» Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:52 am I have nothing against Valve or Steam. I enjoy the convenience of their storefront application and the organization of my gaming library. This is handy, convenient and a welcome change from numerous isntall folders scattered hither and yon across my computer. But this convenience hides an ugly truth. Quite simply that we, the players, who spend hard earned money supporting our favorite developers, do not actually own our games. We bought them; we play them. But at the end of the day we are one misguided post, one typo, one glitch, one clerical error, away from losing access to our account - and our games - forever.
I take offense to this. PC gaming is something I choose to do with my spare time and the relatively few entertainment dollars I have avaiilable to me. I could easily do other things, and I could easily pirate games. Instead I choose to game on PC in an ethical manner, and support hard-working developers and their employees by paying up to $60 for new games like Rage and Skyrim. I do not have to do this; other entertainment options are readily available to me, including the MMO, board and card games and other real life hobbies all vying for my attention - and my entertainment dollar. Nonetheless, I make the choice to spend my money with developers like Bethesda, to support their time and effort and that of their employees.
And what do I get in return for my support? I receive notice that I do not own my game. I receive notice that, any time and for any smallest whim, I can be forever cut off from a product I already purchased. And it does not even have to be my fault. A typo or clerical error can ban the wrong Steam account; a malicious person working for the owner of the service can lock me out for saying something that does not violate a TOS but with which they disagree. Unethical, perhaps, but could it happen? Certainly it could.
I want to support PC gaming. I bought an expensive, customer designed rig because I cannot stand building PC's myself, though I can do it if I have to, and because I want to game on my preferred platform. I buy games instead of pirating them. I support developers when I can choose to do otherwise. In return, all I ask of developers and their ownership is one small concession: Don't make me use Steam to play my game.
If you want me to log into Steam once to install and activate my game I am ok with this. If you want to provide a similar, once and done verification service I can even tolerate this. But once I have activated my game, let me play that game without third party interference. Give me ownership of the game I purchased from you. I won't share it; I actually have refused to allow friends to try and copy my games, telling them to support the time and effort of the devs instead. If its worth playing, it is worth paying for, period. But only if I own it once I buy it.
If I continue to only rent the games I play, I will likely begin to pursue other hobbies. Board and card games are fast becoming more sophisticated than Pc games in this day and age, and more tuned to a discerning, thinking audience anyway. I would like to continue to pursue my first love in gaming, however, I need some assurance from developers that I own the games I buy.
Feel free to chime in as to whether you agree, or otherwise.
