NOTE: To prepare for my Video Game Culture course in the Spring, I'm starting to model posts for the collaborative blog we're going to do--Game Culture Watch. Lest my loyal DS readers feel left out, I'll be cross-posting for a while (once the class starts, I won't post over there much).

Chris Canfield's article "In support of Steam" over at Joystick 101 argues that Steam has potential to thoroughly re-write the distribution system for games (what's Steam?). He suggests that for Steam to really work, Valve should pursue a more aggressive marketing plan (like putting a game and Steam on computers to be sold in stores).

But Canfield ignores the issues (covered nicely over at kuro5hin) about the extremely scary DRM embedded in Steam. While Steam does allow for quick download and easy, instant updates, it also holds the games you've purchased under lock and key, and only allows you to play them when you're online. But this isn't really any different than the licenses we already buy when we play games, is it? Steam merely plays out a path we've been following for some time: allowing publishers to enforce tighter and tighter restrictions on their texts.

Read more at GCW