Vecha Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Well as far as flawed emulators...its better than nothing. I've always wondered if they'll look back at our time and ask, "why didn't they preserve better?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoCreator Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Well as far as flawed emulators...its better than nothing. I've always wondered if they'll look back at our time and ask, "why didn't they preserve better?' The scary thing is how little of today will survive. We've started to reach the point where we've realised CD technology doesn't last. Some early CDs now refuse to read, the data is just corrupt. Eventually this will happen to all discs; so CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, Hard Drives... all gone. Solid State drives we know corrupt data over time too so they're no help. Pretty much all digital storage will be unusable in 150 years, and even if it was, would the future have machines to read our various formats? Not only does a disc have to survive but the machine that plays that disc has to survive too. It's already hard enough to find a working Jaguar CD, Commodore-64 Disc Drive or Laserdisc Player. Imagine how impossible it'll be to find something to read a UMD, HD-DVD, or something really obscure like a CD-i or Nuon disc in say, the year 4000AD. There are other mediums obviously. VHS may survive longer but magnetic tape and video/camera film rots unless stored properly, and even then it's damaged by simple things like light and water. Stored properly it might last a few hundred years, no more than 500 I'd say. Paper is probably our most reliable medium, but even paper is reduced to cellulose unless kept in ideal conditions, shockingly fast. Annoyingly paper will likely outlast anything digital as the words in a book can't corrupt while it just sits there. Still, even books rarely last more than 1000 years when well preserved because again, they rot. USA will be as though it didn't exist for the most part. Plastics will degrade over the years, and wood will rot. Houses are usually made of wood in USA so they won't last. Large cities may use concrete but everything is regularly destroyed and rebuilt as buildings fall into disrepair. Few buildings are more than 50 years old in an American city compared to say Liverpool in UK where most of the city is over 300 years old or Chester in UK where a sizable chunk of the city is over 1000 years old, and a significant of the roads, walls, and larger monuments etc are over 2200 years old. We just don't build things to last any more. At least stone and brick buildings last more than the wood, glass and alloy buildings of USA, but that's not much. What we know of the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians, Inca, Aztec and other ancient races is largely carvings and sculpture... outside of gravestones, our society carves very little into stone now. It may be that in 4000AD more is known of Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire than of the United States Of America. Sure some things like Mt. Rushmore and the Statue Of Liberty may survive... but not much more. It's an interesting thought experiment at least. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Heat Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Archaeologists are going to happen across my home after the end of the world and find me clutching my Shining Force 3 CD with a note threatening to visit them with three curses if they take it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 It won't get deleted from your hard drive if the server gets turned off, either. And good luck doing a backup of a physical object. But if for whatever reason I have to uninstall it, or get a new computer or whatever, it being removed from the server will prevent me from installing it again in the future. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 (edited) Good luck playing your PS4 and Xbone games when Sony and MS kill their online PS4 and Xbone online services in the future to get customers to migrate to the Xbox Next and PS6. At least if Steam dies, I'll most likely be able to buy cheap copies of the games I lost from GOG (assuming Steam doesn't allow folks to download and back up their games). I won't even have to wait for 'HD' versions compatible with the next-plus-one console generation. Anyway, I've never had to replace a digital game, and I've been buying digital for ten years. I have, however, had to replace a number of physical copies, including supposedly damage-proof blu rays for PS3, which I've used lightly and only had for two years. Anyway, that whole sense of ownership thing? That's just false consciousness. Edited July 20, 2014 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Anyway, that whole sense of ownership thing? That's just false consciousness. Oh, totally agree with that. Really, the only tangible benefit to buying physical is that I can sell it again if I get tired of it or decide I don't like it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Yeah I'm on two sides of the fence with digital. For consoles I'm not exactly a huge fan since once the servers go, and they will go, I'll be left with naught but memories (that's if I get around to them). But I'll still have disc games, to either play on the ageing hardware or on emulators (which I gotta say most cases I've not really seen any issues, even PCSX2 is pretty damn solid). With PC my plan for "should Steam/whatever go down, then hooray for the fact 99% of games are cracked". There will be some outliers that are service based, and I tend to avoid those, but for most part if it's installed and running on my PC there's usually cracks out there that'll keep things going long after. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Heat Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Really, the only tangible benefit to buying physical is that I can sell it again if I get tired of it or decide I don't like it. Pretty much. I used to be a collector, but then it sort of dawned on me that I don't give a shit about the medium itself, I just care about the data stored on it. Also, fucking dudes driving up the price of Suikoden II. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 I stopped collecting once I realized seeing a stack of game cases lined up on a shelf wasn't making me feel any better. Not to mention that perhaps Ive always been a mainstream gamer. A significant amount of PS2 games I own got remasters, ports, or remakes, so now I own 2 versions, or thanks to Vita 3 versions(MGS series). I also own quite a few PS1 games and most of them have digital releases on PSN. I play all these games on Vita or PS3, so my physical copies are useless now. And I would love to get rid of my old versions, but theyre pretty worthless. And as far as selling games, so few games go up in value, at least on a permanent basis. Its so small a percentage of games that it pretty much doesnt exist. Theres always a reprint or a digital release nowadays for most things. Shits not worth it. The only thing worth it is to sell a game a month after it comes out, which is not something I ever do. Thats the only way you'll make any of your money back. It's also demoralizing to see stacks of collector's editions of games lined up at Gamestop's top shelves. most of them on sale 6 months later, often priced lower than the regular version since these things take too much shelf space in stores and too much space at home. They seem to not really belong in life as a whole. The collecting thing is over. Unless some supervillain wipes the internet clean, we'll always have a back up of a back up of a back up. Very different from losing things back in the 1930s. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 I don't remember which game it was, but there was something I bought, played, beat, decided I would probably never play it again, and then sold for more than I bought it for. But yeah, that was a complete fluke, but when I'm talking about the ability to sell I really do mean after a week or two, if I decide I don't like it as much as I thought I would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 It won't get deleted from your hard drive if the server gets turned off, either. And good luck doing a backup of a physical object. But if for whatever reason I have to uninstall it, or get a new computer or whatever, it being removed from the server will prevent me from installing it again in the future. Because you're banking everything into DRM-filled services like Steam instead of glorious GoG and the Humble Store. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 I buy from GoG and the Humble Store occasionally, when they have a game that I want for cheaper than Steam (and that I don't already have on Steam). Also, I have more faith in Steam's ability to continue operating than I do in my own ability to keep track of the downloaded installation files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoCreator Posted July 23, 2014 Report Share Posted July 23, 2014 Got to agree with Ethan there, it's far easier to misplace a file of only a few hundred MB on a 1.5TB hard drive than it is misplace a game disc or cartridge. I suppose you could burn it to a disc, get a blank case and print up your own label; but at that point it's a home-made physical copy and I'm here to play the games, not become an unpaid part of the production team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I buy from GoG and the Humble Store occasionally, when they have a game that I want for cheaper than Steam (and that I don't already have on Steam). Also, I have more faith in Steam's ability to continue operating than I do in my own ability to keep track of the downloaded installation files. Considering how cheap storage and also how cheap cloud storage is becoming this really shouldn't be an issue anymore. Especially if you truly care about this which you are acting like you do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 I don't. Not sure what gave you that impression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I don't. Not sure what gave you that impression. So if you don't care about holding onto things why don't you buy digital? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I do care about holding on to things, I meant I don't feel strongly about buying physical over digital. On PC I buy almost exclusively digital. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vecha Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 I buy from GoG and the Humble Store occasionally, when they have a game that I want for cheaper than Steam (and that I don't already have on Steam). Also, I have more faith in Steam's ability to continue operating than I do in my own ability to keep track of the downloaded installation files. Considering how cheap storage and also how cheap cloud storage is becoming this really shouldn't be an issue anymore. Especially if you truly care about this which you are acting like you do. I expect more of you FDS..."cloud storage"?? Is everyone using this word now? Has the planet gone mad? My brother, Coporate Buzz Words hostage. I seek justice - denied! I shall not submit! I shall conquer! I shall rise! My name is Vecha, and I have seen evil! I have seen horror! I have seen the unholy maggots which feast in the dark recesses of the human soul! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Cloud storage is an actual, real, well-defined thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vecha Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 (edited) Cloud storage is an actual, real, well-defined thing... I thought it was just a servers with storage on it/them. And I remember people thinking it was a BS word. Edited July 25, 2014 by Vecha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 People complain about every use of the word "cloud", and it's dumb. You're basically right, cloud storage is storage on some kind of online service, using servers. So what? That doesn't make the term invalid. Where its use becomes stupid is when companies say shit like "using the power of the cloud" without any further elaboration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vecha Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 (edited) I didn't say it was invalid per se...I just think it's a buzz word. A silly buzz word. And if saying, "the power of the cloud" is silly, I feel "using Cloud Computing/storage!" is just as silly."offloading the computations to virtual severs" is better. Hell they could have said, "Server Web" and it would make a hell of a lot more sense than "cloud servers/Cloud Storage"God, 1984 had it right on the money when it comes to word usage.Anyway, it's just a word and I was having a bit of fun. I can't change the word usage...I'll just deal with it. Carry on! Edited July 25, 2014 by Vecha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Cloud storage is a real and easily defined thing. Cloud COMPUTING is what's bullshit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vecha Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 And why is that? They both deal with offloading to multiple servers. They are both pretty much metaphors. When defining "cloud" storage the word cloud isn't really a part of what is going on.Hell, when people talk about cloud storage, cloud computing is interwoven in what they are describing. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-storage.htmThey both deal with multiple servers sharing/moving data around... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted July 26, 2014 Report Share Posted July 26, 2014 I mention both storage and cloud storage. As in, one that is physically there with you, and one that is spread across magical server farms known as "the cloud." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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