Though, the question of why to buy when other games written on the same platform are free hardly makes sense to me anymore (though, I could be biased). Sure, there are hundreds of free games out there. Just like there are hundreds of free movies to download (yes, even legally, like at the Internet Archive), but people pay to see some; and there is a potentially infinite amount of free music on the radio, but again, people pay to own some. And let's not even start thinking about all the free literature over at Project Gutenberg -- or my local library, for that matter. How do book stores stay in business at all? Why pay to see that particular movie, or listen to that particular song, or read that particular book, when so many others are out there for free? The answer is obvious to anyone who has ever made such a purchase, that is, to everyone: because some things you get interested in, and some things you don't, and most of the time, paying or not paying is not the deciding factor. Usually I find free things are more transient, too -- either borrowed, copied on degradable media, or stored electronically as 0's and 1's on my annually failing hard drive(s). Call me old fashioned, but I like having a CD or DVD of my favorite things as backup. I don't have a single electronic file I kept on my computer from 10 years ago, but I have every CD I had then (that I haven't sold back to used record stores, that is). For this reason alone, I find that sometimes, when I have the option of chosing a free version or a pay version of something, I will pay for it anyway, to get the "hard copy" in hand.

Usually, paying for a game also may suggest a certain additional level of quality. With THE BLACKWELL LEGACY, that certainly held true -- I haven't played a lot of free AGS games, but of the ones I have, none come close in terms of music, acting talent, and graphics. As for 1893, I would never say it is better than all free works of Interactive Fiction, but it is better than many, and more importantly as a text/image hybrid game, it is unique; you cannot get a game like it for free, they simply do not exist.

Finally, paying for a game is also a way to thank the developer, to contribute to and support their ongoing efforts, and to place a vote for more independent games and less big studio licensed product. Let's face it, the gaming industry has become as big as Hollywood, and as a result, the big companies are becoming more and more conservative, like Hollywood, when considering where to place their development dollars, preferring to make a game based on Harry Potter or Spiderman instead of something original to capitalize on the built in fan base. As a business plan, it makes a hell of a lot of sense and I'm not knocking it. But there has to be some space on the fringe for people to write their own games their own way about their own ideas. That's what keeps me going at night, anyway. That, and the caffeine.