• Dasus@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    It was the first centralised gaming platform/hub/whatever on PC.

    I remember having to search for matches on the All-Seeing Eye.

    I lost my first Steam account. It would’ve been from September 2003, the same month Steam released. So apparently it would have had some real life value.

    Tried restoring it once, but the email I had had on it was a service that no longer even existed so…

    Anyways practical monopolies make money. Microsoft, Amazon, Google etc.

    Steam isn’t really in any way anti-competitive unlike the other examples, though.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_rent

    • Disco_Dougie@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      Dang! You got me beat. The account I still use is from 2004, when Half-Life 2 came out. I remember thinking it was bullshit that I had to sign up for something, and connect to the internet to install a physical game I bought.

      Then about five years later, I stayed at my mom’s house for a couple nights, found myself bored, remembered I had my PC in her basement, and set it up. When I discovered that Steam remembered the three games I had, and let me download them (despite losing my HL2 disc years before), my head exploded. It’s wild what it is now and how normalized that is.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        When I discovered that Steam remembered the three games I had, and let me download them (despite losing my HL2 disc years before),

        I can imagine.

        Absolutely thrilled.

        t’s wild what it is now and how normalized that is.

        Isn’t it. But it was like 20+ years ago so no wonder a few things gave changed lol