I see it as being much closer to the concept of signed, numbered copies of a lithograph, say an M. C. Escher work. Any pirate can xerox one of those, but knowing you have your "official" copy is more about accompanying documentation than the object itself. In this case, the documentation is a Serial Number. The easily copied object is the collection of data files.
If it is legal and feasible for numbered artwork in a printed medium, why isn't it legal and feasible for numbered artwork in a digital medium?
This is where we agree, but in the case of online distribution, i feel like i am being charged full price for the xerox by the company just because it has documentation.
Numbered artwork in a printed medium usually only has X copies made, while in a digital medium the ONE copy is replicated many times over. Thus, the value is in part is uniqueness.
In a physical environment, X products are made, each sold ONE time. In a digital environment, ONE product is made and sold many times. If anything, the manufacturing ends with ONE copy being made while in the physical world, each product has to be manufactured.
The continued labor to keep making the part creates an additional cost - while in the virtual world, the input costs to create the product end and further "instances" of the product are free. The genius of this model is that eventually the cost becomes negative, meaning you get paid for its sale as your only cost.
With all these different stores offering different prices, i can only wonder if they will all find a medium. If so, then it might be better to wait for future deals, because it might go on sale when the first DLC is announced for it.
I just hope the DLC for it gives more bang for the buck than vanilla DLC did. i kind of feel like they are selling the best uber-armor in game as DLC, creating inequality between those with it and those without it, akin to playing chess -2 bishops against an opponent who starts with all queens in the pawn row just because he bought enough chess sets to own enough queens to do so. Hopefully there will be modern scenarios that focus on espionage, civ PACKS and maybe some patched in objects like with stone and stoneworks.
That leaves my final concern being the new steam workshop for mods. i will be troubled if there is a limit on how many mods i am allowed to load into a game or if the upload size is small enough to prevent larger scale mods. But i will be happy if it takes off like it has for every game that uses it. I hope the modders get the .dll soon, i always believed they didn't release it yet because then the modders could do ANYTHING they could do and why give the modders the ability to make a mod-version of the next expansion?
I will have to keep my eyes open, what i really wonder is if they will make a civ5 + expansions + DLC deal like with civ 4 complete.