Going All Digital

[kazgar]

I assume this will be sacrilege for many of you, I apologise in advance.

About to move again, and packing up boxes of games I haven't touched since I unpacked them a couple of years ago, i'm wondering to myself "Why am I keeping these?" Especially now as GoG's catalogue of games have hit critical mass and Steam's doing it thing.

If I do want to play, say, Giants: Citizen Kabuto again, am I going to reach for that boxed copy that's 90% air and try to install of possibly faulty phsyical media, or will it be easier to throw a couple of dollars at GoG and download a version that's going to work straight away? And if so, why keep the box at all? Same goes for the infinity engine games, and a bunch of other things i've got sitting gathering dust. Maybe I should just turf/sell/give away the lot and buy them all online now available at a downloads notice, or even on a Hard Drive somewhere.

Anyone done this, did it feel good, or was it a poor idea badly executed?

 

[waywardOne]

I consolidated all my old games onto a few DVDs (and soon to go to 1 flash drive) so the boxes stay packed away. People make a lot of assumptions about what will always be available: servers, IP rights, net access, etc. There's no reason to not have both the convenience of digital plus the security of physical. Goodies/nostalgia doesn't even enter into it for me, though my 17+ year old Ultima IV cloth map is pretty badass on my wall.

As far as "modern" games go, the few digital ones I've bought have gotten uninstalled in less than 6 months, which tells me there really isn't a reason to archive them since they're not worth keeping anyway.

What I am keeping also are all the no-cd cracks which will be like gold in 10 years.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Faggot.

No, you're not gonna reach for that box to play the game, of course you're gonna use a backup. That's not what those boxes are for. Send them to me if you don't know what they're for.

 

[Grimlorn]

Faggot.

No, you're not gonna reach for that box to play the game, of course you're gonna use a backup. That's not what those boxes are for. Send them to me if you don't know what they're for.

They're for filling up a shelf and kickstarting an old-school RPG that you'll never deliver. Hey guys look at all my old RPGs. Give me monies now.

 

[Metro]

Never collected game boxes so, meh. If you don't enjoy collecting, just e-bay them.

 

[felipepepe]

Boxes are overrated, the real old treasures are game manuals, like Fallout 1 & 2 wasteland guides, Baldurs's Gate and NWN massive Player's Book, Civilization 2 BOOK on economics and international politics...

 

[Steve]

I find digital copies more convenient.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Digital copies are far more convenient, and I can understand perfectly if you're looking to conserve space and getting rid of stuff you don't think you need. And this from someone who has 10 large boxes of game boxes.

It's just a shame that the quality of games seems to have degraded considerably since digital distribution became a reality, to the point that a title is rarely worthy of the 5+ gigs of disk space it requires.

 

[spectre]

Digital copies all the way for me. I don't enjoy stockpiling cardboard, dvd cases, figurines, cloth maps, etc. I do enjoy me a good manual, but they don't seem to make them anymore.
Other than that, it's just more convenient. Juggling disk images is easier and they install much quicker. Not to mention they don't get damaged (and I've had quite a few CDs dying on me).
I have no qualms about torrenting shit I already OWN, if it saves me some wear on the disks and gets rid of the annoying DRM so much the better.

What I am keeping also are all the no-cd cracks which will be like gold in 10 years.

That got me curious. What makes you think that?

 

[Phelot]

I feel bad from time to time that I ditched all my game boxes. I had some good ones, but these days I don't bother buying hard copies of games. I don't really have the space for them and digital is just more convenient. The only pain in the ass is making sure I remember exactly where I got a game from in case I need to download it again. I try to keep a copy of the installer backupped, though.

 

[Achilles]

I went full digital years years ago, I think the last retail game I bought was The Orange Box. My decision did bite me in the ass twice though, once when Direct2drive turned into Gamefly and I lost a couple of games, and another when Impulse was assimilated by Gamestop. Since then I try to limit my purchases to specific vendors, namely Steam and GOG. If eithr of those goes down though, I'm well and truly fucked :D

 

[waywardOne]

At least with GOG you can burn the installers to disc.

 

[Achilles]

True and I guess that there are already cracks for most Steam games if the service goes down. The problem is that I never download and store the stuff that I buy, safe (?) in the knowledge that I can get them at any time.

 

[sea]

Depends. I love physical game boxes and goodies, but unless a game has a cool collector's edition I feel is worth paying for, I pretty much always buy digital instead, especially as that's where you get the best sales anyway. Most modern games barely even ship with a manual thicker than a business card, and in fact some don't have any at all to begin with - not that modern manuals are worth reading anyway. Publishers start putting out physical copies that actually justify being physical, then maybe I'll start buying boxed games again.

 

[DalekFlay]

I went all digital a year or so ago. Sold everything to a collector I knew with an ebay shop, probably for less than I could have gotten myself but fuck all that work. I just wanted to move on with my life, carrying and collecting stuff has long since lost its appeal.

I have been king of surprised how many games aren't for sale digitally though. Wanted to play NOLF again a month or so ago and had to pirate the damn thing.

 

[spectre]

Most modern games barely even ship with a manual thicker than a business card, and in fact some don't have any at all to begin with - not that modern manuals are worth reading anyway. Publishers start putting out physical copies that actually justify being physical, then maybe I'll start buying boxed games again.

This actually makes me wonder. By abandoning all the stuff that made boxed goods, the publishers are actually feeding the pirates. For instance, Arcanum or Baldur's Gate box copies has had so much added value, I wouldn't even consider pirating them. Sure, all the goodies cost money, but most AAA titles have overbloated marketing budgets anyway, which would make proper manual and guidebook costs look like peanuts.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Funny how different people are. OP is thinking about throwing/ giving away his old games while I invest a good amount of money into extending my collection of old game boxes. Of course I'm using mostly digital distribution (gog) or my own backup copies when playing thsese days, but I'm a collector and every old game box for me is a piece of preserved gaming history. It's not only the manuals, maps etc, it's also little stuff like game catalogues, commercial adds etc.
Reading an origin product catalogue from 1993 (buy this screensaver package for only 39,99!) or an issue of LucasArts'"The Adventurer" (man, back then even the product catalogues had soul) is almost like a time-machine that takes you back to the good old days

Oh and OP, please don't throw away your stuff, put it on ebay. There is always enough freaks like me who will gladly pay you to take your old junk from you

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I collect old boxed games. I usually play the digital versions (abandonware), though.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Collecting physical stuff is a mental illness.

I don't even know when I opened my optical drive the last time.

 

[taxalot]

I would keep on collecting if I could afford it. I've got a few stuff (infocom collection CD, Snatcher), but the stuff I really want (Ultima, Zork, Magic Candle, old sierra titles) goes at really really ridiculous prices. Fuck you, Ebay.

 

[Father Walker]

Don't give a shit about boxes and buy digital copies only as of late.

I still buy my music on CD/vinyl, though.