It’s been an interesting enough week and I’m sure I could ramble about something half-way interesting, but I’m going to ramble on about Steam and other digital download options instead.
I’ve a friend at work who occasionally brings up Team Fortress 2 and part of me always cringes, as the requirement for me to play would mean that I would have to finally bite the bullet and get a Steam account. That or camp out as his house for weeks on end.
I think the former would work out better.
Steam in itself isn’t evil, and buying something off of Steam isn’t akin to throwing away your money, but it just hasn’t made a lot of sense to me to get an account and purchase any games from them.
As I mentioned back in Oct 2008, I’m a fan of hard media for games. This is/was for two reasons:
- I want to be able to install/reinstall without limitations.
- I support the right to resale/trade/give away used goods.
When dealing with games, I am NOT a fan of DRM, and certainly not the sort that uses system drivers or activations in order to “ensure” compliance. Unfortunately that’s what most of the games from that period were doing: driver based with many of the new releases incorporating activation requirements. It wasn’t a good situation. In many ways it still isn’t.
However the playing field is looking a lot better for anti-DRM advocates and gamers in general. GOG (DRM-free catalog) is growing, Ubisoft has been releasing titles without DRM and even well known DRM abusers like EA seem to be getting a clue.
But back to the topic of hard media. One of my biggest concerns with the move away from hard media is that I will be subject to some company’s whim when I want to play my game. After a while I began to realize that was a problem whether hard media was used or not, as SecuROM was being used on hard media games to attempt to limit installs via the activation requirement.
DRM was the problem.
I decided to give GOG a try in Dec 08 when they offered two games for free on the service:
The process was a breeze. You add a game to your account (usually through purchasing via credit card or PayPal) and then you proceed to download the install package and extras. Once you have them downloaded you are allowed (via license) to install on all systems you own and there is no activation requirement. Pretty awesome.
Since that freebie taste went so well, I bought my first game from them in Feb 09 and have been going back ever since. 
I’m still left with the same question as I had then: What if I want to resell my game?
The EULA for GOG makes it pretty clear:
1.License. Company grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Program, but retains all property rights in the Program and all copies thereof. This Program is licensed, not sold, for your personal, non-commercial use. Your license confers no title or ownership in this Program and should not be construed as any sale of any rights in this Program. You may not transfer, distribute, rent, sub-license, or lease the Program or documentation, except as provided herein; alter, modify, or adapt the Program or documentation, or portions thereof including, but not limited to, translation, decompiling or disassembling. You agree not to modify or attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Program, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted under applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. All rights not expressly granted under this Agreement are reserved by Company.
So, there you go. You simply cannot legally resell your games.
The strange thing is that I don’t feel bad about that. I’m getting something I can keep (backup to hard media, replicate across my systems for redundancy) and I’m also getting the service where I can download again if need be.
When I buy something physical, I feel that I’m making an investment of some kind. Particularly games with a $30 to $50 price tag attached to them. The same with books, movies and general equipment.
Pens, paper, gas, etc. are all very tangible, but it’s also something that will be used up.
Still physical, but entirely different purposes.
My mindset goes something like this:
I purchase something (non-consumable), I get something physical and I get to keep it. When I pay for a service, I generally am expecting limitations, but I expect to receive incentives to make up for that.
As an example if it’s a single movie rental, I expect it to be at least 1/3 to 1/4 the price of the copy I can own. If it’s a movie rental service, I expect to be able to keep the movies as long as I keep playing the monthly fee.
With games there are rental services, and other services that I don’t quite have a name for. With those you buy the right to play the game and it’s tied to your account, but there are usually no artificial expiration dates. As long as a variety of conditions are met (the company stays in business, you don’t piss off customer service, etc) you can keep playing your games as long as you like.
If I’m renting a game via a rental service, I want to be able to play a variety of games. All of that is possible, and is clearly defined.
With that described digital download service, I want to be able to install without unreasonable limitations (in reality I don’t need unlimited, just very reasonable) and the ability to easily update when I choose and play off-line without hassle.
Good Old Games provides all of what I want from a digital distribution model and the ability to backup my games like I get with physical media. For me it is the ideal solution, especially with some of the older games I want going at a ridiculous rate for retail copies.
On that note (yeah, I’m definitely rambling), I feel that instead of investing in a hard media item I can resale, I’m investing in a company that respects consumers and will continue to bring older games to consumers for reasonable prices without DRM. That to me is worth investing in.
On the subject of gaming digital download services:
Steam and Impulse are two long-term contenders in my view.
There are others such as:
and then there are true rental setups like GameTap where you pay a monthly fee and have access to X amount of games. What X is depends on what account level you’re paying for. Once you quit paying, any games on that service are unavailable (I think there are exceptions for games you unlock via purchase).
At this point I’m really babbling.
What it all comes down to is that I was staunchly apposed to Steam since it’s inception, and I’m now considering purchasing Team Fortress 2 from them in order to play with a friend.
I guess what makes this different is:
- It’s a Valve game and won’t be available through any other service (retail copies still require their service).
- It’s on sale for $9.99.
- It will be played pretty much online only.
- For $10 I don’t necessarily mind buying it as a service instead of something I get to keep.
- I likely will not care to play it long term, say longer than a year of off and on play.
I’ve got until the weekend is over to make up my mind …
If I can buy it retail DRM-free or extremely light DRM where NOCD cracks are still available, I’d prefer to go that way.
If it’s only available through Impulse (or retail from Stardock) and I can get it at a good price (paid $30 after shipping for Demigod), I’ll probably buy it.
If it’s available through Impulse at a really good deal, I’ll likely buy it.
Regarding Steam, I don’t have any serious considerations aside from Team Fortress 2 and “maybe” The Orange Box.
