Poll: Would you embrace a shift to purely digital distribution of games?

[LilithSlave]

"And since this is a discussion about DD and not about internet access, your argument is moot."

Your argument earlier was about internet access. Saying that people who afford internet access, aren't poor, and therefor don't benefit from digital distribution.

But that's not true, internet access and cell phones of some variety, are things that poor people struggle to have and generally find to be important. Same with automobiles. If you can call internet access a luxury, you can also technically consider owning a car a luxury. As people can walk several miles a day or use a public transportation system.

As far as afford games, digital distribution is easier on the poor. Especially in terms of security. As I said, people who live in bad neighborhoods can have games stolen. And yes, video games are a luxury, but they're also a luxury that over half of the American population tries to afford, including those who live in bad neighborhoods. Lots of people who live in horrible 30,000 dollars homes afford video games. People who don't have any home of their own afford video games. I believe that's the shout down, illogical anti-piracy argument, isn't it? "Too bad, if you're poor, you don't get to have what you want. You have to choose between living in the bad part of town and worrying about your safety, or working towards owning a nice home and being a lame non-gamer who doesn't play enough video games for me to respect".

You know what poor people do? Well yeah, they tend to pirate, because they can't really afford the bills very well and video games at the same time. But they do afford to buy more video games than they can afford. Yes, dirt poor people buy video games and all sorts of other things they can't afford, keeping them poor. And we promote this behavior as a society, because the developers need the money more, apparently. After all, if poor people didn't buy games, it would hurt the industry.

But at the very least, if they buy through digital distribution, they can keep the games they own even if their house gets broken into.

I fail to see how this is a "lame" argument.

 

[aaronobst]

I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.

Ain't nothing better than a "glorious" HDD corruption then having to re download your entire library again

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

Mainly it's the obvious statement that digital distribution requires an Internet connection, and not everyone has or wants one. I work for a games publisher and used to work for an ISP, so I suppose I've seen both camps. Not everywhere in the country is able to get a broadband connection - people out in the countryside in particular have real problems, and often can't get as fast a connection anyway.

However there is a definite shift in the games publishing market towards digital, that can't be denied. So we're going to be getting more of it, whether we like it or not.

Personally, I like getting a boxed game. I've got a whole library at home full of boxes right back to the early days. Hell, I remember buying Ultima V and not only getting the game disks, but a manual, spell book, journal, cloth map and a metal amulet. I also miss the days of beautiful manuals, but I am getting on a bit.

 

[Appleshampoo]

I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.

Ain't nothing better than a "glorious" HDD corruption then having to re download your entire library again

Ain't nothin better than a "glorious" scratched or lost CD then having to re-buy the game!

 

[poiuppx]

I would approve of this... IF digital downloads went the way of GOG.com. All of them. I buy it, I download it, that copy is mine, period. No DRM, no limited installs, no always-connected internet malarky.

And while I'm wishing, I'd like a pony. Made of nightmares and fire.

 

[LilithSlave]

Because it can be applied to anything. Anything can be stolen. Does that mean we should stop doing anything?

No, but at least if you live in a poor neighborhood, digital distribution gives you a heightened security. That's at least one advantage of digital distribution.

I think that traditional, "physical" media make great collectibles. But I don't think that they will prove to be more advantageous for the consumer than digital distribution.

Go peddle you bleeding heart nonsense elsewhere.

I swear, aside from starvation and things absolutely required to live, most Escapist users have no sympathy for the proletariat and strongly revere and support the bourgeois and their privilege. With the whole myopic and cliche "life's not fair" and "too bad" speeches being mockingly unsympathetic to the underprivileged. And using something not being fair as a justification for things not being fair.

Cars, phones, and internet connections are very important luxuries. Being able to vote is a luxury, even. But some "democracy" you are if everyone cannot afford to vote. And you're not a very healthy society if your population can't at least afford motored transportation, a phone, or a way to access the internet. You can say these things are luxuries, but they're things that people deserve to have. And like how you said how people have to make choices, people are going to buy and pirate games even if they don't have the means for it. Because it's one of the chief ways many people derive pleasure out of being alive.

And digital distribution provided the advantage of being safer to most citizens(aside from those who can afford a grand home network), than traditional media. And I haven't seen a good argument against this advantage. I've seen little more than the worry of cloud gaming.

I believe that digital distribution will work out grandly and continue to benefit both costumers, and developers more. By granting customers cheap, secure, cheap infinite access to games, and developers an easy way to distribute their software. Because digital distribution cuts out physical copies, it costs them far less to distribute it, and leads to lower prices for customers and more profits for creators, allows for easy distribution for anyone, such as small-time indie developers, and allows for perpetual sales. The developers of Magical Pop'n are not still making money off of their hard work. If the game was made in the digital distribution era and made digitally purchasable, it would still be making money for the developers instead of a rare collectors item that profits hardly anyone.

 

[Vault101]

I've not bought a boxed game in years. I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.

I honest to god do not see the advantage though

does it work for some? yeah sure...but the ONLY way of getting games? whats so great about that?

in the end I dont see why we have to be limited to one model of getting somthing

 

[Appleshampoo]

I've not bought a boxed game in years. I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.

I honest to god do not see the advantage though

does it work for some? yeah sure...but the ONLY way of getting games? whats so great about that?

in the end I dont see why we have to be limited to one model of getting somthing

You mean like the ONLY way to get games a few years ago was to go into a store and buy them? And if they sold out or didn't stock the game you were shit out of luck.

=)

 

[Vault101]

I've not bought a boxed game in years. I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.

I honest to god do not see the advantage though

does it work for some? yeah sure...but the ONLY way of getting games? whats so great about that?

in the end I dont see why we have to be limited to one model of getting somthing

You mean like the ONLY way to get games a few years ago was to go into a store and buy them? And if they sold out or didn't stock the game you were shit out of luck.

=)

yeah...you have options now

so why would I want less options? why would I want digital distribution to be the ONLY way to get games?

 

[Zhadramekel]

Call me crazy but I actually kind of enjoy the experience of actually going to whatever tech store takes your fancy, finding the game you want (although if you're buying it on release day like I usually do that's not generally difficult) and actually buying it.

 

[phYnc]

I already sort of have. Most of the games I own are from steam and I don't own physical copys. I have a few physical games but not many.

Digital distribution is just easier for everyone involved unless you have really bad internet. I have ~17 mbps download which in england is pretty good.

 

[aaronobst]

I think it's time people stopped living in the past and started to embrace the glorious digital ages.

Ain't nothing better than a "glorious" HDD corruption then having to re download your entire library again

Ain't nothin better than a "glorious" scratched or lost CD then having to re-buy the game!

You're kidding right? A two year old could tell you not to damage the surface of a disc. And who the hell just loses a $60.00 game? Also "entire library" were the keywords in that sentence.

 

[MLionheart]

Nope. I like having a physical copy and noone can guarentee that my internet will be up all the time.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Once it goes purely digital, we're going to get raped by the prices.
Sure Steam is generous now, they're trying to get people invested in it. Once a good amount of people have invested too much money in their collection to turn away from it, the amazing deals will start to disappear.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Once it goes purely digital, we're going to get raped by the prices.
Sure Steam is generous now, they're trying to get people invested in it. Once a good amount of people have invested too much money in their collection to turn away from it, the amazing deals will start to disappear.

Competition from other services like Amazon, D2D and Origin would keep their prices in check.

Hopefully, if they catch on.
But if they struggle, they wont exactly be in a position to compete with prices.