Tonight I bought the PC version of Mass Effect twice… That’s right, I didn’t buy Mass Effect 2, I bought the first game twice. I spent $40 for two copies of the same game for the same computer. I did this because I realized (after purchasing it on Direct2Drive and downloading their GameSpy client Comrade thing) that Steam also offered it. And let me just say, Steam is the best (and the original) digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform. It’s functionality, community, quality and speed far surpass other game download clients and it’s obvious why it controls an estimated 70% of the digital distribution market.

I’ve been using Steam since it was first released in 2002, back when I just starting college. This was a time when game downloaders and digital game purchasing in general was completely new and almost offensive to publishers. Valve was teamed up with publisher Vivendi at the time and was getting into lawsuits over the digital distribution rights to their games, “Valve’s Steam content distribution system attempted to circumvent publishing agreements” and the two weren’t getting along for various reasons. Thankfully, founders Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington (both long-time Microsoft employees before starting Valve in 1996) who are both awesome and smart + well funded and dedicated pulled out the stops and made it work. They pioneered a way to distribute games without plastic and paper that serves as a precursor to iTunes and other successful systems like Xbox Live.

So why am I hatin’ on Direct2Drive here? What’s wrong with their tag along product? Well, I love IGN and Jessica Chobot just as much as the next guy (heck, I live here in San Francisco where it all goes down vs. Bellevue Washington where Valve’s headquarters are) and I recognize their competitive advertising advantage, owning IGN and many other top media outlets, but Steam is just so much faster, cleaner, well thought out – the system was built by hackers, people who appreciate the art of gaming and computing vs. glitz and media. Here’s the real reason, after five years of using Steam it still remembers all of the games I’ve bought and connects into an online community! By contrast, tonight when I downloaded and signed in to Comrade it only listed the ONE game I had just purchased, what the fuck! I’ve bought several games from D2D over the past couple of years and none of them are available to me.

The way the systems run is the difference between shooting a machine gun in Halo 1 vs. Counter Strike or Half Life 1. Steam is cleaner, it snaps and responds instantly, it’s not just for show and it won’t slow your computer down.

I don’t usually rant but the Comrade system sucks, I’m going to let it all out here… I hate waiting for those timed GameSpy downloads and I hate installing unnecessary shit on my computer. Steam took seconds to download and install, it all happened in less than a minute. Comrade by comparison took several minutes and then froze several times when I tried to uninstall it! I’m running XP through Boot Camp on my MackBook Pro and ultimately I used the start > programs menu to use the included uninstaller. Steam also downloaded my game faster because it uses a distributed network of content akin to BitTorrent. In fact, my game is already fully loaded and ready to play… I’m just busy writing this post!

If you’re considering the downloadable versions of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 or any other DL games for that matter (which are great at saving resources and power because you don’t have to spin a CD or throw away a plastic case and insert, which can also get lost and scratched) do yourself a favor and use Steam. You’ll be glad you did several years down the line when you’ve got a new computer and it actually remembers the games you purchased and lets you re-download them…

I watched a very interesting documentary on dreams recently and learned that our minds mix in elements of real life and use the state as a sort of “consequence free” obstacle course. Some dreams are fantastic and allow us to innovate and discover a new approach, others put us face to face with challenges and would be killers to keep our reflexes tight. The interesting thing is, people who lose the ability to dream due to stroke or other accident can’t learn things as quickly or adapt as a result… It all makes sense right?

It is really amazing how our body and mind can take the things we are interested in or working on and allow us to master it, just by sleeping a little. Many times I have gone snowboarding or practiced a new dive at the pool then quit for several weeks or even a whole season only to find that my skills are better than when I last left off. The one dream success that I haven’t been able to master is getting air out of a half pipe on a skate board. I did it in dreams several times but also got decked out (landed on the deck) and have never really been able to soar on the real life side. I have also had several “work” style dreams where I mastered a job and saved money… invested wisely and became rich and renowned only to wake up and realize that I would have to do it all over again! It’s the journey not the destination that matters right? Yeah.

Today I went up to an area of San Francisco that I would nickname “little Mexico” because that’s what it looked like. People on every corner waving trying to jump on for a ride to some work site. Of course, I wasn’t there looking for workers, I was grabbing a MacBook Air that I found on Craigslist. Turned out to be a sweet deal and the guy who sold it to me (John) was really cool, he runs a business called BodyFi which is like a personal boot camp, they just got some exposure through Groupon and I guess all is good. The new laptop is sweet and super light, it will be my third Mac, still no iphone or ipod though.

After the the laptop session I decided to explore a little and drove up to Bernal Heights Park which was a new experience. I’ve never seen so many dogs! My foot is hurt right now so I’m wearing this support shoe but I was so excited to get the view I just climbed right up the hill and took it all in. Earlier in the day I had watched a show on History about the earthquakes in San Francisco (probably being aired because we’ve had two or three 4ish quakes recently). Just like the rest of America, California and San Francisco are in debt, in need of repair, and precariously positioned for a major ass kicking when oil starts to get expensive, when bridges and other infrastructure starts to decay and break (any day now) and when the “big one” finally does hit. According to the scientists on History the next big quake will be more disastrous than any of the others so far. Instead of learning from the bigger quakes they were downplayed and spun off as fires in order to get investors from New York and other locations to help rebuild. Well fuck, isn’t that just the story of our world?

On a positive note, I donated two guitars recently. One to a young man in India and one to an orphanage in Peru. Music is awesome. I hope I get even better at it tonight as I dream, I read that you can actually steer your dreams if you think about what you want before you go to sleep. I’m working on learning Come Home by Julia and the Doogans and tabbed out the chorus tonight:

Capo on fourth fret, regular tuning.

E—0–0–0
A—0–3–3
D—2–2–3
G—2–0–0–(hammer onto 2 to match song)
B—1–1–1
E—0–0–0