Why the hell don't games come on physical media anymore?!?

[Makabb]

Because we live in a totalitarian world Orwell would not even dream of. Soon enjoy your games as a rental service.

They are, if you consider that you only buy permission to download a program from the company's servers, not the game itself.

gog

 

[Excidium II]

gog

What's the difference in ownership between buying and getting the installer off torrent anyway?

In the end buying a digital game unless it is mp on dedicated servers or has some draconic DRM is just a donation to the developer, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Mustawd]

Torrents can be buggy as hell. I personally don't care about owning the damn thing as long as I can play it on my PC. Steam is just too damn convenient.

It's like having a girl who's a 7/10 come to your door every day asking for sex. Or you could bust your ass to maybe try and convince an 8-10/10 to sleep with you. Which one would you take?

Oh wait..did I just describe marriage?

 

[pippin]

Because we live in a totalitarian world Orwell would not even dream of. Soon enjoy your games as a rental service.

They are, if you consider that you only buy permission to download a program from the company's servers, not the game itself.

gog

Still asking for permission to download a program.

 

[Excidium II]

Torrents can be buggy as hell.

???

Buggy how? In the context of DRM-free, it's the exact same file just from a different source.

 

[Mustawd]

I remember torrenting Beyond Good and Evil, which was an early GoG version. Issue was that something in the game was causing modern rigs to overheat. This is something that later got patched, but my torrented version did not have it.

You can argue that I could have just waited for someone to hopefully upload a torrent with the patch. OR....I could just shell out $10, which is a pittance, and I can download from GoG and ensure patches are always applied when available.

I also remember torrenting D:OS (which I never installed). And then seeing the first patch get uploaded to the website. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. I eventually said "screw it", downloaded Steam, and never looked back.

 

[Roguey]

Also you people still have DVD drives?

I have a blu ray drive.

 

[Excidium II]

I remember torrenting Beyond Good and Evil, which was an early GoG version. Issue was that something in the game was causing modern rigs to overheat. This is something that later got patched, but my torrented version did not have it.

You can argue that I could have just waited for someone to hopefully upload a torrent with the patch. OR....I could just shell out $10, which is a pittance, and I can download from GoG and ensure patches are always applied when available.

I also remember torrenting D:OS (which I never installed). And then seeing the first patch get uploaded to the website. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. I eventually said "screw it", downloaded Steam, and never looked back.

Ah that's different story. The problem was lack of interest to upload updates.

 

[Mustawd]

I remember torrenting Beyond Good and Evil, which was an early GoG version. Issue was that something in the game was causing modern rigs to overheat. This is something that later got patched, but my torrented version did not have it.

You can argue that I could have just waited for someone to hopefully upload a torrent with the patch. OR....I could just shell out $10, which is a pittance, and I can download from GoG and ensure patches are always applied when available.

I also remember torrenting D:OS (which I never installed). And then seeing the first patch get uploaded to the website. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. I eventually said "screw it", downloaded Steam, and never looked back.

Ah that's different story. The problem was lack of interest to upload updates.

Right. It's too damn easy to just pay for Steam licenses that get updated automatically. I have like 300+ games in my library, for which I got for maybe $70? For a working professional I have no incentive to torrent if it's inconvenient for me.

 

[pippin]

For me it was the opposite, my torrented version of New Vegas was less buggy than the one I bought from Steam. But as you say there's a point when patches and stuff like that make everything a bit more complicated and games for pc are dirt cheap anyway, I mean, I bought New Vegas for like 7 dollars.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Right. It's too damn easy to just pay for Steam licenses that get updated automatically. I have like 300+ games in my library, for which I got for maybe $70? For a working professional I have no incentive to torrent if it's inconvenient for me.

A lot of people here live in the Third World.

p.s. not me

 

[mondblut]

Because retailers were too greedy and ended up with nothing to put on their precious shelves.

 

[GandGolf]

(Old man rant)
When I was a kid games used to fit on a single floppy! And not one of those fancy double sided high density kind either! We're talking single sided here under 400 kilobytes!

 

[Mustawd]

(Old man rant)
When I was a kid games used to fit on a single floppy! And not one of those fancy double sided high density kind either! We're talking single sided here under 400 kilobytes!

When I was a kid my parents used to buy me those "1000 games in one cd!!" disks that were full of shareware.

Actually, I did end up having a lot of fun on those. For example, I played rogue-like/dungeon crawler from there. Plus a shit ton of solitaire and mah jong games.

 

[janior]

World is getting too fucking convenient, people are getting so fucking lazy.

 

[Mr. Pink]

Before steam and downloads, I put all my CDs in one huge spool and chucked the game boxes into the trash (kept the manuals though). didn't know people actually care about boxes.

I miss thick manuals the most. The civilization 2 manual was a huge tome, and most of them were interesting and were great toilet reading.

Also, I miss the posters that sometimes came with the game. Especially the maps.

 

[Excidium II]

Back then my game collection mostly looked like this:

 

[Severian Silk]

Before steam and downloads, I out all my CDs in one huge spool and chucked the game boxes into the trash (kept the manuals though). didn't know people actually care about boxes.

I miss thick manuals the most. The civilization 2 manual was a huge tome, and most of them were interesting and were great toilet reading.

Also, I miss the posters that sometimes came with the game. Especially the maps.

This is what I did too. Except I still have an Interplay 10th Anniversary manual, including Wasteland, but lost the CD...

I've still got my ToEE poster.

 

[TheGreatOne]

Because PC gamers dumb consumers don't care about their rights

 

[Rahdulan]

Also you people still have DVD drives?

I have a blu ray drive.

I wonder if you're actually in the minority as far as PC users go. From what I've gathered blu-ray never caught on with PCs because digital trumped it.

 

[lefthandblack]

Still asking for permission to download a program.

That you get to keep and reinstall as many times as you want whether you have internet connectivity or not.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I wonder if you're actually in the minority as far as PC users go. From what I've gathered blu-ray never caught on with PCs because digital trumped it.

And because the media is retardedly expensive while not really being more expensive to make than standard DVDs.

 

[sullynathan]

You should get a console if you want boxed games.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Physical copies are still a thing, OP is living under a rock or never goes outside his basement.

 

[FeelTheRads]

You should get a console if you want boxed games.

DEEEEERP DEEEERP.

Physical copies are still a thing

Not really. Mostly there's hundred dollars collector's edition for huge AAAAAA+ titles or shitty DVD boxes.
But then again these days there's really only blockbusters who can afford to do that and starving indies who can't.