Re: Questions about Direct2Drive and Steam

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:55:34 -0800 (PST), Richard Carpenter
<rumbledor@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

First let me ask that we just avoid any of the philosophical debates
about Steam.

Let's leave the philosophy to Gene Hackman.

I was just wondering what practical reasons there may be *not* to
purchase games via Direct2Drive and/or Steam. A few specific questions
I have are:

1. Do the downloaded games run completely from the hard drive, or must
they be burned to disc to play them (for those that normally require
the disc to be in the drive, anyway)?


Run from HD.

2. Would there be any limitations on installing downloaded games on
other computers in my house? Surely I wouldn't have to download them
on each individual PC, would I?


Not with Direct2Drive - not sure about Steam.

3. Can I expect to be able to freely re-download a game I previously
purchased via Direct2Drive (or Steam) in the event of, for example,
hard drive failure?


Yes.

4. I understand that these are special versions of the retail games
and therefore require special versions of any subsequent patches. How
soon after the retail patches are released are the D2D/Steam versions
generally available?


Not sure. From what I hear the patches are slow on Direct2Drive.

5. Is there any sort of additional overhead involved when playing
games purchased from D2D or Steam, such as some sort of requirement
that the download service client be running in the background?


No.

6. Anyone have any simple personal preferences that keep them from
purchasing games via dowload?

No. I bought Oblivion on Direct2Drive and I never finished the main
quest. Now I'm ready to start again after a year or more and it is
nice to be able to just re-download the game.

I bought the NWN2 exansion and then could not find the DVD of the
origiginal I had purchased. I cursed myself for not buying it online.

I undertand people's concern about spending money and wanting some
sort of guarentee they can play the game in the future, but for me it
is all about the convenience of downlaoding and installing without
leaving the house. Now if I can buy it online, download, and burn the
cd...
.

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