How Steam turned a pirate into a paying customer

[wraith808]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/05/how-steam-stopped-me-from-pirating-games-and-enjoy-the-sweet-drm-kool-aid/

Personally, I never pirated PC games, but this guy speaks to a lot of what my frustration has been with PC games, especially the switching DVDs and entering codes.

All in all, an interesting article.

[nite_monkey]

I will agree with the guy that steam is a great service and most of my game collection is now with steam. Though, I will admit that before I used steam I did pirate games. I didn't have a problem with multiplayer in my cracked games though, because I don't play multiplayer anyways. Though I wasn't lazy, my reason is that I can't afford to pay $50 for a game. (nor would I want to, that is way to much IMO) So the main reason that I started using steam is because they had a sale so I was able to buy a game that I had been wanting for only $5 instead of $50. So now I don't usually pirate games anymore... I wait until they are on sale on steam and buy them then.

[wraith808]

<soapbox>
Personally, I never pirated games because I make money developing software (some that were pirated), and I know I didn't want people to do the same to me, but to either decide to pay for the software, or just not use it.  That seems the better choice- either decide it's worth it an pay, or don't play.
</soapbox>

That said, those are my opinions on the subject, and that's all

[rxantos]

The article forgot to mention that price is not always lower on steam than buying the dvd, have that on mind before making a purchase.

For example right now "Fallout 3 game of the year edition" cost $49.99 on steam, But you can find the dvd edition new on amazon from $37.99, and "Oblivion Game of the year" cost 24.99 while I got the same game on dvd for 19.95 from target.

Bottom line, do not assume that just because is streaming, is cheaper.

[wraith808]

No, it's not necessarily cheaper- but it is more convenient.  I've re-purchased games that I still have on DVD because of that reason.  In fact, it seems that the price is not the leading motivator from what he was saying, but just one of many.  Also, if you look for sales, there's no reason to pay that price.  When I purchased Fallout 3 game of the year edition, I got it for $25.  And as for Oblivion, I purchased the past two elder scrolls games plus the DLC for $19.95.  Steam will always have the advantage on agility in pricing, because they can more easily mark things down for a day or two than the retail channel.