why I hate physical media

    Just a little rant about why I will always cheer the death of physical media and embrace digital distribution:

    I buy a copy of Guitar Hero 3 for xbox, one of my rare console game purchases. I get home anxious to shred, slip in the disc, and go to plug in my guitar to the xbox. As I'm lifting it ever so slightly by the corner to find the hole through the flap of darkness, I hear a KACHUNK. "What the fuck was that ?" I exclaim. Apparently I learned a 64 dollar lesson about being anywhere remotely near your xbox 360 while the disc is spinning inside, as of course it had slipped out of the tray and proceeded to get utterly trashed bouncing around inside my unit.

    Microsoft tells me to talk to the store I bought it from, the store I bought it from wont touch it, I emailed Activision to see if there is anything they can do to replace my disc, but I am pretty sure I am effectively fucked. Apparently with the current system of physical media, I am not purchasing a personal license to play a game with my 60 dollars, but just a little round piece of plastic.

    Digital Distribution cannot come fast enough!

    I guess in essence, you could still call steam physical media since it is sitting on your physical hard drive. I guess I feel like I'm getting more for my money with steam because it's more like a form of insurance against any kind of need to physically keep track of my game over the course of my life. I don't ever see myself being separated from an internet connection in the future, so having a record of my ownership of this game online seems more secure to me than something I can lose in my couch cushions.

    Quote from SnipaMasta

    Sorry, physical media is here to stay and digital will not take over, simply because games are getting bigger and bigger and internet connections aren't.

    I downloaded CoD4 - just over 6gigs.

    Where is your physical media god now?!??!!!

    Digital is superior and only queers and steers want anything other than digital :S

    I don't think you'll ever be able to download a great big guitar shaped controller

    But Internet connections are getting faster, and the connections we have now are fine for downloading the vast majority of games out there (ignoring games like Blue Dragon). I have a feeble 1mb connection, and I've had no problem using Steam or Playstation Store to download gigs of demos and games.

    I'm also sure developers knowing their primary medium is the Internet will start taking measures to shrink their game size, maybe compiling all those prebaked assets during the installation procedure? Whatever, things can be done.

    I think developers would much prefer these methods, they lose less money on the publisher, it allows Indy developers much more freedom and exposure, and binding things to an account like Steam also reduces piracy (it doesn't stop it of course, nothing does).

    I was initally really against things like Steam, Xbox Live/Arcade, Playstation Store, DLSite, etc. because I liked the physical disk, box and manual. But these days they seem like a much better option. People on 56k's be damned.

    That sucks Zaphod. However personally I am still a whore for physical media. Hell I still buy hundreds of £/$ worth of Vinyl records every month, and am a sucker for the collectors editions of games with additional little figures, books maps etc.

    I support a world in which there is a choice of both

    Quote from Taylor

    I don't think you'll ever be able to download a great big guitar shaped controller

    I will also never buy guitar queer-o (to steal a term from south park).

    Wow, Zaph...

    I received a copy of GHIII (for 360) and the disk had a small chunk on the outer edge with a half-moon type crack in it. Machine obviously won't read it.

    le sigh....

    You know, I feel for you and everything. And damn, that's tough :/

    But it isn't exactly news. They even state in the xbox 360 manual that you're not supposed to move the xbox in any way while a disc is inside the tray, since it might damage the disc.

    This is in my manual anyway.. And I still have my first batch xbox360. However, I have an european version, and I don't know if tha tdiffers from the american first batch.

    There was however also a big fuss about it when the box got released because people kept scratching their discs.

    However...

    I don't see how it can fuck it up that bad by just moving it so little as you did. You must have gotten really unlucky, I'm afraid While they do mention it, off the top of my head, I think they're talking about more than minor movements. I have myself moved my box around(horizontally) while the disc was spinning with no issues. I think their mention is more involving vertical movement, such as lifting the xbox to a stand.

    Damn Hope things work out for you.

    Yeah... generally a good idea to not touch your 360 when it's on, especially don't move it or turn it from vertical to horizontal or vice-versa. They should be more explicit about that.

    The last two games I bought from steam didnt work (Bioshock and Quake Wars), but their physical media counterparts worked just fine.

    No DD for me unless its a game made by valve.

    What I don't like about steam, is being dependant on steam to be able to play your games. Even on the games that have non-steam counterparts. It's silly. And it often means you can't play it when the steam servers are down :/

    Quote from Cybbe

    What I don't like about steam, is being dependant on steam to be able to play your games. Even on the games that have non-steam counterparts. It's silly. And it often means you can't play it when the steam servers are down :/

    But that is what makes steam - you have a system which is providing at least some kind of security for digital copies of your hard work. And to be honest - the Offline Mode works very stable (at least in comparsion to earlier times of steam) and the steam gui doesn't take that much ram.

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