I enjoy going to the store and picking up a physical copy of a game and unboxing it reading through all the info on the case or in the game manual, I've been doing it since I was a kid, it's just a great feeling . Buying a game on steam or online takes away that enjoyment for me.

+1 :thumbsup:
and Physical Copies look good alongside all of my other games!

instant delivery...just wait a few hours. you know its instant but you get to wait a few hours and then wait to install it :facepalm:

EDIT:also, CEs dont come in digital copies, or with maps

Complete win.

god forbid your internet goes out in those 3 hours..


Hey! I got to hit my CD drive to open it :brokencomputer:

but ya what you said

I have ~50 games on steam so obviously I'm not biased against it. That said, there are some games that I just need to buy physically. Oblivion was one of them and Skyrim will be too.

Question, have you ever read any of the manuals that came with those downloaded games? Me neither. I like to have things when I buy these types of games. I will need to download patches and mods anyways so it isn't that big of an issue. I'd be fine if it needed steam to play although I would actually prefer it not. I have had nothing but trouble with steams offline mode (tried this week again and couldn't play anything).

I know all the pros and cons of steam (or any download service). I have never broken or lost a CD/DVD and they are all in great shape!

Skyrim for PC in retail stores please!

Remember guys, games of this calibre will have a few days to pre-load the game so you can play it as soon as it comes out.

When I buy a plastic case containing a disc or multitude of discs that hold digital information that makes up the game, I do believe that I am physically owning a copy of that said game.

Many people don't have a good enough internet connection. I live within 7km of the geographical centre of London, one of the most populous cities in Europe, and supposedly technologically advanced: and I get a maximum download speed of 1Mbps off peak - at peak times it's more like 150kbps. I am currently downloading my copy of The Witcher to my newish PC using Steam (I bought the game ages ago but the PC I installed it on had a major breakdown), and it's a huge file that will (given that I'm using the internet to do other things at the same time) take the best part of 7 days to download. There's absolutely nothing I can do to speed it up - my street has no access to fast cable fibre-optic internet or anything like that. If I had the DVD, it would take 15 minutes tops.

That being said, I am still in favour of digital download - but the idea that everyone has an internet connection that can cope with download of large files within a reasonable timeframe is utterly ridiculous.

Don't know about you but i never checked any of my game manual in physical games i DO own except to find serial number perhaps. Wikia is far more better and detailed then those maps but if you like it that way hey good for you. I am not here to argue, i just want to know why ppl prefer physical.


Ok i don't know how you thought of me as marketing steam but i see you MORE of a steam hater then me of a steam praiser. Yes i own 90% of my physical games on steam because its the largest digital distribution service for games. I also own starcraft 2 and wow digital on non-steam and countless other games from ea.com but if i want to buy a digital game i would first look on steam and look elsewhere only if its not available there. I personally would only buy a physical retail copy if i am getting a collector's edition which i already mentioned in my first post. In that case you are actually getting some nice physical items related to game somehow rather then just a cover and a manual which "actually" (and yes i put actually in quotes) no one reads.

I think people buy hard copies for the same reason people buy books rather than get the book out from a library, they view them as collectibles.
(it's more emotive than logical, imo there's no sense in buying hard copies of games you can download on steam)

This, and especially number 2. I hate third-party download sites like Steam. The only games I download rather than buy physical copies of are indie games, and I download them from the developer's site, not a third-party application like Steam. Plus, the manual, the maps and that kind of stuff are things that you just can't get from digital downloads, and a lot of people actually like to have those things. If you use Steam and lose your account info, there is a real chance that you could lose all the games you've paid for. If you have a hard copy of the game, that won't happen.

i always read the manuals on the crapper when i get home from the game store and i love all my maps from my TES games, theyre a cool thing to have imo

I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that it be purely online or in retail. People shouting that it needs to be in retail need to calm down, because it will be. Likewise I'm fairly confident it will be available on steam.

As for addressing the topic, I think we can sum it up with a little Latin. De gustibus non est dispudandum, there is no disputing about tastes. It's purely a subjective, often aesthetic preference, which while still valid, shouldn't be argued about.

installation time........installation time..........installation time......period, amen brother, and end of story. games aint gettin any smaller and it takes alot longer to download an entire game even with my cable internet than the 10 minutes it takes me to install the game from a disk. its quicker for me to literally drive to a store and buy a copy and then drive back home and then eat a sandwich and watch some tv and then install the game than it is to download it. personally i dont mind having games linked to STEAM as it makes patching a breeze but i dont want to wait any longer than i have too to play the game.

Because I would rather have something I can hold in my hands.

But still the retail version is going to be tied up to 3rd party control, which is the one other thing retail buyers don't appreciate.

i want the collectors edition so i can get some gear/stuff

Well I wouldn't have asked if I didn't check them now would I have?

Thanks for the biased, skewed poll by the way.

i like to buy my games off of steam. i learned my lesson about hardcopy PC games. the last one i got was two worlds 2 (collectors edition) and i got a whole lot of stuff w/ it, but it svcked. idk i just like downloading it better, instant access! also there's no clutter of boxes/discs. i haven't even used my dvd drive for ANYTHING in about a year, sure it's unplugged... but that's because i don't use it

Because its nice to know you own the copy when they decide out of the blue to shut down the DD servers.

And my internet is slow.


Honestly, I'll buy ME3 and TESV boxed because I want to install instantly and these are the only 2 games I am desperately looking forward to in 2011.

I still want to know, opinions aside, if the OP is on Steam's payroll. I sort of doubt it, since I'd at least hope that they'd pay someone with better grammar, but still....

I find the number of threads on this board pimping Steam to be suspicious. I find it hard to believe that so many people just spontaneously decide to start threads singing the praises of Steam and trying to convince people to use the service. It reeks of spam.

I still buy physical copies on reflex, but I much prefer digital.

@OP If I get digital copy will it be as fast as popping in the disc and playing. I don't want a skewed answer. Yes or no.

Alot more people than those who have great connections would suspect.


-------

Me, I like physical media. I like holding it in my hands. I'm not fond of the ephemeral nature of digital downloads.

I like being able to do reinstalls whenever I want (I've got a small WinXP partition, I don't have space for many games at once. And even if I did have lots of space, I like doing "clean" installs of gamesas games for each set of mods that I try. Over a dozen installs of Oblivion so far, and close to that many Fallout 3.)

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I consider any download over 1GB to be very large, and I don't like to do very large downloads. They're slow, run the risk of disconnects, and tie up the computer and/or cable line for a long time (I'm in a suburb of a decent sized US city. But I'm on Comcast cable, and on a wireless network serving three computers.)

When the US finally enters the 21st century, and gets itself a modern broadband policy (treating it like a public utilty, for example, instead of a patchwork of semi-monopolies who have no reason to provide everyone decent service at a decent price), maybe digital downloads will begin to be a reasonable alternative. But until then, physical all the way.



(Random example, that I posted in the off-topic forum..... Lord of the Rings Online went to the "free + cash shop" model recently. I could download it and try it with no expense. So, I first checked my Best Buy; and when they didn't have a copy, I bought one from Amazon - paying $$$$ and waiting several days for snail mail shipping was more attractive to me than doing a free, multi-GB download.)