Is steam destroying PC gaming the way netflix destroyed dvds and mp3s destroyed the music industry?

What are you talking about? If anything its providing a platform for expanded PC gaming, and a way for more obscure indie devs to put their games on a broad platform

If that's the case why are PC game sales declining and expected to decline over the next five years?

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136324

Also this:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/steam-discovery-update-helping-some-indie-devs-hur/1100-6422612/

Steam is not destroying PC gaming the way netflix did not destroy dvds and mp3s did not destroy the music industry, actually.

Putin, one article just mentioned a specific update to Steam and said results for indie developers was mixed. the other just represented a broader trend towards mobile gaming that the presence of Steam is unable to impact. Yeah, there are some legitimate critiques into how Steam greenlights a game, but I wouldn't even be aware of half of the indie games that I see without Steam. Maybe companies are getting overall lower revenues since the majority of their sales may come during a steam sale, but idk the figures on that

Interesting articles, but I think the drop in sales is a sign of the obsolete business model of the $60.00 boxed video game (as is a DvD). Nobody wants to pay for that crap. I'm finding really quality indie games on steam for a fraction of the cost of anything the big companies are putting out.

Anyone got any advice on how to learn EU 4? I picked up the game this weekend and I feel like there are a ton of different things to think about/work on through the game.

the majority of games I buy now are indie games. Whilst this means that the monetary figure i spend is less than it could be otherwise, I think that it's good for the industry as a whole to have low barriers to entry and a diverse range to choose from.

@thd Just play. Try not to load if you make a mistake, you learn when you come back from them. Play as France if you want an easy go of it.

Portugal is a better opening nation. As long as you keep yourself allied with Castille it's unlikely that you'll have to do much fighting and can concentrate on colonization and trade from a solid power base.

thanks guys

I actually find England as the least confrontational nation, once you finish beating up Scotland

England starts off at war with France in the 100YW though.

Yeah, if you're that worried though you can just cede those pesky mainland territories in the 100YW and France will stop messing with you for the most part, and since both portugal and castille are usually willing allies, you can generally contain him pretty well and win the colonization game.

I tend to prefer land-based powers like France, Austria, Poland. Just makes for a more exciting game for me. Colonziation quickly grows tedious, and the micromanagement of overseas wars is irritating. That's only my opinion though.

thdfrance: Have you tried the tutorial yet? It's actually pretty good. And as Yellowjacket said, just playing the game helps because everything you scroll over has a tooltip; and the little banners in the top-left tell you about the most important stuff. Other than that, seek out the manual (I haven't looked at it yet) or this website for specific questions:
http://www.eu4wiki.com/

JECE: I played the first one and then jumped right in, but ill give the others a go.

...And that's what I get for not pulling the trigger on those games yesterday. I guess I'll be waiting until they go back on sale.

Austria and Poland are fun but there's a high chance of being crushed if you mess up, particularly with Poland.

Muscovy and the Ottomans are probably more suitable as you really really have to screw up to get wiped out as them, and you do a lot of conquering of weaker nations.

Yeah, I'm just trying to get back into playing it now and am starting a game as Novgorod. Surprisingly, I had an easier time when I did a Muscovy playthrough

We should do a multiplayer game once they release the DLC that's coming out in a few weeks :P