Being the early adopter that I am, I decided to finally plunk down some cash to directly download a game for my computer. I'd been waiting patiently for Spore to be released, and when the game was made available on video game publisher EA's digital store, I put in my credit card info, sent $50 EA's way, and proceeded to download the game. Now, since I'm primarily a Mac user, I had to install it on a Windows partition, which I didn't mind since my computer couldn't run the game properly in Mac OSX at the time. Oh the shortsightedness.

Fast forward two months. Yes, still an early adopter, which means I had to buy one of the new MacBook Pros, which have an extremely fast video chip inside that would make running Spore on Mac a breeze. I headed to EA's store and... you guessed it, couldn't download it for Mac. Sure, that's to be expected, since if I bought a PC version of the game on a disc, I'd be stuck with the PC version of the game. However, here's where it starts to get sketchy, and where the myth of the download begins to unravel.

EA, in a goodwill move, bundled both the PC and Mac versions of the game on the same physical disc. Doing a cursory search for the game, online retailers place the boxed version of the game at the same price as the digital version, $49.99. So, for $49.99 you can buy the boxed version, which is compatible for Windows Vista, Windows XP or Mac OS X, which also includes a manual and other retail boxed goodies, or you can send $49.99 directly to EA and download a copy. Obviously, I really valued the ability to directly download a game, and despite missing out on the physical media goodness that comes along with it, I decided it was worth it.

I was wrong.

Users, like myself, expect to not be short changed by simply opting to download a product instead of paying for a physical copy, especially when paying completely full price. Sure, I've bought ebooks and been frustrated by their copy restrictions, but ebooks are typically $10-$20 cheaper than their paper counterparts. As such, since I paid full price, I expect to be able to do anything with the game that I could do with the physical copy, which includes installing it on either my Mac or Windows partition without EA deciding which one it likes better for me.

Now, I've lobbed an email into EA support, hoping someone out there will hear my plight and offer a simple solution. However, I'm basically resigned to the fact that I'm not going to get my $50 back, and have no way of transferring the game to another PC using person who'd like to play it on the OS of their choice. Frustrating, for sure.

The onus, though, really isn't on EA, the EA Store, Maxis or anyone else from the game company. The problem solely rests squarely in my lap. The overriding message of this frustrating scenario is simple: Do your research before buying a downloaded game. Had I less excitedly purchased the game from EA and looked for other online retailers, like Direct2Drive who offers a Mac download version of the game, I would have likely had some extra recourse. If I beg Direct2Drive to let me uninstall the PC version and invalidate it on any machine that currently has the game installed, the company could (emphasize could) theoretically provide me with a Mac version of the game. EA Store isn't even available for Mac, so I'm pleading with EA to let me pay a nominal fee for a physical copy which then I could install on the operating system of my choosing.

This whole debacle has convinced me that directly downloading games simply isn't a great idea just yet. Save the cash, head to a game store and buy a boxed copy of a PC game, it'll simply offer more flexibility.

That's not to say all game downloads are bad. In fact, console gamers have had an extremely good experience with downloading games this console generation. One of the most frequently played games on my Xbox 360 is Geometry Wars, a game that cost roughly $5. That cheap game was easily downloaded, and is one of the most enjoyable games I own. Even when my Xbox 360 console kicked the bucket, it was extremely simple for me to remove the hard drive, and add it to my new console. I'm not sure how happy I'd be if I had to swap out hard drives, though Microsoft has promised Xbox Live users that games are tied to specific accounts rather than specific consoles, so hopefully I could recover all that lost information. The Wii's Virtual Console offers gamers retro downloads to their heart's content, and all while being able to properly backup games.

Perhaps instead of being wary of all content ecosystems, I'll instead be wary of traditionally open ecosystems. PC gaming has its roots in choice — whether it be the choice of hardware, the choice of computer or the choice of software, PC gamers have come to appreciate that purchasing a disc lets it be used anywhere. Likewise, music owners have come to expect CDs to be used anywhere, and with non-Apple MP3 players starting to take hold, DRM-restricted music owners are feeling the pinch. I think game consoles have always been closed to a specific set of software, so the experience is so tightly defined already, there's nothing lost from digital downloads in that realm. In all other mediums though, especially directly downloading games, do your research before forking over the dough.

[Images: Oracio Alvarado, Tyler Howarth, Guspim]