Thinking about the future of this forum...

[Drac]

The other day I caught myself thinking that as time passes this forum being "Steam" exclusive seems a tad short-sighted.

Steam is still no doubt the primary digital distribution service for many TOGers as well as the community chat and game organising tool most of us use outside of these forums (it's replaced what we used x-fire for) but it seems half the threads in here are now about alternatives to purchasing from Steam. I've no doubt steam will remain the primary social tool for most but perhaps this forum shouldn't be just about steam moving forward.

There are now quite a lot of Digital Distribution service around:

Steam
GameFly (GF making a push into direct sales)
Impulse Driven (has a lot of great exclusives)
Good Old Games (old games rule)
GamersGate (good steam alternative)
Green Man Gaming (also a good steam alternative)
GamesPlanet.com (not sure if this is meant to be global)
Direct2Drive (not the crappy service it use to be)
Intel AppUp Center (focused on netbook capable games)
Apple - App Store (The Mac App store has a lot of games)
PlayGreenhouse.com (Penny Arcade's Digital Download store)
Origin (EA's "Steam")
Games - Xbox.com (Yes, this is actually for PC Games - Microsoft being as confusing as ever)

Not to mention everyone's new favorite online store for boxed games:
OzGameShop - Video games for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, PSP, PC & Mac

And some other unique services like MOD : DB's Desura which is kinda like a netural Steam inspired platform, a social gaming platform that also has good mod integration (as you would expect from mod db):

Games & Mods | Desura

Not to mention, where do we discuss all of those indy bundle deals and other specials that come up? Currently there's no general forum for stuff like the following:

The Humble Indie Bundle #3 (pay what you want for five awesome indie games)
Indie Games Bundles | IndieGamesPack.com
The Indie ? Bundles

Everything I've linked to here has one thing in common, it's about us, as gamers, getting/finding/downloading/accessing awesome content and games. I guess we could also lump gaming related toys/shirts/comics/books into the mix here.

I propose we start thinking about how we might adjust the trajectory of threads in here to foster a wider discussion of game related content moving forward. I'm not sure what we'd call it, a lot of words come to mind like portal, gateway, highway, cosmos, shovel, oven, crate ect but nothing really grabs me.

I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts and ideas about this.

[Sp!at]

I agree with you Drac. I guess this forum started to capture the online community/digital download combination that Steam has come to represent but it is now getting a lot of competition. The games themselves should fall into the other TOG categories so it does seem a little pointless having this forum now. It's nice to discuss where specials are and also it is important to talk about the price increase for Australians through Steam but that could be done in a generic forum as well.

[Drac]

I don't think this forum is pointless, I'd even say it's vital we have a place to discuss how we acquire games and a forum to comment on news, community focused tools, mods, store specials ect.

There's also currently no place to discuss many indie games as they don't always fit into the big broad categories the other public gaming forums define. For example, were would you discuss Portal or Braid/Super Meat Boy/SPAZ/Audio Surf or any of the other hundreds of cross-genre or mould-breaking games that are around today?

[Sarge13]

I cant see why TOG does not do the same thing Hell have you seen our player base it is huge not as big as Steams but big enough that you could make a decent amount of money out of it if you played your cards right.
And being backed by TOG we would corner the market on the prime target age as well.

[MMOGAddict]

Should rename the forum to :

"The Retail Alternative"

[Rage]

Originally Posted by MMOGAddict

Should rename the forum to :

"The Retail Alternative"

Not the name I would have chosen, but very much my thought. Just to be able to post up cheap prices on games or whatever I find the name "Steam" to be fairly ... restrictive.

I like the idea of having a section (or whatever) for game related merchandise, like you suggested Drac.

[Drac]

Was thinking we probably wouldn't want something too retail orientated as to not attract spam as this is a public forum and I think it's important we still have a place to discuss community/technical/feature/news orientated aspects of Steam, Mods and other services.

[Reoh]

I agree with Drac, I'm always posting news about various games and I don't always have a spot for it if its not on steam.

How about "Digital Distribution" then? (:

[Sp!at]

Digital Distribution sounds good. I guess the main reason peeps are using services such as OzGameShop getting boxed versions is because of price.

[Rage]

Call me old fashioned, but I still like to have something physical for my money UNLESS, the price just doesn't justify it ie. Borderlands for $7.50 or I can't wait for delivery

I like the name, Digital Distribution.