Pretty much the craziest sale Steam has ever had

[PharmaceuticalCowboy]

I would get bio shock if I didnt have it for the 360 its only 5 bucks!

Raz, If you have a good gaming PC then I would go ahead and rebuy it if you ever plan on playing the game ever again. I don't know about the x360 version, but I played the PS3 version and was embarrassed how crummy the graphics were... if you have a decent graphics card then the water effects look AMAZING.

[elvis]

Yeah because it's totally a sane business practice to buy one of the most successful PC companies of all time, only to brutally rape customer trust and take a huge loss on the entire acquisition.

I see you're not familiar with the skull-fuckery that is the US corporate world.

"Sane" is not a word that gets thrown around a lot in board meetings. I work for a company who was running things at a cost of about $5 million a year, and making a good profit. We just got bought out by another company who have said their motto is to "keep running costs down". Their forecast expenditure? $40 million a year. Eight times what we were spending previously, just to do the same job (if not less, because we're losing a few clients now because the new company doesn't like them). No "sane business practice" here. Plenty of "brutal customer trust rape" however.

Not quite kiddo. I'm referring to 15+ year old PC games that can't even be installed, let alone played, because the installer methods were built for Windows 3.11 and such. Current Windows has no idea what to do with them.

DOSBox and WINE do. I'm betting that they will deal pretty well with XP/Vista software in 15+ years also. I'm pro-open-source for a few reasons, one of them longevity of software.

Like I said, emulation. You aren't playing those games by their intended method. You're emulating them. And emulating them is not as simple as the original method.

WINE is not an emulator. In fact, "WINE" stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator".

Under WINE and DOSBox, installing DOS/Windows games is the same process as it is on the native system. It is as simple as the original method: double-click/run the installer, follow the wizard, and you're done. As mentioned previously, I'm a Linux user. I'm also an avid retro PC gamer who happens to play everything via WINE/DOSBox on Linux. And again, I'm hoping that many years from now anything I buy digitally will still be playable via similar methods.

Rest assured you've eased my Steam concerns. Between "offline mode" and the general game-cracking community, it sounds like my bases are covered. (Ironic that once again I'll turn to "piracy" to play games I've legally paid for - some several times over).

[Mozgus]

Under WINE and DOSBox, installing DOS/Windows games is the same process as it is on the native system. It is as simple as the original method: double-click/run the installer, follow the wizard, and you're done. As mentioned previously, I'm a Linux user. I'm also an avid retro PC gamer who happens to play everything via WINE/DOSBox on Linux. And again, I'm hoping that many years from now anything I buy digitally will still be playable via similar methods.

I know what WINE is. It's one of the many reasons I DON'T switch to Linux. Because it does NOT support the games as good as Windows does. You're talking as if WINE plays Windows games better or something. Ludicrous.

[corn619]

I just think if all game companies go all digital that they will lose a large demographic of gamers like myself and millions of people. I don't think people are ready to go all digital. I don't like the fact that I have to buy the storage device now, but it used to be included with the game in DVD form. Theres still a large demographic of gamers that are not ready to lease their content. By the way I work for the 3rd largest electric and nat. gas utility in the country. They fuck over customers on a daily basis, like its fun to them or something. When a company gets big, customers get fucked look at your history books.

[Mozgus]

When a company gets big, customers get fucked look at your history books.

I never denied this. But companies dont intentionally take huge losses like the scenario of buying and destroying Steam would be. Well some do. Namely, Sony.

[corn619]

When a company gets big, customers get fucked look at your history books.

I never denied this. But companies dont intentionally take huge losses like the scenario of buying and destroying Steam would be. Well some do. Namely, Sony.

I think theres a demographic for people who like to download and for people that like to buy a physical medium. I guess theres pros and cons in both arguments. You could argue both points until you are blue in the face. People like different things for different reasons. Hence why both formats are available.

[Mozgus]

When a company gets big, customers get fucked look at your history books.

I never denied this. But companies dont intentionally take huge losses like the scenario of buying and destroying Steam would be. Well some do. Namely, Sony.

I think theres a demographic for people who like to download and for people that like to buy a physical medium. I guess theres pros and cons in both arguments. You could argue both points until you are blue in the face. People like different things for different reasons. Hence why both formats are available.

And I never said that either. Where are you doing with this?

[elvis]

I know what WINE is. It's one of the many reasons I DON'T switch to Linux. Because it does NOT support the games as good as Windows does. You're talking as if WINE plays Windows games better or something. Ludicrous.

You're completely mis-reading/interpreting what I'm saying (not to mention trying your hardest to find conflict in every statement anyone makes, even when they're agreeing with you). Check the other WINE thread where I spell out the fact that WINE doesn't support native Windows games as well as (shock) native Windows.

With that said, it supports many older (5-10+ years) Windows games quite well (no, not as well as native Win32, but still pretty well). I'm not interested in any of the generic mass-market FPS games littering Steam at the moment. I played my last FPS in 2001, and never since, as they all started to look and feel alike to me. I've dabbled on friends' systems since then, and in the last 7 years have not once been tempted to go back to the FPS genre. RTS have never interested me, and outside of those two genres there's nothing else really exclusive on PC that I crave. So bleeding edge PC gaming isn't my thing. WINE handles most of my retro PC gaming needs (it even plays GGPO pretty well), as does DOSBox. Anything not supported (usually bleeding edge doujin shmups) I can happily live without until WINE catches up (which it invariably does within a few months for all the Win32 games I've cared about in the last 3 years).

If/when SF4 hits PC (and possibly via Steam), I'll be playing it on native Win32 (because I don't own either an XBox 360 nor a PS3, don't plan on buying either of them, and already have decently specced PC hardware sitting at home). It'll be the first time in about 5 years I've had a Windows box in my house, as until now I've had no need for one. I won't be playing it via WINE. Not immediately, anyway - perhaps in decades to come if WindowsXP stops supporting the game and my upgraded hardware, and Windows 7/8/9 kills all backward compatibility with the game. If not, great. If so, at least I have something to fall back on.

[marurun]

While I think Steam is among the best as far as on-line, downloadable systems go, this is not a valid point. If Valve goes bankrupt who's going to pay to program and release the off-line only version of Steam? If they get bought, who says the company that buys them is going to care what Valve promised before they were bought? Unless Valve is putting money and code into escrow you simply can't count on this happening.

You talk as if it's some huge technical undertaking to deactivate Steam's internet functionality. It's not. It would take them like one day to do. Hell, Steam has been cracked for years. People literally can use illegal modified versions of the Steam client to download and install games they did not buy. If a bunch of outsiders with no source code manages to code that up, I'm sure Steam employees know how to "unplug" the fucking thing, so to speak.

I'm sure they can do it, and they might even know exactly how to right now, but the thing is, they actually have to release a patch and that patch has to be distributed. And the company has to support them when they do it. If Valve gets bought or goes bankrupt someone else will hold the rights to the code and the games, and if an employee patches it on their own, without permission of the new owners or the debtors, they'll get their ass handed to them on a legal platter. You can be certain of that.

Further, unless Valve has issued a legally binding statement of their obligation to unseal Steam upon any of those occurrences, you can count on them NOT doing it. They can be the nicest guys in the world, but it ain't gonna happen unless the company is legally obligated to do it. That's just the way the business of video games is.

That said, I have a couple games on Steam and I enjoy them (gifted as part of a trade). Steam is a nice platform. But it's not the same as, nor is it really the equal of actually owning the CDs. It has some advantages but not enough. I'd rather purchase a physical copy and register it with Steam, if that's an option, and have the best of both worlds. Barring that, I'll take a CD over Steam any day unless the Steam version is significantly cheaper.

[philipofmacedon]

This is an interesting debate, but I think we need to talk about value and pragmatism.

Right now Steam is having some great deals. I'm planning to pick up Bioshock, Blue Shift, Opposing Force, and Bejeweled. That should run me a grand total of 8.00. At that price I'm willing to suck it up and use Steam, and you should too.

I like having original hard copies of games. I like useless knick knacks to add to my ever growing collection of stuff. But once things get cheap enough, I'm willing to ignore these things and go digital distribution.

I bought Guild Wars for five bucks on Black Friday. Once those servers get shut down, my characters will be lost and my software will be useless. That'll be a sad day, but so what? I've had a ton of fun playing this game (and I'm still going) and feel that I've gotten more than my money's worth. Sure it'd be great if I could play until the end of time, and if I could vote with my dollars for this I would, but that's not how it is.

Buying used games is the same way. I'd love to have shiny brand new copies of everything. The thought of those dirty people, with their dirty little fingers and beady little eyes touching my games fills with me with misanthropic ire. But I'm still super thrilled to go to a yardsale and hunt for incredibly cheap used games, even if they have been defiled.

All things being equal, go for a hard copy when you can get it. But if you can't, and the deal is good enough, ignore your reservations and just get it.