An explanation why Steam DRM is bad for the total war community.

[irishron]

And that is the fault of ISPs for offering a shoddy service and governments for not regulating ISPs properly and failing to develop infrastructure. It's not the fault of game publishers and developers for moving over to a business model that benefits both them and the overwhelming majority of their customer base.

Never said it was the distributers' fault but money talks and it sure as Hell is not the customers short of not buying from them. I do too much shopping online to know better. Ever try to find out-of-season products any other way anymore? It's still summer here for at least another month and I had to order a replacement for something that conked out because the stores no longer stock them until next Spring and shifting the same space into Fall and Winter products. I do know the realities but gaming for me is not one of them, thank you very much. I game to get away from reality for a little bit, not deal with more of it.

[Fireright]

The fact that many people would happily pay extra £££ or $$$ for a non-Steam version of games speaks volumes.

[irishron]

The fact that many people would happily pay extra £££ or $$$ for a non-Steam version of games speaks volumes.

Including me. There are companies that do send cds at request and an added $10 fee or so for shipping and handling. Would you like source to one?

[mamik_yev_konak]

If I were a (successful) self-published developer, one of my main concerns would be cost. I easily imagine that it costs more to package and distribute CDs than to digitally distribute software and video games. If volume was not exceedingly high (in the hundreds of thousands), then I can foresee packaging disc versions in-house. With modern publishing techniques, it is not difficult to package discs with professional-looking covers and labels. If I haven't done so before, there would be an up-front investment in the hardware necessary to perform these functions. As for distribution, we probably wouldn't need to charge much for shipping, given that a disc doesn't cost much to ship, a few bucks only. So for the consumer, they might end up paying more by the price of shipping, as opposed to the downloadable version. And if the profit margin on the software or video game is good enough, we might even get away with free shipping, bearing the cost of shipping on the house. Just my thoughts.

EDIT: I was actually thinking about the longevity of optical media as I was writing this, and given that neither me nor any other studio would put a warranty/guarantee on the discs, one might be concerned about this. But the truth is--and I don't know if this is the case for others here--I have discs that I've handled the proper way (without oiling or scratching the surface) that still reside in their covers and are boxed away. These discs, after a decade and a half, still work as they originally did. I have not exposed them to heat or any other harmful radiation. But then again, the way I've kept the media is probably how anyone would reasonably go about it. I haven't invested in any special mechanism to preserve the discs. I just used what I thought was common sense to handle and store them.

[LestaT]

I would rather have a hard copy instead, i like holding it and keeping it stored somewhere, i like old school no matter what the price is and i bought RTW 1 twice because i lost my first one and still would prefer dvd's/cd's.

Me too. But just for installation process. During ETW time though I have the DVD is made both digital and hard copy of the last game version after every patch so that I don't have to redownload gigabytes of patches should I need it.

Now that since my DVD-ROM is broken only digital copies left in my other hard disks.

[irishron]

Me too. But just for installation process. During ETW time though I have the DVD is made both digital and hard copy of the last game version after every patch so that I don't have to redownload gigabytes of patches should I need it.

Now that since my DVD-ROM is broken only digital copies left in my other hard disks.

The last time I had to replace a dvd-rom was three years ago and for only $13, a penance for the convenience.

[LestaT]

The last time I had to replace a dvd-rom was three years ago and for only $13, a penance for the convenience.

Yeah I know. It's about MYR 40-50 now. But then I find no need right now especially having small kids and a toddler around the house who like to push the button and like to test if they can step on it (that's what broke it in the first place.)

[irishron]

Parents have to have patience and wait for them to grow out of a phase and this is one of many. The disc will be there then. My last one to totally cause chaos with the family computer is now 33.