Steam turns twenty years old today! Or maybe it was yesterday? Perhaps tomorrow? Anyway, it's close enough to talk about it.

I'm not the biggest fan of Steam but it's undeniable that it has had a
huge impact on PC gaming, and is a fixture of the industry. Arguably,
digital downloads for PC gaming - and digital sales in general - would
be nowhere so common had Valve not pushed so hard in that direction
back in the early 2000s. Sure, it would exist... but I can imagine
that - without Steam - a sizeable percentage of people would STILL be
buying PC games from brick-n-mortar stores today. Valve set the stage
for digital purchases, proved it could worked, proved that customers
would accept media-less games, and then dominated the market so fully
that traditional PC game sales withered in competition with them.

Pretty good for an upstart company that - at the time - hadn't
published a single game on their own ("Half Life" and its sequels were
all published under Sierra's banner).

It took me a while to get a Steam account. But eventually it became
obvious that - despite my concerns - Steam was going to become the de
facto platform for PC gaming, and I was forced to choose between
giving up on new games or bowing my head to the inevitable. I'm still
not entirely happy with my choice but - several thousand games added
to my account later - it's probably a bit late to second guess myself.
;-)

And even I am forced to admit that - on the whole - Valve has been a
mostly a force for good. Sure, the DRM is problematic, and I'll never
be thrilled with the auto-patching. Its marketplace is too easily
manipulated, and it is filled with an immense quantity of low-quality
games. On the other hand, many of its competitors are worse. Plus,
Steam does offer a lot of value: its integrated matchmaking, friends
lists, its workshop, its forums, its reviews, its streaming, its
voice-chat, its screenshots... there's a lot of functionality built
into the program.

It pretty much did single-handedly kill all chance of "Half Life 3",
though. Why devote all that hard work and expense to develop a game
when the money rolls in automatically?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 8:25:41 AM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Steam turns twenty years old today! Or maybe it was yesterday? Perhaps tomorrow? Anyway, it's close enough to talk about it.

It took me a while to get a Steam account. But eventually it became
obvious that - despite my concerns - Steam was going to become the de
facto platform for PC gaming, and I was forced to choose between
giving up on new games or bowing my head to the inevitable. I'm still
not entirely happy with my choice but - several thousand games added
to my account later - it's probably a bit late to second guess myself.

I also was pretty late to the party. I agree with everything else you said. I'd also add their customer reviews are the best thing about them.
They're more reliable than any other online retailer. Not as reliable as
our small group, but that's hard to beat :)

- Justiaur

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 9/12/2023 1:55 PM, Justisaur wrote:

On Tuesday, September 12, 2023 Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Steam turns twenty years old today! Or maybe it was yesterday?
Perhaps tomorrow? Anyway, it's close enough to talk about it.

I also was pretty late to the party. I agree with everything else
you said. I'd also add their customer reviews are the best thing
about them. They're more reliable than any other online retailer.
Not as reliable as our small group, but that's hard to beat :)

I heard you guys like free stuff..

https://store.steampowered.com/points/shop/app/2598440

--
Doctors confirm Mitch McConnell had a stroke after imagining a happy
black person.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 11:25:27 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Steam turns twenty years old today! Or maybe it was yesterday? Perhaps >tomorrow? Anyway, it's close enough to talk about it.

One of the things that sucks about getting old (aside from reading too
many obituaries from friends you had in highschool or college) is that
time just seems to disappear; realizing that Steam has been around
that long reminds me of this.

But as much as that bums me, I do get to do a victory lap or two,
because I can remember many online debates with whiney gamers who
complained about how evil Steam was, how it was going to harm gaming
in the long run, how Valve would go out of business and leave gamers
without a way to play their library, etc....and that went on for more
than a decade.

If there's one area that gaming did take a hit from Steam, it's
probably that the success of the platform likely affected resource
allocation at Valve that could have been better spent producing good
game titles. I would have liked to see then really do cool things
with the Team Fortress franchise... I loved the original Quake TF mod
and would love to see a proper remake. TF2 is a very different game
(a good one in its own right, but a different one) and it would be
nice to see an OG version.

Overall though, the net result is that gaming is better overall since
Steam.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Am 12.09.23 um 17:25 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

I'm not the biggest fan of Steam but it's undeniable that it has had a
huge impact on PC gaming, and is a fixture of the industry

I would say, it saved PC gaming and brought it to new heights. I
remember Steam started around when Tim "the weasel" Sweeney was writing
PC gaming off as dead!

That was probably the second biggest billion dollar mistake in PC
history (the biggest one was the one from Digitial Research on letting
IBM off the hook with the PC operating system and giving it away to
Microsoft)

Valve does so many things right, because at the core, many if not all of
its employees love games, the Steam Deck shows that left and right!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 08:18:11 +0200, "Werner P." <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

Am 12.09.23 um 17:25 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

I'm not the biggest fan of Steam but it's undeniable that it has had a
huge impact on PC gaming, and is a fixture of the industry

I would say, it saved PC gaming and brought it to new heights. I
remember Steam started around when Tim "the weasel" Sweeney was writing
PC gaming off as dead!

Despite (numerous) claims to the contrary, PC gaming was never even
close to dead. Even in its worst days, there was never any real risk
of that. After all, an audience of several billion devices is going to
attract developers regardless. Even as Epic was whining about the
imminent demise of PC gaming (largely because they were developing
games that no longer appealed quite as strongly to the older, more tech-literate PC audience*). 2006, after all, saw the release of games
like Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Half Life Episode 1, Company of Heroes,
Star Wars Empires at War, Prey, Hitman: Blood Money, Flight Simulator
X and Rise of Nations to the platform (and 1400 more, according to
MobyGames). That's hardly the sign of a dying platform (meanwhile, PS2
saw 450 releases that same year).

So I'm not really buying into the idea that Steam 'saved' PC gaming. Transformative and influential as Steam might have been to the
industry, PC gaming was doing great before Steam's arrival.








-----------------
* PC master race, baby!!!!1!! ;-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:
<snip>

So I'm not really buying into the idea that Steam 'saved' PC gaming. >Transformative and influential as Steam might have been to the
industry, PC gaming was doing great before Steam's arrival.

Near as I can tell what steam really did for gaming was act as a digital
dongle and remove the 17 million different copy-protection schemes that
caused so many problems, instabilities and incompatibilities plus let
you not have to dig out a "play disk" to stick in the drive in order to
play.

Instead of every game requiring that play disk and a root kit, you just
had one simple app.

The downloadable content and game store were just a bonus.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:43:00 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Rin Stowleigh wrote:

I can remember many online debates with whiney gamers who
complained about how evil Steam was, how it was going to harm gaming
in the long run, how Valve would go out of business and leave gamers
without a way to play their library, etc....and that went on for more
than a decade.

Ironic that so many games have been cut off from use in their original
disc format because SafeDisc is no longer baked into the OS. This
probably goes for other old protection systems.

16-bit installers are a problem too. In some cases, even though the game
was 32-bit, the disc has a 16-bit version of InstallShield. Won't run on
modern 64-bit Windows. Nice going, guys. (LucasArts games, [Grim, EFMI,
Ep1 Racer come to mind] I'm looking at you. Enthusiasts had to write
custom installers).

The only way to play them is through a no-cd (dicey at best) or, quel
suprise, Steam. So Steam is even a boon for game preservation.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:36:04 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:43:00 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Rin >Stowleigh wrote:

I can remember many online debates with whiney gamers who
complained about how evil Steam was, how it was going to harm gaming
in the long run, how Valve would go out of business and leave gamers >>without a way to play their library, etc....and that went on for more
than a decade.

Ironic that so many games have been cut off from use in their original
disc format because SafeDisc is no longer baked into the OS. This
probably goes for other old protection systems.

16-bit installers are a problem too. In some cases, even though the game
was 32-bit, the disc has a 16-bit version of InstallShield. Won't run on >modern 64-bit Windows. Nice going, guys. (LucasArts games, [Grim, EFMI,
Ep1 Racer come to mind] I'm looking at you. Enthusiasts had to write
custom installers).

The only way to play them is through a no-cd (dicey at best) or, quel >suprise, Steam. So Steam is even a boon for game preservation.

It's not, really. There are an increasing number of older games which
won't run - or run problematically - on Windows 10 and 11. This is a
problem because as of Jan 1 2024, Steam won't run on any version of
Windows /except/ 10 & 11. The fact that games aren't supported on
later operating systems isn't Valve's fault... but they do take
responsibility for preventing those games from being installed and run
on older operating systems where those games are better supported.

Of course, I'm not entirely sure how - barring their going DRM free
entirely - that Valve can cut this gordian knot. One idea might be to
offer unsupported versions of their client for older operating systems
that can only launch games purchased before a certain cut-off date?
Thus, if you bought the game "Won't_Run_On_Windows_10 II: The
Crashening" back in 2009, you can still install and play the game on
SteamXP... but if you purchased the game in 2024 (or whatever cut-off
date), you're outta luck. That way existing owners of older games
aren't prevented from using their licensed property (exceptions might
also be made for game preservation societies).

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 14:34:24 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:36:04 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 20:43:00 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Rin >>Stowleigh wrote:

I can remember many online debates with whiney gamers who
complained about how evil Steam was, how it was going to harm gaming
in the long run, how Valve would go out of business and leave gamers >>>without a way to play their library, etc....and that went on for more >>>than a decade.

Ironic that so many games have been cut off from use in their original
disc format because SafeDisc is no longer baked into the OS. This
probably goes for other old protection systems.

16-bit installers are a problem too. In some cases, even though the game >>was 32-bit, the disc has a 16-bit version of InstallShield. Won't run on >>modern 64-bit Windows. Nice going, guys. (LucasArts games, [Grim, EFMI,
Ep1 Racer come to mind] I'm looking at you. Enthusiasts had to write
custom installers).

The only way to play them is through a no-cd (dicey at best) or, quel >>suprise, Steam. So Steam is even a boon for game preservation.

It's not, really. There are an increasing number of older games which
won't run - or run problematically - on Windows 10 and 11. This is a
problem because as of Jan 1 2024, Steam won't run on any version of
Windows /except/ 10 & 11. The fact that games aren't supported on
later operating systems isn't Valve's fault... but they do take >responsibility for preventing those games from being installed and run
on older operating systems where those games are better supported.

Of course, I'm not entirely sure how - barring their going DRM free
entirely - that Valve can cut this gordian knot. One idea might be to
offer unsupported versions of their client for older operating systems
that can only launch games purchased before a certain cut-off date?
Thus, if you bought the game "Won't_Run_On_Windows_10 II: The
Crashening" back in 2009, you can still install and play the game on >SteamXP... but if you purchased the game in 2024 (or whatever cut-off
date), you're outta luck. That way existing owners of older games
aren't prevented from using their licensed property (exceptions might
also be made for game preservation societies).

Sure, though backwards compatibility is very good in general and possible
with third party tools in Win10/11, it's getting tougher. There are a lot
of gaps. As you say, Steam won't run on XP, 7, or 8 any more. Probably
because they want to get the hell out of supporting 32-bit OSes.

But I'm running the original Mechcommander rn straight up in Win11. No compatibility settings. Just an ini hack I found on Vogons to increase
the play resolution so scrolling is faster. My wife is still playing
Tropico 2 on Windows 10 with dgVoodoo2 doing the graphics. I have 1998 Asteroids running in DxWnd for the Redbook audio and dgVoodoo2 for the graphics, and Crimson Skies using a hacked exe and dgVoodoo2. The guy who
does dgVoodoo2 wrote the hack after I discussed it with him, IIRC.

And if all else fails VB 5.2.34's Windows XP extensions are amazing. I
ran Doom 3 on it and couldn't believe it. It's limited to XP though, and
the newer versions don't have it because it was deemed a security risk.
So you have to get that version. I'm pretty sure it's the last one with Direct3D extensions.

So you can save a lot of 95/98 games with dgVoodoo2 and you can run XP
games in VirtualBox. There are sometimes bizarre fixes you can implement
with the "Compatibility Administrator" in the Assesment and Deployment
Kit (ADK). I did that for Dark Age of Might and Magic. If it won't run on
the chosen OS of official Valve clients? The files are available on Steam
if you need them, I'm guessing.* You just install it and put them
somewhere else and have at it - even original hardware. So, not a bad
service to the art of preservation.**

Sure, it ain't perfect, but it is better than having a bunch of useless
CDs collecting bit rot and needing Safedisc or SecuROM which won't run anywhere. I imaged all of mine, discarded the discs, and use them in
Virtualbox if the mood strikes me. Some of them are forensic copies.

I kept a few CDs that had interesting case art, like Unreal and Descent: Freespace. I might even try to collect all four of the Unreal cases, in
fact.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

*Steam could decide that if it doesn't run on 10/11, they won't serve up
the files. In that case, GOG.com will do a lot of the heavy lifting.

**Unless it's Unreal. There are companies that are just dickish and
remove access to stuff entirely. The only way to get Unreal if you don't already have it is piracy. Pity, but Fortnite demands and must be obeyed.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Damn. I'm old. I got Steam with The Orange Box IIRC.


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Steam turns twenty years old today! Or maybe it was yesterday? Perhaps tomorrow? Anyway, it's close enough to talk about it.

I'm not the biggest fan of Steam but it's undeniable that it has had a
huge impact on PC gaming, and is a fixture of the industry. Arguably,
digital downloads for PC gaming - and digital sales in general - would
be nowhere so common had Valve not pushed so hard in that direction
back in the early 2000s. Sure, it would exist... but I can imagine
that - without Steam - a sizeable percentage of people would STILL be
buying PC games from brick-n-mortar stores today. Valve set the stage
for digital purchases, proved it could worked, proved that customers
would accept media-less games, and then dominated the market so fully
that traditional PC game sales withered in competition with them.

Pretty good for an upstart company that - at the time - hadn't
published a single game on their own ("Half Life" and its sequels were
all published under Sierra's banner).

It took me a while to get a Steam account. But eventually it became
obvious that - despite my concerns - Steam was going to become the de
facto platform for PC gaming, and I was forced to choose between
giving up on new games or bowing my head to the inevitable. I'm still
not entirely happy with my choice but - several thousand games added
to my account later - it's probably a bit late to second guess myself.
;-)

And even I am forced to admit that - on the whole - Valve has been a
mostly a force for good. Sure, the DRM is problematic, and I'll never
be thrilled with the auto-patching. Its marketplace is too easily manipulated, and it is filled with an immense quantity of low-quality
games. On the other hand, many of its competitors are worse. Plus,
Steam does offer a lot of value: its integrated matchmaking, friends
lists, its workshop, its forums, its reviews, its streaming, its
voice-chat, its screenshots... there's a lot of functionality built
into the program.

It pretty much did single-handedly kill all chance of "Half Life 3",
though. Why devote all that hard work and expense to develop a game
when the money rolls in automatically?

--
"But Jehoshaphat [King of Judah] also said to the king of Israel, 'First seek the counsel of the Lord.'" --1 Kings 22:5. Poopy humpy day mawny so far. Old body still leak salivas, coughs, aches, sneezes, tires, etc. Steam turned 20 yesterday.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Am 13.09.23 um 20:34 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

It's not, really. There are an increasing number of older games which
won't run - or run problematically - on Windows 10 and 11. This is a
problem because as of Jan 1 2024, Steam won't run on any version of Windows/except/ 10 & 11

Moving to linux might resolve this issue for many of those games. Steam
and games run surprisingly well thanks to proton nowadays!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 13/09/2023 12:52, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 08:18:11 +0200, "Werner P." <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

Am 12.09.23 um 17:25 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

I'm not the biggest fan of Steam but it's undeniable that it has had a
huge impact on PC gaming, and is a fixture of the industry

I would say, it saved PC gaming and brought it to new heights. I
remember Steam started around when Tim "the weasel" Sweeney was writing
PC gaming off as dead!

Despite (numerous) claims to the contrary, PC gaming was never even
close to dead. Even in its worst days, there was never any real risk
of that. After all, an audience of several billion devices is going to attract developers regardless. Even as Epic was whining about the
imminent demise of PC gaming (largely because they were developing
games that no longer appealed quite as strongly to the older, more tech-literate PC audience*). 2006, after all, saw the release of games
like Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Half Life Episode 1, Company of Heroes,
Star Wars Empires at War, Prey, Hitman: Blood Money, Flight Simulator
X and Rise of Nations to the platform (and 1400 more, according to MobyGames). That's hardly the sign of a dying platform (meanwhile, PS2
saw 450 releases that same year).

So I'm not really buying into the idea that Steam 'saved' PC gaming. Transformative and influential as Steam might have been to the
industry, PC gaming was doing great before Steam's arrival.

Steam definitely transformed they way we purchase games and I'd say also
the range of games available. Did it save PC gaming, hard to say really
as who knows what would have happened if digital store fronts weren't
available in general. A possible scenario is that with consolidation
into larger and larger studios the small and medium ones would have been
slowly squeezed out leading to stagnation in games. That would probably
have killed PC gaming for me.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Am 14.09.23 um 10:46 schrieb JAB:

Steam definitely transformed they way we purchase games and I'd say also
the range of games available. Did it save PC gaming, hard to say really
as who knows what would have happened if digital store fronts weren't available in general. A possible scenario is that with consolidation
into larger and larger studios the small and medium ones would have been slowly squeezed out leading to stagnation in games. That would probably
have killed PC gaming for me.

Well it would very likely have gone the way that independent games would
have stayed a nieche with some occasional publisher releasing
compilations. As for pc gaming in general good questions, DRM or the way
DRM was handled was one of the major reason why people jumped ship in
favor of consoles and why piracy on the pc side was rampant (which was
one of the reasons why major publishers seriously considered an exit alltogether)
But also consoles probably would not have gotten their own online shops!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 14/09/2023 10:22, Werner P. wrote:

Am 14.09.23 um 10:46 schrieb JAB:

Steam definitely transformed they way we purchase games and I'd say
also the range of games available. Did it save PC gaming, hard to say
really as who knows what would have happened if digital store fronts
weren't available in general. A possible scenario is that with
consolidation into larger and larger studios the small and medium ones
would have been slowly squeezed out leading to stagnation in games.
That would probably have killed PC gaming for me.

Well it would very likely have gone the way that independent games would
have stayed a nieche with some occasional publisher releasing
compilations. As for pc gaming in general good questions, DRM or the way
DRM was handled was one of the major reason why people jumped ship in
favor of consoles and why piracy on the pc side was rampant (which was
one of the reasons why major publishers seriously considered an exit alltogether)
But also consoles probably would not have gotten their own online shops!

Not that sure (obviously this is all just speculation) so I could see a scenario where as costs to produce games increased, I'm presuming that's
true, the smaller studios need that effectively free marketing and
production costs that digital store fronts provide to be able to make
some money.

If I look at the games I've played, and enjoyed, in the last year or so
even if I take it as a given they would have been made I'm not quite
sure how I would ever had got to hear about them. To take an example,
Road Warden. That is a guy in his bedroom outfit that produces a game
that he wants to play. What that have even made it to a bricks & mortar
store so that I could buy it?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Am 14.09.23 um 13:08 schrieb JAB:

If I look at the games I've played, and enjoyed, in the last year or so
even if I take it as a given they would have been made I'm not quite
sure how I would ever had got to hear about them. To take an example,
Road Warden. That is a guy in his bedroom outfit that produces a game
that he wants to play. What that have even made it to a bricks & mortar
store so that I could buy it?

Shareware and the internet, thats how doom and wolf3d became popular,
release the first levels for free and send out the media to those who
pay for the rest. Spiderweb Software also had that model for ages.
However it would have been way harder to find this software, like it
used to be until central stores came.

But the plus side would be that we probably still have had significant
games stores in malls!
Loved to hit Electronics boutique and Software ETC. during my US visits
in the 90s, we did not have something similar where I lived back then!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 14 Sep 2023 09:46:06 +0100, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB
wrote:

On 13/09/2023 12:52, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 08:18:11 +0200, "Werner P." <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

Am 12.09.23 um 17:25 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:

I'm not the biggest fan of Steam but it's undeniable that it has had a >>>> huge impact on PC gaming, and is a fixture of the industry

I would say, it saved PC gaming and brought it to new heights. I
remember Steam started around when Tim "the weasel" Sweeney was writing
PC gaming off as dead!

Despite (numerous) claims to the contrary, PC gaming was never even
close to dead. Even in its worst days, there was never any real risk
of that. After all, an audience of several billion devices is going to
attract developers regardless. Even as Epic was whining about the
imminent demise of PC gaming (largely because they were developing
games that no longer appealed quite as strongly to the older, more
tech-literate PC audience*). 2006, after all, saw the release of games
like Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Half Life Episode 1, Company of Heroes,
Star Wars Empires at War, Prey, Hitman: Blood Money, Flight Simulator
X and Rise of Nations to the platform (and 1400 more, according to
MobyGames). That's hardly the sign of a dying platform (meanwhile, PS2
saw 450 releases that same year).

So I'm not really buying into the idea that Steam 'saved' PC gaming.
Transformative and influential as Steam might have been to the
industry, PC gaming was doing great before Steam's arrival.

Steam definitely transformed they way we purchase games and I'd say also
the range of games available. Did it save PC gaming, hard to say really
as who knows what would have happened if digital store fronts weren't >available in general. A possible scenario is that with consolidation
into larger and larger studios the small and medium ones would have been >slowly squeezed out leading to stagnation in games. That would probably
have killed PC gaming for me.

Steam "saved" PC gaming like Nintendo "saved" console gaming. IOW, a
mythology probably planted by marketers rather than a reality, IMHO.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 14 Sep 2023 11:22:19 +0200, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Werner P. wrote:

But also consoles probably would not have gotten their own online shops!

Honestly, I love it. I now don't play my physical games much on my Switch because I am too lazy to get up and change the game card.

So now I buy a lot of digital, despite the resale issue.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Werner P. <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:
...

But the plus side would be that we probably still have had significant
games stores in malls!
Loved to hit Electronics boutique and Software ETC. during my US visits
in the 90s, we did not have something similar where I lived back then!

Where did you live? I miss those places. Also, CompUSA and Egghead for me.
--
"God 'will give to each person according to what he has done' (Psalm 62:12). To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life." --Romans 2:6-7. Still tirey, poopy, leaky, coughy, achey, sneezy, etc.
Superman: Red Son animated flick was kinda fun.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Werner P. <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

I would say, it saved PC gaming and brought it to new heights. I
remember Steam started around when Tim "the weasel" Sweeney was writing
PC gaming off as dead!

PC gaming was never at risk, and if Steam hadn't existed, some other
platform like Stardock, would've taken its place. I'll give Valve credit
for being more user focused than other digital download platforms might
have been or eventually proved to be, but it was pretty inevitable that
single dominant platform would emerge. At worst there would've been
a period where pirate platforms dominated, like with music, but the
convienence factor of downloading games means that even if the industry
opposed it, like with music, it still would've happened.

That was probably the second biggest billion dollar mistake in PC
history ...

I don't see how Epic Games made such a big mistake here. They're not
alone in not bothering to compete with Steam when it first came out, and
they never completely abandonded making PC games. It's Microsoft, more
than anyone, that regrets waiting too long to try to compete with Steam.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 9/16/2023 7:12 AM, Ross Ridge wrote:

Werner P. <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

I would say, it saved PC gaming and brought it to new heights. I
remember Steam started around when Tim "the weasel" Sweeney was writing
PC gaming off as dead!

PC gaming was never at risk, and if Steam hadn't existed, some other
platform like Stardock, would've taken its place. I'll give Valve credit
for being more user focused than other digital download platforms might
have been or eventually proved to be, but it was pretty inevitable that single dominant platform would emerge. At worst there would've been
a period where pirate platforms dominated, like with music, but the convienence factor of downloading games means that even if the industry opposed it, like with music, it still would've happened.

That was probably the second biggest billion dollar mistake in PC
history ...

I don't see how Epic Games made such a big mistake here. They're not
alone in not bothering to compete with Steam when it first came out, and
they never completely abandonded making PC games. It's Microsoft, more
than anyone, that regrets waiting too long to try to compete with Steam.

By which you mean "buying Steam early enough to crush it." :)

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)