Thoughts of a Random Gamer

Back in 2003, Valve, developers of such notable titles as the Half-Life series, Portal and Left 4 Dead, launched a utility for PC called Steam.  When it was first introduced, I was very skeptical of online delivery systems for full game downloads.  The problem was, at the time installing Half-Life 2 required the installation of Steam.  Though I’ve not used it to its fullest extent, it has continued to impress me over the years.

At its core, Steam is used to create an online marketplace for gamers to download content.  Valve has also opened up the delivery system to other developers and publishers (surely Valve gets a cut), so games from Activision, EA, Rockstar and a myriad of other developers have found their way on to this service.

What this is really about, however, is how much love Valve has shown to gamers (except for those on the PS3) over the past couple of months.  Valve has went to great pains to ensure that most of their best games areaccessible to the gamer on a budget by running special promotions, which has put some of their top games up for sale at pretty steep discounts.  For example, the Valve Complete Pack that was released a while back has nearly every Valve game made for $99.99, that includes Left 4 Dead!  At their current prices, these games would cost you $239.81.  Recently, Left 4 Dead was on sale through Steam (PC-only, sorry Xbox) for $24.95, which was 50% off the original. This isn’t an advertisement (Valve isn’t floating me any cash – but if they wanted to hook me up with some swag, who am I to say no?), this is just an acknowledgment of how good Valve has been to gamers.

When Valve released The Orange Box for PC (Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode One, HL2: Episode Two, HL2: Lost Coast, Portal, Team Fortress 2), I picked up a copy, even though I already owned HL2 and the included expansions.  What I soon learned was that, upon installation, Steam recognized my already installed software and converted the licenses for those specific games in to gift licenses that I could give to a friend.  In that one move, Valve showed that they aren’t out to continually rake us over the coals by repurchasing their software.  Instead, they allowed me to share the goodness with my fellow gamer, which was well-received by the community.

Another shining example that many of my fellow Infected are looking forward to is the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead, which has quickly became many’s Call of Duty 4 replacement, as a free download for both PC and 360.  Long gone are the days this PC gamer remembers of free mods and maps, whether from the developer or a 3rd party, but Valve is bringing a bit of nostalgia back with their yet-to-be-released free map pack/game mode/bug fix.  It isn’t too terribly often that you see some free DLC, especially on the 360 Marketplace, so the fact that Valve is going to not only patch some issues in their game, but they are also going to add the new game mode and release new maps is amazing!

With the aforementioned examples of discounts through their digital distribution service, ability to gift duplicate games from a bundle of other games and the most recent announcement of free DLC, Valve deserves a three cheers from the collective gaming community.  Since they won’t hear us from our living rooms, and in light of the recent Hallmark holiday, I give them this:

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