In the PC gaming arena, LAN parties are all but dead. A few still linger on around the country but they are dwindling. It's part of a growing trend in the US, we're slowly isolating ourselves. Not just from the rest of the world but also from each other. The gaming industry is just one example of that. It's very, very sad.

Re-read what I said. I've done it, me and about 10 other guys, several times. Get on the steam forums.

I've played steam games over a LAN with no internet connection, it can be done very easily.

I agree on this point, I really think steam needs a feature that allows you to de-license a game and gift that license to a friend. Would be a nice feature. I'd love to be able to give some of my older games to my kids but I'm not going to let them get on my steam account.

I don't think these retailers have really thought through just why people use steam. I don't use it because I can buy games through it, for me that's just one of the perks. I use it for everything else I can do with it.

- All of my games are in one place

- It keeps track of my stats

- In-game chat and voice that actually works and works well.

- Friends list, ability to see what friends are playing and join them, invite them, whatever.

- Keeps track of my stats and lets me look at others' stats.

- VAC. Anti cheat software that actually works.

All of these things seriously enhance the online play of any game, making it much more appealing to gamers. I think publishers recognize this and will also recognize that if players can't get it from a retail store, they'll just get it from steam. No skin off the publishers back. I prefer to have a hard copy of my games. I like having the case and the little booklet that comes with it and whatever else some like to include but if I walk into a store and they aren't selling steam games, I'll walk right back out and get it online. I think most other steam loving gamers will do the same.

Is it DRM? Sure it is but they aren't using it out of hand. The mod community is alive and well and valve software supports them. Until that stops, I'm not going to complain about their use of DRM. The games that don't allow modding are not actually published by valve and that has nothing to do with steam.

The only con that I can think of is what happens if valve goes belly up and takes steam with it? Suddenly I can't play any of my games that I paid for. I don't think it's likely to happen but it's a concern.

The only thing that might be considered a competitor to steam in these areas is xfire, but the simple fact that I can't click on a players name in the game and see that he's using xfire, add him, look at his stats etc. really hinders it's usability. I know very few people that actually use xfire.

The main reason Linux doesn't have the virus and security problems that windows does is that it's not so widely used. That's just fine by me.

I was pleased that google chose to leave china much in the same way that I'm pleased that someone stops beating their child. Anyway, kudos to Google nonetheless. However, I would expect nothing less from Microsoft on this kind of thing. Their record shows, since the companies formation that they will always, without exception, choose the profitable thing over the right thing.

This morning the bean counters at NPR were figuring it was closer to 19%. Gotta make it all look good to the public though don't we.

Same here. I was unaffected, making $45K a year, putting into a 401K, getting decent health benefits while doing tech work for a bank (of all places) until I was laid off. We're now in mid-foreclosure. I'm getting a paid sh!t wage doing warranty repair work about 10 hours a week and it's the only work I've been able to find since I was laid off last May. I've got no health benefits, I cashed out my 401K and what was left kept us in this house long enough to learn that the bank wasn't going to work with us at all... and a year ago I was telling my laid off friends how rock solid my job was. Things went down hill fast. NotQuiteReal, you're making yourself sound like an ignorant, arrogant ass.

I have two children, 12 and 7 years old. Over the years they've successfully destroyed many of our CDs and DVDs however, thanks to the ability to back them all up, we haven't actually lost any of them and we can still watch them on the PC we have connected to our LCD TV. Aside from that, what happens when the next big thing comes along and DVD's go the way of the 8-track, the cassette and VHS? I have LOTS of movies on VHS that I was forced to buy again on DVD, as well as music on cassette that I had to repurchase on CD. Now that I have all of those DVDs stored digitally, I won't have to repurchase them when the technology changes again. I wonder how much of the entertainment industry's money has come from people having to repurchase the same content everytime the technology changes?

I worked as a LAN support tech in the banking industry for just over seven years. For the first couple of years it was great. The pay was good, the work was satisfying, lots of travel and the company took care of me. Then came the inevitable reorganizations, one a year it seemed like. The new people in charge had no comprehension of what IT people do. As far as they were concerned we're just the people that fix broken stuff. They had no idea of all the things we do in the back ground that never get noticed because it was all working exactly as it was supposed to. They only noticed when things went wrong and in the corporate world you're only as good as your last mistake. They kept moving our offices around to smaller and smaller spaces until it was down to just me tucked away in the far corner of the basement (ala "Office Space", seriously).

First, like someone else said, I had to justify every purchase I made, every drive across town to check out a problem that couldn't be looked at remotely, hell every box of pens I bought. Then for the last few years it became a fight every year to justify my position at all. They finally laid me off this last May. I've spent the summer using what was left of my cashed out 401K to supplement my wife's income to take care of our family and now that is nearly depleted. I've done lots of temp work and interviewed for plenty of IT positions at less than half the pay that I was getting. In fact I just interviewed this last Monday morning with one of my former employer's competitors, doing the same job for a whopping $11.75 an hour. Apparently that's all my degree, certifications and 7 years of experience commands any more. If they offer me the job I'll have no choice but to take it and do my best not to have a chip on my shoulder about it.

I really feel like IT is a dead end industry now. I've also been asked many times if IT is the way to go for a career and I always say no. Very emphatically NO. A janitor gets more appreciation and better pay than a tech here. Maybe that'll be my next career move. Cleaning up after snot nosed 10 year olds at an elementary school. Somehow it doesn't seem all that different than doing tech work for a large corporation.

The IT industry is shrinking and this is by it's very nature. Sure the dot com bust plays a part but that's only a small part now. The very idea behind computers is to make things work faster and more efficiently. People think this is only on the user end but that's not true, it's also working the same way for those of us that build, repair and maintain computers and networks. The fact is that it's taking less and less techs to do more and more work. It was slim pickings eight years ago when I got my job in IT and I had to beat out nearly 100 other applicants for it. That was when the economy was in great shape.

We'd like to blame it on the economy and say that IT will bounce back when the economy does but the fact is that it won't. One network administrator can now do the work that, ten years ago, would have taken five people to do. It's the same with PC techs, since it's no longer cost effective to actually fix anything any more. Parts are so cheap that they're simply thrown out and replaced or warranty returned to the manufacturer where they're thrown out and replaced. A company of two thousand employees that spans three states, such as the one I was recently laid off from, no longer needs fifteen PC techs to keep up with all those users. Instead, most work is done over the phone now by about six guys. If it can't be fixed via remote desktop or netop, they simply ship a ghosted machine to the user that any drunk monkey can plug in, which is then configured remotely if any configuration is required at all. Put the old one in the box the new one came in and ship it back. Installing a new printer? Insert tab A into slot B and call the help desk to do the software install. Fifteen minutes on the phone and it's ready to go. When the economy does finally recover, these companies MIGHT hire one or two more people, MAYBE, but don't bet your future on it.

Glory? The only thing that I think could possibly be construed as glory is this idea that non tech people have that since everything is computerized now that there will always be high demand for IT people. The fact is that a CS degree, A+ certification and nearly a decade of experience is fast becoming a worthless skill set. Myself and most other unemployed professional geeks will be going back to school, retraining in some other field all together.

The other side of that coin, one that applies to IT people still employed, is that you're only as good as your last mistake. When you're doing your job well, no one knows that you're doing any thing at all. They don't even know you exist until something breaks down and then suddenly you're completely incompetent regardless of how quickly the issue was resolved or even if it wasn't your fault. It might have been the phone company's fault but those stuffy executives in their $3000 suits that can barely operate their blackberries, all they know is that it's a computer problem and you're the computer guy. Get on your knees and pucker up.

I wouldn't recommend the IT industry to any one. You'll get that BA in computer science and whatever certifications they tell you will help and then you'll go to work in some call center doing PC support for $12 an hour, and that's being optimistic since most of that work is outsourced to India where they're paid $5 an hour to do the same thing and happy to get it.

Christ. Here in Montana nearly 30% of my income goes to taxes, health care is sh!t, sick pay doesn't exist, i only get 14 days paid vacation and women get no paid birth leave at all. I make about $40K a year.

God bless America right?