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okay so not too long ago I did a video
regarding the degradation of release day
practices as a function of digital
downloads the idea was that the process
of digital downloading and the launch
day norm of having massive day 1 patches
was having a negative impact on release
quality by offering an extension of
development and polish time past the
point where it was previously enabled I
stand by that wholeheartedly but a lot
of viewers then began to ask well what
is a better format then the process of
digitally downloading a game is
extremely convenient analog and physical
methods are for one is significantly
more time-consuming they require you to
visit a store buy a product and then
return to install and/or play it with a
digital format not only can you purchase
download and play a game without ever
leaving your home but you can have your
entire game library backed up to a
central account which is accessible from
anywhere you login there is undeniable
convenience there but with convenience
comes a few very important drawbacks
that I think are less considered and
that is the focus of today's video let
me pitch you a scenario here in the not
so distant past of gaming you would
travel to a store
whichever retailer you prefer purchase a
game return home slot the disc install
and begin playing after that process was
complete you were able to play whenever
you wanted for however long you wanted
and in essence you holistically owned
the game now there were certain unique
drawbacks admittedly if you scratched
the disc the game didn't play anymore so
you had to be careful and preserve the
physical product that you had bought but
then that's not really an uncommon thing
you could even play with no internet
connection at least most of the time
perhaps you would lose access to certain
specific games or features but the
majority of even online games had an
offline component or version so the
players could participate even with no
internet connection another aspect to
this and arguably the most important one
is buyer protection through legislation
that defends consumer rights pertaining
to the retail distribution of physical
goods when you bought a physical disc
there were various warranty programs and
the option to seek a refund remained
intact within a certain time span or
various other regulated parameters in
most countries there is a section of
legal framework called consumer or buy
your rights or something to that end and
I'm no expert on the intricacies of it
all but there are reasonable guidelines
in place to protect the interests of the
buyer in commercial retail transactions
considering these two factors you could
buy a game play the game seek a refund
if it was broken dysfunctional or
otherwise unacceptable and if it turned
out to be worthy of your money and your
time you could play it whenever you want
for as long as you want
now let's pose a different scenario in
this scenario you purchase a new age
always online digital download it's more
convenient from the start sure because
you can sign in to the store buy the
game start the download and then
depending on your connection speed to be
loaded up and playing the game in a
similar or even much shorter time span
than going out and buying a physical
disc but consider these next factors for
the sake of not repeating material I
will gloss over the argument that the
game is likely in a much worse launch
state because of the online patching
capabilities and if this were in fact
the launch window for the game you may
be downloading a 50 game and a 60 gig a
one patch but let's focus back on the
main topic you can sign in and play this
game but you don't actually own this
game hear me out now because a lot of
people are going to have a knee-jerk
reaction saying yes you do you're wrong
you don't own the game you own access to
the game furthermore you own a complex
rerouted access channel which goes
through multiple different companies if
you are an Xbox within your Microsoft
account having purchased a game like
anthem or the division 2 that means you
have a Microsoft account accessing
Microsoft servers on which your game is
housed then bouncing through a Uplay
account where the division servers are
housed to allow you access to play your
game there is also a different route for
each game you own from a unique
publisher your EA account holds the
anthem keys Activision for call of duty
etc etc this means that when there is a
Microsoft Live downtime you can't play
your game when there is you play
downtime you can't play your game when
there is internet downtime you can't
play your game there are a ton of
different links in the chain and each
one can totally strip away your ability
to play the game that you paid for
because you don't actually own it if one
of your accounts gets banned for
whatever reason you permanently lose
access to all of the games that are
further down the chain you could end up
losing your EA account and with it $300
worth of purchases you could lose your
Microsoft account or for a better
example have it suspended for whatever
reason and lose access to even more
games and there are a lot of different
accounts in play here on
other angle to consider is the
individual game server longevity since
you have effectively only purchased an
Access Pass it is entirely possible for
a company to reroute resources away from
an older game and shut down the servers
entirely servers aren't free to run this
means that overtime games that we all
know and love may actually disappear
forever because no one actually owned
them they just own the ability to get on
and play them through a central server
and when that server is gone the
purchase that all those gamers made
ceases to exist for still another angle
consider the ones concrete ability to
seek a refund it has now become common
for companies to set up a complex
click-through agreement which forces
users to sign away their right to seek a
refund before the download as soon as
they actually download the files
this creates a buyer trap you sometimes
can't play the game to truly know if
it's worth it or if you like it unless
you buy it and download it to play it
and by downloading it you have
sacrificed all your rights to a refund
you are then stuck with this digital
product which you could lose access to
at any time through a variety of
different channels and in the end it may
be gone forever
forget about saving these games to
reminisce with your kids in ten or
fifteen years they will probably be gone
literally just gone forever this is not
yet an all-encompassing phenomenon but
that's the direction it's headed
pre-orders of physical discs now often
simply have a piece of paper with a code
on it there is a deliberate trend
towards the complete elimination of
physical and analog game copies and
having everything route through a
digital marketplace to a central server
for which they simply sell the access
there are certain games where the online
component is integral but there are far
more where it's not there are a horde of
games with more practically every day
that provide a product which could
easily be played offline but because of
cloud saves and various other shallow
components they are always online as an
example I can't play secure Oh shadows
die twice cick hero a purely
single-player game with no online
cooperative play whatsoever I can't play
it at all without being connected to the
Internet that makes no [ __ ] sense a
lot of people ask me because of these
opinions well what's the alternative
then and I believe the alternative is
somewhere in the middle
when you buy a game you should be buying
a base level product a version of the
game that can be played offline at any
time and is stored locally on your PC or
in your console files obviously for true
MMOs this wouldn't really be possible
there are certain games very few however
that would be unable to provide this
realistically but most games would
certainly have the capability then after
that you would have the online version
the same exact game but you have an
internet connection
the online version would require you to
go through the standard accounts just
like we have now
it would require up-to-date patches and
all the typical bells and whistles that
we see at the moment but it would not be
the only version available players could
choose to download patches and various
files for the offline version if they
wanted to developers would simply update
the game as normal and if you had a
steady internet connection and wanted to
keep the offline version of your game
fully up to date with the latest patches
sure that would be completely possible
but the ability to play an offline game
whenever you want for however long you
want would be preserved the details of a
system like this would be somewhat
complex obviously each game would need
to be tied to a serial key and various
anti-piracy measures would have to be
taken but I firmly believe it is
possible to execute there would need to
be a calculated measure created to split
the two versions in terms of game
progress and save structure but I can't
imagine that to be impossible in the end
even if it were to be difficult it would
be monumentally beneficial to consumers
because when you purchased a game you
would actually get the game not just get
temporary shifting access to that game
which could go up in smoke at any time
and leave you with a jumble of
inaccessible files that you purchased
and can no longer use at all shipping a
cardboard placeholder disk with a
digital key code is not an acceptable
practice the shift from physical to
digital is detrimental to the industry
because of pre-release development
trends and launch day practices but it
goes deeper than that
the transition from physical to digital
on a fundamental level is stripping
consumers of not only their rights but
their property I still have a
PlayStation 1 in the basement and a
stack of discs I can go back and play
those games right now but the same will
not be true for most if not all of these
modern-day online only trash heaps in
the end we are no longer buying games we
are buying temporary access to them
through
bihter web of accounts that can have
unexplained and unexpected downtime or
result in total loss of purchase without
any recourse possible whatsoever in an
ideal world the physical benefits of
purchase security would be blended with
the digital ease of access it is
unlikely anything will come of this
video though it's just the rantings of a
bitter youtuber who doesn't really like
current industry trends but hopefully
some viewers end up thinking a bit more
about the games industry and the games
that they choose to buy and subsequently
the weaknesses that those games now have
weaknesses that seem to be increasing in
severity every single day that's enough
though if you want to support the
channel check out the links down below
we have various gaming communities
merchandise and some other stuff as well
but that's it I'll cut it there and stop
rambling thank you all for watching and
have a nice night
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