Um, that TotalBiscuit mailbag video is so weird. I always thought he was a reasonable person. He's mad that people are playing too much TF2? Everything Valve has ever done has a sinister edge? Its terrifying how convenient and useful Steam is?
I mean, come on.
He rambles on a bit, but he's not wrong. Thing is, we don't know if he's right either. I definitely think that his opinion is valid. I've been doing a lot of buying on Steam recently, usually around sale time, but from here on out I'm going to do my best to
1) buy directly from developer websites.
Sure it may cost a little bit more, but I'd rather they get the extra 25% to put back into the game than have it go to Steam.
2) buy from other digital distributors if possible.
I was using Impulse before it switched over to GameStop. I'm looking at Desura now as a back-up to Steam. The overall quality of the titles seems lower, but they've got a good Indy market going on.
Having more choices is never a bad thing. It keeps all parties interested in wooing the consumers. Steam is bordering on a social network site, meaning that more and more people are going there to put their feet up. Just like multiplat games on home consoles, people always ask which version is the best one to get. The majority of the time the answer is "get whichever one your friends are playing." If all of your friends are on Steam playing TF2 and Dota (both of which are now f2P services that you can only get on Steam - nowhere else,) then it's a safe bet that's where you'll be as well. Steam is so big now, that they can eat the costs on those games because they encourage and attract people to their service.
So TB is saying, how can other distribution services compete with that? Is Steam bad because they have two really good games with high-production values and constant support that you can play for free? No. Are they evil because they throw out massive sales 2-3 times a year? No. But it makes it very hard for other services to compete and at this rate - Steam may be the only thing left standing in a few years.
The other thing TB was saying is that once Steam has you coming to their site regularly and buying their games - a lot of customers won't leave. It's true. The more you have invested socially, monetarily, and time-wise - the less likely you are to leave because you "lose" all of that. (In the case of your games, you lose access to all of the ones you bought on that service.) So if you do reach that point where Steam is the main (or only) player and you don't dare leave them because of your investments - then YOU are at their mercy. Sure, they may play the benevolent Patrician and take care of their customers but if they don't would you be willing to toss every game you bought on the service out in order to switch? Like I said, it's all about having choices - the more you have, the better off you are. If that means sometimes paying a little bit more then I'm willing to float the cost - especially if it goes to the devs making the games I like to play.
It's a pretty dicey picture and honestly, it sets off a lot of alarms in my head. You can't blame them for running their business in a way that makes money for them, but you as the consumer should be aware of what your continued patronage may spell for YOU in the future.
