Physical buyers/collectors - own what you buy

[Merlin]

Greetings denizens of this digital realm. I come to you today to discuss the value of a real game that you own. I myself lament the ever dwindling scenario. Outside of GoG and their DRM free store, I have found myself hoarding games that I might avoid the destruction of my games, for they are mine and mine alone. Some sadly even need downloads to work after the disc or cartridge is bought, and thus is useless. Games too, which require an activation code are all lost to us.

Why do you buy games thus? I find the safety of such games alluring. I also see why games born thus, before the age of online updates as those which shall stand the test of time, hold their value and be beloved by their owners for being the same, now and forever.

[fenrif]

No games will last forever. CDs rot and hardware fails. For this reason they must be archived digitally, and freely shared to ensure they survive the test of time.

Patches can be archived too. Activation DRM can be cracked. They can all be preserved, and all of them usually are. Though the publishers hate this. They want their games to die. To dissapear. To stop working. Because then they can sell you their new game. Or better yet, sell you the same game over and over again, with a 10% discount becuase it's 25 years old. Running on freeware emulators badly implimented on anemic hardware (psx classic console, I'm glaring angrily at you!).

[Verhoven 69]

Unless you copy burn it or something. How do you handle your stuff anyway? You expose them to extreme conditions?

[Nella_Bolt]

"to sell you the same game over and over again"
Oh you mean like Skyrim?
Or how Blizzard sees fit to charge full price for their dated Diablo 3 on the Nintendo Switch?

[Sol]

I mean I have PS1 games that work fine lol even my console works just fine, Including my SNES and NES. But I am particularly protective over my old stuff. The thing with downloads though. Say if Steam ever goes under you'll have to download all of what you wish to keep. Same with Origin and whatever other launchers you plan on using.

Both have their flaws. Both have upsides too though.

[isturbo1984]

There is always a chance servers will shut down or your digital rights might be taken away. But the only true way to preserve games forever is in the digital realm.

Time to get real. I find it utterly ridiculous.. the prospect of me at the age of 90 rummaging through a closet to dust off a PS4 to play some obscure, crap, niche JRPG game that was pulled off digital shelves because the music rights for the game weren't updated and the only access I have access to is on hard copy, lol. That's never gong to happen, lol. Digital is the future, not only economically, but practically.

[Verhoven 69]

Physical copies FTW!

[Irritablesquid]

I buy physical copies for console and digital for pc.
I find it easier to keep track of my console games, if I can see them. If I buy a digital copy for console then uninstall it i can never remember buying it.
I find it easier on pc because I never need to uninstall anything, I just add more memory.

[Mike]

No games will last forever. CDs rot

Let me stop you there. CD is an incredibly durable format - if handled/stored correctly.

CDs do not simply "rot" - this is a very common misconception which has been put out into the public sphere (mostly by vinyl record collectors, it would seem).

Only a relatively small handful of disc based releases have been known to "rot" despite correct storage. These were music CDs produced by PDO (Philips-DuPont Optical) in their Blackburn, Lancashire UK factory between around 1989 and 1991. It was due to an incorrect substance being used in production of the discs, which resulted in a chemical reaction causing the discs to become "bronzed" over time and subsequently many of these discs are unplayable.

The other way for discs to rot is through incorrect storage - basically you would have to expose a CD to the elements for a long time (outside of its case and preferably in the presence of humidity) in order for any rot to possibly occur, due to reaction between the elements in the atmosphere and the reflective aluminium layer. This would normally mean tiny holes appearing in the disc visible when held against light, rendering the disc unreadable. (DVDs and Blu rays are immune from this as they are coated with additional plastic to protect the read surface, so that means PS4, PS3, most PS2 and many PC games would not be affected..).

This second cause of rot (resulting from negligence of the owner) is in fact so rare that I have never experienced it, despite handling thousands of CDs and CD based games in my lifetime, even second hand ones from all over the world. Many of these discs have lasted 30+ years and there is no reason they wouldn't last another 30. In fact, it's theorised that in proper (archival) conditions a CD would still be playable after 10,000 years!

So the argument that CD based media is imminently susceptible to sudden "rot" is a fallacious one.

What I will say is complete BS is the recent trend of using the disc as just the key to download the game from the internet. That is not cool. I believe it started with Half Life 2 but I'm not sure. Steam is not for me.

Now consider (some of) the arguments in favour of physical media and disc-based games...

1. They are almost always cheaper than buying a "download", especially with older games. PS2 and many PC games can be bought for pennies these days!

2. You get to own a real copy which you can lend to a friend or family member, and your kids get to inherit it one day..

3. The game CANNOT BE RETROACTIVELY ALTERED (nerfed) by the company. This is a big deal. If you downloaded an old game to your PS4 or Switch or whatever, who is to say that it will be the same as how the game was originally? I don't just mean in terms of emulation, but actual content. It can be affected by censorship, if not today then one day, when let's say a company wants to change its image.. Owning a physical offline copy means you are immune from such changes and get to play the original game as it was originally released.

4. Likewise, you are not susceptible to the "end of service" of the game, or any of that season pass nonsense, because you can play that game for years and it won't cost you an extra penny. Buy a disc that has the entire game on it and not just some of the game, or one that requires updates.

5. It's far more likely that your console or PC will break, losing all the data stored on your hard drive, than an optical disc will suddenly "rot" and be unplayable.

6. You may not always have access to the internet, or good internet to begin with, in which case downloading your games and playing them online won't work.

Where you involve the internet, game companies as service providers, and other external factors (beyond your electricity supply..) into your gaming experience, you add many additional and unnecessary factors into your ability to play that game. Games were best when you didn't have to worry about that stuff, so don't be surprised that people want to own "the real thing" which they can keep forever in its original unadulterated state. The only barrier for most people seems to be that old games have worse graphics, but as with movies and music, if you wise up to what the companies are doing then the trade-off between content and production value is evidently not worth it.

[Verhoven 69]

I have an incident when my Bandai Gundam Wing Endless Waltz DVD just failed. Handled it carefully like the rest of my DVD collections. Not a fake/bootleg I might add. Just kept on getting errors (no scratches etc).

The other one was my Bible Black DVD ( final chapter/Last Sacrament episode 5/6) by Kittymedia. These were the discs that were their first gen pressed not burned.

Only two of my nearly 200 DVDs to have experienced this.

Thank god Rightstuf/Sunrise re-issued(Endless Waltz) them 2 months ago.

So DVDs rotting out in my case of 2 out of 200+ runs at such a small percentage.

On gaming discs, only my PS2 Soul Calibur 3 disc center hole cracked a bit(played the game too much lol)

So physical still WINS! 100% on what you posted dude!

[Astraea]

I am almost the same when it comes to buying games and books. Except I will not ever buy an e-book, but I will, occasionally, buy a digital game. The difference there is that for games there will be no difference in the experience itself, where as with books the experience itself is affected by the medium.
If you cannot see the magic of buying a physical game, it's no use trying to explain it. It's purely a satisfying of the senses, there's no logic to the magic. But there is logic behind ownership of the medium, physical games are yours, some digital releases are too (DRM free ones), but a lot of them are expensive rentals (steam, PSN, XBOX) because as soon as the platform they're published on goes down or take the download down, it's gone.

[Sol]

I just enjoy collecting things. I keep all my games and consoles. I also enjoy collectors editions of games I really enjoy for all the random dodads that come with it. Mostly the statues though xP

[Verhoven 69]

Freebies like the oppai mouse pads and artbooks! OSTs are fine too!