Why NOT to buy retail

Q

Quixote

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Well I've done it. About five minutes ago I cancelled one (I still want the box, call me old fasioned) of my orders from Amazon. The reason, I REALLY want to see CS:S. So I broke down and purchased the silver package of HL2. What do I get, not olny HL2 but also CSCZ and the promise of a whole slew of interesting sounding titles.

Now while this great surprise of CSCZ makes me moderately happy (I certainly wasn't going to pay anything extra for it) it also makes me apprehensive of all the legal wranglings and the hopes people have of an early release date. Vivendi, is losing A LOT of money through steam and I doubt they will allow Valve to sell through steam. They may have well found "showstopping" bugs in HL2 but they certainly can't just sit on the RC, THAT is what brought them into court in the first place with CSCZ and the delay after going gold.

Whether HL2 goes gold tomorrow or next year (I kinda hope it goes gold next year because then Monro ows me a copy) its going to be a great game. But don't get your hopes up whenever joe blogger or random_poster2004 lets fly his uncle's wife's father's best friend's daughter is dating someone who works at valve and let her know it's going gold tomorrow.


Edit:

In the time it took me to order, browse around, and type this, about 30 minutes, CS:CZ is 80% and CS:S is about 30%. Really if you have broadband don't think twice about getting HL2 over steam.
 
A might but that's besides the point! Additionally, You are worse than the US Presidential candidates when it comes to taking things out of context.
 
Hah... No, I didn't hear him go off to the war on terrorism at all... So, he's not that bad....
 
so terrorism is the reason for the delays.... interesting rabid weazel
 
i think the presidential vote is gonna delay hl2 till 2008
 
That's true. He owns the oil company he's politicing for, his vice president has shares in Haliburton. It is interesting to note he was owned by Kerry in all three debates.

Now stop hijacking my thread.
 
Quixote said:
That's true. He owns the oil company he's politicing for, his vice president has shares in Haliburton. It is interesting to note he was owned by Kerry in all three debates.

Now stop hijacking my thread.
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:LOL: :LOL:
 
yeah he has owned kerry in all 3 debates .. but i dont know its hard to take a stance on presidents ... for me ...
 
I WILL NOT discuss politics on internet forums. Most people that I come across that wish to discuss politics are heavily uninformed. All I know is that Kerry WILL NOT be receiving my vote this November.
 
*_-SpAcKeL-_* said:
I WILL NOT discuss politics on internet forums. Most people that I come across that wish to discuss politics are heavily uninformed. All I know is that Kerry WILL NOT be receiving my vote this November.
Click to expand...

*_-SpAcKeL-_* said:
Bush owns.
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I really want this thread to be about HL2 not about politics but the only person who seems heavily uninformed here is you Spackel. Would you please stop contradicting yourself and add something to the discussion about HL2 and not American politics. I am happy that people are planning on voting this election, whoever they are voting for; in "the greatest democracy" (which is really a republic) it's a crying shame that less than 50% of the people qualified to vote do.

Now back to HL2. Who's taking my advice and buying it over steam?
 
I'm almost positive that Vivendi is not losing money over Steam sales. Take a look at the pricing. If Valve was able to undercut the retail price they would have, even by a couple of bucks. Instead they keep it at the same retail MSRP but sweeten the deal with extras.
 
I cant wait for Bush to rule another 4 Years.... I can't wait for the whining!!!!.... However, Noone will admit to voting for the moron, But, Someone had to vote for him right? I feel for the kids today in highschool, What are the schools teaching them right now? Civics, American history, It's up to our teachers to make manifest the truths about american government, and I don't see much of it happening!
 
Its the rich against the poor, It always has been, and will always be!!!! That should shed some light hopefully! The poor outnumber the rich by so much! Why do we still vote against ourselves?
 
whoop de do......
Back on topic, I'm buying the Silver package over Steam because it still costs less than buying the standard retail version in Australia ($82.75AUD over steam vs $89.95 - $99.95AUD retail). And that's the only reason because i would have liked a box and manual but I wanted the extras.
 
butternuts said:
I'm almost positive that Vivendi is not losing money over Steam sales. Take a look at the pricing. If Valve was able to undercut the retail price they would have, even by a couple of bucks. Instead they keep it at the same retail MSRP but sweeten the deal with extras.
Click to expand...

Vivendi is losing money and the reason valve isn't undercutting sales is because the comsumer has become used to paying that price for games. They too are interested in maximizing profit. Why charge $40 when people will pay $50.
 
Vivendi IS losing money becuase of the many people like Quixote who change their mind about buying retail, just so they could play cs:s. Simple as that. Just look at all the people who have changed their mind. The longer they keep the RC, the more people are going to get sick of waiting and just buy over steam to play cs:s to hold them off.
 
:dozey: I am buying retail CE, well maybe. I have been debating whether the goodies with CE will be to any use though, so I might just buy regular Half Life 2 alone, dunno. I think I bought Bronze on Steam. Well, I didn't buy it... but my pops did.
 
Why don’t you buy silver and play CS:S right NOW? Why do you need cd's and a box?

1. The reason you buy CDs is to install and play the game, but if you preload it you wont have to put in 10 different CDs to install, steam will install it for you when you preload. So there is no reason why you would want to buy retail just for CDs when steam can do the same thing. And besides, after you install the game you will probably lose them and scratch them up, so why go through that hassle when you can just PRELOAD it? Makes no sense to me.

2. I hear allot of people saying That they want to buy retail just so they don’t have to burn the gcf's on cd. Again, this MAKES ABSOLUTLY NO SENSE BECUASE YOU CAN JUST PRELOAD THE SHIT AGAIN OVER STEAM.

3. I also hear people wanting to buy the retail just so they can have a manual, is it REALLY worth it to wait for the game to go gold, go to the store, buy the game, spending 30mins installing with 10 CDs putting them in one after another, JUST so you can flip through 10 pages before you throw it on the ground and play hl2 out of excitement? Come on people, it will eventually get lost under your bed covered in dust.

4. By getting the retail versions at stores, VERY little money goes to valve, maybe 10 bucks at the most. All of it goes to the distributor AND publisher. Over steam valve gets sssoooooo much money. I think it takes maybe 3 or 4 retail bronze packages just to equal 1 bronze-silver pack through steam. Think about it, do you want to support vivendi or valve?
 
I already bought it over Steam, but I like having a box and manual, so I'll buy a second copy in stores.
 
operative x said:
Why don’t you buy silver and play CS:S right NOW? Why do you need cd's and a box?

1. The reason you buy CDs is to install and play the game, but if you preload it you wont have to put in 10 different CDs to install, steam will install it for you when you preload. So there is no reason why you would want to buy retail just for CDs when steam can do the same thing. And besides, after you install the game you will probably lose them and scratch them up, so why go through that hassle when you can just PRELOAD it? Makes no sense to me.

2. I hear allot of people saying That they want to buy retail just so they don’t have to burn the gcf's on cd. Again, this MAKES ABSOLUTLY NO SENSE BECUASE YOU CAN JUST PRELOAD THE SHIT AGAIN OVER STEAM.

3. I also hear people wanting to buy the retail just so they can have a manual, is it REALLY worth it to wait for the game to go gold, go to the store, buy the game, spending 30mins installing with 10 CDs putting them in one after another, JUST so you can flip through 10 pages before you throw it on the ground and play hl2 out of excitement? Come on people, it will eventually get lost under your bed covered in dust.

4. By getting the retail versions at stores, VERY little money goes to valve, maybe 10 bucks at the most. All of it goes to the distributor AND publisher. Over steam valve gets sssoooooo much money. I think it takes maybe 3 or 4 retail bronze packages just to equal 1 bronze-silver pack through steam. Think about it, do you want to support vivendi or valve?
Click to expand...

:thumbs: Hows about I bought Bronze and playing CS:S right now!

I am buying retail for my own reasons, okay? I may be a total money waster and dumbass right? But hey, I want physical material of Half Life 2, plus I bought Bronze because I couldn't wait to play CS:S, haha. WHO CARES IT AINT YOUR CASH! MOTHER! My method supports both... I should have bought silver, for DoD: Source. Fuuhk.
 
I'm buying whatever is cheaper. Right now it is looking like it will be cheaper for me to buy retail (and I get a box and CD's).

1. The reason you buy CDs is to install and play the game, but if you preload it you wont have to put in 10 different CDs to install, steam will install it for you when you preload. So there is no reason why you would want to buy retail just for CDs when steam can do the same thing. And besides, after you install the game you will probably lose them and scratch them up, so why go through that hassle when you can just PRELOAD it? Makes no sense to me.

2. I hear allot of people saying That they want to buy retail just so they don’t have to burn the gcf's on cd. Again, this MAKES ABSOLUTLY NO SENSE BECUASE YOU CAN JUST PRELOAD THE SHIT AGAIN OVER STEAM.
Click to expand...

I have a 4 mbit cable connection. To reload HL2 through steam will take me roughly 2.5 hours if it maximizes my internet connection. That is so much quicker than reinstalling through CD's. :rolleyes:

4. By getting the retail versions at stores, VERY little money goes to valve, maybe 10 bucks at the most. All of it goes to the distributor AND publisher. Over steam valve gets sssoooooo much money. I think it takes maybe 3 or 4 retail bronze packages just to equal 1 bronze-silver pack through steam. Think about it, do you want to support vivendi or valve?
Click to expand...

I don't care who gets my money. I want the best value for me. Valve is a corporation like Vivendi. They only care about money. That means I only care about price. Valve loyalty stuff is absurd. They get the same share of money when I bough HL retail when I buy HL2 retail. From the looks of Valve right now, I think they made a fair amount of money from HL.
 
I bought the silver and was playing within minutes of after purchasing it, then after getting over the greatness of cs source i played around with condition zero, and found that the single player in that game is pretty fun so i've already got my moneys worth, now im just waiting of hl2 to be released
 
operative x said:
I dunno about that, half-life 2 IS 6 CDs, that could take awhile:/
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:sleep: Have you even had a game with 6 CD's to install? Is 10-15 minutes of your time REALLY THAT long?

Well that's your opinion anyways, I love going through the installation process. It's so exciting.
 
operative x said:
Why do you need cd's and a box?
Click to expand...

It feels more official to me, thats why I am waiting until it goes retail to buy it. When I hold the disc in my hand, I'll know that the disc was "the way it was meant to be played" (lol, nvidia) straight from the factory :afro:
 
operative x said:
I dunno about that, half-life 2 IS 6 CDs, that could take awhile:/
Click to expand...

Wow, 3 minutes a CD for a total of 18 minutes or 2.5 hours of preloading? Not to mention you can't use your internet because your bandwith is being used by Steam.

6 CDs, did Valve use no compression technology whatso ever? They should take a lesson on compression by Microsoft.
 
:dozey: And besides, if you get a DVD version... what is it again? ONE DVD. Wait, there is going to be a one DVD disc version right?
 
6 CDs, did Valve use no compression technology whatso ever? They should take a lesson on compression by Microsoft.
Click to expand...
Do you really want 3 CDs instead of nice, sexy textures, video, and music?
6 CDs is FINE. There's always the option for DVD, if you really have a problem :)
 
blahblahblah said:
Wow, 3 minutes a CD for a total of 18 minutes or 2.5 hours of preloading? Not to mention you can't use your internet because your bandwith is being used by Steam.
Click to expand...

That's why you do it at night :p

blahblahblah said:
6 CDs, did Valve use no compression technology whatso ever? They should take a lesson on compression by Microsoft.
Click to expand...

FarCry was 6 cd's too.
 
I'm sure most geeks out there have there HDD partitioned. What I have done is threw the cache files on my D:\ when I reformatted. You don't even need to burn them on a CD. I mean if by bad luck your hdd screws up (I'm sure everyone agree's not all the time) then just pre-load again. No big deal...
 
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