I love the old games from my childhood. I started gaming very young around 1990. I still game now but have rarely felt the awe and magic I felt when I played games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and Shenmue. Somewhere in my house is an NES, N64 and Dreamcast. There's also boxes full of old games I can go back and play anytime I wish, or sell should they become valuable.

When you bought a game back then it was for keeps (except Nintendo cartridge boxes which were cardboard and fell apart). Apart from a few titles like Snatcher, Final Fantasy VII and Shenmue; none of them gained much value but at least I don't have to re-buy them. I own these games, they are mine. Even the games I no longer have a console for.

Then Steam came along...

I was one of the first people to install Steam the day it came out. I was a big Counter Strike gamer at the time (the original not the Source Engine version)and we would need it to be able to find servers. This meant I could do away with the terrible, resource sucking Gamespy Arcade and anti-cheat software needed to get on a good server.

Soon after; downloads of mods and games were available on Steam and the era of direct to drive downloads was underway. There were initially some consumer's rights concerns when Steam became mandatory, but these were quickly forgotten with convenience and worldwide releases at the same time rather than region-specific launch dates.

But where are those games I purchased?

I am now on my fourth Steam account. I have no idea what passwords I used for the other three, which email accounts they were registered with or even what games I've purchased. I've probably purchased 300 games or more over the years but I own none of them. Also, if I recall correctly I never actually owned any of those games, merely held a licence to play them.

Yes I'm careless. Hands up it's my fault. But consider how many passwords and accounts we have to keep track of now days and still remember when we buy a PC, move house or the platform itself is hacked.

There's also a few games I've purchased more than once. When Skyrim comes out again for VR it will be my fourth copy on all platforms and I'm on my third copy of Mount and Blade.

In the modern gaming era we are being milked like cash cows paying for the same content or slightly remastered content over and over again. Now if we want to replay a game we played years ago, it often means purchasing it again. Even if we're careful we often buy the same game for different platforms.

Wouldn't it be better if the games were tied to us rather than platforms and accounts?

Imagine If you had purchased Skyrim on the PC, it was tied to you as an individual. Your right to play it would last a lifetime. If you wanted to buy the VR version for PS4 it would be a matter of paying a reasonable upgrade fee. Should you lose your passwords and have no way to recover them, a scan of your passport and a small recovery fee could unlock the game for life.

Privacy minded people may not like the idea, but when we purchase something online, the company knows who we are anyway. We've already mostly lost anonymity while gaming, we may as well get something back for it.

Let me know what you think Steemians, have you re-purchased games or are you far more careful than I? Do you see it as supporting the developer and providing an incentive for updated content? If so, how long should you be expected to keep supporting the same content without owning something at the end of it?