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…