On Thu, 18 Feb 2010, maccrawj wrote:
Biggest downside of Steam purchases:
1. You get none of the physical box contents like maps, manuals, etc...
Some (Valve only??) games allow you to use your store purchased key to
import into steam, giving you best of both worlds.
2. Licensed per-user with no resale or moving of licenses to another account
nevermind the idea of parent-child-sibling sharing of a title.
This is true and a downside for some. For me, I never sell my games
anyways, so not a factor.
3. Can be even MORE draconian than disc-in-drive protections.
Not sure how, I've not met any game on steam that didn't allow you to put
steam into offline mode and still play.
4. Autopatching is FORCED, not optional, so if a current update is crap you
have to take it rather than waiting for it to be revised.
Not actually correct. You can turn on the auto-updates in the game
properties.
5. Price tends NOT to be better than street price AND then factor in #1.
Advantages: As long as Valve is in business you can download and install
your games without worrying about the disk. You can login to steam on any
computer and install the game to show people. Deals on games with 50% off
or more very often making good indie games down to $5 or less. (I got
Torchwood for $5 when it was 75% off, L4D1 for $25 when it was 50% off,
The Railroads series for $20 for the entire series when it was on sale,
etc).
the 5% discount on pre-purchases is nice, but I never pre-purchase, so
doesn't effect me.
Christopher Fisk
--
"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily
killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're
willing to kill."
George W. Bush
May 19, 2003
Washington, D.C.
