Venting The impermanence of digital videogames.

[Anxieyote]

I have been subscribing to Apple's "Apple Arcade" service on my phone. One of the things I have been doing to satisfy my OCD and pass the time is going through the Apple Arcade library and rating and reviewing each game. I write little articles about each one, and rate them on a scale of 1-10. Apple Arcade has limited time exclusivity contracts for some of these games, but I naively-assumed that the games I hadn't gotten to yet would remain on the service for as long as Apple Arcade exists, or that there would be some way to still download or play the games in some form.

I woke up to news that a bunch of games that initially kickstarted the service are going to be leaving soon. No date is provided, so they are just going to be removed from the service at an indefinite time since Apple doesn't feel the need to provide a timeframe. Maybe I deserve my "surprised Pikachu face" reaction to this, but it makes me feel like my little passion hobby is completely pointless. Some of those games won't even be available on other platforms when their contract expires, so me documenting my experience with each one isn't going to have value in the grand scheme.

I feel swindled in some way, like "Hey…I have paid for this service for the past 3 years, you can't just take my games away from me."

But apparently, they can. I guess this is what we can expect if games adopt the Netflix model. It's disappointing, but I may have to give up trying to play through and experience each game that comes to the service, and just play the newer ones that will give me a fresh 3-year expiration date.

 

[Smart No More]

I'm with you. Having grown up with physical copies of various media I'm not crazy about the digitisation of things. They still cost the same if not more than physical copies and there's no guarantee you own them indefinitely. Golden oldies will need to be repurchased in future and they'll be ports of the original which will have varied features and the experience of playing the original will be tarnished because it will be optimised. The feesback from your controller and the hand eye coordination you became so familiar with will not be the same.

I miss the ritual of ripping open new media, reading the intruction manual and added bonuses included. The smell of stickers and new print. It's not entirely dead yet but its heading that way. There's no resale value of digital items. The money a collector might make on an old classic with it. Now it's in the licencers pocket, holding your content to ransom and recharging you for content you already own. Not to mention all the space it takes up on a hard drive. Pisses me right off!

 

[Julgran]

I have been subscribing to Apple's "Apple Arcade" service on my phone. One of the things I have been doing to satisfy my OCD and pass the time is going through the Apple Arcade library and rating and reviewing each game. I write little articles about each one, and rate them on a scale of 1-10. Apple Arcade has limited time exclusivity contracts for some of these games, but I naively-assumed that the games I hadn't gotten to yet would remain on the service for as long as Apple Arcade exists, or that there would be some way to still download or play the games in some form.

I woke up to news that a bunch of games that initially kickstarted the service are going to be leaving soon. No date is provided, so they are just going to be removed from the service at an indefinite time since Apple doesn't feel the need to provide a timeframe. Maybe I deserve my "surprised Pikachu face" reaction to this, but it makes me feel like my little passion hobby is completely pointless. Some of those games won't even be available on other platforms when their contract expires, so me documenting my experience with each one isn't going to have value in the grand scheme.

I feel swindled in some way, like "Hey…I have paid for this service for the past 3 years, you can't just take my games away from me."

But apparently, they can. I guess this is what we can expect if games adopt the Netflix model. It's disappointing, but I may have to give up trying to play through and experience each game that comes to the service, and just play the newer ones that will give me a fresh 3-year expiration date.

Yeah. It's a sad state of affairs when absolutely everything - including video games, movies and music - is only available through an online service like that.

It's a little different with PC games, though, since there are options, such as Good Old Games, that allow you to download and keep the installation files.

I'm with you. Having grown up with physical copies of various media I'm not crazy about the digitisation of things. They still cost the same if not more than physical copies and there's no guarantee you own them indefinitely. Golden oldies will need to be repurchased in future and they'll be ports of the original which will have varied features and the experience of playing the original will be tarnished because it will be optimised. The feesback from your controller and the hand eye coordination you became so familiar with will not be the same.

I miss the ritual of ripping open new media, reading the intruction manual and added bonuses included. The smell of stickers and new print. It's not entirely dead yet but its heading that way. There's no resale value of digital items. The money a collector might make on an old classic with it. Now it's in the licencers pocket, holding your content to ransom and recharging you for content you already own. Not to mention all the space it takes up on a hard drive. Pisses me right off!

You might want to check out Limited Run Games, if you haven't already.

 

[Smart No More]

Yeah. It's a sad state of affairs when absolutely everything - including video games, movies and music - is only available through an online service like that.

It's a little different with PC games, though, since there are options, such as Good Old Games, that allow you to download and keep the installation files.



You might want to check out Limited Run Games, if you haven't already.

Thanks for that. I was unaware of limeted run. That's great! I'll make use of them for sure.

Do you know, off the top of your head whether they deliver worldwide without excessive shipping fees? I'll check the site but just thought I'd ask as you may already know. Thanks again for the recommendation.

 

[Julgran]

Thanks for that. I was unaware of limeted run. That's great! I'll make use of them for sure.

Do you know, off the top of your head whether they deliver worldwide without excessive shipping fees? I'll check the site but just thought I'd ask as you may already know. Thanks again for the recommendation.

No, unfortunately, I'm not familiar with their shipping fees, but you may be able to find the information that you are looking for on their website. Good luck!

 

[VirtualSnow]

Of course, when you're paying for a game or a service, you aren't actually buying a product, but rather acquiring a license to use it, this is the supposed future of gaming, always-online DRM schemes and bloated anti-tampers (since the big AAA publishers can't imagine living without that sweet DLC/microtransaction money). Not so long ago, the servers of one of the most notable anti-piracy "solutions" out there became unreachable for hours, making it impossible for consumers to access the games they paid for (the cracked copies did work, though). Either way, people have been accepting this shit for years now, and we can only expect it to get worse, with some luck the EU will take a look into this, since they've already made some decent laws regarding reverse engineering and abusive mechanics (the infamous EA lootboxes), but I wouldn't get my hopes high.

 

[whatevs]

When it comes to programs I definitely favor owning a copy of the software, relying on someone's else storage means your ownership is indirect and more fragile.

It sucks for updates but it's just better, especially for things that shouldn't need much tinkering once they are ready to be sold.