Digital vs Physical + Piracy vs Preservation discussion

[NightPsychosis]

I am fine with digital media, but I do believe that it should be cheaper.

Physical media will always be superior though, just having the cartridge/disc in my hands fills me with joy, and it's cool to put on display!

With digital goods, as convenient as it is, I hate that it's only a license, and that if the company so chose it could be taken from me. And sure the probability is low, since it'd be bad for their reputation, but it is never zero.

 

[χKai]

As long as ROMs digitally exist, I will be ?‍

 

[W4SD]

I gotta be honest in this one, if it wasnt for piracy we wouldnt be able to enjoy and discover the many things we did and that we most enjoy nowadays, and theres also the fact that most countries rely alot on piracy to actually play/watch/listen to many things that are very VERY hard to find depending on the country.

 

[ThirdEidolon]

If recent news is anything to go by then shooting responsible CEOs is an effective method apparently.

Well, as of the Jan 20, that's punishable by death, now.

 

[Clippy]

Well, as of the Jan 20, that's punishable by death, now.

The poors got too uppity and need to be put in their place, huh? Goes to show whose interests the powers that be have at heart and it ain't ours. Tale as old as time really.

 

[mel]

I dabble in everything, but if it was easier/cheaper I would buy physical copies exclusively.

I mainly buy digitally for the switch since physical copies of the games I like are hard to come by in the united states, aren't commonly available in english, and rarely go on sale.

I like gog a lot. The fact they preserve/maintain older games and sell drm free appeals to me.

My main console is the psp, so it's not hard to just load some games onto it anytime I feel like it (not that I would advocate for doing that haha). I do like having a few games on umd just for old time's sake.

Personally, i only like ps2 collecting bc it bring me memories (Or the FMVs on OPL are laggy).
However, sometimes i enjoy to customize loose copies too.
View attachment 2884

I like your Len.

 

[LostKing]

Pure digital now days and will always support developers first even in a sale. As long as it's on steam I will get it. I mostly emulate things that haven't had modern releases or were never released in my country to start with.

 

[tranzittruther]

If I'm gonna buy something, I like to be able to touch it and see it. Gives me a sense of peace, specially now that companies are pushing so much for purely digital experiences. It just seems like it'll end up being trouble.

 

[homesforgnomes]

Either DRM-free digital, or physical format that can be ripped to backup/share.

Also, I believe copyright law should be either abolished or at least reduced to 10 years maximum before a piece of media enters the public domain.

 

[Ikagura]

Also, I believe copyright law should be either abolished

I think that a creator deserves to get paid for their creation (well, especially independent works).

I'd still advocate that you should be able to use copyrighted material if you plan on doing something for free (like a parody or a criticism).

Sadly fair use is barely acknowledged.

 

[homesforgnomes]

I think that a creator deserves to get paid for their creation (well, especially independent works).

I don't disagree with that, I just don't think copyright or IP law is the answer. I would go into why I believe that (ie. that the "rights" created by IP law/copyright unfairly encroach on how everybody else may own and use their property), but this short book does a better job of it than I ever could: https://mises.org/library/book/against-intellectual-property

 

[Ikagura]

I don't disagree with that, I just don't think copyright or IP law is the answer. I would go into why I believe that (ie. that the "rights" created by IP law/copyright unfairly encroach on how everybody else may own and use their property), but this short book does a better job of it than I ever could: https://mises.org/library/book/against-intellectual-property

Thanks for the link.

I think that IP laws are more to benefit a publisher than the creator of something. This is why writers only get a small percentage of the sales of their books and why sometimes it's more about who patented a concept first than developing it first (thus we got patent trolls and even companies patenting concepts that are not possible today).

I remember how Zuckerberg stole Facebook or how Bill and Steve both debated on who copied whom.

I feel that actually creative people get ripped off while opportunistic individuals gain a large amount of wealth from just being able to communicate well and sell ideas they don't own.

It would require a full reform of the law which sadly wouldn't happen even in a decade.

 

[homesforgnomes]

Thanks for the link.

I think that IP laws are more to benefit a publisher than the creator of something. This is why writers only get a small percentage of the sales of their books and why sometimes it's more about who patented a concept first than developing it first (thus we got patent trolls and even companies patenting concepts that are not possible today).

I remember how Zuckerberg stole Facebook or how Bill and Steve both debated on who copied whom.

I feel that actually creative people get ripped off while opportunistic individuals gain a large amount of wealth from just being able to communicate well and sell ideas they don't own.

It would require a full reform of the law which sadly wouldn't happen even in a decade.

Absolutely. Unfortunately I don't see any kind of law that protects the actual artists and creators (rather than parasitic middlemen aka "Rights Holders") and is fair to the customer coming about any time soon.

I'm thankful piracy is an option to balance things out and preserve culture/knowledge.

 

[Iracunda]

When I was a kid, I used to take all my games off the shelf and lay them side by side with the cover facing up just so I can look at my collection. So yeah I generally prefer physical. That being said, it is easier to preserve digitally.

 

[Ikagura]

Absolutely. Unfortunately I don't see any kind of law that protects the actual artists and creators (rather than parasitic middlemen aka "Rights Holders") and is fair to the customer coming about any time soon.

Yeah, they get opportunistic and even end up stealing the author's work.

I'm thankful piracy is an option to balance things out and preserve culture/knowledge.

I'm thankful but I'm also quite sad that we have to resort to illegality to preserve art and culture...

We are fine right now but this means that at any point they could do a Fahrenheit 451 over video game rom sites.

 

[homesforgnomes]

We are fine right now but this means that at any point they could do a Fahrenheit 451 over video game rom sites.

More work needs to be done on decentralized/difficult to take down options in preparation for this kind of thing. Torrent magnets might be one option, but of course those can be risky in some countries without a VPN.

 

[Ikagura]

More work needs to be done on decentralized/difficult to take down options in preparation for this kind of thing. Torrent magnets might be one option, but of course those can be risky in some countries without a VPN.

And sadly it also have risks of viruses...

But as long as there's one hard drive with something it will never get lost for good.



On the other hand with Cloud gaming it could potentially be lethal for a game (I already hate GaaS because of them needing a server).

 

[homesforgnomes]

On the other hand with Cloud gaming it could potentially be lethal for a game (I already hate GaaS because of them needing a server).

Yeah, that's why I personally don't really consider modern "remasters" of old games with always-online DRM (usually Denuvo, which often makes the games run worse, too) to be equivalent to a ripped ROM of the original game, which is perfectly preserved and easily accessible whenever.

Never trust a corporation to preserve media when they can make more cash for less effort by creating an artificial scarcity (what I consider to be one of the strongest moral arguments for piracy, that it prevents that fake scarcity) and then selling you the same thing repeatedly.

 

[Raccoonus]

I like owning my games physically and only really emulate what I already own or have played in the past but have misplaced or lost. Most games I am interested in playing are luckily easy to get a hold of physically or have releases on steam which is fine enough for indie titles or otherwise impossible to obtain physical media. I think the more upsetting thing about modern game trends is actually always online games. Once those servers go down it becomes insanely difficult to play those games again as their game functionality was essentially tied to that online element.

 

[Jeff]

I would go physical whenever it's new or a gets a rerelease, But if it's a retro game that may or not work due to the console's life, or that it's too expensive, piracy is sadly the way to go.

 

[RetroCasual]

Athough I still love physical, I must admit that digital format has sadly won my preference. Correction patches, updates, season passes, extras and more stuff ruin the day-one purchase of the physical format.
Maybe if physical gets better, by launching the cartridge or the disc when the game is fully completed, maybe if used retro games don't cost more than new releases, maybe if I can get one more room at home to store the games... Who knows...

Now talking about piracy and preservation, I find reprehensive to hack new commercial releases, but I think that piracy is almost extincted between most people since there are FreeToPlay games, free gifts in gaming platforms and digital licenses of very good games at ridiculous prices on sales time. To become the hacker-destroyer of all the videogames business is a non-profit role for a poor guy.
And so of course I'm totally on behalf of preservation when we talk about videogames and hardware systems which are abandoned or forgotten by their own creators/supporters.

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

Unfortunately companies are moving away from physical media and physical media will eventually stop functioning. Pirating might be the only way to preserve media. I moved on from retro collection to emulation because retro games are aging and too expensive now. I'm not paying hundreds of dollars for a 20+ year old game that might stop working in the next ten years.

 

[thanonyx]

PHYSICAL NOW!
PHYSICAL FOREVER!
PHYSICAL IS KING!!!

 

[Krazy Kat]

i'll stick with physical media, i prefer old method you buy something you own it physically,
even though i own some of steam game which much of them i bought it on black friday sale
if bd is the problem maybe they can switch using usb stick or micro sd card

 

[Tr4sh_Kun]

Since the only gaming platform I have is PC I go for digital format, my PC has no disc reader so that's pretty much the only way I have to install stuff on my PC, also because when I could actually buy games physical format was pretty much outdated/obsolete