> Kevin wrote: Doesn't it scare anyone else that the game they buy from the store on CD > can be turned off even for single-player, non-network play?
What do you mean? If they decide your copy is a bootleg or something? Or if Valve decides to move offshore once the Half-life 2 infection spreads into your brain and they want to start charging you by the hour for the come-back? AFAIK, Steam has some major benefits to offset any conspiracy theories: 1 - You can tie the CD Key to your steam account and play it on different machines, at different times of course. Something that Apple screwed us on with iTunes. If you buy a song on iTunes, you can only download it once. So if your computer crashes and you don't have it backed up, your screwed. Full price for a lesser quality song with no real digital benefits? Bah. 2 - I haven't confirmed it, but I think you don't need to run the game from the CD once Steam is all set up. That's the main reason I modded my xbox, so that I don't have to get my fat butt off of the chair to switch games. 3 - Game downloads, automatic updates, bugfixes, anti-cheating etc. From a developer's and end-user standpoint, I'd be pretty estatic for this feature/ability. (I still want to the DVD and manual though, so I'll always buy the packaged product.) There's no doubt in my mind that Steam is good for the whole PC videogame industry, I just don't want every game to come with a new account/program I'm going to have to manage in some capacity on my machine. I guess we'll see how it all plays out. Tyler -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Graeme [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 9:48 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Re: Halflife2 and EBgames.com and my new Video Card so sexy! > And I can't blame Vivendi. This is probably their only major cashcow to show their shareholders for the last few quarters. > They don't want anything to go wrong, and certainly don't want to get > cut out of the picture, which is what may happen if Steam takes over and starts activating. I sort of agree with the "can't blame Vivendi" sentiment. But for different reasons. I blame Valve for creating Steam and tying the game so closely to it that it can actually be disabled. Vivendi is using the feature, but Valve created it. Bad Valve. Doesn't it scare anyone else that the game they buy from the store on CD can be turned off even for single-player, non-network play? -Kevin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:135900 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
