This year, October 1 2007 to October 1 2008 I’m going to explore the complete spectrum of digital downloaded pc games. To do this, I’m going to attempt to completely cut myself off from “the box.” I will not buy a physical copy of any pc game this year. Not even those shrink wrapped jewel cases at Target. It is going to hurt to pass up on Target’s clearance shelf. To go one step further, I will attempt to limit my console purchases to disc based games as much as possible.  During the experiment, I will buy at least one game from every major service out there and write my experiences here. I imagine that Game tap and Steam will get a vast majority of my business, I don’t want to exclude others such as Stardock and Playfirst.

In the past I’ve used a great many of these services. I could just write up an article detailing those times but I’m not sure how helpful that would be. In blog form, I think it will motivate me to revisit these services several times to see if the experience changes.

I’m a hard core gamer of 34 years and for the past 16 years; I have bought on average 3 games a month. A vast majority of these were probably clearance or bargain bin titles that I pick up on the spur of the moment. It should be interesting to see if my buying habits change. I already have gone all digital download for my music buying. For the past 5 years I’ve been buying music from Emusic and then Itunes. However my music buying habits always were different and my expectations are different. I don’t think I ever bought an album based on price.

I do want to make one exception, gifts to others. My kids’ computers are offline as they are too young to be on the internet and their games will still be physical retail versions.

- Baron