On 2/19/2010 2:47 PM, Christopher Fisk wrote:
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.
Yes, some do.
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.
Well every other point aside, this IS the biggest problem & ass-rape IMO especially
for multiple player households. Add to the mix episodic titles that once played to
conclusion have no additional value.
Valve teases you with HL2 Gold + Orange by leaving you with a "gift" copy of base HL2
for a friend. The rub? ANYONE with a ATI or NVIDIA card can get that same base HL2
for free already!
Fat Gabe really wants you to buy the complete HL collection so he can eat a few more
burritos.
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.
5 activations ala Spore ring a bell? Requiring the disc is a PITA, but limiting
activations is just over the top especially for games that then also require the disc.
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.
Clarification: For offline play you are likely correct. You're not getting into an
online game without the latest patch. This unlike how it used to be where server ops
would wait to patch sometimes to be sure a patch fixed more than it broke.
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.
IMHO true deals are a relatively new thing with Valve. Up until now their idea of a
deal was a ~$100 all inclusive HalfLife bundle. Still I say for new release big name
games the prices tend to be as high as retail and that's just crazy. You're talking
about dead or old titles with your examples, Valve is doing great deals on that if
you consider spending money on old titles.
"as long as Valve is in business" and as long as they honor your license, not to
mention as long as the publisher runs game servers assuming online play. =)
Prices for A list titles need to drop massively vs. retail and they need to allow for
parent-child-sibling account setups before my concerns subside.
