Dragon Age 2 - What Went Wrong @ RPS

[Brother None]

Is there any was to un-associate a retail game to sell it?(from steam)

Don't think so. Once associated to an account, it is associated to the account. It's meant to kill the second-hand market. You could make a dummy account for the game if you intend to resell it I guess.

I will probably NOT buy any future games which require Steam for the retail boxed version to work.

That might be tough. SteamWorks isn't superpopular but I see it and whatever GameStop will produce as the counterpart of it as possibly being pretty popular forms of DRM. It's all Valve games, for one. But I guess you'd just buy those over DD instead?

 

[DoctorNarrative]

You can theoretically make a new account for every Steamworks game you buy, then sell it with the account info inside. Should work fine as long as you never advertise the account name so Valve can see it.

I have never sold a game though, that's far from something I care about. My entire problem with DRM is worrying my games will not function decades down the road. Even then though the PC community has shown time and time again they will take care of stuff like that and make sure classics are always playable, so I don't worry much about DRM in general honestly.

 

[sakichop]

I have never sold a pc game either but have handed down to friends or family if I don't plan on playing it again. That just doesn't seem right I can't think of one other thing I own that I couldn't give to someone if I wanted to. I'm sure there is something but can't think of it. But I guess we really never own most software do we.

 

[Brother None]

I have never sold a pc game either but have handed down to friends or family if I don't plan on playing it again. That just doesn't seem right I can't think of one other thing I own that I couldn't give to someone if I wanted to. I'm sure there is something but can't think of it. But I guess we really never own most software do we.

That's why it's so popular. It helps the publisher's whole "games aren't owned, they're licensed" viewpoint. But again, if you lend out stuff a lot, just make dummy accounts, write down name and password and keep it in the game's jacket. It's slightly inconvenient but works.

 

[DArtagnan]

I've used GOG, GamersGate, Impulse, Direct2Drive and Steam. Steam is probably best in insane sales, GamersGate and GOG are friendliest in DRM-freeness. Impulse has always had a bit of a limited stock but that'll change now I guess. D2D is my least favorite but that's mostly because they only care about US customers.

So, uh, there's that? Steam has a competitive disadvantage but there's plenty of options in the market. So use another service if you don't like Steam.

Have you, by any chance, missed direct2drive.co.uk?

It has become my favorite online shop, and it's almost always cheaper than any of the alternatives.

That said, I do have a fileplanet membership - which gives me 15% off on all titles (so far).

But even without that, it's MUCH cheaper than Steam - and typically slightly cheaper than Gamersgate/Impulse for EU customers.

Just FYI.

 

[DoctorNarrative]

In the US boxed retail is by far the cheapest way to get games... at least close to their release. Steam is always full price for a good long time while boxed copies are quickly discounted by stores and in the case of amazon usually discounted before release and with bonus gift credit.

A good weekend deal on Steam is hard to beat, but pretty much every other day of the year amazon beats them.

 

[DArtagnan]

In the US boxed retail is by far the cheapest way to get games… at least close to their release. Steam is always full price for a good long time while boxed copies are quickly discounted by stores and in the case of amazon usually discounted before release and with bonus gift credit.

A good weekend deal on Steam is hard to beat, but pretty much every other day of the year amazon beats them.

Used to be like that in Denmark as well - that boxed retail was the cheapest way.

But after I discovered the "fair" online sites, it has actually been a bit cheaper to get them online, and then I don't have to wait to have them shipped and all that.

Most of the titles I've bought recently have been a good 20-25% cheaper than a boxed version, especially on D2D - but as I said, I do have the 15% FP membership thing.

I was a box fan in the old days, when it mattered. That was when developers invested in creating fantastic manuals.

These days, the box is pointless and just takes up space. That's how I see it, anyway.

How Steam can be so popular and yet still be significantly more expensive than the physical product complete with distribution expenses - I'll never know.

Valve are shamelessly greedy - and that's par for the course. But why are people so happy about it?

 

[DoctorNarrative]

Valve are shamelessly greedy - and that's par for the course. But why are people so happy about it?

Because Valve are really, really good at making people think they're your buddies, rather than a company selling you things and restricting your access.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

They may be greedy or at least shrewd business people, but there are good deals to be had on steam. Since I rarely buy on release anyway, I tend to fill my games library when they have their 75% off sales. I am greedy too
That said, there is no particular reason that I mainly use steam (for indies I try to buy directly from them), except that it was the first digital distribution portal I used, and it is now always open and shows the daily deals when I play one of the games I already have on steam. Smart marketing, I suppose.

 

[Brother None]

Have you, by any chance, missed direct2drive.co.uk?

Nope, though I use direct2drive.eu, which isn't noticeably cheap or expensive. But my problem with D2D isn't the pricing, it's the catalog, which has always been US-focused (though perhaps they've changed, I admit I've paid less attention to them of late). I do buy from them when they put things on sale, obviously, same for any digital download service. I don't buy DD except when on a very attractive sale, because otherwise it's almost always cheaper to search different webshops for the cheapest copy by way of budgetgaming.be.

I'm Dutch, being a penny-counting cheap-ass comes with the territory.

 

[Dhruin]

D2D definitely doesn't offer better deals to me and almost every game I've tried to buy off them was NA-only. So, from my perspective, I don't give Steam money because it makes me happy, it's because they give me the best combination of service, catalogue and price.

 

[DArtagnan]

D2D definitely doesn't offer better deals to me and almost every game I've tried to buy off them was NA-only. So, from my perspective, I don't give Steam money because it makes me happy, it's because they give me the best combination of service, catalogue and price.

Did you miss the .co.uk part?

On there, there are no NA-only titles. At least, none that I've found (and wouldn't make sense given the EU suffix) - and they've all been cheaper than Steam. I've bought 10 games from there or so. I know - because I always compare prices on sites I know about before purchase.

They're typically slightly cheaper than Gamersgate and Impulse. Not always, though.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Did you miss the .co.uk part?

On there, there are no NA-only titles. At least, none that I've found (and wouldn't make sense given the EU suffix) - and they've all been cheaper than Steam. I've bought 10 games from there or so. I know - because I always compare prices on sites I know about before purchase.

They're typically slightly cheaper than Gamersgate and Impulse. Not always, though.

Maybe thats not helpful to an Australian?

 

[DArtagnan]

Maybe thats not helpful to an Australian?

Ah, didn't know that.

No, they seem to be screwed pretty much across the board

Though you could probably circumvent it by using a proxy.

 

[Dhruin]

I can't see any reason to move away from Steam to D2D for my situation. I posted to make the point that people's experience with DD vendors will vary with region and other variables.

 

[DArtagnan]

I can't see any reason to move away from Steam to D2D for my situation. I posted to make the point that people's experience with DD vendors will vary with region and other variables.

As I said, I didn't realise you were from Australia.

For EU customers, Steam is definitely the most expensive online site (not counting their sales) - and that's why I try to help those who might not have tried other services.

To me, it would be reason enough that Valve overcharges anyone at all - if I could get similar prices elsewhere. But that's because I don't appreciate overt greed, but it can be hard to detect.

 

[Maylander]

Steam still has the brilliant $ = € thing going on. That pretty much rules them out.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Here in Germany there's also Metaboli and Gamesload ... But I haven't any slightest idea whether they sell outside of Germany, too ?

 

[Brother None]

Steam still has the brilliant $ = € thing going on. That pretty much rules them out.

I never got why this upset people so. True, it's not the same for every region, but for most of the Eurozone, weren't games always being sold at a $ = € price? If I buy a new release from the shelves, it'll be 50-60 EUR, not a backwards calculated 50-60 USD. All Steam did was, well, adapt to the same.

Did it upset people because it didn't use to be that way? Digital retail is still retail. Publishers are still looking for the same margins. Eurozone Europe (and other regions, like Australia) have always overpaid for games. Eastern Europe and other regions have always underpaid.

At the end of the day I agree, it's getting a bit ridiculous. Staggered releases need to go, and it should be considered if digital download isn't better off flat-rated. Though the concept of flat-rating is advantageous to overpayers while disadvantageous to underpayers. Still, it's not like Steam invented it. So why be mad at Steam, specifically?

 

[DArtagnan]

I never got why this upset people so. True, it's not the same for every region, but for most of the Eurozone, weren't games always being sold at a $ = € price? If I buy a new release from the shelves, it'll be 50-60 EUR, not a backwards calculated 50-60 USD. All Steam did was, well, adapt to the same.

When you can get boxed versions and alternate digital versions ~30-50% cheaper consistently, the point becomes clear.

A boxed version in Denmark for a brand new game amounts to 40-45 dollars where Steam charges what amounts to 65-70 dollars for the same game in a non-physical form.

Direct2Drive charges what amounts to 35-40 dollars for the same game. That's without FP membership bonus.

It's not a hard choice to make.

Did it upset people because it didn't use to be that way? Digital retail is still retail. Publishers are still looking for the same margins. Eurozone Europe (and other regions, like Australia) have always overpaid for games. Eastern Europe and other regions have always underpaid.

I don't know why it upsets people. I know why I don't buy from Steam, and that's because they're the most expensive digital retailer I'm aware of - by a HUGE margin.

Beyond that, they require their shitty slow client to be an active process - even when playing offline - and the only advantage they have is that you can install the game while it is downloading - where most other services require a download before install. This saves you a maximum of 10 minutes for the install for a really big game.

Basically, I have no idea why EU customers use Steam for new games, and the only rational explanations I can come up with are ignorance and apathy.