In ye olde times, I'd buy friends Vidja games for birthdays only. Nowadays, with Steam, I find it's more easy to gift someone a game, especially when Steam has sales and group sales for games, so I can buy a four pack of a game and gift them to friends so we can play together / talk about them. Steam also helps me saving in shipping costs and allows them to instantly receive the game and download at their own leisure. (Also, nowadays, all my friends play PC games, so I don't have to ever worry about console games, which makes it even easier.)