{"id":90,"date":"2010-08-01T12:13:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T19:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2010-09-13T15:10:24","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T22:10:24","slug":"steam-a-curse-and-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/?p=90","title":{"rendered":"Steam – A Curse and a Blessing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday I posted about Goozex and how excellent the service can be.\u00a0 Note that I write “can” be.\u00a0 Goozex and online game trading is far from perfect.\u00a0 New games still need to be purchased in order for the used market to exist and thrive.\u00a0 Obviously, used copies will never exist if no one is buying them new.\u00a0 Also, as you can image, demand is extremely high for used copies of newly released games.<\/p>\n

Back in January, when Mass Effect 2 was released, there were 3 ways I could have obtained a copy (legally).\u00a0 I could buy it new on release date from any big box store.\u00a0 I could have waited in line for a used copy on Goozex, potentially waiting a month or more with only a slight savings.\u00a0 Or I could have purchased a downloadable copy from Steam.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steam is the content delivery system developed by Valve (the makers of Half Life) – clicking the logo to the left will take you there.\u00a0 Initially developed for the delivery of Valve developed games and updates, the system has evolved to carrying titles for many game developers.<\/p>\n

The setup if pretty straight forward.\u00a0 Sign up an account and purchase games using various purchasing methods (even Paypal).\u00a0 The purchased games are tied to your account, not your PC.\u00a0 This allows you to install copies on any PC you like (sometimes there are limitations on this), assuming the Steam client is installed.\u00a0 Only one copy can be played at any one time.\u00a0 Various DRM schemes are used to prevent piracy.<\/p>\n

What’s the catch you ask?\u00a0 Well, if you are someone who normally buys games new and keeps them indefinitely, then Steam provides a lot of benefits.\u00a0 Obtaining games is more convenient.\u00a0 You always have an online backup whenever you want to re-install.\u00a0 You never have to worry about loosing media and if you are patient you can often get the games you want on sale (sometimes half off).\u00a0 Plus there are Steam rewards and an online community.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, what happens when you finish the game?\u00a0 If it’s a multiplayer game, that may never happen.\u00a0 There are still folks playing Quake 3 online and that game is over 10 years old.\u00a0 If the game is linear or story based, you may find that after playing through once or twice, you may no longer have any interest in playing it ever again.\u00a0 If you purchased that game through Steam, well, that is the end of the line.\u00a0 Steam does not allow games to be transfered or passed from one account to another.\u00a0 It’s a one time deal.\u00a0 Even if you have two accounts with Steam, there is no way to move games from one to another or consolidate them into a single account.<\/p>\n

And thus the curse of content delivery systems for games.\u00a0 Despite costing the game publishers significantly less to sell their product, the prices are often the same as retail (sometimes more) and once you buy it, it’s your forever.<\/p>\n

When it came to buying Mass Effect 2, I choose retail.\u00a0 I didn’t want to wait for a used copy, but I knew that once I was done with it, I could send it off through Goozex to someone more patient than I.\u00a0 I paid $60 for my copy, but after playing it for 4 months I traded it for 650 points (the equivalent of about $32.50).<\/p>\n

Despite this, I still use Steam.\u00a0 Some of the sales are insane, especially around Christmas.\u00a0 This past Boxing day I purchased several classic games for $2 or less.\u00a0 Also, there are games that are available on Steam that you can not buy retail like Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I love BioWare (I would even consider moving to Edmonton, AB if given the chance to work for them) and I realize that they don’t get a cut of used game sales, but not everyone can afford to buy video games at retail prices.<\/p>\n

If you hate DRM, an alternative to Steam is Direct2Drive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ComputerAbuser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I posted about Goozex and how excellent the service can be. Note that I write “can” be. Goozex and online game trading is far from perfect. New games still need to be purchased in order for the used market to exist and thrive. Obviously, used copies will never exist if no one is buying them new. Also, as you can imaging, demand is extremely high for used copies of newly released games. <\/p>\n

Back in January, when Mass Effect 2 was released, there were 3 ways I could have obtained a copy (legally). I could buy it new on release date from any big box store. I could have waited in line for a used copy on Goozex, potentially waiting a month or more with only a slight savings. Or I could have purchased a downloadable copy from Steam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[204],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","tag-games"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11UM6-1s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerabuser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}