What is your favorite computer game download distributor?
What is your most/least favorite non-console game distributor (eg. Telltale, Steam, D2D, GOG, etc.) and why or why not? You can even say "None, I only like hard copies of games" if you want.
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In the past, I have said on these forums that I like the Telltale Store because of the availability of obtaining hard copies of downloaded games, but as time passes I find myself more and more enamored with the ease and convenience of using Steam.
Although I do like Steam, it had not the lowest price for Mass Effect. Also, buying a retail copy was not the highest priced nor lowest either. What do you think?
When Trine 2 releases, I will have to take another good look at Steam and how it works. But I'll probably wait for a retail version years after...
least favourite: GOG. I still don't trust them after what they did to their customers when they ended the beta phase just to have cheap promo for their service.
Forgot to comment on this in my last post, but the only reason The Witcher and The Witcher 2 are going to Gog is that the company developing them is part of the same company that owns Gog.
Been a member for a long time. Its brillo.
And to be honest, they gave us Beta members a free game for our trouble after the whole PR stunt.
I've had absolutely no issues with them.
Pay, Play, get extras!!
(I love me artwork and soundtrack! (all games should give these out as mandatory bonuses!!))
Oh and regular deals on top of the cheap prices!
Steam and Gamersgate are very good as well.
Loathe Impulse (really crap offers, region restriction), Direct2Drive (crap offers), Windows Live (really crap offers).
Haven't made my mind up about Beamdog and GreenManGaming yet.
To be fair, GFWL did have a few amazing offers, for like, a week. But that was just a publicity stunt rather than something they plan to continue.
Green Man Gaming has had some nice offers as well, I got Civ 5 (being a Steamworks game, which means I got a Steam activation
As a side thing, I just wanted to say I'm loving the tags for this thread. Namely 'God is the worst', and 'Gog is the worst, I mean'.
I'm not a huge fan of Steam, but I tolerate it and use it when it seems like the best option. It's fairly expensive for some games, especially the newest ones, and of course you have the whole euro debacle which has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere. Also I dislike that they have the possibility of taking my games away from me if they (rightfully or mistakenly) think that I've broken one of their rules. I know it's very unlikely to happen, but just the fact that the possibility exists makes me slightly uncomfortable. They do have some great deals from time to time though, in which I sometimes partake, and I do like how they seem to support indie devs a lot.
I have tried Impulse, Gamersgate and Direct2Drive just for the sake of trying them, but I haven't seen much there that interested me. Also the DRM situation seems more hit and miss to me (subjective opinion) and they don't seem to have Steam's great deals to lure me in.
When I buy indie games I usually try to purchase directly from the developer, rather than via a third party such as Steam. E.g. Machinarium, the Ben & Dan games, World of Goo, Aquaria, etc. Lower price, bigger cut goes to the developer, and more likely to be DRM-free.
There are some new ones I haven't tried yet; such as desura.com, yawma.net and beamdog.com -- any opinions?
Coupled with crazy sales and a level playing base for indie and major devs/publishers it's the way forward for the PC platform.
GOG are great for the oldies, but it segregates my collection that wee bit. I'm def leaning towards Steam when it's available for all my purchases, i've even repurchased some stuff I have on disc (Civ IV, GTA IV) when it's been on sale and given my retail copy away to friends.
Steam is all these things done right. GFWL is a total mess on the other hand and a sign that Microsoft have really lost sight of what's important to PC gamers
This. I just mentioned in another thread that GFWL almost entirely prevented me from starting Bioshock 2 today. Had to download updates for 2 hours, then every time Live kicked in it would crash the game.
Not to mention that it'll start, say "oh you need an update" donload the update, then restart. After restarting it starts to download the next update in the sequence, lather rinse repeat.
Like seriously, there's just no excuse for that
When I am nostalgic and want to get very old games cheap or when they can't be found on Steam, then I go to GoG.
Apparently that procedure makes perfect sense to Microsoft. I started up my wife's notebook with Windows 7 to install some stuff on it before going on vacation last week. We don't use it very often, and I don't remember when it was last used, but I had to install updates in four goes with restarts in between before I installed anything else. When I haven't used my laptop with Ubuntu in a few months, it's always able to install everything it needs to update in one go.
They focus on classic games (well, with several games I would consider pretty modern still but as long as this doesn't take over, it's not an issue for me) which is what I play the most by far.
I also really love the no-DRM model they're using - that really does result in a very different feeling of 'owning' a game that I certainly don't get with any games using online authentication DRM.
Fantastic company, I hope they stay around for a long time.
EDIT - I was a bit disappointed when I contacted them, back when they first put Gabriel Knight 2 up on their site, to ask if they could maybe put a little mention somewhere on the Gabriel Knight 2 page about the English subtitle patch I created way back (well actually the patch itself was already created, but all the subtitles were in another language... so it's more accurate to say I wrote the English subtitles and not the patch itself).
I still think it would be worth a mention as I know plenty of people prefer having subtitles, and - Collector has written such a great installer for it that fixes every issue the patch originally had, and also makes it really easy to install without running into trouble.
I've tried D2D and GFWL marketplace but neither are good enough to replace well Steam really as that's the only real comparison I have to use.
Seriously, I would buy it today. I want a copy for my nephews (they love Murray).
I sorta let that fly because I presume the OS is a more tricky beast to tinker with and break than a game.
Sometimes though, Windows Update will dick about and not give you the update that you really need for a wee while so you have to hunt for it on Microsofts pretty hateful Windows Update site. Gives my arse a headache
I see your point, but unfortunately, I mean mine as well.
Call me old-school. I've been gaming for 20 years now, and the idea that a company exercises that much forced, continuous, needless and incalculable control over my PC and its installed programs, I find it repulsive and creepy. The fact that other companies have driven their DRM in even worse directions doesn't exactly relativize my animosity; I just find these companies even more detestable. I can't accept that stuff. I didn't even think of buying TTGs really DRM-mild online-activated episodes before I definitely knew that I'd get my hands on a disc version eventually.
Now that I think of it, problems remain even with this disc version, because there's not really a legal way to sell it. It's yet another thing that really bugs me with modern DRM. I wish there was a law stating that you have the right to sell computer programs, and any measure to prohibit the possibility would be illegal. Good-bye, "online activation codes". But don't get me wrong: I have accepted what TTG does, and I find it almost acceptable in light of copyright infringement being viewed as a petty offence and the dangers of international distribution. It gnaws at me, but I hmnjrghjahbrglaccept it. Up to here, but no step further.
That's... great and probably very appreciated by so many people, but the result of your inquiry was unfortunately foreseeable. For example, TTG can not support any unofficial/modified "fan" patches of any kind and on occasion has had to delete such links from its own forum. With GOG, it's even worse, because they are not the developer of their games, only the distributor! Supporting unofficial patches would "only" be a serious legal responsibility risk for TTG, but GOG absolutely can't do it. Nonono.