Retail Steam Games

[overwheat]

My question is whether or not the Admins are wanting the retail versions of steam games added to the PC section. Games like BRINK & F.E.A.R. 2 were sold retail, but required steam activation unlike the original Half-Life and subsequent spin-offs/mods (blue shift, counter-strike, etc).

I saw this thread: http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,423.0.html ; but it didn't really have a definitive answer to the question.

Personally I would say yes to this as it would be a way to signify that someone owns the boxed copy of a game and not just the Steam download.

I figured I would ask before adding some of these games all willy nilly.

[foxhack]

As the resident Steam dork, I personally don't have a problem with this. I don't list my retail copies because I don't see the point to it (I used the key and the box was just... put in storage), but you can do so if you want.

[desocietas]

Right, I remember asking that same question when I bought Total War: Shogun 2.  I think I decided to add the retail copy to my collection since it could be purchased as either a disk or as a download directly to Steam.  Anything I add as a Steam item, I assume I don't have a hard copy.

I think it just comes down to how you want your collection to look.

[overwheat]

This isn't specific to steam, but along the same lines as my original question. This time in regards to Games For Windows Marketplace & Amazon Game/Software Downloads, I noticed there wasn't any category or entries for either of these, along with Origin as well actually. Are they hiding in the PC Digital Downloads section and I'm just not seeing it? If no entries exist yet, do you guys want it treated like the GOG entries, and just add in parenthesis the site it's from? Example being "Batman: Arkham Asylum (GFW)" or "Crysis 2 (Amazon.com)".

[foxhack]

This isn't specific to steam, but along the same lines as my original question. This time in regards to Games For Windows Marketplace & Amazon Game/Software Downloads, I noticed there wasn't any category or entries for either of these, along with Origin as well actually. Are they hiding in the PC Digital Downloads section and I'm just not seeing it? If no entries exist yet, do you guys want it treated like the GOG entries, and just add in parenthesis the site it's from? Example being "Batman: Arkham Asylum (GFW)" or "Crysis 2 (Amazon.com)".

Yes and no.

We decided that Steam having its own subcategory would be because of the sheer amount of games they have, their separate release dates, sometimes different cover artwork, and exclusive content.

Most other downloadable game stores, despite having their own storefront, sell the exact same game. You download the game, install it, and activate it, but more often than not, this is done without needing a store client. They give you the download, and that's it. So what I decided to do in this case was add a generic downloadable game entry which could be used across all download services. If you look at my PC Digital collection, you'll see that many of these games have notes like "Desura version" and "Origin download". Most of the indie games are also available at other stores like Indievania, and Gamersgate. The EA stuff could be bought from Amazon, Gamersgate, Gamefly (if only they didn't region lock everything, the bastards), etc.

I also try to use generic the cover artwork used in digital stores for these entries to keep things consistent within the category.

The GFW games are a special case... you need to have the client running regardless of where you buy and download the game from, so more or less, it's DRM. I don't think adding a note about that to the game entry is needed, but you can mention it on your item notes, like I have.

On the other hand,  the GOG versions of games often have content that is exclusive to that store. Stuff like soundtracks, making of videos, etcetera. So we used "(GOG.com)" to separate them from generic entries from stores like DotEmu, who sell the bare game with the manuals only.

Hope this made sense.