Like having a harcopy?

[WildW]

I honestly like digital distribution as a medium. It's convenient (or will be once the internet infrastructure catches up so that a few GB download isn't something I have to think twice about), cheaper (once the real-world shops all close down and stop demanding price parity), and far better for impulse buying. These things will, once the world catches up, be good.

What I don't like is that a download is far more limited in what I can do with it, particularly things that I've always taken for granted. Specifically:

Being able to resell or give away a game that I no longer want.

Being able to take a game round to a mate's house to play.

Being able to rent a game for a weekend.


Every time a thread like this comes up there are people who say "You're an idiot because I never do any of those things." Yeah, whatever. I would immediately jump to an alternative to Steam that give you more resale/movement rights, but it's in nobody's interest to run one until enough people give a damn.

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: WildW
Being able to take a game round to a mate's house to play.

Unless its disallowed by the game developer Steam will let you install the game where ever you go. Go to your "mates" place and sign in with your credentials and play your game.

Originally posted by: WildW
Being able to rent a game for a weekend.

I dont think I have ever seen PC game rentals. As for console downloads if someone could convince the industry to allow it it would be here. Its no different than rented movies\music online. I assume most companies dont go for it becasue its just like resale which they dont like.

 

[Daverino]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: wanderer27
For one, there's no guarantee that Steam will remain in Business, at which point all your games are gone.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong. I didnt read anything else you posted, because you didnt even research the first statement you made. Try getting some facts, before posting.

Scenario:

1. You have a new HD or have to reformat your HD (due to failure, corruption, whatever).
2. Steam is offline.

Where is your game?



Question:

If you have Steam and you reformat your HD, do you have to have a connection to Steam to reinstall your game even if you have a saved copy on another Drive?
What I'm wondering here is if the .exe is basically encrypted or tied to Steam activation Servers.


I'm really not here to argue the the value or lack thereof of the Steam service. I'm sure it has it's uses and value for some, it's just not for me and I think I've pretty well explained why I personally feel that way.

Steam games are on your hard drive and intact. You can backup any Steam game to another HD or a CD, whatever suits you. If you have not backed up your games and the HD that the Steam games are on fails, you would have to redownload the games. If you have backed up your games, you do not need to redownload them if you HD fails. You would simply restore them from the backup. I believe the only gray area is if you were in the process of patching a game via Steam and then disconnected from the internet. The game will not launch until the patching is finished. This has never been an issue for me though.

There is no encrypted .exe on the Steam server that you need to touch to launch your games.

If you have your Steam account synced on two computers (i.e. you've installed the programs on two machines) then you can only use one online. All others would have to be in offline mode. Otherwise you'd get an error that the account is already in use.

 

[Daverino]

Originally posted by: TheKub

Originally posted by: WildW
Being able to take a game round to a mate's house to play.

Unless its disallowed by the game developer Steam will let you install the game where ever you go. Go to your "mates" place and sign in with your credentials and play your game.

Originally posted by: WildW
Being able to rent a game for a weekend.

I dont think I have ever seen PC game rentals. As for console downloads if someone could convince the industry to allow it it would be here. Its no different than rented movies\music online. I assume most companies dont go for it becasue its just like resale which they dont like.

Actually Valve has had 'Free Weekends' for a number of their games where people can play a Steam game for 72 hours for free. So far these have been limited to Valve's own games, but I don't think there's anything in Steam's model to prevent game rentals. It would be up to the individual developers on Steam if they'd want to do something like that. Not sure how much money there is in it for them.

 

[dguy6789]

Unreal Tournament 3 had multiple free weekends on Steam.

 

[will889]

I just keep a 640GB HD for Acronis backups -- 1 for the fresh win install, another with fresh win and drivers only, another with the previous 2 + critical apps, and the last one with all of that plus the most updated Steam install. There's no reason to ever have to format if you simply invest in a good HD imaging program. Should I ever have an issue I have all the backups I need to prevent DL'ing massive amounts of games/data.

 

[WildW]

Originally posted by: TheKub

Originally posted by: WildW
Being able to take a game round to a mate's house to play.

Unless its disallowed by the game developer Steam will let you install the game where ever you go. Go to your "mates" place and sign in with your credentials and play your game.

Originally posted by: WildW
Being able to rent a game for a weekend.

I dont think I have ever seen PC game rentals. As for console downloads if someone could convince the industry to allow it it would be here. Its no different than rented movies\music online. I assume most companies dont go for it becasue its just like resale which they dont like.

I guess I was thinking of digital distibution in general and my mind wandered to consoles, which I realise is a cardinal sin here in PC Gaming. I shall consider myself chastised.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx

Originally posted by: AlgaeEater
And since I allow my family members to use my internet connection, I'm regulated to downloading bulk at night when I sleeep; otherwise everyone else on the line will get slideshow internet speeds.

That isn't your internet, sir. That sounds like a shitty router.

Any one out there you personally like? If I'm maxing out my connection (or anyone downloading something), the rest of us are on hold. It's kinda like maxing for one user only, then giving the next person (request) in line the max speed and then so-on.

 

[samduhman]

LOVE EM and they look good on a shelf!