Why are some gamers so desperate to go pro digital?

[Nintendork666]

Some people just don't have the space or desire to have their living areas cluttered with gaming paraphernalia.

[darsparx]

Heh I don't have the space but I desire to have my room cluttered with gaming stuff

[ZenErik]

Desperate to go pro digital? I just like digital because it saves me lots of space. I'm not exactly the neatest person around and not having shelves of games, DVDs, CDs, etc helps a lot. Will also help whenever I move.

[GSZX1337]

I hope nobody was put off by my sarcasm in that post. It was just in fun, because this is a subject I've ranted about before and I figured I would shake it up with a little attempt at comedy.

...

Now don't get me wrong everyone, I understand that digital isn't pure evil and there are upsides to it (Price being a big one, at least on the PC side). My original post was just a colorful way of showing why I, personally, prefer physical media and why I dread the possibility of an all-digital future where physical games are no longer an option. I believe both can, and should, live together in harmony so that all of us gamers can go with whichever option we prefer.

Honestly, I was a bit put off by that post at first, but after a moment of thought I didn't think there was any animosity. After reading this post it's definitely confirmed that you weren't being some shithead saying that people who buy digital are ignoramuses.

...I don't think I should have to jump through hoops to ensure my collection will stay around forever.

I took some of this paragraph out since this is the point I want to address. I personally don't see it as much different than keeping your physical games in a cool, dry place out of the reach of those who'll mess with them and cleaning them when they don't play right. I know this has been mentioned (I actually wanted to mention this last post, but I forgot), but physical media degrades over time due to disc rot so physical media's not going to last forever.

A bit of a simplification, true, but the point stands. Digital distribution is by it's very nature a form of DRM that puts a wall between the consumer and their product. I can't re-download a game if my internet isn't working properly or if the website I bought it off is down. I can always put the disc into my system and just play it.

DRM is the copy protection layer on top of the digital content, not the content itself. Also, physical media can (and often does) have DRM as well. Blurays are a prime example of this as you'd need software like AnyDVD to make a copy of/extract from a disc.

As for not being able to re-download a game, that is a valid point though there are ways you can mitigate this: If you're using GoG, you can of course just backup the game to your heart's content. For Steam, things get a bit rougher: Steam has both an offline mode and a backup feature, though the offline mode has varying results and the backup still requires Steam to re-install the game and then you'd need a net connection to activate the game (at least I did when I backed up and restored Team Fortress 2).

I've never seen someone put always online DRM in a disc based game. The only possible exception is when disc based games are tied to services like Origin or Steam, but those hardly count as real physical releases because you can't install those games without an internet connection in the first place.

I disagree that because a disc-based game requires Steam/Origin it isn't a physical game. don't really have anything else to say about this.

The "That's okay, I heard Steam has a sale going!" part was not meant to say that Blizzard sells their games on Steam. It was to segue into the next point, as if I was saying "Well you can't play Diablo 3, but you can probably buy something off of Steam to play instead."

Oh, I see what you were doing now.

Maybe Valve doesn't, but they can.

Unfortunately, Valve isn't the only gaming company that can screw you. Microsoft can ban you from Xbox Live making that multiplayer game nothing more than plastic and Sony has doled out firmware updates that remove features and made accessories no longer work. That's an unfortunate part of modern gaming that's not limited to digital downloads.

Yes, but again, that's more work and money. Alternatively I can just buy the game once in physical form and put it on the shelf I already have. This point of mine wasn't really trying to say that physical is better because of storage, it was merely to debunk the commonly believed myth that digital is better just because it doesn't take up physical space. I've seen many people (on this forum and elsewhere) praising our digital overlords that they no longer have to worry about finding shelf space for all their games. I was merely pointing out that it's a double sided sword, and neither is perfect.

Eh, I don't really think that's such a big deal as upgrading a hard drive (at least for the Playstation) is an easy endeavor and storage gets cheaper all the time. If you start to amass a large collection of games spanning several (or all if you're really hardcore :p), you'll need to get some serious shelving which might not be feasible in a small living space. Shelves are only convenient when you already have them. Maybe I'm biased 'cause I hate shopping for furniture.