Gotta love the people who argue that physical media is evil for environmental reasons and stuff. As if the publishers care for that 🤣 they are just using online distribution to save a buck and at the same time enforce their DRM bullshit, but as long as there are enough customers for it, it will continue.

Agrees with Great Hierophant. I prefer having the actual media instead of a download.

Just an hour ago I stumbled upon a youtube vid of Hell-copter, a game I used to play on my friends Pentium 1 and later his Athlon. I knew I had the actual disks (I have the game twice) so I started looking for them. One was a big box including a *gasp* paper manual!
I'm contemplating installing it on one of my retro rigs since apparently this game doesn't work on XP and newer.

d1stortion wrote:

Gotta love the people who argue that physical media is evil for environmental reasons and stuff. As if the publishers care for that 🤣 they are just using online distribution to save a buck and at the same time enforce their DRM bullshit, but as long as there are enough customers for it, it will continue.

I find it amusing that whether you buy a game, for example Diablo III, either online through Blizzard or in a store like Gamestop, the price is still the same. One would have thought that digital distribution would lower the price for consumers. A retail CD needs to be printed, boxed with manuals and other inserts, shipped to retailers and some payment for shelf space and in-store display advertisement. This is on top of the costs to develop and market the game. Although there are additional costs associated with bandwitdh and download administration, I can't see them as approaching the costs of a physical release.

One thing I will say in favor of digital downloads is that they allow a game to be made available (from the original publisher at least) when the actual physical product has gone out of print.

I like the physical item too, and especially if the game comes with a printed manual, play aides and other ephemera. Loving simulation type games means i own lots and lots of games with elaborate documentation which is enjoyable to read in and of itself. And perusing the materials can enhance the gaming experience by 'setting the table' so to speak.

It would be nice if digital download games came with printable artwork like case sleeves to grace your hard copy disk backup - sort of a print-and-play take on digital media.

And yes it is puzzling that DL prices are still comparable to store bought. You would think that the net savings distributing digitally would be substantial. Much piracy is due to overpriced goods in the first place and big time releases selling for the price of a paperback book would go a long way to combating it IMO. Black markets thrive when goods/services are either prohibited by the state or over-priced by the marketplace/monopolies.

Online distribution is linked to the increasing commercialization of games. Now a lot of them are just vehicles for the companies to have a foot in the door and market all kinds of overpriced DLC and digital merchandise. Diablo III is another good example with its moronic auction house that they somehow managed to describe as an advancement. PS4 will be the next step in this respect and more surprises are yet to come for the loyal customer 😀

I like how they did it in Tribes Ascend. You can have good fun with the game without paying, theoretically unlock everything and do decently against people who do pay. But when I'm asked to pay the full retail price for a game I want a full game and not some butchered version with intentionally left out content that they release as DLC on day one. And that's where the problem with digital distribution comes up again, since DLC is nothing that you physically own.

tincup wrote:

Much piracy is due to overpriced goods in the first place

Now the software publishers get the best of both worlds, overpriced games and fool proof copy protection and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.

sliderider wrote:

Now the software publishers get the best of both worlds, overpriced games and fool proof copy protection and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.

There's an incredibly simple thing you can do about it - vote with your dollars, like many are already doing. Someone's trying to sell you an inferior product that's defective by design due some invasive, crippling, overkill 'protection' scheme that gives you less value for money and takes a dump on your user experience? take your business elsewhere.
As the last few years show, the more "fool proof" DRM gets, the more publishers end up shooting themselves in the foot - and the harder I laugh when that happens, though I wish I didn't have to because the net result for gaming is hardly positive.

A good amount of games nowadays aren't worth playing anyway, but that's just a personal opinion 😜

d1stortion wrote:

A good amount of games nowadays aren't worth playing anyway, but that's just a personal opinion 😜

its ALWAYS been like that. We just tend to have a bit of rose colored glasses regarding a LOT of things.

Nah. I like to play games regardless of their time period. But if it's more about adding facebook features and real money auction houses than genuine gameplay I'm rather sure my disapproval is not just due to rose-tinted glasses 😀

There's always been some fad. '90s had gobs of terrible FMV games. Etc.

tincup wrote:

I like the physical item too, and especially if the game comes with a printed manual, play aides and other ephemera. Loving simulation type games means i own lots and lots of games with elaborate documentation which is enjoyable to read in and of itself. And perusing the materials can enhance the gaming experience by 'setting the table' so to speak.

Some of my favorites are the novel that came with Weird Dreams and the manual for Lightspeed/Hyperspeed. Both used for "locate the word" copy protection.

I also miss the large box that would store all of that. When I got Crysis 2 I was worried about damaging the flimsy case by removing the disc from it.

tincup wrote:

Much piracy is due to overpriced goods in the first place and big time releases selling for the price of a paperback book would go a long way to combating it IMO. Black markets thrive when goods/services are either prohibited by the state or over-priced by the marketplace/monopolies.

I think piracy is more a reaction to publishers treating their customers as if they are criminals anyway. If they hamper people with intrusive DRM people will look for a way to bypass it. And if they're going to bypass it they might as well stop rewarding publishers that hamper them.

sliderider wrote:

Now the software publishers get the best of both worlds, overpriced games and fool proof copy protection and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.

It's not fool proof. More like foolish. I've read about the copy protection getting bypassed before a game is officially released. All it does is make a greater hassle for actual customers.

d1stortion wrote:

A good amount of games nowadays aren't worth playing anyway, but that's just a personal opinion 😜

The only games that "aren't worth playing" are the ones that are so horribly broken that they almost can't be played. Though, I do think that lately they just aren't that good. In addition I find it frustrating when a game isn't self contained.

Some examples:
Supreme Commander, a challenging and very strategic game. Supreme Commander 2 was an abysmal disappointment.

Starcraft 2 was incredibly incoherent in story telling. The cut scenes had an intended order yet the missions that trigger them were mostly free form.

Dead Space, while rather cryptic in story telling was creative and well designed. 2 felt like the developers had gotten lazy and 3 is doing a lot of things to be like other series. Most of the story is told in separately published books and movies.

Hitman started out as an easily overlooked title and 2 was excessively difficult but 3 and 4 really gave the series an identity of it's own. With Absolution that identity has been forsaken. Worse, the upgrade system depends on currency earned from playing user created missions.

d1stortion wrote:

Nah. I like to play games regardless of their time period. But if it's more about adding facebook features and real money auction houses than genuine gameplay I'm rather sure my disapproval is not just due to rose-tinted glasses 😀

It's a bigger problem when a new series had a unique feel to it and the sequels are bogged down by publisher greed adding to the sea of blandness that the gaming industry has become.

swaaye wrote:

There's always been some fad. '90s had gobs of terrible FMV games. Etc.

I enjoyed many of those FMV games.

Starcraft 2 was a big letdown for me. major reason? no lan function. that's what made starcraft FUN. I would bring a copy to a LAN party. Everyone copied the disk and played for hours. MOST of those same people went out and bought a copy. Rinse repeat. I ended up owning FOUR copies.

I pirate games out of SPITE. I usually play them all, but 9 out of 10 times I quit half way through and delete the game, thinking "i sure am glad I didn't pay for this pile of tripe"

Basically, I look at software piracy as "shareware". If you make a quality product, i will buy it.

No Starcraft 2 LAN play is something a lot of people complained about a lot prior (and after) release.

Same with no offline mode for Diablo 3.

Blizzard has clearly set a "you will play online" trend in its last few releases, and I don't expect it to reverse.

Don't forget the real name crap in the new battle.net games. How does that enhance my game experience? I reckon that others might see it differently.

And those FMV games were a stylistical choice, because the devs thought it might be cool to use the new possibilities etc. Here they are just exploring the possibilites of how far they can go with marketing. And I don't want to sound like a conspiracist, it's just something quite logical that some people don't seem to recognize.

No LAN in these games was to be expected too. I don't even get the complaints. Everything that's seen as old-fashioned gets removed quickly.

I once bought an extra copy of half-life on CD-ROM....only to realize the game was not really on the disk....it was only a download program (which should have been SPELLED OUT on the box) and at the time I did not have an internet connection. I HATE this nonsense about having to have an internet connection to do anything with your computer. I don't necessarily want every computer configured for internet access. So yes, I like prefer physical media 😀

ncmark wrote:

I once bought an extra copy of half-life on CD-ROM....only to realize the game was not really on the disk....it was only a download program (which should have been SPELLED OUT on the box) and at the time I did not have an internet connection. I HATE this nonsense about having to have an internet connection to do anything with your computer. I don't necessarily want every computer configured for internet access. So yes, I like prefer physical media 😀

Same here, except I had internet, but a slow connection. After 8 hours of installing it still wasn't finished and I got so mad I literally pulled the plug out of the computer for an instant shutdown (which happens very, very rarely with me).

Some time later I tried again and found my STEAM password wouldn't match anymore, go figure 😜

I started to mail to Valve with some instructions on how they could doggone well exchange it for a disc that has an actual copy of the game on it

I prefer keeping computers OFF the internet and to keep one for dedicated internet usage