the older version and not let Steam update it if and when it recognizes the older version needs updating. That's not a lot different to rolling back the game using an original disk version and applying patches as you see fit, except that all your patched versions saved as steam backups will have to be complete versions of the game. So, instead of just having the original game on DVD and the patches on another CD or DVD, you'll have to have several DVD's containing the various patched levels of the entire game.
As others have mentioned, there's also the thing about not being able to have several Steam versions of the game installed at the same time. As far as I know, that is in fact the case.
So, there are some potential inconveniences, depending on what you want to to with the game. That's with not even taking the modding situation into account, but if mods to CloDo are done like mods to the Steam version of Red Orchestra, that shouldn't be a problem, they can be applied and deleted without changing the core game as far as Steam is concerned.
I personally don't anticipate needing to have multiple versions of the game on the one computer, or having to change between versions of it, and I don't need to have each patch for the game the very moment it comes out, so none of these things are deal breakers for me in terms of whether or not I get the Steam version.
But, at the same time, I have planned all along to have at least one hard-copy of the original version on disk and the various patches and mods on disk as a back up, along with and separate to the Steam version. Just so I'm not totally dependent upon one or the other, and as an excuse to spend more on the game in support of the developers.
Edit - Just remembered one instance where Steam did fail me. It was a very rare case where the Steam client itself needed updating, but my internet connection dropped out. This left me unable to update the Steam client, or even play off-line, because as soon as I started up Steam it just kept trying to connect online to update itself and wouldn't even give me a chance to tell it I wanted to play off-line. That's about as bad as it's ever been for me with Steam. Others have had other issues for sure, but the way I've been using it, I haven't experienced those.
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