In the land where 84% of installed software are unlicensed, paying for stuff using digital distribution platform is still a foreign concept.  Just like having a meal without rice

As a true Indonesians born and bread, im a jack sparrow kind of a guy (read : pirates) when it comes to digital stuff. You name it,music, movies, software, games all of them. Price and availability usually accredited as the culprits of our piracy culture. Why would you pay 200k to watch Gypsy Danger beating up Kaiju when you can stroll to ambassador mall and get it for 7k rupiah. Even if i want to pay, most of the times the content isnt available to purchase in here (case in point : Netflix). And even if i want to pay and the content is available to purchase, what plus points do i get by buying the original ones ? pat in the back surely not enough. 

That was before my encounter Steam platform.  Nowadays i can proudly say in at least one category of digital goods (games), i got it in a legal an honest way. Valve, the company behind steam who also developed the cult following Counter Strike & Half Life series, did everything right in battling the piracy. Rather than going for offensive measures, Steam makes buying a legal content a seductive offering to even a born-and-bred piracy doers like me (and fellow third world country civilians i presume).

Steam has three advantage points which makes me preferring to spend money on original PC games rather than pirating. Continue reading “How Steam did digital distribution correctly” →