As a gamer, I have something embarrassing to admit, I have yet to install Steam (Valve’s game vending service) on to any of my computers. The reasoning behind this is simple. I dislike the software. Admittedly, the last time I used Steam was when the service first came out years ago. I resent the software for, back in the day, preventing me from playing my perfectly legal version of counter strike (I paid good money for Half Life when it first came out) during a LAN party.
I (the nominal host of the LAN party) had to, instead, dig through a pile of CDs to find a pre-Steam version of Half Life and uninstall and reinstall counterstrike in what must have been over a dozen computers. I spat many curses at Steam that day and determined never to use the piece of sh– erm… Junk again.
However, some truly innovative games are coming out through Steam and other such services which have a very friendly profit model to smaller (or indie) game developers. So I gave in downloaded the Steam client and found–much to my surprise–that I remembered the password to my old Phifty account and logged in.
As if to mock how long it has been since I last looked in on my Steam account, I was greeted by a news item advertising a demo showcasing the amazing new game Half Life 2. The ad was copyright 2004. w00t!
In case you were wondering what exactly it took to force me into finally downloading Steam, the answer is Audiosurf. (I also discovered that, before despairing of Steam altogether, I had registered licenses with Steam for CS, DoD, Deathmatch Clasic, HL, HL:Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Ricochet, and Team Fortress Classic. Oh those heady High School days.)
I’ve always been a huge music fan and I listen to music all the time, through work, video games, reading and pretty much anything else that does not have its own music built in and a few things that do. The idea of integrating my massive music collection with what I’ve heard is fun gameplay was too attractive an idea to let go. So, Steam… here I come.
As a sort of note… we are working on Remix projects for ENGL344. I thought about it and realized that Audiosurf is very much a part of Remix culture. This is a on-the-fly combination of music (any music) and gaming content to create something unique and remarkable.
Now, to play the game… as soon as Steam finishes downloading it, that is.
