I've been using Steam for almost a year now, and I own 70 games on my Steam account(no joke). I have a close group of Steam friends and have created a gamer clan composed of 370 members in my public group and 12 members in my private group. I've obviously been content with Steam being my main gaming platform, and I didn't feel the need to look into other digital distribution services...
...until I found out about Good Old Games(http://www.gog.com/; GOG here on out) by chance while casually browsing the internet. GOG(if you don't already know this) is a distribution service that provides old PC games at ridiculously good prices, usually $5.99 to $9.99 for individual games, sometimes higher for game packages. I was surprised at the great catalog of games, including the older Fallout titles and games like Sacrifice that I wanted to play, but never had the chance to. My father owned Sacrifice for a while, but he could never get it to run on his PC(OS issues). I was very interested in the game at that time in my life, but I could never play it, so you could imagine my excitement when I learned that GOG carries it for only $5.99.
At close examination of a GOG official post about the service, I saw things like "No DRM!" and "you can download the games you buy to as many PCs as you want; it's your game, you bought it!" I didn't completely comprehend this for quite a while. With Steam you need to keep the Steam program running to play your games. It has been called by respected gaming journalists the most intrusive form of DRM possible, as well as the best thing to hit the PC gaming market(by the same people, no less). I'm completely alright with Steam running in the background while I play games; In fact, I'd rather use this safe form of DRM than not. I certainly don't want pirates to damage the PC gaming market any more than they already have! It just appeared to be the most logical thing to do for a digital video game publisher. Now with GOG: No DRM? As many PC downloads as you want? Isn't that like selling 20 copies of a game for the price of one? I was sure they had a platform for their games to prevent mass pirating, but my assumption was wrong. They provide ridiculous freedom and great service. What's not to like here?
Direct2Drive(http://www.direct2drive.com/)is one of those services I referenced in the first paragraph that fails miserably. You buy a game, and then are limited to a certain number of downloads. DRM comes with quite a few of their games, the service is terrible, and the prices are just as bad as retail, if not worse. I may never use this service; not too interested anyways.
A few weeks ago I read an article on Demigod and remembered that it was the cover story on one of my old Games for Windows Magazine issues(my favorite PC gaming magazine; now sadly dead along with EGM), and I was automatically excited for it. When I pulled up the Wikipedia page on the game, it said that Demigod works with Impulse, Stardock's digital distribution service. I had no idea that there were any services that could potentially compete with Steam! It was a bit of a shocker. I decided that it was very interesting and quickly downloaded Impulse.
Now, here I am. Impulse doesn't have all of the features as Steam, the interface is inferior in some regards, superior in others, and the games provided aren't very exciting. The only games I'm really interested in with Impulse are Demigod, Sins of a Solar Empire, and... well, that's about it. =/
What's so good about Impulse, then? Well, the freedom Impulse provides is nice. GOO looks like a really big innovation Steam would benefit greatly from, selling software to Impulse users in the same browser as the games sold on Impulse is nice, and the fact you don't need Impulse running at the same time as your games is very interesting to me. It looks like Impulse is being built upon, and that it will get better as time passes, as Steam has over the years. I wish Impulse and Stardock a great future. Luckily, I'll be along for the ride, and I'll be able to examine the development of a digital distribution service.
This article was partly written(typed?) for Steam users in Clan Syphon, and I'm just expressing my views on digital distribution as a whole here. Hopefully this will cause a few PC gamers to look into alternate distribution services. That's the main reason I spent an hour typing this. =O Sorry if I said anything inaccurate. I hope I didn't.
Well, Impulse is Internet Exploiter combined with 7zip turned into a frustratingly slow resource hog thanks to bad-idea-from-start .NET technology. Having said the bad things, there are quite a bit of things to say in favour of it.
Impulse's main point is competition. It has good games at low price and has forced Steam to join the competition, like sales events.
Then, I think Impulse certainly has a few must-have titles, to name a few not in your list:
Very important for me: Impulse is laptop friendly. I can play games in the train, or on an airport, no internet connection required.
I already own World of Goo on Steam, Sid Meier's Railroads is offered on Steam, and I'm not interested in the others.
I already own World of Goo on Steam, Sid Meier's Railroads is offered on Steam, and I'm not interested in the others. Also, you can go into offline mode on Steam and play all of your single-player games in offline mode. :/
Either way, I'm very interested in Impulse. Hopefully there will be more good, Impulse-only games soon.
Another thing that bothers me: It won't let me edit or delete my second comment. Just disregard that one, that really bothers me...
I am stoked for the future of digital distribution. There are many competing services out there now and tons of sales! It went from a state of no sales and even higher than retail prices in some instances to constant, deep discounting. I check these sites weekly for sales: GOG, Steam, Gamersgate, Impulse. Rock Paper Shotgun also does a great job posting a weekly list of internet-wide sales they call the Bargain Bucket. Impulse has been slacking on weekly sales lately, but I figure SD has their hands full with the Demigod nightmare so I understand. I just hope they take care of it soon and get back into the game!
PC gaming will come to dominate because of the industry's taking the reins of digital distribution. Just like the music industry when they figured out that offering quick, easy, high quality downloads of music at a reasonable price will get people to pay again, so will it happen with PC games.
I will admit i am not 100% on the digital bandwagon yet. I have dabbled with Steam, mostly with demos, betas and other free content, bought a few bargain titles from Impulse and not used the others at all. I have concerns about digital distribution but what is bothering most about the trend is its bleeding into the retail versions of the game. I've heard if you buy Left 4 Dead off a retail shelf, you still need steam to play and the internet which makes it an issue for people in the military, for one thing. I understand its obvious to need the internet for digital distribution, but why even release a retail version and require the samething? Not ever computer that plays games is connected to the internet, connected to the high speed internet or has access to the internet at all. Please keep in mind, I have high speed internet, and I game all the time. My beef is with the activation processes, but I also think its concerning to see others struggle with the internet part when there is no good reason for them to do so. Why shouldn't members of the military have a chance to play the single person part of Left 4 Dead until they are back and able to deal with the rest of it?
Direct2Drive(http://www.direct2drive.com/ )is one of those services I referenced in the first paragraph that fails miserably . You buy a game, and then are limited to a certain number of downloads. DRM comes with quite a few of their games, the service is terrible, and the prices are just as bad as retail, if not worse .
While i agree about that D2D is terrible, slow and just bad service, i cant agree about prices. I guess you are from US, D2D has many regional restrictions, but prices on their EU Store .co.uk are FAR better for me than Steam , and sometimes better than retail (i bought Burnout Paradise from D2D , because it was 13€ cheaper, i just needed CDkey anyway , same with Crysis Warhead , 22€ was just pretty good). So , thats about D2D....
Steam - It used to be pretty good & fast service. But it has become useless for buying any new games in Europe (i hope same thing wont happen to impulse), well unless you are ok with paying 30-60% more than retail. Content servers are just crap, only indie games download pretty fast , mostly because they are pretty small, otherwise its just 50-400 kB/s. So only thing i buy at Steam now are ... cheap indie games / weekend deals...
Impulse - Well im a Impulse newbie, but so far my experience is positive. I have 3 games atm (CoH ToV and Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod both bought off Impulse), prices were nice (i bought CoH ToV in sale , now its 13€ more :/ , Demigod is 5€ cheaper than in retail , which is pretty good!). Download speeds are very , very good , im always getting my max 1,1-1,3 MB/s. I would just like more games available on it, but i guess time will solve this issue...
Hopefully everyone will read this before commenting about how you need internet access to play Steam games all the time; Steam has an offline mode feature that allows you to play all of your games offline(if the game has a single-player mode). I've played Left 4 Dead in offline mode a few times, and I don't see why everyone here doesn't understand how that works. Sure, you still need one-time verification, but that doesn't change the fact that offline mode exists. Seriously guys, try it out some time.
GOG.com definitely seems too good to be true. It's not though; it's somehow as amazing as it claims to be. I wish Impulse would take more cues from them instead of Steam. There are some hints that this may be the case (Impulse Anywhere), but not much actual progress.
I use STEAM for almost all my games that aren't Stardock Published, and I use Impluse for games that require Impluse to be updated (SINS, DEMIGOD).
@ Facelord
Nesrie was only referring to the difficulties that many military servicemen and women have with internet, particularly, in what im guessing his case is, deployment, where he might not be able to connect his laptop to the internet the entire time hes deployed. I had serious issues with Half-Life 2 when i first bought it because the base i was stationed at had very restrictive internet access; as such, i couldn't get onto steam to activate it and lay it until months later when i went on leave to a friends house. Obviously, this isn't an issue for downloading games, as youre not downloading them when you dont have internet access; rather, his issue is with required internet registration before being able to play the game in the first place, because he might not be able to get adequate access for months at a time to do so.
That being said, I am slowly coming around to the digital distribution movement, particularly now that I have found several services that offer unlimited downloads of the game so long as the pc is registered( i have several pcs that I game on, and i also like to play some games that i get for a long time, through the lives of several pcs, so limited downloads is an issue).
First: you are WRONG. Space Rangers 2 is probably one of the very best games you can play today.
It's huge, deep, fun, challenging, etc.
Best game on Impulse in my opinion.
Anyway there is another great game wich dmantione didn't suggest you: Braid.
EDIT: well, and Mount & Blade, wich I bought on Steam, by the way.
Speaking of DD platforms, instead, I'd love to see Impulse and Gamersgate merging and become a huge opponent for Steam, cause atm they look to me like two squirrels fighting versus a bear.
I know, I know... it's not going to happen.
I actually wasn't referencing him/her there, primarily. Quite a few people who just use Impulse don't seem to know about Steam's offline mode.
I'm not 'wrong' in any way, I just wasn't interested at all. Now I am, somewhat. Also, I own Braid on Steam. I did say I have 69 games on Steam, right? :]
"It's huge, deep, fun, challenging, etc." <= Another thing, that's what she said.
That actually sounds really cute to me. Squirrels vs Bear, though? Try, "Slimy Worms vs Deep Crow from Penny Arcade." Err, maybe not slimy worms, actually. That sounds insulting. Meh.
"OH NO, DEEEEEEP CROOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!!!!!" Probably my favorite PA strip. X]
If I screw up the quotes it's because Impulse hates me and won't let me do anything right in the blogs. =/
And of course, Impulse doesn't love me. (((((((
Yeah, that is what I am referring to. And it's not my issue, it's issues I know other people have run into. The activation part is a a problem and it shouldn't be part of a retail, physical disc purchase. Disc checks, serial codes, whatever... I just don't think single-player and LAN parts of games should require the internet to play, at the very least, not the singleplayer. I 100% understand that pirates could work around that fairly easily but so what, pirates work around everything. I would love to see digital distribution continue to expand and maybe address the whole activation part better (as in no activation server no game, you know when a company goes down or just decides to just stop supporting older games... EA). I know GOO is supposedly going to address the issue, but I don't put much stock in what could be until I actually see it at work.I would like the DRM, copyright, whatever you call it for retail and digital copies to be handled differently. There is a reason someone purchases a retail product over a digital one and those lines shouldn't be blurred. Valve shouldn't even require steam for a game that wasn't downloaded throught he service unless, until they choose to use it for multiplayer, at which case it could be a safe assumption to make that they have internet (not crippled like at the bases) to use it.
Yeah, I know about Steams offline mode.
I actually typed the wrong thing(kinda) and wasn't able to edit my comment. I really wanted to, but couldn't, and I came off as a bit of a douchebag. Sorry. I didn't want to comment three posts in a row! (again...)
Anyways, I understand you there, but from what I know pirating isn't much of an issue with Steam games, if one at all. If you can't do an online activation, too bad for you. That's just how it works. I bought Half-Life 2 used on E-Bay and wasn't able to activate it. That sucked, but I was still completely alright with that. (yay for the Orange Box). Again, that's just how it works. If that'll combat piracy, then it's automatically great.
Compared to how disagrement normally plays on a Stardock forum, at least the ones I am familiar with, you didnt' seem too terrible to me.
I understand that is how it works now, my argument is that it shouldn't be that way. A retail purchase should not be treated the same as a digital download, not require the instant activation just to install it. The way Steam/Valve has it now, the only reason to buy a disc version of the game is to have a faster install (aka data on the disc) or because the price in store is a lot lower (which happens fairly frequently), and they completely ignore the market that has limited or no internet access. They're free to do that of course, but I don't think it's right, and it's not a trend I want the industry to follow. If I understand how Impulse works (and please do feel free to correct me), you need access for additional content and maybe patches. I only have one game with Stardock and it's been awhile since I played so not 100% sure. I mean think of it this way. It's already bad enough that if you if have no internet access at all, your initial gaming experience is probably going to be pretty bad because of release day patches, which sadly, is already an accepted norm (you know shipping games before they are ready).
I realize the digital distribution is going to grow, but I don't see why the gaming industry refuses to listen and learn from the music industry's mistakes. It's not as if they are forcing digital distribution on consumers and bypassing CDs all together. There is just so much that is beneficial to digital downloading for that industry. The gaming industry, it feels more forced and less about benefits and more about how much control and leverage a company can get over it's customers. And while I will certainly acknowledge the music industry has enough issues about pirates of its own, it's not as if the gaming industry can get much worse with piracy itself.
I personally have only one issue with digital distribution, and it's not a technical one at all, and that's a lack of trust of the companies doing the distribution which stems from experience to the worst the gaming industry has to offer over the years. Granted, there is enough benefits that I continue to play on the PC in addition to the consoles I own.
Although the military issue is not my own hurdle, I think it's worth looking at. And until I convert to primarily downloading my games (as of right now I primarily go after hard to find games or indie games via digital distribution), I think its reasonable to ask that the retail games not ship with abirtruary requirements of various download clients and online acivations.
Concerning Steam offline mode. Somehow, I think the problem isn't that Steam has an offline mode but more the fact that you must run Steam to play your games and by default, it requires an online connexion.
It is like Impulse which allows you to choose where your game can be downloaded and installed. But unless you look at the options behind the top left icon, you would wondering why Impulse keeps downloading and installing game on a small partition when there is a bigger available.
I understand with you 100%, but I have decent internet almost all the time, and if it went out I'd still be able to play my games via offline mode, so it doesn't really bother me. I'd rather own a Steam game than a retail game, partially because it's easy for me to deal with and I feel superior ownership of the game. I've had so many issues with disks and cartridges all my life that I'm absolutely great with this setup. I don't need to deal with disks, and I own the game forever. Impulse does the same thing for me, but I'm not too interested in many games available, and at the moment I'm broke. -.-
I'm also not bothered with the Steam browser being up all the time. I like it. I've had no technical issues with it, and I feel a positive connection to Steam.
By the way, I'm probably getting Sins, Demigod, and Aveyond. I'm up to three games now, plus the Sins expansion. As I said before, I really do hope Impulse is successful in the future, and I am a potential customer.
Only thing I find bad with steam is that they really screwed the pooch when it comes to local prices
The reason GOG does this is because these games are all off the store shelves and are old enough where it's basically milking profits. They aren't supported officially and haven't been for a long, long, long time. There's a reason it's called Good Old Games Don't get me wrong, it's a good site and I have some games from them (mainly Freespace pack and Fallout pack), but their model won't work for modern games.
As for D2D, it's really not that bad. There's no download limit like one post said above, but there is a D2D-specific activation limit on the games so you have to talk to their support if you need more. It's annoying to be sure, but still D2D is a pretty easy and convenient client-free digital distribution.
I basically have games from all of them. I have lots from Steam, D2D, Impulse, a few from GOG and one from Gamersgate (King's Bounty). My first boot-up on the weekend leads to checking all of them for the weekend deals. Just this weekend I picked up Mount & Blade for $7.50 from D2D, and the tower defense game from Steam for $5.
I have suggested this several times over the past two years. Additionally I would like to see the merged entity absorb GOG for a trifecta of goodness!
There are a few loud complaints about Steam, but I think that overall they must be satisfying somewhere in the neighborhood of 95% of their customers, which is pretty decent. Just a quick dial-up connection is all you need to get going and it's really no trouble at all. I don't see what all the fuss is about.
If the goal of a company is to maintain their customer base and that's it, then there isn't an issue. If they actually want to expand and convert those of us who rarely or do not use digital distribution, work needs to be done.
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