@mellow09 it may be different, but the reason Steam created their model was due to GameStop. GameStop refused to stock Valve's games because PC games had no trade-in value.(see all of the media reports on the death of PC gaming in the mid '00s) The only thing Valve could do was distribute it themselves.

Friction? WTF?

Kellam's example is an example of "exposition".

How many times have you sat there listening to a wordy "infodump" or "idiot lecture" in a game? Thats exposition. "Infodumps" and "idiot lectures" are terrible at driving the plot forward. And it isn't confined to Japanese games like what Kellam's would like you to believe.

Bethesda games are nothing more than a string of expositions. Blizzard's antoganists all suffer from the "idiot lecture". BioWare and Obsidian aren't immune to wordy expositions either.