Steam

[Assassin]

After buying a new game on Steam yesterday (The Wonderful End of the World, get it, it's great!) I was looking through Steam for a bit and saw that their library of games has significantly grown. Also some of the newer games add achievements now as well. Then I started wondering, is this where PC gaming is headed? Will all (or most) games be one Steam in a while? Will Steam be Xbox Live for the PC (there are some similarities between the two, a friend list/community thing, achievements, etc.)? DISCUSS!

[Fireball]

Personally, I'm doubtful. Although more and more publishers are embracing the idea of selling digital copies of games, I think that most publishers would be unwilling to give control of the sales/management platform to a third party. Also, digital distribution will take quite a lot of time to catch on, since gamers still like the idea of buying a packaged game and most publishers overcharge (IMO) for digital downloads. That is, I think that games should cost about $10 less in digital form, since you don't get a manual book, CDs, or other extras. However, most publishers charge the same amount for their digital copies as stores charge for physical copies.

Thus, although Steam has evolved (it used to be very buggy) to become a very good platform for publishing indie and Valve-developed games, I don't think that publishers are likely to switch to Valve's platform any time soon.

[ChaosFish]

What do you mean you're doubtful? You've seen Steam's game list? There's bazillions of games there. GTA, Beyond Good and Evil, Gish, Dreamfall, Indigo Prophecy...

[Echomote]

Are any EA games on there? I think EA wants people to use their crappy EA downloader thing.

Even with what people say about EA games, they really do make some good games.

[Jasiek]

You mean they slap their name on some good games.

[Assassin]

Personally I think everything will be digitally distributed in a few years. Not just games, also movies and music. Look at what the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are offering now, you can buy movies on them now as well. I wonder if in the future everyone will just have one device with once piece of software from which they will be able to run all their media or it will still all be covered by seperate devices (PC, console, etc.). I wonder how it will all evolve, will iTunes and Steam (just examples of programs which are already doing this) merge in the future maybe? Either way I think it will all get digital, and right now as far as games go, Steam is doing the best job for PC. The only thing I really dislike about Steam, is that now they have so many old games as well, I can't add those games. I bought a lot of them years ago but there is no way of registering it in Steam. I can add a shortcut to the game or buy it again through the Steam store but there is no way I can install the game from my CD and have Steam recognize it. This is the one thing I think they need to improve on.

[Kitarii]

Steam is great, I never understood why people don't like it...
What's not to like?!
All your games arranged in one window ready for you!
It even tells all your "friends" what you're playing, so you don't have to!
[advert]

Steam games were pretty much the only thing I still play gamewise, unfortunately the nice people at Mac aren't such a fan like me, so they don't let me run it. I don't really see Steam and iTunes merging, but buying stuff online certainly sounds like the way forward. A lot of people just download it all illegally now anyway, so physically copies of media are on the way out, and I wouldn't be surprised if it stopped completely a few generations down the line.

[Double-J]

Originally Posted by Kitarii

Steam is great, I never understood why people don't like it...
What's not to like?!
All your games arranged in one window ready for you!
It even tells all your "friends" what you're playing, so you don't have to!
[advert]

Invasiveness ftl. People are loathe to have a government or corporation holding their information or activities, but have no issues having fuck-face (aka Gabe Newell) basically monitoring their gaming habits. Oh well.

[elmuerte]

Originally Posted by Kitarii

Steam is great, I never understood why people don't like it...
What's not to like?!

It's complete run from the USA. If you have a dispute with steam/valve and don't live in the USA have have close to zero chance to get it resolved in your favor. In other words, you lose by default. That combined with valve's policies and absolute power over your game collection makes steam not likealable.

[Darkflame]

Steam is far from perfect, but its one of the best deals developers get in terms of %%, short of self-publishing.
And it really isnt their fault they are based in the US is it?
You gota be based somewhere, and if you start in a country, thats going to be where your based.

That said.
Of course publishers arnt going to put all their efforts into steam.
Much like tv distribution, they know they can get some money from online, but they also know that long term it could cut them out of the equation completely.

[ChaosFish]

You don't have to let them monitor your gaming habits, you can use SteamEmu that allows you to play Steam games without Steam.

[Darkflame]

Whats so bad about them monitering anyway?
I want firms to know what games I play more then others.

[ChaosFish]

I don't care either, but just saying you don't have to let them if you don't want to.

[Double-J]

Originally Posted by Darkflame

Whats so bad about them monitering anyway?
I want firms to know what games I play more then others.

Hence, my point above. I don't understand the skepticism of government monitoring and yet the blissful acceptance of a corporation doing something similar.

[elmuerte]

Originally Posted by Darkflame

Whats so bad about them monitering anyway?
I want firms to know what games I play more then others.

I don't. My private life is my own. How, why, where, ..., I play may games is none of their business.

There are not a lot of things you really own. Privacy is one of those things you are owning less and less. For a large part thanks to the government. I understand that the UK doesn't give shit about privacy, but that doesn't apply to me or how I want the country I live in to care about privacy.

[LBAWinOwns]

Originally Posted by elmuerte

I don't. My private life is my own. How, why, where, ..., I play may games is none of their business.

There are not a lot of things you really own. Privacy is one of those things you are owning less and less. For a large part thanks to the government. I understand that the UK doesn't give shit about privacy, but that doesn't apply to me or how I want the country I live in to care about privacy.

Isn't that just paranoid thoughts?

I don't think it's any fraudulent that you lose your privacy, because of that everyone loses their privacy. After all, the effects are the ones mentioned by FB2k, which are positive effects.

[Double-J]

I say again.

People will willingly hand over their privacy to a company like Valve and it's affiliates.

But don't give it a second thought when lambasting governments for the same thing.

[Darkflame]

Ell - Your generalising. What scenaro does Steam or Valve knowing what your playing result in anything bad happening to you? Even assuming the data becomes completely public. (so, same scenaro as the UK govement completely losing information by leaving in the back seat of cabs ect).

The data of "what games I play when" isnt something that damaging, imho, no matter how public it is.

Heck, I say its a good thing. Let developers see just how much gametime people spend for their efforts. See if a game is generaly played a lot, or if most people just buy it due to hype, play an hour, then get bored and never touch it again.

Originally Posted by Double-J

Hence, my point above. I don't understand the skepticism of government monitoring and yet the blissful acceptance of a corporation doing something similar.

The difference being, with govement, the data they held can be used for dodgy purposes if it gets into the wrong hands, or is missused.

I mean, even in the wildest scenero, I cant see any way someone knowing what games I play when results in a "bad thing".
But losing, say, identitiy or finicial information, could.
So there is a fair reason for "selectively" chooseing what you want different companys or govements to know about you.

Personaly, I'm quite open and dont mind most data being had about me as long as its correct and I know they have it. But I understand completely people that look quite scared apon, say, Viacom's or the US Govements actions to get data from Google.

And it's not like someone cares what you specifically are playing, you're not that interesting, it's about a larger picture.

This is true though.
Mostly individuals are boring,and of no use to companys.
An average of 10,000 people is probably the start of having a good sample range.
It would have to be a very very spacilist gameing group for an individuals data to be worth it on their own
"Are you a fan of japanse henti racing games? ..."
"Do you like freerange adventure pong games?..."
ect.

[Double-J]

Companies with personal or private data become scary when, say, leaked to the public or, example, used by the government to pursue illegal activities (ex. P2P sharing).

[ChaosFish]

"Privacy is lovely"

Actually, I think in the long term - the less privacy there is in the world, the better. AS LONG as the information about what I do is available to every single person on the planet AND everyone is having the same level of no-privacy.

[Double-J]

Originally Posted by ChaosFish

Actually, I think in the long term - the less privacy there is in the world, the better. AS LONG as the information about what I do is available to every single person on the planet AND everyone is having the same level of no-privacy.

Are you ready for the three minutes hate, brother?

[ChaosFish]

Waht?

[Jasiek]

Sounds like communism...

[ChaosFish]

Are you referring to my post? How does that sound like communism?

[Jasiek]

The equal distribution of "miserability".