First, a brief aside. I generally drop these on Mondays, and have done so with relative consistency since I started. However, I started a new job last week. Normally, this wouldn't matter, except I ran out of backlogged posts without realizing it. So, in the true American tradition, I'm blaming external consequences for my own failure (it's still totally my fault, though).
At any rate, it's time for a quick vocabulary lesson. For those of you who didn't remember much from whatever chemistry classes your were forced to take at some point, or those of you who never did, "aqueous" means, essentially, dissolved in water. How, then, may we have aqueous air? Is this some sort of cryptic hint?
Of course it is! Really, I expected better. This last week has been full of the glory that is the Steam Summer Sale. Twice a year, around the solstices, Valve unleash Steam Claus on the world to gift all good gamers ridiculously cheap titles. This is an amazing time, both for consumers and developers. Consumers get games cheap. I picked up FTL and the full soundtrack for under $4 on Saturday, and have definitely already gotten more than the reasonable return on enjoyment for that.
The Steam sales are also the highest selling times for developers. In addition that they get to sell vast numbers of their games, though at reduced profit, more people are playing the games. Aside from the immense satisfaction of knowing that someone is enjoying your work, people who play games tend to talk about them, thereby further increasing sales. I believe I've already posted it before, but the Dustforce team published their sales figures for the first chunk o' time of being on the market. Relevancy? A vast majority of their sales after initial release came from Steam sales. I think a large number were actually from being packaged in the Humble Indie Bundle a few times, but that doesn't diminish the power of sales to spread your games.
I've harped before on how expensive gaming is. There is a weird dichotomy in life. In order to have enough money to freely do things you enjoy, you have to give up the time you would need to do those things. Conversely, in order to have time, you really can't have a job. Such is life, I suppose. This time of year, though, the normal shackles of societal obligations are cast off, and cheap games are had by all!
That said, if you have the time, hop onto Steam and grab yourselves some cheap games. There are daily deals, usually 60% or so off of the normal list price, and flash deals. The flash deals are my favorite; they feel a bit like an auction house. Basically, the community votes on which games they want to be on sale next, and the majority winners go on 75% discount for 8 hours. It's incredible. Bastion, Supergiant Games' rather amusingly coincidental super-giant game, was just over $2 at one point.
Despite the stigma around this company and its slogan, I think it's accurately applied to the events Steam runs, and really its whole distribution service. Gaseous water, empowering players.
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