Is digital distribution really the future?

[Epona]

Hell, maybe one day Sony, Nintendo or whomever will realize people like playing their old games and will make their own emulator and classic game store. It's possible--if there's one thing that is always guaranteed to make a buck, it's nostalgia.

Is this a joke? Are you not aware that they are both doing this? Nintendo has the Virtual Console and has been releasing SNES and N64 ports and remakes on the GBA and DS for years. The 3DS will be no different. Sony has the PS1 Classics on PSN.

This has to be a joke, there is no way you didn't know any of this.

 

[Worgen]

Possibly one day physical will be gone but 40% of america is still on dialup and if the internet providers get their way and are able to charge based on usage then digital distribution will certainly take a huge hit.

 

[plus2exp]

We can look to the music industry for a practical idea of how this will eventually play out. In short, there's room for both. I haven't bought a physical music CD in over 7 years, but there are still many people who prefer to have a hard copy of their music. As long as there's a market, even a small one, physical media will persist.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

The only thing that will really stay as it is are books. You can NEVER kill books

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Huh... If I had a Kindle and a supply of money that is far harder to exhaust than it currently is, then I would certainly go all digital on books. Other than missing that "new book smell" and the feel of nice pages to softly rustle between my fingertips, I don't see why not. Sounds like a good tradeoff to me. Same for CD's and movies - I actually don't have much of a problem with them going all digital. The prospect is certainly a lamentable one, but for me it isn't something I would cringe much over.

When it comes to books for personal use, I have no problem with the whole Kindle/Nook digital library thing. But I'm talking about our archives, our libraries, our back copies. As in, the copies of the really important books, such as classic literature, literature that will be classic one day, historical records, mathematical theories, and scientific studies. There are some librarians who want THAT STUFF to go ALL digital, and I'm VERY against that.

Currently, to destroy all archival copies of that information, you'd have to find every physical copy and destroy each one. If our library archives were to go all digital, one serious hardware/software system crash could potentially wipe out centuries worth of accumulated knowledge. And while there are certain safegaurds to prevent those scenarios, the best safegaurd is physical copies that aren't dependent on electricity or technology in any way.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

The only thing that will really stay as it is are books. You can NEVER kill books

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Huh... If I had a Kindle and a supply of money that is far harder to exhaust than it currently is, then I would certainly go all digital on books. Other than missing that "new book smell" and the feel of nice pages to softly rustle between my fingertips, I don't see why not. Sounds like a good tradeoff to me. Same for CD's and movies - I actually don't have much of a problem with them going all digital. The prospect is certainly a lamentable one, but for me it isn't something I would cringe much over.

When it comes to books for personal use, I have no problem with the whole Kindle/Nook digital library thing. But I'm talking about our archives, our libraries, our back copies. As in, the copies of the really important books, such as classic literature, literature that will be classic one day, historical records, mathematical theories, and scientific studies. There are some librarians who want THAT STUFF to go ALL digital, and I'm VERY against that.

Currently, to destroy all archival copies of that information, you'd have to find every physical copy and destroy each one. If our library archives were to go all digital, one serious hardware/software system crash could potentially wipe out centuries worth of accumulated knowledge. And while there are certain safegaurds to prevent those scenarios, the best safegaurd is physical copies that aren't dependent on electricity or technology in any way.

Do you really think all of those classics are in one spot? Everything from the Bible to Oedipus the King to Paradise Lost to the Chronicles of Narnia are - all of them - stored in thousands of different places. If one server were to fail, then there are tons of different places that those works are backed up in. And that's if something were to happen to one of them. If there was something that could shut down/destroy every computer and server that currently exists on this Earth, then we would have far, far bigger problems than a missing library of old books. Getting stuck in a world akin to the one in The Book of Eli would be horrible but I would be far less worried about reading and far more worried about getting society on its feet.

So nothing short of an apocalyptic event would destroy those classics that many hold so dearly.

EDIT: And even in a single server there are several hard drives with the same information on it. It's called "redundancy". Trust me, if books were to go all digital you wouldn't have anything to worry about.

I'm not saying that they're all in one spot.

I'm saying that even the POSSIBILITY of an entire library's worth of information becoming defunct for any length of time (that's one library, not every library) because of a simple power outage is reason for concern. Also, there is the fact that a virtual library, saved on series of small computer systems and hard drives, can be stolen/tampered with/damaged/destroyed MUCH easier than a library's worth of stacks. To me, these things smell of over-dependence on technology.

Now, I'm a bibliophile, so I concede that I have a definite bias, and technophiles will likely dismiss me as paranoid or ignorant, and that's fine. Everyone has their own opinion and perspective.

 

[Silenthillreturnz]

I like hard copy

 

[DasDestroyer]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

 

[NLS]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

Exactly this. Whenever I see someone state that "What if Steam (or insert other digital platform) doesn't survive the next 20 years, all my games will be gone?", I can't help but think that not even your own bookshelf is safe. I can't play Starcraft anymore because the CD is so scratched up from use. And a friend of mine once had burglars that stole many of his games, including ones that he was borrowing from me.
Of course digital distribution is prone to things like data loss and account theft, but good old physical copy isn't 100% safe either.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

Exactly this. Whenever I see someone state that "What if Steam (or insert other digital platform) doesn't survive the next 20 years, all my games will be gone?", I can't help but think that not even your own bookshelf is safe. I can't play Starcraft anymore because the CD is so scratched up from use. And a friend of mine once had burglars that stole many of his games, including ones that he was borrowing from me.
Of course digital distribution is prone to things like data loss and account theft, but good old physical copy isn't 100% safe either.

Fires can be fought. We don't have a public service department dedicated to protecting the integrity of digital media.

Just saying...

Also, books don't require electricity.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

Fires can be fought; we don't have a public service department dedicated to preserving digital media from destruction.

Also, books don't require electricity. Just saying...

 

[veloper]

It's only a matter of time. Only slow internet adoption in households is holding DD back. Harddrive space is already very cheap and will only become cheaper.

The benefits to the publishers are just too huge for them to ignore.

Firstly, retail distibution takes about 50% of the game price. Publishers can earn alot more if they cut out the middle man so they will.
Secondly, 100% digital distrubution completely eliminates second hand sales and publishers are trying very hard right now with little success, but DD will solve their problem.

 

[scw55]

As long as I have crappy internet at home I will always buy physical copies of new releases. As much as 'convenient' it is to not have to travel 15miles to town/juggle physical disks or wait painfully at the post-box, I think it's immoral to waste so much electricity leaving my laptop on over several nights to download a new game. Infact, it's slower, because atleast if I order the game off say Amazon it'll arrive on day of release, opposed to being only able to actaully start downloading the game when it's released (and then taking a few days to complete. [excluding pre-download, though with Portal 2 that took years]).

 

[DasDestroyer]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

Fires can be fought; we don't have a public service department dedicated to preserving digital media from destruction.

Also, books don't require electricity. Just saying...

Yet AFAIK fires are thousands of times more common than offensive EMPs.

 

[imnot]

I hope not, because I have terrible internet, tf2 cost me £14 on steam, 7 hours to download and about £10 extra on my bill.

Besides, boxs are cool.

 

[go-10]

I see them heading the same place as comic books, little by little it'll go more and more digital until it eventually disappears

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

Fires can be fought; we don't have a public service department dedicated to preserving digital media from destruction.

Also, books don't require electricity. Just saying...

Yet AFAIK fires are thousands of times more common than offensive EMPs.

And here I thought we were talking joking around about fire. Now you go talking about realistic probability of terrorism against library archives.

For the record, I mentioned EMP attack as a joke to illustrate that I think we should be aware of the limits and weaknesses and potential problems of all-digital knowledge archives.

But if you're gonna get all argumentative about it, I honestly don't believe that an EMP WMD attack on our knowledge archive is currently a credible threat. There. Happy?

 

[DasDestroyer]

Physical copies of books/records MUST stay. I shudder when I think what would happen if we had all digital libraries full of our literature and history...and then BAM! E.M.P. attack!

Fire called, it wants its ability to destroy libraries of books back.

Fires can be fought; we don't have a public service department dedicated to preserving digital media from destruction.

Also, books don't require electricity. Just saying...

Yet AFAIK fires are thousands of times more common than offensive EMPs.

And here I thought we were talking joking around about fire. Now you go talking about realistic probability of terrorism against library archives.

For the record, I mentioned EMP attack as a joke to illustrate that I think we should be aware of the limits and weaknesses and potential problems of all-digital knowledge archives.

But if you're gonna get all argumentative about it, I honestly don't believe that an EMP WMD attack on our knowledge archive is currently a credible threat. There. Happy?

... somewhat.
But now I'd sad that my sense of humour isn't working today...