Rig'n'Roll on STEAM?

[M76]

Originally Posted by USA Trucker

I'm neither of them too, and I'm not being fooled. I liked Steam ever since "Half-Life" came out under Valve (parent company of Steam), and I have never had any issues with them. How do you justify that it's "bad for you"? I like downloading games. It's quick & easy, not to mention it saves me a trip to the store.

It happened to me although not on steam that I brought a game online, downloaded it, played but then forgot about it. And a year later I wanted to play again, but I realized I don't have the game installed anymore, I changed computer hardware reinstalled, etc, it was gone. I don't want that to happen to me anymore, so If I can I go with the physical version that's there whenever I need it. Downloading is ok when its fast, but for me steam is so slow if I decide to play, it will be tomorrow when I can start playing, If I have a DVD it installs in ten minutes tops, and not ten hours. Yes I know there is a backup function in steam, but no thanks I won't do their work. If I buy a game, I want it on a physical data disk.

As for the last part of your statement... It's normal for Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, or any other media downloading company to take a piece of the action.
It's a contract between those company's, and the publishers. They know what they're getting into. It also saves the publishers packaging, distribution, and shipping fees. I'm sure it's beneficial to both parties, or there would not be such a high demand for it.

That's exactly my point, they save money on distribution and shipping and packaging and still charge more or the same amount, for the games as in a store. And the money they save doesn't go to the developer, who would at least deserve it, it stays with valve. I've heard it from developers that valve asks so much from developers for publishing their game on steam that they end up with less money in the end.

While in itself steam is not a bad concept and could do much good for the gaming industry, currently the people behind it run it to maximize their profit, they don't care about the developers, they don't care about the gaming community, all they care about is the income they can generate. And I refuse to support such a company, that has no passion for gaming, and gives nothing to the community. I know most publishers are profit oriented, but at least normal publishers do marketing and advertising, and handle distribution. Valve/Steam does almost nothing and still picks up a big chunk of my money. This combined with my preference to own the games physically and not by just a placeholder email I received when I paid in steam, means I don't buy game downloads. Especially not from steam.