Digital purchases have been around for a long time. I know that this shit is suppose to symbolise evolution, a next step in the games industry, and so on, but somehow I’m not quite sold on this. I remember that in 2003, when Steam first crystallised itself as an idea, me and my colleagues back then were considering this new form of distribution as the next new Antichrist. Today, I can’t remember why we did that, but I doubt we had good reasons, besides the trivial ones, that any human feels when he faces the unexpected. So Steam came along, made a lot of people happy, but I still had a grudge with the whole 'pay and download' method. Wohoo, Direct2Drive is also here. Gamersgate is still going strong in the race. Damn, the phenomenon is spreading. Am I suffering from 'I love the Stone-Age'-syndrome?

After a few bottles of ethylic inspiration, I realised that digital download is not the devil. Yeah, sure, I still keep away from it as much as I can, but it’s about personal taste. I always get a throbbing nerdy erection when I look at my game-shelves and see the pretty boxes smiling to me. You can’t have that feeling staring at the monitor, browsing through your games-list. It’s like trying to pleasure yourself to an Excel sheet. But I have to look at the positive aspects to this new way of purchase.

First of all, you don’t need boxes to store your games when you’re travelling, just to get them through a damn airport, or filling up the boot of a car. If you happen to have an internet connection, your ass is saved. But I like to make sacrifices for my games, so this issue wasn’t a pressing one.

Then, we have the special offers. OK, there’s GoG.com. These guys are The Shit. Taking old games, making them compatible with current OSes, and on top of that, selling them for a dirt-cheap price. For example, I still have my boxed editions of Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics. But to run them on Vista or Win7, I need to hack, mod, code, patch and do various other activities for a few hours just to get them running. So I prefer to buy them from GoG and just run the bitches. BooYa! Another example: Beneath A Steel Sky. If you’re over 20 years old and do not know this game, you should take up Peggle and Zuma Deluxe and stick with them for life. This point-and-click adventure masterpiece, isn’t just Vista compatible now, it’s FREE. No more DosBox hullabaloo. But, taking a step further and returning to current-gen gaming, I need to tell you why I had to write these paragraphs.

I was determined not to buy The Orange Box. Although the first Half Life is one of my favourite games of all time, I didn’t want to buy five games, no matter what type of mental blowjobs they give me. So I decided to buy HL: Episode 2, when Episode 3 comes out… Maybe in a special edition box again. Who knows? But, this April, something interesting happened.

Being financially butt-fucked, I did not want to spend a dime on gaming for a while. So one day, I wake up with a bohemian-intellectual thirst for booze. I realise I only have ten euros on my credit card, so I start planning “beers or tequila shots”. Until I go online and see The Orange Box, weekend deal being posted on some news-site. 10 euros! 10 goddamn euros! Of course, the acquisition was inevitable, and because of that special sale, I still log into Steam (mostly on weekends, because I’m such a cheap prick). That was the moment when digital download fell from my banlist, and I feel that I don’t regret this decision.

Although, I still feel the thirst of that beautiful April morning…