“Why Owning Your Video Games Has Become More Important Than Ever”
The better way to ask it is: Would you pay $80 to rent a game?
It’s a complicated topic for me, I think.
With console games, no. I will only ever buy a physical version because taking the game out of the case and putting it into the machine is a quintessential part of the experience. It’s the same reason why I like buying music on vinyl. There is a whole little ritual involved that makes it so much more enjoyable.
I’ve somehow deluded myself when it comes to PC games though. Digital distribution is just so fucking convenient. Putting a CD/Diskette in the machine and then running an installer always felt more like a chore than part of the whole experience.
I like the middle ground that GOG is trying to foster, (we’ll host these as long as possible, but we welcome you to download and save them forever) but realistically, I only play through most games once, and sometimes it takes me months or years to finish. So for me, an $80 rental with a multi-year lease time is something I would personally consider.
I’m going to get absolutely fucked when Steam changes policy or enshittifies. I’m in way too deep in one company lol
*For an unspecified period of time, to be terminated without refund at the publisher’s whim?
Yes
“Would you download a car???”!
I assume you know this and are referencing it sarcastically, but just in case you don’t: That was not the original text in the anti-piracy PSA; it was a third party edit making fun of the original PSA that is now widely mistaken as being the original text. The original text was “You wouldn’t steal a car”, not “You wouldn’t download a car”.
Yea, I know what it is, lol. It just came to mind for some reason.
Me, printing my 4th car this week: 😎
Would you pay 80€ for 200 - 800 of gaming?
I know I wouldn’t. I don’t buy them new.
People have been answering this question for years with their wallet. Why are we just asking now?
Fairly important and it’s grown with age. I wish I could get back all of the games I sold bc I was too poor to have them and newer games.
As much as I use emulators for travel, I have repurchased a bunch of old consoles and I love booting them up.
While nostalgia fuels a lot of this for me, I’m also passionate about preservation for everyone.
Got a 3DS XL and DSi XL this year and it has been my most favorite console I’ve owned. Really unique piece of handheld and I’ve liked the games that take advantage of the stylus like Trauma Center Under the Knife. First console where lower resolution and fps hasn’t bothered me.
It’s crazy how a used New 3DS XL cost as much as a Switch or even a Switch 2 these days. Jailbreaking and putting pirated roms on it has become so easy that this handheld has become popular again.
Multiplayer being free too through Pretendo is another plus, and its one of those systems that because of the stylus and dual screen ends up being better on the original hardware.
Although I do not have a full 3DS, just a 2DS, I hacked it and can play whatever I want on it. I also own physical media for it, but appreciate the possibilities it brings to me…
honestly not that worried about it. if they try to fuck me with licensing nonsense i’ll just pirate it.
Absolutely. If pirating ever stops being an option I’ll start to worry.
Before online came about we would visit car boot sales (flea markets for US?) and there was always a guy who would sell PS1 games, often not even released yet, for like £1. Barely covered the cost of the CDR and petrol. I think he just did it more for the love of the game than real profits.
If shit gets real bad I’m sure those people will reappear. Or maybe they never left and I just stopped going.
This is exactly how I feel.
I’m happy to play ball as long as the game is fair.
The second any of these platforms start being shitheads, that’s over.
Nintendo won’t get another penny from me. If I feel the need to pay any of their games they will be emulated from pirated ROMs.
If I’m going to rent them, the prices should reflect that.
That’s what it comes down to. When XBOX Gamepass was dirt cheap and they gave the newest games on release day, everyone said the model wouldn’t survive. They were right, but the model was fair. I didn’t own the games, and I had no say in when they came or went. I was paying to play them, not own them. If I wanted to own them, I would go out and buy them at full price, which I did for games like the Forza series and the DOOM series, among others.
Full disclosure, I have a massive Steam library, but I don’t believe that I truly own the games. I do have faith that Valve will treat me with more respect than a lot of other companies, though, so I’m hedging my bets with the best option I have. It’s why I don’t own anything from Epic, because I don’t trust a fucking word they say.
I’m with you on steam. If and when they enshittify I’m in for a bad time, but I trust them at the moment. We DO have better options in gog and itch selling drm free software though
I’m okay with owning a license to the game, rather than physical media. But I want to own it, in the sense that the companies cannot take my license rights away and that I can resell the license. And it should even work if the company or servers go away. Funny enough NFTs (Non-fungible token: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token ) would have solved this issue. Although it does not solve the issue with inactive servers, at least a specific license to a game could be owned.
Yea I swear that shit was designed to fail GameStop’s whole thing was making sure it did not mean digital licenses.
I send money to DE for Access to premium currency in Warframe. I don’t have to. I know I don’t own it and my privileges can be revoked at any time. I balance this with the free to play entry and my enjoyment of the content therin.
OpenWF is there for you if you ever need it.
An offline backup for when they kill the servers or ruin the game otherwise, a moddable version, one where you can replay cut or past content, get anything you want for free, one without any fomo or timers, etc.
OpenWF
thanks never heard of it!
How important is owning your own games to you?
Let me put it this way: I have nearly 5,000 games on Steam. It’s the one source of media I have no problem investing money into, because I agree with how Valve is providing the service.
It’s convenient, user-friendly, and easily exportable. I can go anywhere in the world, download my games and save files, and pick up where I left off. Which has been made even more convenient with the advent of the Steam Deck.
If I paid for a game, it’s in my library forever. Even if it gets removed from the Steam Store. And the regular sales/discounts ensure I can afford to have such a massive library. I would be severely in debt if I paid full price for my entire library.
If/when Valve loses Gabe Newell and the new CEO prioritizes profits over customer satisfaction, I will gladly switch to pirating and hoarding my own games.
I’m very much against subscription services and I firmly believe in owning everything I drop money on. I don’t play console games anymore because they’ve all been pushing subscription services, and with Sony in particular trying to push for people to not own games anymore? Fuck PlayStation.
This is also why I won’t use Epic Games. Their predatory business practices and poor customer service shows what a terrible company they are and I refuse to support a business that degrades and exploits the customer experience for profit. I will gladly pirate any exclusive they keep off the market, or wait until they show up on Steam in a year or so.
If everyone voted with their wallet, Epic Games would be forced to confront the fact they need to make changes to compete with the online gaming market, or go bankrupt.
Fuck them all. I want to own the media that brings me enjoyment. I want to play it on old hardware…
Same importance as owning anything else I buy.
I hate paying for something to want to use it 10 years later and realizing it’s no longer there. So yeah pretty important.
Going into a used game shop and finding a classic I played 10 years ago and popping it into a console I still own is pretty cool. So yeah pretty important.
This is all about greed so fuck all these gaming companies going digital only. There are exceptions. GOG is digital only but once I download it, it’s mine. It’s on me to keep a backed up copy. That is acceptable.
The important thing is that the terms are clearly defined up front, prior to the sale, not in fine print buried in some terms of service document, and not subject to change after the sale. Then I will decide if the advertised price is worth it for me in that moment.
The specifics of whether the game is for rent or for sale is not really important, nor is the price. What matters is that shady business practices end in legal consequences.
Not really important tbh. Ownership is only relevant in a society of scarcity. And games are infinitely copiable, thus the opposite of scarce.
I’m more in favor of collectivization, as in archives of games free to download, maintained by open projects and donations, stuff like that.
Yup, I think that if a game becomes completely unavailable on a platform it’s not even slightly immoral to emulate it. In fact I think companies should be forced to make the code available if they’re no longer sell on or support the platform. If someone wants to edit the code to make a game online again I think they should be able to.
And games are infinitely copiable, thus the opposite of scarce.
unless the servers where you can get your infinite copies from disappear or no longer host the game. And if the game requires an online connection to run, all those copies won’t do you any good, if those servers get shut down.
maybe it’s just me because im old but the photo itself shows why I have zero interest in owning a game, or any physical media (a someone who had vinyl originally, then tapes, seeing the back of both those was a joy. I’m also seeing “kids” return to analog cameras but that will pass, like bell bottoms.
a physical game that needs online authentication, or a server for collaborative play are all only here for a “short time” anyway, physical media aside.
I’m a reader more than a gamer, my books are all digital with no DRM, most of my games are digital from GOG and no DRM and are all single player, my music is all MP3 or flacc , zero streaming. It’s why I get pissy when phones don’t have an SD card, I can throw a TB of movies, books etc on a card and have another with me if I want but you streamers have killed it :)
A lot, which is why I don’t play any games from the following categories:
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Live-service forever games with cash shops
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Server-based games that become unplayable when the servers die
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anything with Denuvo
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anything that can’t be played without an account
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any console game where the console has not had its DRM compromised (Switch 1 yes, Switch 2 no)
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any Steam game with DRM more secure than the screen-door Steamworks
What is completely unimportant to me is reselling my games. I don’t really care if I “own” them ideologically or legally, I care about using them how I wish, when I wish, without barriers like “an account in good standing with a company that exists and operates its servers” in the way. DRM that gets removed is functionally the same as DRM-free software for my personal “ownership” requirements, though it is nice when there isn’t anything to remove in the first place.
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If i pay for something, i should own it. End of conversation.
I buy a copy of software. I buy a shoe. I buy a washing machine. I buy a car. Nothing is different here. Theres no expectation that i own the shoe store or the car dealer, i own the thing i bought, because thats what buying is.
