Been awhile since I posted here but I figured I would share this little story from today.
I had an interesting chat my local Target store when Mom was looking for a new cordless sweeper. I was looking around the electronics section to see if they had anything good for a cheap price (they didn’t) and I came to the PC shelves to find another gamer looking around as well. As both of us were look at the selection he looks at me and said this is all the PC games they have on display, and I replied that it’s because most of the PC games out there are only available through online retailers like Steam these days. And then we started talking about anti piracy and EA’s “physical copy” distributions.
This guy told he moved into a house about a year ago and since then he had no Internet. There was Cincinnati Bell’s Fioptics access on a hill about a mile from where he lives but it stops right there. I don’t know what stopped him from getting connecting (maybe the extra costs of dragging the line down to there?) but if he wanted Internet connectivity he had to drag his PC rig over to his friend’s house and get his stuff done there. The lack of Internet access let him to looking for physical copies of PC games, which brought up the no disc boxes EA put out for “Titanfall 2” and “Star Wars Battlefront.” He brought up how a GTA collection he got had about seven discs but I said to him at least he got discs.
To end things he asked if I could figure out the price of the game he was getting (which was “Farcry Primal”) and I recalled there was a price scanner around where we were. Turned out to be $10 more than what he wanted to bargain for but decided to roll with it. And with that we shook hands and parted.
And now to link my articles at the bottom of this blog (Yep, still writing). Till Next Time.
Articles:
One Show Only Review [Link]
New Tap Order 2 Review [Link]
A take on “leaked” Nintendo Switch price [Link]
yeah if you don't have internet and steam, you're kinda screwed. I know my brother was hesitant to get steam cause it mean having your credit card (or I guess paypal online). I don't know if he has paypal, but I think that aspect of it kind of turns him off. However, we're getting him a new computer for xmas and he wants to play strategy games, so he's going to have to get steam cause god knows they don't sell those boxed anymore.
You don't have to save your credit card information on Steam. Although you will have to fill in the information everytime you buy something, and don't forget to tick off the box that wants you to save that info.
To add to Joaquim's point, you can also hook up Paypal and avoid having credit card info in Steam directly. After having my credit card stolen a couple times, I've stopped putting it into any given site on the internet. I currently only have it hooked up to 2 places: Paypal and Amazon.
To make the Steam checkout more secure, he can then setup Paypal to require login every time he wants to buy something and it's more protected than just having the credit card in right there.
yeah honestly, I use Paypal on Steam myself. But my brother can be kind of peculiar, and I'm not sure if he has a paypal account. Well - he's gonna need one! :)
I don't save any card information on Steam either. Actually I don't save that information on anything.
Might I also mention that just because the PC game has a physical box does not mean you can play it offline. There are some games that require that you play with an internet connection. Blame it on the DRM they use.
As yes, Internet Connection DRM. Screws you over if you don't have Internet or if your provider drops for the day.
I still feel like a digital copy of a game isn't worth as much as a physical one. I'm willing to spend $60 on a game I want day-one if it's a physical disc, but if it is digital only, I totally would wait for a sale. I think it's due to the fact that I don't feel like I really own a digital game.Hard drives could fail, or data could get corrupt. On consoles, the service remembers what you bought and let's you redownload it anytime, but I'm pretty sure the small print says that if something changes in licensing, you may not have access to it anymore.
Yup. Buying digital means buying a license, not the game itself.
I feel that way about music too. I just don't see it as the same value as a physical product. Paying $10 for an album on download just doesn't seem like a good deal. I can go get a CD or vinyl for less than that. Plus I have something to look at and read the liner notes.