Inspirational Failure

Trespasser is one of many games in the Jurassic Park franchise.  Released in 1998, it was a commercial failure and winner of Gamespot's worst-game-of-the-year award.  Disappointing to see considering that it spent three years in development with a very talented team of designers.  Just to stress that last point, Austin Grossman (the writer for Deus Ex and Dishonored) along with Seamus Blackley (father of the Xbox) both worked on this game.  So, what happened?  In a word - "overscoping".

As is all too common in game development, the team behind Trespasser bit off way more than they could chew.  There were a lot of ambitious "firsts" such as large open outdoor environments, a diegetic interface, a physics engine, and a complex AI to give the dinosaurs life.  That last point is especially noteworthy because all of the half-dozen or so dinosaurs species (as well as sub-types) found in the game move and act in strange ways due to them literally being puppets on strings.  It's kid of surreal to see in action and hasn't been emulated since (the one exception being the creatures found in Rain World).  

The physics engine also ties into this due to how players interact with the environment.  Much like the mannequin dinos controlled by the AI, the main character has a single working arm that they use to pick up, manipulate and throw objects with via the mouse.  Again, it's kind of weird and not a game mechanic you really see outside of quirky indie titles like Octodad and Surgeon Simulator.  Nonetheless, Gabe Newell cited the physics engine in Trespasser as an influence on a similar system Valve used in Half-Life 2.

Not having any kind of HUD was hardly a new concept in 1998, but doing so in an action-oriented FPS was courting disaster.  To work around the lack of a health meter the protagonist has a visible heart tattoo that indicates their status based on how full it is.  Ammunition for guns is tracked by the player character vocalizing how many shots they have left after each pull of the trigger.  Weird as these ideas are, they eventually popped-up in games much later on.  Dead Space for example has a life bar on the back of Issac's suit.  Meanwhile Alyx (from Half-Life: Alyx) sometimes comments on her ammo supplies.  The official game for "Peter Jackson's King Kong" movie features a particular button that (when pushed) causes the player character to exclaim how many bullets they have left.  In truth, it kind of makes sense in that game since King Kong features a lot of teamwork.  Maybe you'd want to let your allies know how you're doing ammo-wise from time to time...?

Lastly is the outdoor areas which were quite expansive for the time.  For the most part, FPS games released around that era were of the corridor shooter variety.  Obviously, Trespasser was brutally difficult to run on 1990s hardware because of the sheer amount of geometry on-screen at any given moment.  Even so, the idea of wide open environments was a direction that game development would expand toward; Halo: Combat Evolved and the original Far Cry being two big steps the industry took that way later on.

While it certainly deserves to be called a very flawed game, Trespasser ultimately attracted a cult following of sorts in the form of mod makers and bug fixers.  These individuals actually poured in a considerable amount of effort in order to make the game run with fewer issues and even significant improvements.  In some ways the fan updated (i.e. current) version of the game feels like a VR title.  Incidentally, someone is working on a mod for that.  There's also an unofficial pseudo-remake of sorts in the works, but it's anyone's guess if the DNA of the original can be revived or if it will simply live on as little bits and pieces in games that have come since.   

Pricey Propositions

A little over a year ago I tried to gift a game through Steam to a family member for their birthday.  Unfortunately, Steam rejected the transaction because we weren't living in the same country.  I actually submitted a troubleshooting request hoping to navigate around the obstacle, but the customer support representative basically told me to give a gift card or forget it.  I didn't want to give a gift card because it's the thought that counts (getting someone something they didn't even know they wanted).  The expense wasn't an issue.  So, with a heavy heart, I had to give up on the present idea even though it wasn't this way before.  I had used the same system to give games on previous birthdays.  So, what changed?  Steam, in their infinite wisdom, decided to introduce regional pricing.

Basically, regional pricing is a way to sell games in countries that are generally too poor to purchase them at their suggested retail value.  To give an example, a hot new release might go for 60 dollars in the USA, but in Argentina it could be quarter of that price or less (when comparing currency conversion rates).  The reasoning here being that the average income in Argentina is much lower than in America.  So, on paper this is a method which can net some extra sales and a bit more profit than would otherwise be possible when using a universal pricing strategy.  It's by no means a new concept even in the video game industry.  The Final Fantasy series has notoriously always been slightly more expensive in Japan than other regions.  Of course that started off in a world where everything was physical media.  Now, in this age of digital distribution, there's a big 3-letter problem with this business strategy - VPN.

Provided you have a Virtual Private Network client, it's not especially hard to purchase games in cheaper territories without living in (or even visiting) them.  In other words, regional pricing is great in theory (publishers and Valve Corporation get to make more money while people in poorer countries get to play games that would normally be too expensive for them to afford).  However, in practice it's easily exploited and abused.  Recently, publishers on Steam have been drifting back to the old system which, in turn, has led to a lot of finger pointing on social media with statements that can be summed up as one of the following:

• It's those cheating digital boarder hoppers that ruined things!
• It's the fault of the governments of those poorer countries for not getting a handle on inflation!
• It's the greedy publishers who are to blame!

You get the idea.  In truth, all three groups are being terrible in their own ways, but I'd like to single out publishers for a moment because of what I see as a fundamental flaw in their reasoning.  Someone who jumps through a bunch of hoops to get a game for cheaper might not have bought the game at all if it were only available for purchase at a higher price.  It's very much an extension of corporate views on internet piracy.  Just in case anyone needs a reminder, an illegal download of a game doesn't necessarily equate to a lost sale.  There are plenty of games people pass on that they would have played had the price been a lot cheaper (or free).  When it comes to enthusiasts of this hobby of ours many have free time aplenty, but not a whole lot of cash to burn.  I can see how this regional pricing exploit was one way to stretch an otherwise limited gaming budget.  Alternatively, it's possible that most corporations are well aware of all this and simply don't care.  Maximizing profits is the ironclad mandate by which they chose to function...right down to exploiting cheaper labor markets to reduce development costs...funny how it's okay if they do it, but unacceptable if anyone else does.  Oh well, maybe I'll at least be able gift games digitally again some day.        

About the Half-Life Series...

Back in the day, I played and enjoyed the original Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, some mods (such as They Hunger), and the Uplink demo version of the game that featured unique areas.  Later, I played Half-Life 2 and found it to be better from a technical standpoint, but not as intriguing in premise as the original.  I never played Episode One or Two, and I have little interest in the Black Mesa update of the original.  All that said, Half-Life: Alyx has sparked my interest much like the original did.

I don't own a VR headset.  I don't have the space, money, or large blocks of free time that such a device would require.  Even so, I appreciate the fact that Valve went out of their way to make a proper Half-Life game in VR.   Up till now, it has felt like pretty much every VR title has been little more than a tech demo.  Thankfully, Half-Life: Alyx actually has some meat on it's bones; both in terms of length and content.  One of the neat things about VR is its ability to turn environmental detail into gameplay.  Rummaging through drawers and dumpsters in the game is kind of like going on a fun little scavenger hunt.  This tactile quality transfers over to the shooting and puzzle solving as well.  There's also a much more vertical quality to everything, since the act of looking up and down in VR is much more instinctive/intuitive than when using a monitor (plus mouse and keyboard) setup.  In short, there are some gameplay mechanics VR adds or enhances, but there are a few things that are decidedly worse when it is employed.

For reasons I don't fully understand, movement in video games always feels more plausible to me if it's in a vehicle of some sort.  To me, first-person shooters always come across as a conceit of sorts in that the player is really more of a floating gun than an actual character in the game...sort of like a hovering drone being controlled remotely by the player via a camera and monitor...anyway...my point is it doesn't feel especially natural.  In VR though I find this problem of physical movement amplified unless there's some kind of design conceit such as the player character being in a wheelchair or a cockpit.  Oddly enough, it's not an issue for me at all in the third-person perspective because I can trick my brain into thinking I'm manipulating my on-screen character like an RC car which brings us back to the drone analogy. I'm not sure if my own personal reaction holds true for most other people though.  The fact that the gameplay in Half-Life: Alyx is smaller in scope than previous entries in the series makes me think that some design concessions had to be implemented for the sake of accessibility.  Having said that, the fundamental mechanics still retain the same spirit as earlier entries in the franchise.

I think, when it comes to Half-Life, Valve feels pressured to make each entry innovative in some way.  In the case of Alyx, I believe they succeeded.  However, it is very much the same kind of "innovation" as before in that isn't truly innovative.  Instead, it's more of a big-budget polishing and of mechanics introduced in other smaller titles years prior (oftentimes the kind of niche games that get ignored by mainstream gaming culture).  Still, if you're one of those rich people that can afford a high-end personal computer and a thousand dollar VR rig then at least now you got something that does the hardware justice.

Valve Wide Open

Steam has gone full libertarian with regards to policing their distribution platform.  Any software that isn't illegal or simply trolling is A-okay; according to a blogpost by Valve executive Erik Johnson.  From a purely business standpoint, I can see where they're coming from.  As is Steam makes money hand over fist and the cost of enforcing some kind of quality assurance in their store is almost certainly greater than lost sales from bad PR.  They have a total monopoly over the distribution of a lot of games (complete list here), and a market revenue share vastly greater than GoG, itch.io, Uplay and Origin (their four biggest competitors) combined.  Because so many players are heavily invested in their service via Steam gaming libraries, the prospect of users backing out now en mass for any reason is dicey...and Vales knows it.  Aside from the really vile junk that gets published on Steam with the sole intent of offending/pandering to one social group or another, I think there's a universal problem that continues to plague Valve.  It's a problem that will probably continue to fester for the foreseeable future...in a word - shovelware.

Asset flips are the worst of this, and as far as I can tell remains a big universal concern of the Steam community.  There is so much trash being dumped on the Steam store everyday it has become practically impossible to find something worth playing unless you already know exactly what you're looking for.  So much bug-riddled garbage.  So many scammers trying pass their products off like they're worth paying actual money for.  It might help if the search filter has a more robust set of options, but even then it would only be a partial solution.  Whatever algorithms Valve has been using certainly don't work.  Curation has largely been forgotten, and the reviewing system remains vulnerable to metabombing (or boosting).  Also, what is up with that trading card stuff?  It's like a shady marketplace for people who want to launder money or something...

I don't have any elegant solutions to Valves issues.  In fact, I'll fully admit that the situation they're in is a tricky one.  At the same time I don't like the idea of customers being systemically stripped of their agency by obscenely wealthy corporations.  On the other hand though, I guess fans of dystopian cyberpunk futures can get excited because the world continues to head full speed in that direction.   

Black Tiger, Hidden Agenda

Steam has a serious problem with shovelware.  To Valve's credit though they don't really promote any of the garbage that is steadily overcrowding their library of games.  PSN, on the other hand, has gone out of its way to advertise the abomination that is Life of Black Tiger.  Right off the bat, would-be-players might notice the banner art for the game is actually just a slightly reworked version of a freely available background wallpaper image.  That in itself isn't a big deal, but it gets worse.  Watch the trailer and you might notice some music playing in the background.  It's actually a cover by "JackonTC" of the OST song "Next to You," for none other than the anime "Parasyte" ("Kiseiju," in the original Japanese).  So what?...you might think.  Original art and sound assets aren't necessary to make a good game, right?  Technically...yes, but Black Tiger isn't a good game by any stretch.  It has graphics comparable to a PS2 title, despite being released on the PS4.  It also has audio issues, non-existent collision detection, clunky controls, and English localization text that reads as follows:

It's full of smell with blood of wolves today and the smell is stronger than a few days ago.  I can't bear with it. Let's kill every wolves found.

That's just one of the less jiberish-laden examples, but believe me if it hadn't originally came out for the Android three years ago I would have given it this blog's "Engrish Award" for 2017.  Another point worth noting is the Android version of this game is absolutely free, while the PSN version costs 10 USD.  Horrible, I know, but even worse is the fact it's not the only game on PSN that has done this.  Horse Racing 2016  (which actually came out for the PS4 in 2017) is a dollar on google play...but...well, let's just say it goes for a bit more on PSN.

Generally speaking, Black Tiger is considered to be one of the worst, if not the worst game currently available on the Playstation Store.  A number of people strongly believe Sony is pulling some kind of elaborate joke by curating this game.  I've also seen accusations of nepotism (the developer must actually be the son of a Sony CEO or something along those lines...).  The publisher is a company called "1GAMES" which, as far as I can tell, has pushed out a fair amount of trash over the years.  However, I haven't been able to find any specific names attached to this particular title (perhaps for somewhat obvious reasons).

The last thing I want to mention about Black Tiger is the reviews...particularly on Metacritic.  Of course there are plenty of 0/10 scores that are fairly honest about their impressions of the game, but the real enjoyment comes from reading those 10 out of ten perfect ratings.  They are, in the vast majority of cases, being deliberately sarcastic about the quality of the game to the point that it can be pretty entertaining to browse through some them and see what people wrote...at least more so than actually playing the game.

The War to End All Wars

After the PS4 announcement event, I was sorely tempted to post about it here, but I think it turned out better to wait because now that the Xbox One has been officially relieved it's time to talk about these two dueling giants of the game industry.  Despite all the talk about who's got the best bells and whistles, there's really only a single all important factor that decides if a console is a success or failure.  It's all about the games.

The way the industry is going it looks like there will be a lot of cross gen and cross platform titles.  It's pretty much necessary in order to offset the high cost of triple AAA game development.  So, that means all consoles are more or less on equal footing, right?  Well...here's where things get complicated.  Graphics are obviously a big deal since given the choice of playing a low fidelity title on the Wii U or a fancy HD PS4 game, most people are going to choose the PS4 version.  Hence, platforms like the Ouya might do alright, but it's hard to imagine achieving dominance via iPhone games.  Meanwhile, Xbox One and PS4 are on similar footing when it comes to specs.  They really only have one other equal, a high end PC.  Moving on, there are a few tricks Sony or Microsoft could pull to give themselves a leg up on the competition.  Undercutting through a reduced pricing structure at retail is a possibility.  Another method is to have periodic online sales like what Steam does.  If the next Assassin's Creed is half price on PSN, but full price on Xbox-Live why would anyone voluntarily pay the higher price?

Then there is the concept of exclusives; stuff like Halo, Alan Wake and Gears of War for Microsoft...Killzone, Resistance and Uncharted for Sony.  Honestly, I think both platform manufacturers have been doing it wrong though because all those above mentioned titles are sci-fi shooters of the first or third person variety.  The titles that really set platforms apart are those smaller unique experiences that can't be found anywhere else.  Toy Soldiers, Journey, Echochrome, Bastion or even titles like Demon's Souls and the first Mass Effect are far more noteworthy exclusives, but not because they sell big time.  Rather the reason they are important has to do with escaping the ever growing puddle of generic goop that is big budget gaming.

So, with so much up in the air this upcoming generation of hardware could go sour for anyone (or everyone).  I think there is one way to ensure survival though.  Don't piss off people who make or buy video games.  Nintendo and EA's profits are waning while Gearbox is getting hit with a class action lawsuit.  The reason?  Randy Pitchford over-pimped Aliens: Colonial Marines to the point of false advertising and destruction of a subsidiary development team.  Nintendo is screwing over fans on Youtube, and third party developers through alienation.  As for EA...need I drudge up the extensive list of offences they have committed in the last twelve months alone?  Right now Activision has a 20% market share thanks to a combination of Call of Duty and Bobby Kotick recently keeping a low profile.

Granted, Sony and Microsoft are bigger than the above but they too can be brought low by similar hubris.  Valve, becoming the successful company it is, wasn't a fluke.  Now billionaire, Gabe Newell worked hard to build up consumer and developer goodwill.  Sure he made mistakes along the way, but the harsh reality is you don't need to be perfect, just don't screw up as bad as the other guys.  Good luck console makers...your going to need it.

A Second List of Wishes

About a year before the release of Dark Souls (spiritual successor to Demon's Souls) I wrote a blog post with five requests for the game.  It makes me happy to say that I more or less got everything I wanted, at least once the post release patch was implemented.  Now that Dark Souls II is on the way, I thought it was about time for another wish list.  So without further adieu, here we go:

1.) Natural Light
One of the things I noticed when viewing in-game footage for Dark Souls II was the new and improved dynamic lighting. My hope is they'll make this an integral part of gameplay. Something a lot of people don't realize is just how black it gets without the modern convenience of electric bulbs. Fire is pretty much the only alternative to sunlight, and as such has its own set of complications. Grab a stick and wrap some resin soaked rags around one end. Hit it with some sparks and now you have a torch that will burn for ten or fifteen minutes tops. Candles can last longer, but they aren't as bright and can be snuffed out easily. The only other non-magical option is to use a lantern. Even this handy device has drawbacks though in that its fragile and potentially hazardous should the oil reserve break.

2.) Unnatural Dark
I think a day/night cycle, or at least some game event which changes the heavens above, would bring some exciting variety to Dark Souls II.  We got a small taste of  this kind of thing in Anor Londo.  Changes in enemies aside, it would be cool to see subtle alterations in environment by the light of the moon or stars, especially for above ground locations.  Perhaps another option would be to have a magical form of illumination that reveals secrets like the skull lantern in the Tomb of Giants.

3.) PC All the Way
The developers over at From Software have already hinted that they're going to make sure to give Dark Souls II a good PC port, but I'll put it here anyway.  please don't have it distributed by window live games or suffer from a release delayed until long after console versions have been out.  Please do have a robust set of graphics options and availability on Steam (or better yet Good Old Games).

4.) Backstab Immunity
A common problem with player vs player combat in Dark Souls is the constant fishing for backstabs.  Because of lag it can feel real cheap to have a foe suddenly appear behind your character and deliver a killing blow.  In preview footage of Dark Souls II there was an armored, two-handed mace wielding turtle-like enemy that could stop backstabs cold by means of a reverse body slam.  Lets hope that player characters have a similar option available at least when a shield is strapped to their back.

5.) Arabian Themed Areas
The Souls series, thus far, has been primarily European in flavor.  However, there have been small glimpses at other lands.  Take Izalith for example with spires reminiscent of real life temples found in the jungles of Tailand.  Then there is Shiva of the East along with a variety of Asiatic weaponry (katana, kilij, scimitar, etc.).  As of yet though no sand swept desert pyramids or oasis ruins have been introduced to the fiction.  Personally, I think it would be fun to go up against a mummy, ifrit or flesh-and-blood sphinx, but maybe that's just me wanting to get a taste of ancient Persia without princes or time travel.

Well, that's my list.  I have to admit I kind of wrote Dark Souls II off after hearing that the director of the two previous games (Hidetaka Miyazaki) was moving on to other projects.  Since then though the preview footage has rekindled my interest.  If  my five wishes turn out to be true then consider me back on board one-hundred percent.

Beware of Deception

Pirates stealing from publishers is a regrettably common occurrence in the video game industry, but something many people don't realize is theft can be a two way street.  I'm not talking about pay-to-playtest-online schemes, nor simple MMO gold farming.  "Creating confusion in the market place" is a polite way to put it.  Regardless of the choice of words "game developers" do engage scams from time to time.  Let's check out a few examples that happened in 2012, shall we?

Back in February there were a pair of Pokemon apps on the Apple store.  Pokemon Yellow in particular billed itself as a port of the famous handheld game by the same name.  In actuality all it consisted of was a title screen.  Another app called Pokemon - Pocket Edition claimed an enticing number of features, but then in small print admitted to being nothing more than a gallery of pictures from real Pokemon games.  Gotta Catch'em All?  No thanks.

Kickstarter has had a few suspects crop up this year, most notably a title called Mythic: The Story of Gods and Men.  Supposedly this project was being created by a team of ex-Activision/Blizzard employees with motion capture done by Disney/Pixar. If that doesn't sound suspicious enough it turned out that all the artwork, screenshots and pictures of pledge rewards were pilfered from various existing sources. You can read about more details here. Sufficed to say the project was canceled at the end of April after only reaching a little under $5k of it's $80k goal. I personally suspect that at least the one $2,500 backer was probably in on the con as well.

Sometimes advertising can take a turn into sham territory too.  How many game titles have you seen with the words "storm" or "requiem" in them?  War Z is an example of this kind of abusive labeling.  It was pulled down in December after being out on Steam for less than a week.  The game is basically guilty of false claims and only saw strong initial sales because a number of buyers were duped into thinking it was the highly anticipated standalone release of DayZ (a popular zombie survival game currently available only as an Arma II mod).  According to the fine legal print refunds for the game are not possible, but Valve is exercising common sense and has offered purchasers their $15 back assuming they're willing to submit the online request form.

Sometimes the cover itself is another trick meant to exploit customers who are not exercising proper caution when deciding what prodocts to buy.  Take a look at this example book cover on the right.  Look vaguely familiar?  The choice of font and background colors look awfully reminiscent to Mass Effect, don't you think?  It doesn't help that this novel has nothing to do with the Mass Effect universe either.  Personally, I can't understand why you would want to create this kind of false association.  It's not like the Mass Effect novels themselves were particularly good to begin with.   Especially the aptly titled Mass Effect: Deception, an entry in the series so poorly received by fans that Bioware and Del Rey (the book publisher) made an official apology to readers everywhere.  Oh well...in this case perhaps justice has ultimately been served.

Back for a Rematch

A little over three years ago I made a post on this blog about the decline of PC gaming.  You can read about it here.  I still stand by the six reasons I gave as major hindrances which keep the PC from dominating the video game industry.  That said a lot has happened, and as the current generation of home consoles grow older the PC is starting to make a comeback in a big way.  Why?  Well, here's six reasons:

1# Scale-ability.  One of the nice things about PC games is the ability to adjust the visual performance to suit your own preferences.  This can mean better than current console graphics, but on the flip side I tend to think of it as stuff like toning down resolution to get the most out of particle and shadow effects when trying to play Doom 3 on old hardware.  Consoles on the other had give you no such option.  Whatever the settings are your stuck with regardless of your priorities, which brings me to my next point.

2# Mod-ability.  Ever heard of Black Mesa Source?  DayZ?  Europa Barbarorum?  How about Day of Defeat?  These are just a few mods to come out for the PC over the years.  They're free, and many are practically complete games in their own right.  Best of all I've just barely scratched the surface of what's out there.  Not all mods are overhauls either you got everything from a duck tape mod that lets you attach that trust flashlight to your gun to improved UI.  Integrated support for modding is also becoming increasingly common which is great for less tech savvy PC users.

3# Freedom of Distribution.  You make a game for Xbox360 and your looking at licencing fees, Microsoft's tedious certification process and only one digital means of distribution.  Go with PC on the other hand and you got none of the corporate imposed hurdles, plus options like Steam, GOG and even self-publishing.  Not to mention non-standard means of funding such as community supported in-development financing like what we've seen for games such as Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program.

4# HDTV and Controller Support.  One of the costly bits of buying a PC was the need for a monitor.  Thanks to recent improvements to TV and video card support it's fairly easy to connect your PC to that big screen TV you got and while the display tends to not be quite as sharp, there are a number of benefits to this arrangement when it comes to watching video streaming.  Most new games to come out also support your standard Xbox style controller which is a huge help for certain titles which brings us to... 

5# A Mouse and Keyboard.  I don't care what anyone else says.  If your going to play an RTS, FPS or pretty much anything other than a flight-sim, mouse and keyboard is an equal or superior control scheme.  The joke is there's no reason why Sony or Microsoft can make their consoles support these input devices.  They simply refuse to do so for business reasons (In other words people who don't play video games making decisions for us gamers).

6# Bibliotheca Optimum.  I decided to give this one a Latin title in the same vein as Lingua franca.  Pretentiousness aside my point is whenever discussions come up about what is the ideal gaming platform, it always boils down to game libraries.  Well, guess what?  In terms of back catalog, free stuff, and shear variety noting surpasses the PC.  This is especially true when you consider free emulators for everything from arcade titles to obscure 16-bit Japanese imports, not to mention DOS Box.  

So, there you have it.  Of course this list makes some assumptions about proper porting and DRM (or lack there of), but when you consider that the next generation of consoles (aside from the Ouya) will probably have a high entry cost a few launch titles there becomes more and more reasons to go with a PC; better graphics, greater flexibility, more methods interfacing, less publisher bullshit, and the list goes on.  Will the PC  crush the opposition?  If Google OS gets an upgrade and Valve releases a Steam Box then absolutely.  But since neither of those things are guaranteed to happen we'll just have to wait and see.     

Steam isn't the Answer

Don't take this the wrong way, I actually think Steam is trying to innovate the game industry. If nothing else making digital distribution quick and easy is a big help to all the little developers out there. My problem is that when you look closely Steam isn't much of a solution in the grand scheme of things.

First off Steam doesn't stop piracy because hackers know ways to "un-steam" games and put them up on torrent sites. Plus, if Valve (the owner of Steam) decides they don't like you for some reason they can ban your account at which point all the games you've purchased and downloaded no longer work. Not to mention steam requires you to install intrusive DRM software on your computer which leads to another bunch of potential problems which I won't bother going into right now.

Then of course we have the big question of what happens if Steam goes out of business? And there are a significant number people out there that don't have access to broadband internet especially in rural areas....

So, take a step back and look at what we have here. Steam does a lot to protect publisher profits but what about the consumer? No trading games with your friends or selling used games is great for developers, but what about people who buy the games? Back before the days of Half-Life 2 you could lend some game that you weren't playing anymore to a friend living down the street. You can't do that with games purchased through Steam. Thus, what your left with is a system that is constantly trying to find new ways to weasel gamers out of there money. Naturally, a lot of consumers feel like there getting swindled so they increasingly turn to piracy as a way of retaliating against what they see as less than fair business practices.

What we need is a system that shrinks the gap between consumers and the industry. There has become too much hostility between these two groups and until both sides step down and start considering diplomatic solutions the conflict will just get more and more messy. Steam doesn't provide a negotiation table or even a bridge between these bitter rivals, rather it's a barbwire fence with a gate for those willing to agree to Valve's demands.