For the future, Desura is probably going to become the mod center. Even more than Steamworks. http://www.moddb.com/groups/desura/news/introducing-desura So, something to think about.
Heard about it ages ago. From the impression I got, it will be like steamworks. It'll be a massive database of mods and indie games and you choose to download them hassel free, and it will keep you updated and such. Not bulleted, so sue me.
ModDB always comes off as an amateurishly run site, and I expect the same from any tool/network they try to come up with.
And we've come full circle in 6 posts. 1. I has idea 2. lol cocks 3. this sounds good 4. --Deleted-- 5. I dont like this idea 6. Empires sucks.
I've been on the beta for ages. It's pretty much what it claims to be, but obviously the community/friends side of it is pretty untested due to the fact that most people who use it already have steam or xfire.
Also in the beta. The auto-finding of mods is pretty good, and the mods who have added Desura support are nice since they now auto-patch (unfortunately it's not many yet, I have 3 mods that Desura recognizes out of the 8 installed on my system). Basically, it has potential, but we'll see. Biggest issue is that it will have to supplant/complement Steam and/or XFire for the community side. Also, it links into the ModDB site for forums, comments, and the like. However, I believe adding Desura support isn't quite as painful as Steamworks, but I haven't tried. So, think ModDB, in client form, with auto-updating powers and a few shiny community features.