In the great digital age, it’s easy to slip into the comfy slippers of your preferred digital storefront. Be it Steam, the PSN store, or whatever option your ecosystem supports. This author in particular owns a number of digital software whose count is in the four digits by now, not counting the hundreds of ROMs stored on two PCs, a phone, and several modded consoles.
We’re at an interesting crossroads where you don’t have to be physical to enjoy some classic retro action; it is perfectly doable to remain strictly digital and not worry about missing out on the vast majority of old-school classics.
This poses an interesting question: Should you continue growing your physical library? We tend to address and provide some consolation while also hoping to hear your experiences on the topic!
Physical Games
Physical indies are quite cool, you have to admit!
But understandably, others may think it only comes down to that and nothing more besides preservation, and while that line of thinking is quite reductive, it isn’t hard to see how a person can arrive at this conclusion.
Past and Preservation
Sometimes owning a game you already like, but in physical form, is really cool!
Or, a historically important game! (That… you also happen to like, of course!)
Perhaps a solid starting point of where owning physical copies becomes highly valuable was in the PS3 era, particularly.
It is rather well-known by now that the PS3 was a really awkward beginning for the digital age; not only did you have to suffer through the pain of a really cool game you wanted to buy only to see it listed as “disc-only,” but the retro PSX-PS2 selection was quite laughable. Don’t forget all the PSP games taunting you for having a system fully capable of running its games but not because Sony was probably never actually ready for the digital transition.
All this combined sets up a lifestyle where you just feel it’s “better” stay physically. Not necessarily due to its positive, but because the supposed “alternative” simply has too many negatives.
But it’s quite nice having these games!
Best modern racer, don’t @ me.
And best Zelda! I’m making a lot of friends today!
Sometimes it just feels quite nice owning the real thing, doesn’t it? There’s a satisfaction and sense of security that can’t be quite articulated, and that’s good enough for a lot of us. Simply put, a digital copy really doesn’t “feel” quite the same. After a while, you start to realize just how important it is to actually hold something in your hands rather than it being simple pixels on screen.
It’s one of those “if you get it, you get it” kinds of scenarios. While it’s understandable to be content with the other option, as this author made it very clear by confessing to owning a number of digital games that reaches the 4 digits, physical just feels “superior,” not in an elitist sense though. Those who elevate a nerdy hobby into an elitist competition are the real losers; we don’t speak of those.
Now if only there were more space on my shelf…
So, where do we go from here?
I… might have an Otome addiction…
It is understandable that some may struggle to find appeal in the hobby, specially with most earlier issues getting slowly addressed in the modern digital age. It is much easier now than ever to go fully digital and not worry about inserting cartridges into consoles weaker than your phone, but for a lot of us, a full-digital lifestyle is not entirely sustainable.
There are simply too many games that get delisted with no way of owning them again, too many games that are not really great on emulation and/or require being played on original hardware to have proper cultural context for their game design, and above all else, a goofily engineered handheld device that’s too weak to handle more than 20 GBs at the time without an SD card that needs to be inserted into an opening guarded by a poorly engineered kickstand that can easily snap, leaving the SD slot permanently exposed.
Was this part written with a lot of vitriol towards the big N? But, of course! How could you have a written piece from yours truly not accompanied by some lethal dry snark?
So was this all just an excuse to show off your collection?
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