The Old Ways

[IDGam3r]

Hi, i just wanna discuss PC Gaming before Steam, i'll start by saying when i got into pc gaming, floppy discs were the way to install games, then along came cd's then floppy discs died off, and then came Steam. Now i personally like the days where you buy the game into the drive, you installed it, then played it, now with Steam it's you find the game via 2 methods(i will be noting the digital method), you find the game on steam, you buy it, you install it, you wait for the game to download, then you gotta install it, then you can play it, now i am not against Steam in any way, but why did the old way die quickly, i mean yeah for cabinets and whatnot physical discs are somewhat space consuming, but the old way was a simple, straightforward way to install games, and i love keeping things simple, so with all that said, i have two questions, one is related to this topic the other is a question that has been burning in my mind for a few years now.

Question 1(On Topic): Why is Physical Distribution of PC games slowly dying off while console gaming still uses Physical Distribution?

Question 2(Off Topic):Why did Shareware die?

[Shard]

Yeah, back then I used to go with my dad and family to the store, often eat out and came home late to try the new games.

It's all different now, I can buy game on steam with a click.
Now I do the same thing with my dad but instead of buying games, we buy computer hardware and eat out (soon drones will fly hardwares into your home with a click, RIP old way)

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

1.
a. online distribution.
b. high cost of physical distribution (cd/dvd/blu ray manufacturing, space rentals)

2.
a. some already offers full game trial: time-limited like steam free weekend play
b. some offers partial game play like blizzard's free act 1 on diablo 3 and sc2:wol

[✪InfernoPhoenix✪]

Before i got to steam i used CDs to play games back then an the early 2000's

[viperborea]

back in my day we used the good old wooden floppy disks that had like 2 ultrathin packages of flammable oil and basically you would insert it into your personal computation mechanism and the clockwork would start spinning and then the screen (intricate patterns of dye and oil along glass) would boot up. you had to access the command prompt through telegraph systems.

the good days

anyways op, i miss shareware too

[The Wolf of Calabarzon]

Digital distribution is the future, it seems. PC gaming tends toward the cutting edge in most aspects, so it seems natural that they would embrace digital distribution more readily.

Shareware seems to be far inferior to digital distribution, now that the Internet is nigh ubiquitous.

[Blackstar001]

Way back in the bad old days I found out about Steam when I purchased a retail copy of COD Black Ops. I thought what a gimmick. I have learned to love Steam. A lot.

One thing I have not seen people metion yet is(and I know nothing about how to pirate software) but by creating an online automated authentication system it made it harder for people to steal software by making "bootleg" copies etc.(i.e.games). I think companies like Valve grew it from there.

Another thing is that perhaps because the size of storage will soon be outdone by what can be held on cd disks. I can tell you it is a pain to open the drawer on my computer 5 or 6 times to get a game onto my HD

Its a very relevant question though , something I have wondered about myself quite a bit.

[ექსტრემალური ვიდეოnave]

I remember the days when we had to go to a store and buy games. There's a special feeling (IMO) when you get a physical copy of a game compared to a digital one.

[KENJI]

i still miss the times when games were in a NICE physical BOX not a DVD case. with a nice and colorful manual in it.!!!!!! now you buy a digital copy with one click.
of course for gaming companies it is more cheaper you dont need any distribution channels than steam for example. no fancy packaging and stuff.

it is not the same feeling like back in 2000. you were also able to trade with your friends. like we always talked before we bought games. you buy game A, friend buys b another C then you trade and have fun
but now games are so dirt cheap like 5 bucks on sale i guess trading does not count anymore

[✪InfernoPhoenix✪]

Originally posted by wick3dGame:

i still miss the times when games were in a NICE physical BOX not a DVD case. with a nice and colorful manual in it.!!!!!! now you buy a digital copy with one click.
of course for gaming companies it is more cheaper you dont need any distribution channels than steam for example. no fancy packaging and stuff.

it is not the same feeling like back in 2000. you were also able to trade with your friends. like we always talked before we bought games. you buy game A, friend buys b another C then you trade and have fun :bbamsmily:
but now games are so dirt cheap like 5 bucks on sale i guess trading does not count anymore
:salvador:

I rememeber thoses unnecessary boxes on the dvds,or even better two cds in 1 dvd case?Thoses were the days...

[C4Warr10r]

Ah, yes, the old ways. We must share the story of our people and honor those who came before us that we not forget our traditions. Long before World of Warcrack and its ilk, those brave pioneers were losing family, friends, and hours fording rivers six pixels wide on the Oregon Trail.

Back then, and for many years, you had to get your games from the retail store. Well, if you could find one that sold computer games. Most folk in those times were simple, and worried about bigger things like hair or lightning bolt art deco or phones which were only portable in the academic sense.

Those of us who loved PC gaming and didn't already live in a town would have to trek to a specialist store in a mall or mini-mall to buy games. It was a hard life, walking uphill both ways in the mall to get to the store, since all teens circuit the mall at least twice and the food court was on a totally different level. Often making matters worse was that ye olde "arcade" (a place where one could use coins to play games the size of furniture) was in some completely different place as well. Kids have it so easy these days with their Steam and Doritos and moms.

Anyway, things began to get better as gaming became more mainstream. More rretailers popped up, meaning more choice, and more walking. If EB Games didn't have it then maybe Babbage's would, or one of the smaller services like BattleZone which varied locally. You'd buy your game, which came in a shiny box you couldn't wait to open, clutching it all the way home.

Oh, but you weren't done yet. Back then, games came with manuals. Those are books you have to read that tell you how to play the game. They were great, giving you something to do while your game installed and ensuring at least a modicum of intellectual ability. Sometimes. Truth is, kids back then were a lot like kids today, skipping the manual like one would a tutorial now, and then bugging everyone who wasn't quite so unashamedly stupid to fill them in later. Not on the internet though, that **** was expensive and you only had so many minutes or hours on your plan.

Enough wistful reminiscing, though, it was in this environment that the death of disk gaming and shareware began, and Steam was born. As the millenium turned GameStop adopted a business strategy which could be considered as a proto-Steam. One store, where you could get all your games, with opportunities for good value, though they focused on trading in old titles.

Even better, Gamestop would allow gamers to get games early and exclusively at their stores by agreeing to deals with manufacturers and distributors. I was working for UPS part-time the first summer they had their deal with us. It was an instant success for almost everyone. The deal was that Gamestop could have reduced UPS shipping rates for their traffic, including home deliveries, so long as they agreed to only use UPS for shipping.

This deal, in turn, helped Gamestop make deals with manufacturers. Lowerd shipping costs meant better ROI for investors and more capital with which to persuade manufacturers to use only Gamestop, or primarily Gamestop, as a venue. The only people who lost out were the ones who didn't get shelf space due to volume or unwillingness to agree. You could buy their games, sure, but you likely had to go to one of the stores GameStop was rapidly putting out of business.

True to the immortal words of Vincent Adultman, they did a business. And what a business they did. The rise of EA and other software giants was directly influenced by deals with GameStop. Who else are you going to deal with when there's only one real choice? It is this sort of collaberation amongst private industry that makes it so powerful, and to some, so threatening.

But capitalism always wins and if you need to kill a monster just make a new one the same way. Strategies are timeless, means are endless. Steam, ironically, did not rise at once, but had to wait until the internet technology was really available. Once it was, manufacturers had a new option. Not only could they save more money with digital games, they could ensure those games were not shared.

Now, going back for a moment, what happened to Shareware? Well, remember what Shareware was. The initial idea behind it was that people could have a free trial. Not that they could share the whole game. People were already copying software mercilessly, since there was no real form of digital protection. A disk is just a disk, how is it to know if it has been used or not? If the computer it is placed into isn't talking to other computers, it won't know either.

These reasons are why Shareware was introduced as an ANTI-piracy measure. There's always a profit motive, even in "sharing." There was no way devs could outpace one kid lending his game to all his firends in turn, unless they already had a trial and had yet to meet someone with the actual game. Nature does the rest, or have you never wanted to throw money at the screen for a game? "JUST TAKE IT!" Hell, people do that now with games they haven't even played. If I'd gotten to play three missions of XCOM and then been told I needed the full version.....well I don't have a firstborn son but I would obtain one from somewhere and offer that.

As the internet and information-sharing advanced, such things were no longer necessarry. Manufacturers could get a lock-down, making sure their game was used ONLY by the person licensed to play it, which is not greedy, it is fair. As long as it works. Steam works. And now, Gamestop doesn't sell PC titles most of the time. They got shut out of that market by someone who did it better, then shut out again by services like Amazon for console. Now they're struggling a bit, but you can still make the trip for the sake of nostaligia.

[C4Warr10r]

Originally posted by Big Metal:

Excellently written as usual C4Warr10r. Gamestop's being shut out of the PC market was self-inflicted folly. They treated PC gamers like crap long before Steam became popular; the ever-shrinking PC games shelf is the reason why I finally relented and installed Steam. I haven't regretted it since and wouldn't think of ever going back to EB-Games/Gamestop.

You're too kind. But I didn't really know much about Gamestop treting PC gamers like crap. By the time they were in full swing I was shopping at the base PX. What were they doing?

[C4Warr10r]

Originally posted by Big Metal:

There were plenty of PC titles back then to fill a much bigger shelf, but PC gamers were treated like an afterthought. Last time I bought a game there was the Orange Box, there were only a few other titles on the puny shelf at the time. I was stubborn for years and strongly opposed to digital downloading games but after I created my Steam account and installed Half-Life 2, I started to come around.

I did see some of that but not until I was a Corporal and actually went off-base from time to time. When did it start? I mean, Orange Box was a fairly late comer.

That said, once I was also an unrepentant blashpemer of our Lord GabeN. The "courtesy" of allowing me to digitally own games did me precisely zero good when I had no internet connection to speak of in Twentynine Palms. I could access DOD-approved content, which wasn't Steam. As such, if I bought a Steam game, even off the shelf, I could not play it. I was rather furious about that at the time, since my other main recreational activity was raking sand into neatly ordered rows or shoveling it into bags. Thank God for the range.

Anyway, I changed my mind quickly once the DOD caught up to civilian internet by simply allowing it. And of course, Steam got its offline mode. Real life-saver. Since then it's saved me thousands of dollars and probably thousands of hours.

[Bubbles]

With the use of cds, they get scratched and damaged too easly, and once its too damaged to be able to be read, you're screwed and have to buy a new copy. With steam, there is no worry about a damaged copy, and if you want to play a new game and not have the space, just simply uninstall and steam will keep your game and saves so you can resume playing said game with no worries.

[Linerax]

Those AOL discs that came un cereal boxes. I once thought I got a free copy of a Lord of the Rings game but didn't realize it was only a demo.

[RedLightning]

Originally posted by Big Metal:

Originally posted by C4Warr10r:

I did see some of that but not until I was a Corporal and actually went off-base from time to time. When did it start? I mean, Orange Box was a fairly late comer.

That said, once I was also an unrepentant blashpemer of our Lord GabeN. The "courtesy" of allowing me to digitally own games did me precisely zero good when I had no internet connection to speak of in Twentynine Palms. I could access DOD-approved content, which wasn't Steam. As such, if I bought a Steam game, even off the shelf, I could not play it. I was rather furious about that at the time, since my other main recreational activity was raking sand into neatly ordered rows or shoveling it into bags. Thank God for the range.

Anyway, I changed my mind quickly once the DOD caught up to civilian internet by simply allowing it. And of course, Steam got its offline mode. Real life-saver. Since then it's saved me thousands of dollars and probably thousands of hours.

Yeah, Orange Box was already a couple of years old when I bought it... like I said, I was stupid stubborn. It was late summer 2009, and I think EA had declared PC gaming officially dead that year (I remember they were pulling titles from PC-Windows and concentrating on the 360). It was somewhat depressing, PC has been my platform of choice since the Amiga died (sad time). I'm glad I relented and decided to get the Orange Box. I know there are alot of people who will disagree with me, but I still strongly believe Valve saved PC gaming.

While I agree with 99 percent of what you have written.. and written well :) PC gaming is still kinda an afterthought in many a mind.. what with most of the Early Access devs. using us for console game testers or just running with the money.. shoddy ports.. or NO ports at all.. heck we have not even seen Red Dead Redemption.. the list goes on...

I digress.. and have to say .. the Amiga was a fine machine... imagine what they would be today if they did not go bust... I loved my 2000.