[Freddy]

Interesting story...made me wonder how many of us buy games online now.  I wasn't too keen on the Steam thing myself and I know other people hated it.  There's still something about holding a physical copy of a game but maybe we will grow out of this like we did with mp3

One thing I do prefer is to have a physical copy of the manual to flick through although these days I must admit a vast percentage of my daily reading is material on the net.

And the other thing that springs to mind is I don't think you can really sell downloaded games when you are done with them.  That's annoying to me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11397504

[Art]

Interesting Freddy...

A couple schools of thought...

I used to "purchase" games from stores only to have them spend a lot of time doing
updates, upgrades and registrations, etc.  Holding the physical game in my hand
really doesn't impart the same feeling as say, holding a paperback novel compared
to an ebook reader. Usually the packaging get promptly ripped open and the game installed.

I've never sold nor planned to, any game I've ever bought. There've been some that I've
player months or years later for whatever reason but I see your point.

I hardly ever recall reading a game manual since most have pretty detailed instructions
online or included within the games Help files in case of desperation.

Then again, I haven't been an active gamer in some time an d I'm sure a lot has changed.
I do enjoy browsing through the new demo games and some freeware shooters as well.

I have not paid $50 or more for a game for quite some time! Dinner and a nice bottle of wine...
perhaps! At least there, ya don't lose (especially weight!).

[Data]

Every time I’m after a new game I do a little hunting around for the best price, normally I check Steam, one or two supermarket websites and Amazon, as im doing it I think to myself “I know who will be cheapest but I will check anyway” and to no surprise Amazon comes up with the best price which normally includes free delivery too.

I think Steam is a great idea and have purchased a couple of games through them, having 20Mb cable the downloads don’t take that long to come in and I can be playing the game the same day, but why do games cost more through Steam? surely they should be cheaper, they don’t have to deliver the game, there is no DVD or packaging to worry about so there must be less staff to pay too. I don’t get that.

Occasionally Steam will sell a game at discount, this normally is done for a couple of days, like over the weekend and its how I have the games I got from Steam. And one last annoyance of Steam is the price stated on the site, they don’t include VAT and that can catch you out when you click buy.

So the vast majority of my games came from Amazon and I don’t think this will change any time soon.     

Yes I’m a bit of a gamer 

[Freddy]

Good points both of you.

About the manuals, I always found them useful because you could refer to them whilst in the game without opening a browser and such like.  I like RPG games and there is always a lot of information to soak up and being able to do that on the fly was really useful to me.

I haven't bought a game in ages, not for about 6 months, which is unusual for me.  I have been playing some of the casual games though like the Jewel Quests and I like them.  I'm still waiting for Guild Wars 2 to be released and expect to be gaming until my fingers are numb when that comes out lol

Amazon is probably the best place to buy games I agree.  I always look on there.  Amazon seems to have the best price for just about everything these days, but it's also worth checking eBay for games that are not so new.

I can't understand how Steam would cost more money either.   It seems like a rip off to me.

One good thing about Steam would be that I wouldn't have to find more shelf space for boxes.  At least these days they mostly seem to be fat DVD size cases.  Going back a few years they used to come in massive boxes that were complete over kill.

I think I will be sticking to physical versions for a while yet though when possible.

[Mohit]

Right now, I stick to my PSP as I am free to play games only while I am travelling Playing Assassin's Creed nowadays. . I have to walk from store to store to buy a new UMD. Hope they start giving full games as downloads after buying them. I would like to keep a physical copy for PC though, just in case my hard disk goes crashing.

I haven't played games on my PC since 2-3 years. I recollect that there were games in which you have to insert the physical disks in your drive in order to play them. Its cool if they stopped making games like this, coz ultimately after using that disk several times, it becomes unusable and you have to buy one if its your favourite game.

[Data]

You are right about the manuals Freddy, I have had to use the one that came with my latest game F1 2010 a few times, they do come in handy when you first get a new game.

I had forgotten that games used to come in large boxes, that was crazy wasn’t it.

@ Mohit, I cant say that I have ever had a DVD or CD disk go bad, but I have had a good few DVD and CD drives fail on me, games that require the disk to be inserted can age the drive every time they get used. Saying that you could get 2 DVD-rom drives for the price of one game these days.

There is also no problem if your hard drive fails on Steam, once you have mended your PC log into Steam and simply download them again.

Steam isn’t perfect but it does try to look after its customers.

[Mohit]

Yes true Datahopa. In my case the disks have gone bad. Bad luck!!

There is also no problem if your hard drive fails on Steam, once you have mended your PC log into Steam and simply download them again.

This is very good indeed, until and unless people use it to sell them for their own profit. I think they must be having some security in that also, which prevents data from getting copied and distributed afterwards.