Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

[Armando]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

Fuck off with that logic. You know damn well there's plenty of reasons someone might need to reinstall something from scratch.

To reinstall from scratch, you still need something to install. Where is that something? It's gotta be backed up somewhere. Otherwise, if GOG exploded, and you didn't have a backup of the installer, what are you going to do? It's the exact same situation as Steam, except Steam backs up your files post-install (which has the benefit of already starting you off with all patches) while with an installer you've got the files pre-install.

I'm not going to argue that GOG's no-DRM policy is great. I love Humble Bundles myself. However:
* There's always going to be some holdouts among the devs that will want some form of DRM.
* It's actually harder AND less-profitable to get on non-Steam stores.
* Even when a no-DRM version is available, people still want their game on Steam! People like Steam, because Steam has nice features. And also you probably got the game at like 60% off anyways.
* Steam keeps my shit up to date and makes it drop dead easy for developers to push out their updates.

Steam is a win for the developer while still being useful to the player and about as reasonable as any DRM scheme is going to get. I'm mostly getting this off a presentation from the dev of Retro City Rampage. He's a one-man team and he published his game on practically every relevant console and marketplace, so he's got a complete view of what the process is from programming to publishing, at least for an indie. Gamasutra - News - Video: Shipping Retro City Rampage on 17 SKUs at once

[Etra]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

So I hear there's game sales going on right now.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

I'm not trying to argue that Steam isn't awesome, because Steam is pretty awesome. I'm just worried that you're drinking the kool-aid. When Steam finally goes out of business I fully expect to lose access to my game library. Maybe not immediately, but it will eventually happen because there are pieces to the puzzle that still rely on what didn't come on the install CD. That's the fear I have. With an installation disc you have everything you need to get the game up and running on a physical object. The digital equivalent to that right now is GOG, who just hands you everything you need in a zip file and you're good to go.

It's also entirely probable that I'm panicking and don't have as solid an understanding of the subject as I think I do.

- - - Updated - - -

So I hear there's game sales going on right now.

Today's were pretty yawn inducing. They seriously need to stop putting Torchlight 2 on sale. It's just getting silly.

[Armando]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

It's also entirely probable that I'm panicking and don't have as solid an understanding of the subject as I think I do.

It's also possible that I don't either. I haven't had much need to play around with offline mode. I should try to simulate an "end of Steam" scenario this weekend just for the sake of science.

[Firewind]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

It's not too bad really as long as you already have the game verified. I do it on my laptop a lot to play games on the go.

It's not Steam's fault you didn't back up your shit for several years. You can not back up and live with the consequences of potential data loss, or you could protect yourself from data loss and pay for it with the minor inconvenience of backing up. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.

On the other hand if you're willing to back up, you can be fairly certain your shit will last forever; unlike a cartridge or disc, which can be stolen or broken. Hard drives are cheap and I can have my backups replicated in multiple places if I want.

EDIT: Also, I'm fairly certain I can use other people's backups if I've already validated the game with Steam at least once. I've copied shit from other people's SteamApps folder on more than one occasion. As long as there's one person on the Internet that had the game's Steam files, I'll be all right.

Seconding this. I've copied stuff from other people's SteamApps folder on several occasions to skip a massive download or to get the files when my connection has been borked, so I can simply buy game key when it's back up. Basically Steam doesn't give a shit about where the files game from as long as it seems that you have the game purchased on your account.

I also download Steam games onto my laptop and transfer them to my PC all the time. I can leave a laptop on to download overnight and not piss everyone else off by having a loud desktop running all night.

[Taskmage]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

This week on Steam if you pre-purchase The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, which is a kinda meh-looking game imo, you will get that game free with XCOM Enemy Unknown, which is a freaking excellent game, along with every other X-COM game and also Spec Ops: The Line, which I've heard has good things about it.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

I can vouch for Spec Ops being pretty tops. It was a very interesting game and one that I was able to enjoy as someone who doesn't really go for FPS games.

That said, I still think pre-purchasing any game is a bad idea.

[Taskmage]

Re: Official "we make too many video game sale threads" Thread

The price difference between Enemy Unknown and The Bureau is $5, so the deal as I read it is "Buy Enemy Unknown now, get all this other stuff for $5," which can't be too bad of a deal even if the game that's ostensibly the headliner turns out to be terrible. And if you haven't played Enemy Unknown, you should really give it a try, especially if you enjoy Tactics-like games.