Digital vs Physical + Piracy vs Preservation discussion

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

Ideally I would have a physical collection to maintain and preserve, but market prices make that impossible. I just have my PC hold all my emulators and stuff.

I used to have a great collection of stuff but over the years I've had to sell for financial reasons, and now I've been completely priced out of reclaiming all of that.

 

[Bomberman]

If a game is out of print and there is no way to obtain it/support the dev. Piracy is not immoral imo.

 

[lilizu]

There's a level of convenience offered by digital games that I can understand. I've had friends who needed to move, and transporting all of that can be quite a pain. Not everyone has the space to store a large collection either.

I'll always prefer having physical media for both sentimental and ownership reasons. There are so many games that wouldn't be accessible period thanks to the greed (and negligence) of various companies. There's also something to be said for being able to make a display of all your favorites, especially if you have other merchandise to go along with them.

Lately, the popularity of PC gaming encourages more digital releases-- indie games in particular don't have much upside when it comes to recouping costs from physical copies versus being listed on Steam. It's a shame to see consoles following the same path. When I found out the PS5 Pro needed an external disc drive, I told myself I wasn't going to buy one despite being a general fan of Sony for most of my gaming life.

 

[__grep]

It depends for me on certain factors. There are some games that I will buy physical since they have reputations of being a trademark nightmare and out of nowhere will be magically rereleased again like MvC2/1 with the new Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection that just released recently for example. But mostly I just pirate.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

10 years is a good "lag" between a game's release and piracy.

 

[Ravl]

I never buy games unless I'm forced to by some all-mighty force like Denuvo.
"Piracy is a service problem"? yeah sure Gabe, maybe for normies. If I can get products for free, with no repercussions I'll always do it.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I never buy games unless I'm forced to by some all-mighty force like Denuvo.

Not even indies or in sale?

"Piracy is a service problem"? yeah sure Gabe, maybe for normies. If I can get products for free, with no repercussions I'll always do it.

Why normies? I mean in a store you would still buy things.

I think it's morally dubious to steal a game from an indie but that's just my opinion on the subject.

Or even stealing by itself is wrong (maybe except very specific case like if someone's starving and is stealing an apple or something really small but this could led to steal bigger things).

 

[Krazy Kat]

If a game is out of print and there is no way to obtain it/support the dev. Piracy is not immoral imo.

just for EA games i lend from my friend on the internet
this is a photo of my friend on the internet, she's good to make a game more compact

i'm no pirate i don't have a ship nor crew member and i'm not using one eye patch

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

just for EA games i lend from my friend on the internet
this is a photo of my friend on the internet

People don't like EA nor Activision anyway.

 

[Ravl]

Why normies? I mean in a store you would still buy things.

The masses, the ignorant folks. If people knew how easy and free of consequence it is to pirate things most of them would do it in a heartbeat. Don't get me wrong though, the fact that they don't do it is a good thing.
If a huge number of people started pirating instead of buying, companies would definitely bribe convince most governments to shut everything down and put actual effort in piracy-prevention.

 

[ThatOneLum]

If it's a game I have a strong personal attachment to, I'll but a physical copy, so it's mostly specific franchises/games that I collect.

I used to go in for AVGN levels of keeping carts and discs in my house, but a couple of years ago I sort of had to take a long look at my shit and ask myself "Do you actually want this, or did you just go magpie about it because some dude on the internet made it look fun?"

Turns out it was the later, so now I don't own about 75% of the consoles/games I did a year or so ago. Now, I keep my Sega and Sony stuff physically (and my GameCube. I'm not mad), but I don't have a bunch of random consoles I only had passing interest in.

With modern games? There are so few that I actively want to play enough to buy them physically. My digital libraries are stuffed full to bursting with unplayed 'AAA' games, but I've still spent the longest time gaming lately on my PS2/Gamecube.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

The masses, the ignorant folks. If people knew how easy and free of consequence it is to pirate things most of them would do it in a heartbeat. Don't get me wrong though, this is a good thing.

I'm sorry but this kind of speech dangerously sounds like conspiracy theorists.

Even if it's "free of consequences" you've still stolen something at the end of the day.

I would still tell that it's immoral to steal the hard work of an independent artist the same way to steal the work of an independent dev (especially seeing how expensive creating a video game is). I am still scrupulous to download and play a game that is less than a decade old without paying.

If a huge number of people started pirating instead of buying, companies would definitely bribe convince most governments to shut everything down and put actual effort in piracy-prevention.

DRMs are already invasive enough and honest buyers are mostly getting even more controlled.

But a private company isn't the government to begin with.

 

[Ravl]

Even if it's "free of consequences" you've still stolen something at the end of the day.

I would still tell that it's immoral to steal the hard work of an independent artist the same way to steal the work of an independent dev (especially seeing how expensive creating a video game is).

Good for you, charity is a great thing

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Good for you, charity is a great thing.

False equivalence.

 

[CargoRoms]

Isn't there a better physical media format, other than DVD/BD?

Consoles still have USB ports, even without an optical drive, someone could keep a game inside a flashdrive, and plug it in, via USB.