Poll: It's Three Years Into The Future...

[qwertyz]

...After the success of EA's Origin service, every other publisher (and developers with the resources capable of doing so) out there decides to make their own digital distribution platform, akin to Origin.

Activision keeps all their games on their platform, not letting Steamworks anywhere near their precious Call of Duty 11, with revolutionary new unlimited detail graphics, and amazing new gameplay. Ubisoft announces their brand new Assassin's Creed: Discovery is to be exclusively found on their platform for PC. Mojang Specifications even has their own digital distribution platform, unhappy with Steam refusing them the right to sell capes in Minecraft. Notch now rules the all voxel based games, along with sidescrollers and TCG's with an iron fist. Besthesda pulls all Fallout and Elder Scroll games from all other platforms, makes their own platform. Valve, fearful of losing all their business, bucks the trend of Valve time, and begins releasing games on time, more regularly. Soon Steam is nothing more than a Valve exclusive platform, with all non-Valve games pulled, and a steady influx of Valve games. All non-Valve games you once owned on Steam are then deleted from your library. There is no sign of Episode 3.

What do you do now?

Personally, I would go indie, and support Valve.

This thread isn't meant to be serious, by the way. Just a "this happened, wat do," thread relating to gaming.

 

[Kae]

I chose quit gaming because I'm not really playing anything anymore, so it probably wouldn't really affect me all that much.

 

[Exile714]

What exactly are you worried about? If games are good and reasonably priced, is there a problem? Digital distribution is just a means of getting the game to the player.

Are you assuming that current negative trends in digital distribution will continue three years from now?

What are the biggest issues with digital distribution? Always online requirements? Privacy issues (don't get me started on how overblown the whole Origin fiasco is)? Are you just upset because Steam won't have every game there is?

They can't revoke your license to play the games you purchased on Steam without compensation. They would have to give you a downloadable option, rather than simply deleting your library.

Look, I know the internet is the place to play the "the future is all doom and gloom, and every thing is scary and evil, especially new things which are always worse than things which came before." Bur seriously, digital distribution isn't going to kill gaming and publishers SHOULD be looking for alternatives to boxes or Steam. There will be kinks, but if the gaming community helps developers know what we will tolerate and what we will not, they'll get ironed out. If we complain about everything under the sun, then they won't know what's really wrong.

Last thing: the worst parts of digital distribution are a direct response to piracy. Whether they are right or wrong, game developers believe that piracy is seriously hurting their bottom line. There is far too much piracy, leaking and cheating going on in gaming, especially in PC games. Want to know why developers are favoring consoles? That's your answer.

TL;DR : Quit whining.

 

[qwertyz]

What exactly are you worried about? If games are good and reasonably priced, is there a problem? Digital distribution is just a means of getting the game to the player.

Are you assuming that current negative trends in digital distribution will continue three years from now?

What are the biggest issues with digital distribution? Always online requirements? Privacy issues (don't get me started on how overblown the whole Origin fiasco is)? Are you just upset because Steam won't have every game there is?

They can't revoke your license to play the games you purchased on Steam without compensation. They would have to give you a downloadable option, rather than simply deleting your library.

Look, I know the internet is the place to play the "the future is all doom and gloom, and every thing is scary and evil, especially new things which are always worse than things which came before." Bur seriously, digital distribution isn't going to kill gaming and publishers SHOULD be looking for alternatives to boxes or Steam. There will be kinks, but if the gaming community helps developers know what we will tolerate and what we will not, they'll get ironed out. If we complain about everything under the sun, then they won't know what's really wrong.

Last thing: the worst parts of digital distribution are a direct response to piracy. Whether they are right or wrong, game developers believe that piracy is seriously hurting their bottom line. There is far too much piracy, leaking and cheating going on in gaming, especially in PC games. Want to know why developers are favoring consoles? That's your answer.

TL;DR : Quit whining.

I'm... not really whining. I like doing these, "Its X Years in the Future," things... They let me stretch my imagination. I'm not really trying to prove or make a point. I'm just asking what people would do in this situation that also relates to games (hence why it is in this section).

 

[electric_warrior]

Quit, exert our people power and tell them that they need to respect their customers.

 

[Aris Khandr]

*IF* (and that is a big if) that were to happen, it seems rather likely to me that the various publishers would allow us to move our CD Keys from Steam to their DD platform before losing them on Steam, much like how EA allowed me to register my Mass Effect and Sims 3 CD Keys on Origin. As I feel no particular loyalty to Steam, I'd just get whatever download manager I need to play the games I want to play and not worry too much about it.

 

[brodie21]

i chose accept then proceed with life because= who really gives a shit? all the new games i get for xbox anyway (because i have a shitty computer). also, the benefit of steam is the extremely high consumer base. there are 3 million people on at peak hours! this is why most of the new distribution platforms will probably not catch on. its like the MMOs the reason WOW is so popular is because all of your friends are on there, and WOW offers the same things that you can find on other platforms. plus, you have already developed your account (also, deleting things people already bought is a giant lawsuit in the making. im talking billions if not trillions of dollars, because that is essentially stealing and those who delete the content WILL go to jail) and the development of what could be very financially damaging for a company will fall to the wayside with the development of more sound moneymaking products for the developer, e.g. GAMES.

 

[mental_looney]

Xbox so everything will mostly be the same pc games I'm just guessing I'll be on another 2 wow expansions if it ain't dead yet.

Also valve are hardly indie developers, wouldn't going indie mean you only buy games that aren't associated with any developer specific download service?

 

[qwertyz]

Xbox so everything will mostly be the same pc games I'm just guessing I'll be on another 2 wow expansions if it ain't dead yet.

Also valve are hardly indie developers, wouldn't going indie mean you only buy games that aren't associated with any developer specific download service?

That's why I hit the other option. I choose a combination of indie and Valve games. Valve has always made good games in my eyes, so I'll stick with them.

Take the hint and not play on PC, go to consoles where this sort of shit doesn't happen. I noticed that wasn't an option you gave.

Too bad I already sold my PS3 then. (Adds console option to poll, along with pirating).

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

The world ended two years before so it doesnt matter xD

id prolly just give up gaming at that point, its all getting towards that crap anyhow.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

I'd buy a new PC dedicated to NOT gaming and leave the spyware on my gaming PC. I seriously don't want my homemade pron out on the net tyvm.

 

[Nouw]

I FIGHT THE POWER!

 

[TheLoneBeet]

I'd probably quit gaming because it's honestly been at least three months since I've played anything on either of the consoles I own, and I don't own that many games but the ones I do are on Steam and most aren't Valve games so I'd probably just rage-quit gaming entirely.

 

[Jedoro]

Not care, because I play games on my 360.

 

[TacticalAssassin1]

Sue Valve for thousands of dollars at the loss of my games.

 

[StormShaun]

I would say other, and my other reason is REVOLUTION, everyone we MUST FIGHT TO get gaming back to normal!!

 

[Bobbity]

Damn, this sounds almost creepily reminiscent of Deus Ex. Anyone else see it?

/edit
Oh, and to answer the question, I'd probably just limit myself to one or two clients, and get whatever games I can on those.