Sorry guys. I guess this is now just a blog about my random game thoughts.
Anyways, I went through the process of downloading a game recently that wasn't on steam, and I have to say: You don't miss a good thing until it's gone. For as much hate valve gets from not releasing games on time, they have undoubtedly perfected their digital distribution network. It's simple, it's fast, and the time between buying and playing is minimal. Not like BMT micro.
I placed my order the first time trying to use my credit card. I got a email back pretty quickly stating that it would take longer if I was using a "freemail" account. First, why does it matter what email account I use as long as it works. I was rejected about 5 hours later because they could not confirm my billing address. I have moved recently so I wasn't sure which address to use. I put in one address while ordering and it said it was incorrect. If you check at the initial order, why double check? Steam doesn't seem to care, especially since I've done business with them multiple times before. So I tried putting another order in, by pressing the back button and I got another email stating that it had failed again because it was a "duplicate order". Yeah that helps. So I tried a third time with pay pal. This time I got an email about 15 minutes later stating that everything was fine. In this day and age, if it takes 6 hours to get someone a link to download something, you're doing something wrong.
Then all I got out of the process was a zip folder containing the game. Now I'm worried. Sure I've put it on both of my hard drives just in case one crashes. But what if I get a new pc? I'm seriously considering actually burning a cd for this file. With steam, I don't have to worry about any of this nonsense because it's all tied to the account. I recall reading an email where Gabe Newell was talking about how they consciously made an attempt to make steam feel more secure than having physical copies.
Needless to say, I'm sorry I ever doubted you steam! Next time I'll be more patient and wait for you!
UPDATE: Two hours after this post, my hard drive crashed. Good thing I only used it for gaming and everything was on steam. I love you steam!
