Questions about sellin games

[Super Vegeta]

Isn't Pay4play another way to say shareware?

The thing is, shareware is a very ambiguous term. I mean, for example, both Doom and Soldat are shareware, but in Doom, the free content is just the first episode - so the free part of the game is more like a demo. In Soldat, the free game is fully playable, the only three things registering the game gives you is being able to use custom interfaces, play custom music during the game and, when playing online, you get this cute little star next to your names that tells others you own a registered copy. Still, both games are shareware, so I think it's kinda good to divide this term a bit. Besides, in Minecraft, you can play on many many different servers, some of which may require to create an account on some site and make a donation towards covering the running costs, so as much as the game is free2download, it is, in fact, pay4play.

Desura seems to be quite a nice choice for indie devs nowadays. Only shame it doesn't have any achievements API nor a "player profile" in general, so it's only a games store, without the social elements Steam provides.