When buying, only Steam or divided library? (digital PC games)

Gaming
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With Steam it is easy to have a unified library of digital games (on PC), with all your badges and others stuff, because of that some people don’t want to buy on alternative markets like Itch.io, GOG, Origin, Uplay, etc. (when it is possible to buy on Steam obviously, I’m not considering games that are exclusives for a specific PC gaming storefront).

So, do you have any problems with having a divided library?

PS: and I forgot to mention that some people want to have a unified library to boast about their amount of games, badges and more.

PS2: feel free to let me know if you find grammar/spelling mistakes.

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let me be clear
one of the major reasons people don’t like Uplay has got nothing todo with not having a unified library (as most titles can be purchased and launched through steam)
BUT it’s their shitty DRM (which mind you wont even be supported on legacy OS anymore soon, even for older legacy games) AND their servers don’t work half the time (okay exaggeration, but they are brokem or down a ton of the time)

the reason a lot of people don’t like Origin is; EA, they did the whole “we no like steam no more” snobbery, unnecessarily making all future titles exclusive and forcing extra needless platform, which mind you Ubisoft didnt pull in the same way with Uplay even tho they could have
Ea’s legacy of general being one of the worst companies on earth (for some hilarious reason despite the competion), and Origin is just a terrible platform that hasn’t grown in any way with solid features, even more slowly than Steam in its infancy (which is saying a lot)

Personally i would prefer a unified Library, i still buy Ubisoft games through steam, but haven’t purchased anything from Origin since Bf 3+ Crysis 3, and was only to get the end to that series, but has more todo with my disdain for Ea business models than the library issues since i could overcome that

Got no problem with GOG, in fact love it, and would love to see it become Steams major competitor to force them to innovate a bit more (DRM sucks, go away Securom and broken games), i even own a couple of games on GOG that i also own on Steam, (before Connect) and that i had on disc, GOG is just great imo, and their legacy support is a ton better than Steams not to mention DRM “broken” games are unbroken on GOG, so no need to call obsolete tech supports that don’t exist anymore when you reinstalled a game for the 3rd or 5th time or swapped out a gpu or hdd

Same way i got no issue with Blizzard App (tho i hate the new name), they focus on one thing, their own, and does that moderately well, no fuss, easily dealt with “non-unified library”
it’s just modern comfort and laziness to be annoyed with multiple apps really, (if the app/launcher is working properly that is, go away Uplay)

Unified library makes things simpler, but there is no “need” other than modern laziness, and guess what, we got 3rd party apps that can do that trick for us, sorta, so i think it’s more than just the comfort of having things in one place, i think its the added BS that comes with it from some of the other places (looking at you winXstore, Origin and Uplay)
and lets not forget, Steam is far from perfect, even as unified library goes with badges and other silly stuff they try to lure us with… - ooh shiny :sparkles:

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Rename Blizzard.net icon Battle.Net = GG. :smiley: http://imgur.com/a/Hg5AU (Also I clearly have no problems with split-libraries, see pic)

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Best icon/logo for a DigiDistro platform goes to: Steam
Worst icon/logo: Bethesda and Twitch (tied)
Most unoriginal icon: Glyph (copy EA much?)
Most missed platform: Desura (RIP)
Most likely to disappear: Bethesda.net (despite their heavy investment in trying to lock in gamers)
Best stability: Steam
Most store purchase problems: Origin (by a long shot)
Best quality: GOG
Most irritating updates: Battle.net (like, srsly, what changed? Why do you force a full client update and restart just to show me a new trailer for Overwatch on the homepage?)
Dumbest achievements/perks system: Uplay
Most random games: Twitch

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I always want all-in-one library, and Steam definitely is the best platform for me. Imagine when you want to play a game and have to run this Client, that Client, too much of hassle.
GOG is excellent, DRM-free always is the best, but the lack of community function put me down a little bit.
All other platforms I don’t really care, rarely touch them except there is few games required their client to run.

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If prefer a unified library, but that’s impossible these days. For some time Steam was the market. While you can add non-Steam games to your Library, the overlay doesn’t always play nicely with them.

If a game doesn’t have cards (and I’m not really concerned with Achievements), I prefer a GoG or DRM-free Humble version. That being said, I’ve never had any problems with Steam’s DRM. I’m not a fan of internet connection required DRM. It’s just bad in so many ways.

Steam is still pretty good, but they’re quickly falling behind on user experience with some of their recent changes. I have a suspicion this is because of Tencent’s market potential…

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The only problem I have with the unified library thing is that sometimes it pretends to be a united library. I have a library of Steam only games, a library of GoG only games, a library of Origin only games, and of course Battle.net. But I believe this is normal and comes with downloading a this software.

On topic though, I don’t necessarily have a problem with this and still appreciatw the unified library thing. Sadly I cant expound on this more since I grew up with a PS1 and have always had an affinity for physical game copies. I havr some physical copies for PC games and I own a Vita so the game copies would most likely be physical (unless your Helldivers which I bought diring a sale)

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99% of my game collection is in Steam. The rest is split up between GoG and Blizzard. I think I have at least BF:BC2 in Origin, but I haven’t used it in a few years. Maybe I imported my retail version of 1942 to Origin too. Generally if a game isn’t on Steam I don’t play it.

I’m mainly a Linux gamer nowadays, and of those mentioned above only Steam has a client for Linux. I have some Linux compatible games in GoG, but I find myself using it very rarely due to Steam being just an all around easier option. Of course having my achievements, friends and everything else in one place is nice too. I don’t foresee myself using or needing another social/gaming platform as all-encompassing as Steam.

That isn’t to say that I haven’t thought of starting to use GoG or even itch.io more actively. The thought of putting all of my eggs into one basket (which I have been doing for 11 years according to Steam, ever since CS 1.6 (:open_mouth:!)) is horrifying, even if it’s the “best” basket around. I fear I might be too deep in though.

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I try to buy from GOG first. I will shop on Steam and throw everything on my wishlist. From there I will try to mirror my GOG wishlist to the Steam one as best I can. I do not care in the slightest about any extra systems on Steam. I use Steam to purchase games and talk to a single friend who refuses to get Discord.

As for publisher specific services… I am a dieheart Blizzard fan, so of course I will use B.net. Origin is okay. Its not my favorite service in the world, but its a billion times better than uPlay and, as a storefront and game library, is on par with Steam I feel. And then uPlay is absolute garbage in every way, shape, and form. The new Ori game from Microsoft might finally get me to actually buy a game from their god awful storefront. Whoever designed that storefront should be fired.

I would rate them as followed: Steam > Battle.net > GOG.com > Origin > Just not playing the game > uPlay > Taking up an Amish lifestyle > Windows Store

I don’t mind the decentralized mess at all. No single point of failure. Worst case scenario, I have to play Command and Conquer instead of StarCraft one day.

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i prefer steam.

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I have over 800 games on Steam. But the majority of them I have gotten is because I have been buying Humble Bundles since their first bundle.I don’t trust Steam because of the DRM restrictions and the fact…YOU don’t OWN the games. At any time they can just take your games. What happens when you die? Can you will them…etc? What if something happens to Steam? I have been on so many games sites that have closed and you are screwed for your games(Like Reflective Reflexive Entertainment - Wikipedia or Sandlot Sandlot Games - Wikipedia ) I an not telling you how I got Ricochet to finally play. It’s like buying albums, 8-tracks, cassettes, then CD’s…then MP3. I bought it once…why do I have to keep buying it again and again in different formats or different platforms.

I used to buy ONLY GOG. Then I started buying the Humble Bundles.I got a download, a Steam key and a Desura key.
Desura - Wikipedia “As of October 28, 2016, the desura.com home page shows the following message: “OnePlay has recently bought the Desura and Royale assets from Bad Juju. We are working hard behind the scenes to relaunch your favorite indie gaming platform.” The change in ownership news is dated October 21, 2016.” So Desura keys are suspended right now, I am guessing…

I don’t have enough toes and fingers to count the times I have started using a piece of software, the developers dies, sells it or they reinvent it so much it unusable.I used to love Netscape…gone, Ask Jeeves…Gone. GeoCities …GONE…just a few yrs ago,.Google RSS Reader closed. So You can’t say Steam is going to last. You could say it…but I don’t think it’s true.

I have bought a few Steam games and it was from here to support Chrono and all but 1 had a Linux OS. But I prefer the downloads.

Speaking of libraries…How do you keep track off all the games? Do you use a spread sheet of sorts???

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I go for a divided library. I just want the cheapest pricing, or the best version (certain Star Wars games are apparently slightly different on GoG compared to Steam). And other platforms do consumer friendly practices like giving away free games to lure you in (and I’m okay with that), so I turn to all of them.

And for the record, legally speaking we never owned the games regardless of what era we’re in. We only have the license to play the game for our own personal/private entertainment and to never share it with anyone else, nor are you supposed to exhibit it to other people (really not sure what the actual legalities are behind streaming and recorded Let’s Plays but the laws might have been revised to compensate for it). While we’re allowed one backup copy for ourselves, the license can be revoked for any reason, and from there we would either have to destroy our copy or return it to the dev/publisher (impractical I know, but this is just from the law’s perspective). Back then, it was impractical to chase after us, so we felt like we owned the physical copies. Now that we’ve gone partially digital, it’s much easier to actually enforce the same laws we’ve always had.

As for how I can keep track of my games? I don’t. I just use a wishlist and if a game I want isn’t on there, then I assume I bought it already, and end up checking all libraries. If I don’t see it anywhere, then I add it to the wishlist or buy it.

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I use any client that lets me download games and provides decent enough features.

Right now, it’s GOG Galaxy, Steam, uPlay, Windows 10 Store, and Origin. The only two launchers I find to be objectively awful are the Bethesda Launcher and Epic Games Launcher (ironic, isn’t it Sweeney?), and in both cases they have no game even WORTH putting up with their awful launcher for.

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I have both the bethesda and Epic game launcher installed for one reason each, the Quake Champions and Unreal Tournament betas. I don’t get why everyone wants their own launcher these days, certainly don’t have either of them running other than when I play those specific games. Same goes for the BLAPP, blizzard what are you even doing? It’s always going to be battlenet.

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Yeah, I use Battlenet exclusively for Overwatch, but nothing else. I don’t mind it, it works. The thing is, not only are the EGL and Bethesda Launcher broken turds, but the games that are SUPPOSED to carry them… well, in my opinion, they suck. QC brought back nostalgia of the latest games not running on my system (without the actual being-underspec bit) and UT4 just plays like crap. In both cases, there are far better successors coming up, like LawBreakers… really, I jumped ship from Epic when CliffyB did, and I know for sure that I’ll be picking that one up.

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if i have a choice i’ll get it on steam, if its on a different platform then the chances of me buying it diminish rapidly although if i can buy it on steam but it opens a different launcher i dont care unless its the windows 10 store (but they dont do that so its not an issue)

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@K16, I’d be really interested in sources on that “you don’t own your games” claim. That… Just doesn’t sound right. You sign no agreements when you purchase a game off the store shelf. By all means, the content of that disc should legally be yours.

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I have a divided library. I’ve thought about using GOG Galaxy to combine them; does anyone have any experience with that?

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I do
Been using it since early beta stages. You don’t need to use it at all though, you can still take advantage of GOG’s offer of copying certain titles from your steam library to your gog one.

But if you want to use it then it’s about as convenient as steam is for the purpose of managing and keeping games updated. It doesn’t quite have the same community aspects though and no alternative to the workshop so you get to mod your games the old fashioned way.

I’d be happy to answer any particular questions you might have about it though.

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@Neighborbob what K16 said is right, it’s a normal logical thing, nothing super fancy here, just sit down and think a bit you will understand. When you buy a game from digital store, you have a feeling the game belongs to you. But no, it’s not. You just buy the chance to access / play the game, no more. The contents / files are not belong to you - you have no right to use them for other purposes , you’re not allow to cheat online - it’s not your own playground, and once the Store go down, you literally lost everything without complains - like imagine one day Steam disappears, you just can’t do anything about that.

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