Sunday, February 3, 2013

All aboard the steam-powered digital distribution train


Trawling through my Steam games list I was hoping to find a game or collection of games with a common element or mechanic which had possibly a highly praised or even controversial form of recognition within the gaming community that had been discussed in a lecture to elaborate and voice my opinion on. Then I wondered “what the hell, why do I have so many games? Where did they all come from?” This then set off a chain reaction in my brain about digital distribution, buyer’s remorse and evolution of hardware, in particular the games themselves, which I want to discuss.


As a kid, the euphoria of going into EB games, getting a game from the shelf, studying the exquisite cover art and reading the manual on the way home building up hype and anticipation for the impending gaming experience was such a fantastic feeling. You would cherish the game as you slid it into the CD slot and focused on playing that game until it was finished. Displaying the boxes of games on your desk like trophies would bring a smile to your face as your collection would grow. A game was easy to lend to your friends never to be seen again but also extremely tedious if you ever opened a case and had to play find-the-CD-for-the-right-case game. Now things have changed, drastically. Times are a-changin’ and with game distributors such as Steam, Playstation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace etc revolutionising the way we get hold of games, we may see the end of snapped CDs and lost manuals on the horizon.

All  hail the mighty Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve
There are benefits but also setbacks with this form of online distribution. Steam completely dominates in this market. Developed by Valve Corporation, it is a digital distribution, multiplayer and communications platform which control 50%-70% of PC downloaded games contributing to their $2-$4 billion value[1]. They know what they’re doing and they’re doing it right. In terms of the process of obtaining a game, one would have to have an account; its free, no hassle. Once you’ve found the game, just enter your credit cards details and click purchase. So far the ease of a few quick clicks is all too enticing to buy a game, which is also a dangerous trap. You must then download it; a pain for us in NZ with our Internet limits but possibly a blessing in disguise. I would consider this a major hold back from people going rampant with their money. This is the price you have to pay for this type of online distribution. Otherwise, all this is a very simple method. No need to go into a store, slowly open your wallet and tentatively take out cash, possibly show your ID and have HUMAN INTERACTION GOD FORBID. In terms of age restriction, it is possible to be underage and still buy R18 games from Steam; there is an age verification before viewing certain games in the store but that’s more for terms of conditions and contracts with classifications rather than a psychological deterrent. Obtaining a credit card from your parents is another matter however.
Steam announce their next summer sale
The downside with all this easy accessibility and painless experience is that it’s very easy to succumb to impulse buying and just generally spending too much. No physical form of any currency is exchanged; actual money helps put things in perspective when buying items at a store and the frequent Steam sales do not help one bit, ranging from 10% to 90% off. These lowered prices are very tempting as they are usually cheaper than buying at a retailer. But soon the games will add up and up and thus you have given rise to the deadly, venomous backlog: a list of games that you haven’t completed because you haven’t had the time and have been increasing the list because you are a boofhead. You have to take a step back and realise: each of these titles is a full-fledged game, requiring hours and hours of dedication which may not fit around your daily schedule. It may seem convenient to have all your games on one system but it may lack the value games have when you can physically feel the game; all you see now are titles on the screen with the button “Play”. Game stores are closing as publishers don’t need to press for physical copies, ship them to retailers and have them take a cut. GameStop “will shed 1 percent of its global retail network by this time next year” due to the booming increase in popularity of digital distribution.[2] Has this digital form of buying lowered the worth of games? 


A silver lining though is that this distribution method has given indie developers a chance to show their games to the world as online distributors already have the audience, and indie developers can skip the cost of publishers and the required amount of units they have to sell. Brian Gaar from Statesman explains the ease these developers are experiencing now and says that the ”model of circumventing traditional publishers has become more and more prevalent, especially for PC and mobile games”[3]. Well with platforms such as Steam topping 40 million active accounts and reaching a record of 6 million people on at once[4] it would be a wise move to take advantage of a system like that.


I think looking to the future the positives outweigh the negatives as we will begin to see new ways to revolutionise gaming which will take a hold of the Internet as a means of distribution. Internet limits should hopefully be a thing of the past as its importance as a fundamental tool grows in our society. We just need to learn self discipline in the mean time to control these primal urges to buy ridiculously low priced games. Counting to ten works for me.
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