Some people might be a little fearful when one company has such an impressive hold on a certain type of platform or product. Microsoft, for example, has long been a force to be reckoned with in the productivity app department, and it's only been in the last few years that open source alternatives like OpenOffice have really come into their own.
But do we always need to be afraid? Should we always worry that some corporate big-wig is going to try and overcharge us for something? Should we be scared of how big their hand is and how much of the market they control?
In some cases, yes. But for some reason, when it comes to Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, I'm nothing but smiles. For those of you who need a lingo refresher, digital distribution refers to the buying and selling of games and other media without any physical copies involved. Essentially, you're paying full price for a game, but rather than have a CD or DVD lying around that could get scratched or lost, you simply download the product straight to your hard disk.
While there's something to be said for having a physical copy of a game, the benefits of Steam really outweigh the need for a real copy. Their servers are fast, so the downloads don't take long, and since they don't have to produce boxes and disks, it's a cleaner, more energy efficient way of feeding your gaming habit.
Add to that Steam's slick interface, community features and the fact that if you reinstall Windows, all you need to do is install Steam, log-in and re-download the games you've purchased, and you have perhaps the most convenient PC gaming service ever.
There are other D.D. platforms, of course, like Stardock's Impulse, and ModDB's upcoming Desura (which is specific to game mods), but Steam, thus far, has thousands of games for sale, weekly deals, and from the looks of it, hasn't been mismanaged one bit. So why waste the gas to go to Best Buy or Game Stop when Steam is pretty much all you'll ever need? (Unless you play WoW. They don't sell WoW.)
Will you give into Steam's domination of the PC gaming market?
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