Ecter's TrashMy First Five on Steam
Prompted by...
There's a thing going on bsky today (it was "today" when i wrote most of this post) - people are sharing their first five games bought on Steam. One prompt that i saw was:
"Post a screenshot of your first 5 Steam purchases and let Bluesky judge you."
Well, whatever. Imma judge my past self here as well! Not limited by 300 characters per post :T
First Five Games
So, starting from earliest:
- Portal Retail
- Because i wasn't interested in the whole Orange Box, and by that point Portal was already on store shelves as a separate game.
- NVIDIA Portal: The First Slice
- It wasn't for the demo, since the full game was already in my account. This set also included Peggle Extreme (back then the only way to add it to your account was through one of two First Slice packages) and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, the tech demo that hooked me into trying...
- For context, archived page of the promo: NVIDIA version and ATI version
- Half-Life 2
- Yeah!! Still no Orange Box though :T I got it way later, when it dropped in price.
- Team Fortress 2 Retail
- AAAAA JUST BUY THE WHOLE SET ALREADY, YOU DUMBASS
- Garry's Mod
- At that time i was already having fun with Gmod 9, installed as a regular mod. So here it is - Gmod 10 was my first digital purchase on Steam.
Buying digital in 2009
To give more context on what happened between september of 2008 and september of 2009. Between my first few retail purchases activated on Steam, and my first foray into a digital side of getting games.
I was still in school, not doing any part-time work or anything. Just with my 20zł monthly allowance (which converted to, like 4-5€), i was trying nearly every free demo on Steam. It was easy to keep up with new releases back then - knowing every single new title coming out on Steam was as easy as following a blog, more or less.
But buying games? For me it meant finding a way to pay in EUR online. PLNs weren't even supported back then. Steam wallet and gift cards weren't a thing yet. My only way of turning my tiny allowance into games was by buying them in a physical store.
Garry's Mod was what made me give paypal payments a try. I headed for the post office close to home, filled out a money transfer form, waited about a week and there it was - paypal wallet funds, converted from PLN into EUR!
That brought a few more games into my library, specifically...
First Five Digital Purchases
Ok, let's roast this poor kid once again!
- Garry's Mod
- 8 euros! Still about 20zł cheaper than either Portal, HL2 or TF2 was back then. But it's not over yet...
- STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
- OH MAN. We have it good with heavily automted returns process on Steam, you know? If we had luxuries of today back then, this game wouldn't be in my library, still unplayed after over a decade! Yeah, my PC back then couldn't handle it. And after a few years i forgot about wanting to play it, and now it's just... there. Literally my second digital purchase on Steam and it's one of "you bought it on sale and never played through it". Good job, past Ecter!
- No link, because the game has been replaced by "Enhanced Edition" - so it's not exactly the same product that i bought back then. Can't even own what you buy on Steam, it turns out! Like, even after i switched to a better PC, i still couldn't play it, because by then the original game was not available anymore - and the replacement hit the hardware block again. Yay :/
- Audiosurf
- Still love it! Absolutely worth it!
- Ghost Master
- So early on, my first purchase of a game that i owned physical already. But with an added novelty of being able to play it in english! A lot of games released in Poland had to be translated for two reasons - to be approachable for the intended audience, and to sell them cheaper than games were in the west (can't really resell a game in some obscure language, translation served as region locking that way).
- Day of Defeat: Source
- Not even my kind of game. Literally bought it only for Gmod assets, and because it was cheap enough (significantly cheaper than Counter Strike: Source!) - so it really should be counted as "DLC for Garry's Mod" in my purchase history, bringing the total money spent on Gmod up to about 10€ in my first year of buying on Steam
- QuantZ
- According to store page and reviews - it doesn't work on modern macos or on linux via proton. Such a shame! It was fun enough that after playing a free demo i decided to buy it and play for... 4 hours. So about as long as my first two playthroughs of Portal took (3h on first, 1h on second) - i guess past Ecter got enough enjoyment from that 3€ game :v
Buying digital in 2025
So, Paypal and Steam were the combo that let me start buying games digitally, a long time ago. Which finally let me go beyond what limited choice of retail games and second-hand piracy allowed me to play.
It's all well and good, but currently, only one part of that duo keeps giving hope that people in weird corners of the world will be able to buy games online. Recently, paypal reduced its support of steam purchases to only a handful of currencies - most probably due to small sales volume (why would i use Paypal on Steam in 2025 when i have better choice of a local payment processor for my region?).
But probably also because of the ongoing campaign of censorship, with Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Stripe, and who the hell knows how many more making a stand against freedom to buy and sell games online.
Guys. Guys.
I don't want do go back to being locked out of paid indie games like it was in early mail order days. Even the "money transfer from a postal office" was better than that - i mean, it was actually doable, and convenient enough.
Games are not weapon or drugs. You shouldn't be forced to jump hoops to be able to buy or sell them.
If you agree... You know: APPLY PRESSURE TO THE WOUND
Security concerns
On another note - the original bsky trend slowed down a bit due to concerns about how your purchase history may be used to take over a Steam account. Several smart people tried to debunk that, quoting the same FAQ that was linked as a "proof" that your First Five Games post might lead you to part with your account.
Which one is true? Well, according to a reply from Steam Support:
So, "it won't be a valid proof of ownership" - neat! And this is in line with an official FAQ article, that states:
"Proof of Ownership is established by submitting payment information previously used on the account or providing retail product codes that have been activated through Steam."
We're all safe, as long as we follow the usual safety precautions - keep your password and email account safe, use two-factor auth, don't reuse passwords etc.
Have fun everyone!