Poll Question 030 - Do you prefer online distribution systems or normal retail?

Any issues I had with Steam seem to have gone now it more developed, and I now have no problems with it, it’s cool to have any game available on it accessible without having to worry about the disks breaking or anything.

I also find it really convenient to have all Steam games in one place for easy access. It would be really awesome if steam let you add the executables of non-steam games to it at some point.

Valve won’t always be around, either. nor will steam.

I love my hard-copy.

The two things aren’t mutually exclusive. One should be able to buy a game online, download it immediately, and have a retail box shipped.

When I started using Steam a few years ago, I became infuriated with it at various times, because it worked terribly. ‘What’s that? You paid money for something you didn’t get and can’t use? Oh well, too bad, so sad, bye-bye. You could post a message in the forums and get derided for not admiring this lovely system that never fails to take your money, but often fails to deliver the product.’

Isn’t that just too irritating? The system that charges you money never, ever, EVER fails! Everything else is a coin toss at best. But the payment system is like the Rock of Gibraltar, except not as soft.

AHEM! Sorry.

I don’t have a complete idea of how Steam works, but I have a feeling that if my internet connection isn’t working, I won’t be able to play my games. That would not go over well with me.

I hate the idea of some company (companies?) knowing each and every time I fire up a game, and how long I played it. It’s none of their business.

As far as automatic updating goes, yeah that’s nice, but it has nothing to do with the purchasing system. Any game could be made to automatically update. All sorts of applications these days offer this functionality–why don’t games? You don’t need a full-blown system like Steam for this sort of thing.

So I do like the idea of being able to buy games online and download them immediately, but I don’t like the nonsense that so far has gone along with it. And that nonsense is unnecessary. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to order a retail box along with your download; there’s no reason your game playing should be monitored to any extent; and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to play (or develop) even without an internet connection.

planetphillip Said:

There’s little doubt that Steam offers other benefits and problems of just an Online Distribution System. That’s why I tried to keep the question simple.

Regarding Steam Backup, try:
Right Click your Game List and choose Backup Game Files…

Yeah, I read your post, but I guess I got carried away. I really am sorry about that. I sometimes get steamed when I think or talk about Steam.

I knew about the backup function in Steam, but it doesn’t seem to do what I want it to. You still need an internet connection to play it, even if you restore from CD/DVD. I don’t want to get off track here. Sorry.

C’mon, face it, in the world of Web2/3, interoperability, persistant data, streams and feeds, online shopping, the box on the shelf is destined to pass. Everybody likes taking home a big shiny box, unpicking the film and opening it up to find…. a disc. Think of the planet, think how much rainforest and bushbabies will be saved. Ok, so digital distribution is a bit hit and miss, it’s early days. If you could slash your costs just by avoiding boxes and shops, wouldn’t you? It’s not as if the staff at the shop know what they’re talking about anyway. The biggest problem for most appears to be the lack of transportability between machines. How many people bought a copy of a certain game at the shop only to have to license it online and find it was tied to their hard drive? With flash ram getting ever cheaper (I can buy a 1Gb pen for about a fiver here, that’s more than in my beige box at a fraction of what it cost for my PC) transportability will still be feasable. A techie friend of mine has an XP installation, and a disc recovery ute and other tools on a pen drive for rescueing the PCs of the clueless. So, don’t be so recidivist. Embrace the binary revolution and, say goodbye to the resource costly box. Times they are a changing. Haven’t I already said that somewhere before?
P.S. What I have found with this kind of debate about digital distribution and DRM amongst friends is the knowledge that it will become increasingly hard to rip off the Mega-Corps.
P.P.S. Can I hear teeth grinding?

planetphillip Said:

Chianti Said:

Think of the planet, think how much rainforest and bushbabies will be saved.

Whilst I agree in principle I don’t think it is that simple. Think about how much electricity is used to download the millions of files.

I almost responded to the environmental statement, but then I figured it was purely sarcastic. It seems obvious that running lots of server farms and increasing the power demand all along the line right to the downloader’s computer uses lots of electricity, which as I write this doesn’t come from nowhere.

I have a confession…

I’m a lazy *******

Online Distribution FTW!

Arque Said:

How many people bought a copy of a certain game at the shop only to have to license it online and find it was tied to their hard drive? With flash ram getting ever cheaper (I can buy a 1Gb pen for about a fiver here, that’s more than in my beige box at a fraction of what it cost for my PC) transportability will still be feasable.

Thats all fine and dandy but try and find a game that installs on a 1 gig USB stick.Most games use between 3 and 9 gigs nowadays.STALKER was nearly 10 and the demo of alpha prime was 500 meg alone.Proper storage is away off yet so that its 100% rcoverable let alone store it on USB sticks.

You guy’s should see my huge collection of old-school large PC game boxes

hard copy ftw, if I had to make a choice.

FTW stands for “For the Win”, meaning that you believe something is the best or good.

It really depends on the game for me. For a game I love and am re-buying, or know I will like, I’ll get the boxed version for all the other things you mentioned in the poll

BUT, if I’m thinking about trying something new, and it’s on steam, it’s ten times more likely I’ll buy it. Why? Because it shows up in the list (plus all around any way you cut it), because buying online is more of an impulse thing for me, and because I can get pictures, reviews, metascore, etc. etc. etc. all in one place before making my decision, OR, do a quick googler searcher and find out more, and not have to travel.

There are many times when I just browse the Steam store because I’m bored etc. and I’ve bought several game because of it, Dreamfall (an absolute winnder!) SiN (heard alot and said, screw it, I’ll by it before I think it) Eets (another great buy for people that like REAL puzzle games, plus, it’s got a level ediotr built in) and, most recently, XCOM: Terror of the Deep, for only $2.50!

I like steam, I love steam. Only thing that annoys me about it is it’s propensity for errors that pop up in the development cycle of a mod.

i can only agree with you PP, i also love to have the box of the game (every day i look at least one time at my bookshelves with the game boxes in it, haha). and with it, the posters, books, etc.
therefore you will NEVER see me buy a game on line. beside this argument, i have heart to much time people complain that they did buy a game online, downloaded it, just to notice then that the reg.key didn’t work, or something else was wrong. with dvd/cd’s you don’t have this problem, so for me, i buy in a shop!!

leon