(mini rant) "Hardcore" gamers are too concerned about physical copies

[eyeliner]

One day I wanted to have a vast collection of physical games.
Then I got a girlfriend, house, then the girlfriend became my wife. One day, I woke up with two kids wrecking the house.

I don't care for physical games anymore. Whatever is more practical.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I know collections are nice, and it's always reassuring to know you have physical things that can't be lost with a hard drive crash, but it seems like most people are way too quick to dismiss digital games. When you buy digital, you don't have to worry about games getting lost or damaged. You also have the convenience of not having to take the time to put a disk into a console.
I've heard the argument that "I don't want to pay $60 for access to some code that I can't actually own. Then I can't trade or resell games." This argument is pretty dumb. When you buy a game, you're never paying for the value of the actual physical good, you're paying for the code that makes up the game, i.e. the product. Discs are dirt cheap to manufacture. As for the whole "trading" thing, that's just an unfortunate side effect of the times.
Tl;Dr:
Digital games are way more convenient than physical even though physical looks nice

• "you don't have to worry about games getting lost or damaged." - You just have to worry about the store shutting down or delisting the game and no longer being able to download your purchases instead. I trust myself not to lose or damage a game more than I trust some storefront that I don't know the people behind.
• "that's just an unfortunate side effect of the times." - That doesn't make it OK, that's just excusing their bullshit. They can only do that kind of thing because we let them.

I don't mind buying digital at all on Steam. It's convenient, it's often cheaper, the DRM is non intrusive, and doesn't require online to play games. Digital is pretty nice on PC, and even if you buy a copy in a physical store they're loaded with online-requiring DRM, and sometimes just contain a download code, so you still get the drawbacks of a digital copy, without any of the benefits.
I think very few people care about physical copies on PC anymore because digital has gotten so good, things are a bit different on consoles though.
For example, if the Nintendo eShop was as good as Steam, I might be more inclined to buy my Switch games digitally. There are just too many drawbacks that I would rather deal with the inconvenience of cartridges.

 

[zfreeman]

https://delistedgames.com/about/

 

[EmanueleBGN]

I still prefer to pay for have a material thing.
In digital, you don't buy the game but the licence to play it.
If they close the digital store, you cannot download it again.

 

[deinonychus71]

Maybe something to take into account in all this is the environmental impact.

I've read studies that it was about the same to buy digital or physical, but it was ages ago. I can't believe the whole manufacturing process + packaging + storing + transport would end up leaving a smaller environmental footprint versus download.

 

[notimp]

I've read studies that it was about the same to buy digital or physical, but it was ages ago. I can't believe the whole manufacturing process + packaging + storing + transport would end up leaving a smaller environmental footprint versus download.

Probably not in gaming.

It does in other forms of entertainment, because you have to factor in product generations, average livespan of a 'reader' device, vs. 'bo-ok' (book ) and so on.

(But if you could be convinced to make individual life decisions based on whats best for climate, you have bigger problems. (Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything except his own nature. (Henry Miller) kind of logic. ) If you reject personal, or group needs on behalf of needs of the world, you are following a religious concept. And furthermore one, that was proven never to work.

So if you start to pull that logic to guide other peoples actions, you are very close to pronouncing - people have to denounce personal goals, to feel gods love. So in any argument - this is probably the worst sort of reasoning you can provide. And wide spread popularity in your geographical region doesnt make it better. But no, no - its not god, its science. Ok. Still doesnt change human nature.)


Current example of A+ corporate culture in action:

Rian Johnson, the writer and director of "Knives Out," revealed that Apple will permit film productions to use its products onscreen, but bad characters can't have an iPhone on camera.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/app...hones-in-movies-says-knives-out-director.html

So be aware who you propose to be your "guardians of culture"..

 

[JayMathis]

Case of someone worrying about what someone else does. If someone wants to have a huge collection of original games in mint shape that costs thousands of dollars total how does it hurt you at all?

 

[DANTENDO]

I think gbatemp should introduce national buy a digital game day and national buy a physical game day

 

[ghjfdtg]

I'm not strictly against digital. It has benefits but for me personally the advantages of physiical are still bigger than digital. And with the DRM cancer not getting better i don't see that changing. I want to use my bought content whenever and where i want without having to worry about losing access.

 

[Hanafuda]

It's Zoomer, you actual boomers.

Hey I'm at least 3 years short of the bracket. Gen X, tyvm.

 

[deinonychus71]

Probably not in gaming.

It does in other forms of entertainment, because you have to factor in product generations, average livespan of a 'reader' device, vs. 'bo-ok' (book ) and so on.

(But if you could be convinced to make individual life decisions based on whats best for climate, you have bigger problems. (Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything except his own nature. (Henry Miller) kind of logic. ) If you reject personal, or group needs on behalf of needs of the world, you are following a religious concept. And furthermore one, that was proven never to work.

So if you start to pull that logic to guide other peoples actions, you are very close to pronouncing - people have to denounce personal goals, to feel gods love. So in any argument - this is probably the worst sort of reasoning you can provide. And wide spread popularity in your geographical region doesnt make it better. But no, no - its not god, its science. Ok. Still doesnt change human nature.)


Current example of A+ corporate culture in action:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/app...hones-in-movies-says-knives-out-director.html

So be aware who you propose to be your "guardians of culture"..

I'll try to answer but I might be completely out of context cause I have no idea where any of that came from, especially since unlike OP post I wasn't trying to lecture anyone. I'm just pointing something out.

While it's indeed in our nature to see things in the short term, it doesn't mean we have to be completely oblivious of what's to come. Some of these things could be experienced in our lifetime and therefore impact us directly.

Also, "personal or group needs" are relative. Video games were not a need a century ago, they were not even a thing. We created more needs and with them, more habits. They are not set in stone and are meant to change over time.

Recycling. This is something that is a small bother to all of us, something that "we" weren't used to do, but now a lot of us are just doing it without really thinking about it. It takes us a little more time but we do it out of habit even though not doing it would not impact us one bit.
We don't have to be directly impacted nor even understand what's at stake to make small changes in our everyday lives that have a positive impact, however small it may be.

And I'm born European and have no idea what this so called god or anything religious have anything to do with any of that. It's got to do with politics, if anything.

 

[The Catboy]

I actually prefer having my games digital nowadays, but that's because I had my entire collection stolen from me by my ex and that kind of made me realize how fragile a physical collection can be. Do note, this wasn't a small collection either, I had bookshelves upon bookshelves full of games, I could have opened up a small store with my collection. And it's now gone because I trusted he wouldn't take them when I was living with my friend waiting for my ex to move out of my old apartment. Now I am bit more prone to buy digital games because I really don't want to come home again and see 20+ years of work taken in a few days.

 

[JaapDaniels]

i didn't care for phisical games until origin just stopped the license server of a few NFS games i paid full amount for.
i was blind for the difference it made.but there's no good reason they killed games from playing i bought same price as disc version.specially for it had no online functions.
i don't care for dropping support for patches and fixes, i can find my way around... i cracked the games no problem, but i shouldn't have to crack a legal bought game.
second what's not right about the digital download is that the price is too high for there's no resell valeu on digital downloads.
either rent a game and be honest about you don't wanna put effort in really making a good game.
or sell a game with promise to unlock DRM yourself if you wanna kill the fucking license service.

 

[supernintendo128]

I honestly just buy physical because I prefer to display my collection on the shelf. I'll buy digital if I absolutely have to but I prefer physical.

 

[DarkFlare69]

Reasons I like physical:
-Can't lose access to the games if anything happens to your account
-Easily trade or sell games, so there's not much risk to buying a game and wasting money
-My internet can't hold a connection for more than about 15 minutes without dropping and requiring me to restart the console or reconnect, or do something to fix it, so I have trouble downloading anything. This only happens with the Switch and my PC, so even if I wanted to I couldn't buy digital on the Switch, I wouldn't be able to download any games. The ones I do have digital I downloaded while in docked mode, and with Ethernet on PC
-Initial use is faster since no need to download the entire game
-It takes up less space, so why not save some space
-Cheaper (except for switch)

 

[Deleted User]

I bought The Simpsons Arcade on my Xbox 360 when it was on sale, and because it's digital I can't play it right now. I'd need to update my console, go online and update the license or re-download. God dammit, all this to get a digital game working.

If it was on disc, I'd pop it in and play.

 

[Kioku]

I'm not one to buy a physical copy.. However, the one time I do I can't get it because of scalpers.

 

[Deleted User]

I actually prefer having my games digital nowadays, but that's because I had my entire collection stolen from me by my ex and that kind of made me realize how fragile a physical collection can be. Do note, this wasn't a small collection either, I had bookshelves upon bookshelves full of games, I could have opened up a small store with my collection. And it's now gone because I trusted he wouldn't take them when I was living with my friend waiting for my ex to move out of my old apartment. Now I am bit more prone to buy digital games because I really don't want to come home again and see 20+ years of work taken in a few days.

Digital games on the other hand are more like long-term rentals. Like, when the 360/PS3 servers are turned off all those that bought their digital games will at some point begin to require for the license to be renewed (connect to the servers), and then you can't really do that.

Plus, if it's XBLI you can only play them while connected to Xbox 360's servers.

Sigh.. I can always get the console hacked, I guess.

 

[DANTENDO]

I bought The Simpsons Arcade on my Xbox 360 when it was on sale, and because it's digital I can't play it right now. I'd need to update my console, go online and update the license or re-download. God dammit, all this to get a digital game working.

If it was on disc, I'd pop it in and play.

You call tht frustration lol you got it to easy today- think about when some of us had a spectrum 48k and the game kept crashing on the loading screen thts fkin frustration lol

 

[Deleted User]

You call tht frustration lol you got it to easy today- think about when some of us had a spectrum 48k and the game kept crashing on the loading screen thts fkin frustration lol

At least that eventually loads, digital games either work or don't. lol