Is digital distribution really the future?

[Sarsaparilla]

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...

But what about digital media's ability to store so much more information in much smaller spaces? My local library is constantly having to sell off items to make room for new books - shelf space is a real concern and when you're trying to save as much as possible for posterity not really knowing what might be valuable down the line digital media can really help out. And digital media's ability to create identical copies of the original item nearly instantly and to send out those copies just as fast is pretty darn impressive. While I don't know of any department dedicated to the special issues and concerns digital media presents I think that people who implement digital versions already do their best to address those issues and implement new, better policies/equipment as they come along & are able to. Sure, digital media has it's issues and it may be too early yet to confidently push for it to be the default format for our libraries but I'm not afraid of that day. Project Gutenberg & Archive.org kick ass!

 

[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...

But what about digital media's ability to store so much more information in much smaller spaces? My local library is constantly having to sell off items to make room for new books - shelf space is a real concern and when you're trying to save as much as possible for posterity not really knowing what might be valuable down the line digital media can really help out. And digital media's ability to create identical copies of the original item nearly instantly and to send out those copies just as fast is pretty darn impressive. While I don't know of any department dedicated to the special issues and concerns digital media presents I think that people who implement digital versions already do their best to address those issues and implement new, better policies/equipment as they come along & are able to. Sure, digital media has it's issues and it may be too early yet to confidently push for it to be the default format for our libraries but I'm not afraid of that day. Project Gutenberg & Archive.org kick ass!

Oh yeah, space is a huge concern when you're storing lots of information in print.

I'm in total agreement that there are huge incentives to going to all-digital and you nailed all the ones I can think of. You also address the possible problems, which I applaud. My concern is that too many technophiles may be pushing for "all-digital" before we're ready for it because they're focusing on the advantages and not giving enough regard to the potential problems and how to prevent them.

And even when we're completely given over the digital information age, I believe that there should still be hard copy archives somewhere, just in case the worst of the worst of social and/or technological breakdowns occur.

 

[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.

It isn't paranoia or ignorance. At least I don't think so. It seems more like an unwillingness to welcome the digital (i.e. no physical CD's, DVD's, games) era, which as you can see by my original post I also am a little bit against, though my concern is with games and not with books, movies, or audio CD's.

As for hard drives going bad because of a simple power outage - that's laughably unlikely. I'd just like to assure you that your books would never be completely lost if they were to go all digital, but I just don't see all-digital happening. As illustrated by this thread, too many people like their physical copies to even think about buying a whole bunch of new ones. The only thing you'll actually lose is the joy of having a physical book.

Maybe "defunct" was the wrong word. What I meant was "unusable," "unusable for any amount of time from a power outage." As someone who lives in a hurricane zone, I've been without power for multiple days. The idea that I could read my physical books was a huge comfort when laptop batteries died and there was litter else to do.

The idea of an entire library being inaccessible because the electricity is out is, to me, depressing.

 

[k-ossuburb]

I've been reading through this and people seem to be focusing on how much more "convenient", "cheaper" and "faster" digital distribution is in comparrison to physical media, yet nobody has stopped to think of what it really means if physical media disappeared altogether.

Digital distribution is not a model for making things easier for you, it is, in fact, a way for companies to try to stamp out the pre-owned market. As more and more media becomes digitized there will be less and less media in your hands and therefore in your own control.

I can take a game or CD into a store or over to a friend's house and sell it to them for a reasonable price which I set and it is perfectly fine, if I try this with a digital download it is ILLEGAL and will end up costing me way more than what I originally paid for the damn thing in the first place.

If all media becomes 100% digital then good luck finding a bargain bin because there won't be any; the company will be setting the price you pay for your media. Picking up an entire album for pocket change will be a thing of the past, you'll instead have to deal with compressed bullshit that always has a digital whine in the background.

Every time you want to buy a movie you'll have to contend with prices that the company sets, you won't be able to borrow it from a friend's house, glance at your shelf when you feel like watching something or, indeed, trade it back to the for in-store credit.

This isn't something that companies are doing for you. Just like everything else they do this is about the bottom line. This is about them taking the media you paid for literally out of your hands and therefore completely removing your right to it.

Once this happens, what's to stop companies from shoving unskippable ads into their products in order force you to buy more of their crap? What's to stop them from making you pay to have the ads removed as part of a "Gold Membership" service?

What if they shoved DRM into everything? Movies, music, games, books, T.V. shows, etc. they'll pretty much have to since piracy will now be the ONLY way anyone could get the media they want at a price they can afford.

Imagine how irritating it would be if you had to maintain a constant internet connection to listen to the album you just bought, and how much more irritating it would be if for 30 seconds before you played it there was an ad for another album by another band you liked because the company had been tracking your purchases.

 

[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]).

Your laptop uses little more than 2 lightbulbs. ~ You think that's a threat? ~ George Carlin

And yet we're told to turn off lights when you leave the room. It's too easy to dismiss little things when compairing them to great behemoths. Two lightbulbs are patheticly small compaired to Las Vegas, but consider how much energy can be saved if every person avoids using two lightbulbs. As humans we generally are selfish. Since my two lightbulbs are insignificant then it's fine. Then you have 7 billion people thinking the same.

 

[Null-Entity]

I think its obvious that DD will grow to a larger market share its simply cheaper and easie to roll out from the publisher and easier to cut off/control with systems like Steam.

I however don't think that the physical copy will ever die.

I for one love having the copy on the shelf and secondly I like my collectors editions.

Tell me how I'm going to get a statue/figure/card set ect through DD ? even if it comes to the novelty/more expensive editions I think there will always be a physical presence.

 

[basm321]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, really, what difference does it make?

I mean, I'm as sentimental as the next guy about physical copies, but when th next bunch of kids rolls through, they won't even care. We've already seen it happen to CDs, so why not everything else?

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

I usually never comment past the 1st page but this one means a lot to me.

Disc will never die, or at least not anytime in the near future. It may become niche like CDs have. My friend is majoring in music, plays many instruments and buy ALOT of music CDs.

There is something about having a physical item that one can hold.

Disc copies of games may become more rare but they will not go away. I buy all my games on disc for a variety of reasons.

1. You can take it to a friends to show him it.

2. You can trade games with friends to play things you would otherwise not.

3. Discs allow you to display a collection (although I do not keep one).

4. Just as one can read books online or buy a kindle there is something about having a physical cope that you can hold in your hand, this one I can not really explain.

5. People forget the value of using used games as a test drive. I go to Gamestop and buy a few used games, which you can return for ANY reason within a 7 days, then return them and purchase new copies of the one's I enjoy and find to have enough value to merit a real purchase. That is not to say that I don't ever get lazy and just keep the used copy instead, but hey I can't afford new games ALL the time.

Number 2 and 5 are probably the biggest reasons because it allows one to try a much wider variety of games without being forced to purchase something you are not 100% sure you will like.

Given, this could be solved by some kind of digital rental service where you can get the whole game at a price per day or month and then purchase it digitally if you like it enough.

What I am getting at is that I don't believe people realize the value of a physical copy, but we all place a different value on things. That value is often something that can be difficult to articulate.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

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

They will damn well try! But I will buy dozens of books just to spite them if they start an ad campaign to destroy them.

As for digital distribution? Not a fan. I'm too much of a physical copy guy.

 

[HardkorSB]

There's a lot of talk about how the market for buying/selling physical copies of games will dry up in the near future. While I'm not categorically saying that it will not happen, I have a hard time buying into the idea, and here's why...

Since the mid-to-late 90's, people have been able to download music off of the internet. It's been a decade (a relative eternity in the entertainment industry), and yet people still buy physical copies of CDs. While the market for physical albums has declined, there are some people (I'm one of them) who like having a physical copy for back-up and posterity.

In the film industry, rental services have been the norm for many years. Nowadays, paid rental services like Netflix allow rental via mail and unlimited streaming via the internet. Services like Redbox allow vending machine style rentals. These approaches have revolutionized renting, made it easier and cheaper. On top of this, people can pay to download movies on iTunes (if they want a copy to keep) and it's cheaper and more convenient than going to a retailer. You can argue that the DVD/Blu-Ray offers a higher quality experience than a digital copy, but in my experience only serious movie buffs care about that.

Despite digital distribution, there is a strong contingent of people who like to have a physical copy of an album/movie for the sake of back-up, posterity, and the fact that it looks nice sitting on a shelf. The same is true for video games.

While the market for physical copies of console games will, surely, go down in the future (we already seeing it on PC) there is still something to be said for physical copies. If we ever embrace a fully digital distribution age, I believe that it is a good ways off. To reach that point, all people like me will have to age themselves out of being the core buying age in the market, and I'm only 26.

Maybe I'm just being hopeful (I personally don't like the idea of all-digital), but I think there will always be a market, even if it gets really small, for physical copies of games. IF we were to reach a all-digital entertainment age, I would say that its at least 20-30 years out.

Agree? Disagree? What are your feelings/opinions on digital distribution as the future of gaming?

From a practical point of view, physical copies are just a waste of space. If you can have all those games/music/movies/whatever on a single hard drive that takes up less than a briefcase, what's the point of having entire rooms full of information stored on outdated formats? You can access the data on your hard drive just as easy as the data on CDs/DVDs/Blu Rays. Actually, you can access it easier since it's all in one place and not scattered around your whole house. The only reason to still cling to the old ways of data storing is nostalgia.
I can understand vinyls since turntables are pretty much a musical instrument ever since the 60's so that at least has a purpose (and you can argue that you can use the CD turntables but it's not the same, just as a keyboard is not the same as a piano).
In short, I think that the "all digital entertainment age" is a good thing.

 

[basm321]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, really, what difference does it make?

I mean, I'm as sentimental as the next guy about physical copies, but when th next bunch of kids rolls through, they won't even care. We've already seen it happen to CDs, so why not everything else?

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

I'm not talking on a couple-of-decades basis - this will take a loooong time. But eventually, they will die out.

The future changes one hell of a lot of things, and this is just one of them. Even I find it hard to believe that they won't even be an option, but it's probably going to come true.

And yeah, I have the same reservations about having *just* digital copies. But that's really just DRM at work, and I'm fairly certain that'll die out too - maybe when the companies give up, maybe when the companies come up with a solution that works for everyone (including the customers this time round). But DD is far more convenient than Physical Copies, and that's where the world is headed right now.

Ok, but there is a great value that I (and hopefully many others) find in being able to go down and talk with people about the game(s) you are about to buy or ones you are browsing through. Yes you can go to the internet to find many of these things out, but I know everyone at my local game shop and I know their taste in games. The fact that physical copies merit a physical store is another huge plus. There are not many places that gamers congregate and converse in person (excluding a special events/trade shows ect.). Although it is becoming less common to find groups of actual gamers (not just moms/dads/grand parents) at these stores it is still the last place, I know of, that we may hang out and talk games in real life.

To me that is probably the biggest value, and it is something I want to hold onto. I don't want to see this go away, though it may be inevitable.

 

[Rblade]

I think physical copys will always stay if consoles still exist, at least untill consoles can get hard drives that can expand as much as PCs cn. I'm fairly certain the majority of console only owners will prefere having a disk due to the fact that PS3s and 360 don't have as expansive hard drives than PCs so I wouldn't beable to store 30 games on one console.

You could just have an account similar to steam or something, where they save the info on all the games you buy, and you can install the once you have room for. And if you get rid of it and want to play it again later you download and install it again. Sure downloading will take a while but if you start it before lunch you basicly don't loose any time over it or anything. All your games in the cloud and if you really want a collectors edition they can mail it to you. I really think the incredible convenience and ease of the entire thing will make it that soon stores will go into selling either obscure stuff and or used games next to their vynil and other specialist audiophile collection.

and if you worry about loosing the games if the service gets terminated or something. Mircrosoft, Sony and nintendo are not exactly at the top of my list of companies to go belly up