Uhm... The initial sale will still go to the devs. If you're telling him to pirate it anyway, then the dev doesn't see money either way...

I don't think this has to do with pirates, but really about Valve grabbing another big exclusive for Steam while offering a few "goodies" to devs (achievements, integration with Steam community, etc)

And the devs get the money from the people who create the pirated version in the first place, so in both cases they see one sale, and not the other.

Nope. Have to have the actual disc on this one.

Yes, you can play offline... until Steam decides you have to reconnect to their servers. Then you're SOL.

I've never ever had any issues with Steam, been using it trouble free since Half-Life 2 came out.
This will be the first must have first day purchase for me this year, I've played the hell out of Civ IV by now!

Weekend deal also has Civ 3 complete @1.25€ .....(instead of 5)


if you never played Civ... there really is no excuse (3 is considered by many as better than 4.... to me they are pretty much similar).

u smokin?

Did you read my post? I said I would probably not have sold the game anyway, were it possible. Thus your point is invalid. Besides, I don't like the way you make second-hand market look like piracy, equally bad. The devs definitely see the money if I buy it, they don't if I pirate it. And what you said later about devs getting money from the first pirated copy as well, that's ridiculous. That's more like getting money from one copy only while with selling pre-owned games there's definitely more customers that buy the game new, thus more money.

I have managed to resist buying any games like that but AFAIK they can be deactivated and even if they can't, they can be installed on multiple computers. Currently Steam is the only kind of DRM that prevents me selling from my games.

Maybe it has its advantages that are worth it for some but they're definitely not worth it for me. Dragon Age: Origins got it right with online features, to me at least; doesn't require a connection but sort of rewards for having one. And I find it pretty annoying when you call it laughable to bash Steam - I could say just as well that it's laughable when someone says he/she likes Steam.

I can't see who would like to buy GTA IV on PC anyway... Oh wait, now I see. Anyway, I get your point. Steam's sales really are good.

Also, don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily have anything against digital stores - in fact, I've bought several games from Impulse and GOG. But that's because they don't require me to run some software on the background in order to run my games. Steam does.

Anyway, I don't like it how they're putting a whole civilization exclusive to some 'digital deluxe edition'. There seems to be many things I don't like about Civ V after all, though I would probably love the game.

As far as you are concerned though, it's the same damn thing, so don't even bother trying to justify it. You are taking money away from the developer's pocket. Now if you want to start with justifications and excuses, I'm fairly sure I can make a better case about piracy than you ever will be for the used market.