Empire of the Iguanadons

OK. So I'll attempt to gather up my thoughts on this issue, and will manually move responses meant for this topic here. It'll be somewhat chaotic, but then what in life isn't?

If you've been living under a rock, Steam is an online content delivery system for PC games, among other things. Normally I pay zero attention to this sort of thing as I buy all of my stuff retail. I get my nice shiny disc, a decent manual, and usually a cool box to put on the shelf. Thus far I've not had any reason to even care that services like Steam exist.

Up until Fallout 3, I had little reason to change this opinion. That is until all of the DLC for Fallout 3 was being made available via XBox Live. Since I don't own an XBox, I saw little if any reason to have to deal with the hassles of an XBox.

If you've read my Dragon Age:Origins review here, you'll notice that I mentioned a disturbing trend in the gaming world where companies are leaning more and more toward online content delivery. DLCs for Dragon Age can only be obtained this way. While I object to it, they haven't done any DLCs that have been of sufficient quality to make me want to download them. Especially after I was thoroughly gipped by Warden's Keep. I won't be wasting the time on the others especially since I'd be forced to by "Bioware points" which are nothing more than disguised versions of XBox points.

Unfortunately, my reasons for not giving a crap have now been shattered by Bethesda's recent announcement (albeit in blog comments) that Steam will be a required component even for the retail purchase of Fallout: New Vegas. Yep, G. Staff himself (the community manager for Bethesda) confirmed publicly that you will require Steam in order to activate New Vegas before being able to play it. They went on to say that you won't require Steam beyond that, but the fact that I need it at all is highly objectionable to me. At least EA handled their stuff in house and didn't require unwanted 3rd party components.

So I am openly and loudly declaring that if this requirement is maintained when the release date arrives in October 2010, I will not be purchasing a copy of Fallout: New Vegas. I do hope someone over there at Bethesda is listening to this complaint and is taking it to heart, because I don't make this statement lightly. I was very close to snapping up a pre-order, but decided to look into the details once it became apparent that you were using the same promotional tactics EA/Bioware did with DA:O. I am now extremely glad I did, because you're about to save me some money on what is sure to be an unmitigated disaster for your public image.

I am going to be one very VERY upset person if you take this to the next logical step with Elder Scrolls 5. Perhaps this explains why your company is being tight-lipped about anything to do with it. I remain somewhat hopeful you'll see the light and not punish retail purchasing in order to placate your console users.
.........................
"It is pointless to resist, my son." -- Darth Vader
"Resistance is futile." -- The Borg
"Mother's coming for me in the dragon ships. I don't like these itchy clothes, but I have to wear them or it frightens the fish." -- Thurindil

Well. I guess that's that then.

My question was, why are you not here

That was your intended question, but you actually asked "why are you Conner?"

Even this does not qualify as a valid reason for school having forced all that Shakespeare into the English lessons.

If you support Steam, then you support GFWL, EA's Origin, and Blizzard's Battle.net based on exactly the same principles. That is all.

This totally unnecessary thread bump was brought to you by the Pointing out Steam Hypocrisy Society.

A novel theory, but no.

Truth actually, not theory. All 4 services perform identical functions and expect the same level of minimum intrusiveness into your gaming.

Also true that ONE of these options goes well beyond the minimum.