Anybody miss the pre-digital days?

The days when physical discs rule the world and you had to actually go into a store to buy games? The days when the game you bought was exactly what you got? Or are you happy with the digital era? I think there are pluses to both sides. My only real gripe with the digital world is the developers who know they are launching broken games and promising to fix them with patches. What about you, SW? I also hate having to download games even with the disc. Your thoughts on this important topic?

The days when if a store didn't have the game I wanted, I just had to go home empty-handed.

I understand the sentiment. It was fun to get a new game, and cherish the box and the art, and smell it, and unwrap that clear plastic wrapping around it. Pop that sum'bitch in the system, and see those awesome system intros of systems like the PS1, Dreamcast, and OG Xbox.

Seeing broken game releases does suck as a gamer. But, deep down inside, I know that more games, and more COMPLEX games, are released because of the digital world we live in. In a bygone era, games were simple. You ran to the right for a bit, jumped, shot stuff, and maybe even crouched a few times. There was little room to actually make an error in some of those old games.

Nowadays, games require hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lines of code, 300+ game developers, and they are all far more complex products than what we used to have. If we lived in a world where there were no patches and updates, we wouldn't see nearly the same assortment of games we see nowadays. We'd still be playing the simplistic games of old.

As well, digital distribution allows so many thousands more developers a chance to enter into the industry and build their own passion projects. Without them, gaming might only be big-budget titles.

As much as I look fondly on the old era of gaming, I appreciate greatly what we have today. I can hop on my PC, and immediately log into a couple stores with something like over 10,000 games available from over 30 years of gaming history. I'll take that over the alternative I imagine if we were still only living in a physical world.

I'll stick to buying my games retail for however long that option exists. At least i can shop around and find a better price if i desire and trade in if i need to.

As a console only gamer i find there is no excuse for digital games to be more expensive than retail, no excuse what so ever, but because you can only get that game on just the 1 digital store for your console, then they feel they can charge what they want and get away with it.

never really cared for discs, I was already downloading in the early nineties.

Digital games should be cheaper than physical games, because you can't trade them in. You are tied to that one marketplace and that's it, no resale value at all.

Unless they have an option to turn in your old digital games for 20% off an upcoming game in said marketplace, that could be enticing. Yet I feel they won't even do that.

Honestly no. I like *some* games physical for either A) collecting purposes or B) because I know for certainty that I'll want to ditch it at some point. But for the most part I love the convenience of just turning the system on, having it all there, and seamlessly starting/stopping whatever game or app I want as my evening progresses. Maybe it's because I'm predominantly a PC gamer, so I've been conditioned for years to digital games

There are two main groups of people who don't miss it. PC gamers and gamers that are too young to know the difference. Almost everyone else fits into one of those two groups, is probably lying about not being in one of those two groups, or don't understand the importance that others like myself place upon owning a physical copy (for multiple reasons).

For those that just don't care... well, good on you. However, I like to own what I purchase, and don't give me the whole "you don't own it" spiel. If I can pop in the disc or cart 50 years later and it still works without a hitch (other than perhaps online) then I own it. It also is collectible and carries a value, regardless of how high or low that may be.

@WitIsWisdom:

Got my first taste of gaming in 84/85, been gaming non stop since 86, and up until this gen I've been primarily a console gamer my whole life.

Can't say I miss it one bit.

I do miss how awesome box art used to be in the 80s and early 90s, but not enough to outweigh all the advantages of digital.

-

Ah, ninja edit, I was responding to your original post:

There are two main groups of people who don't miss it. PC gamers and gamers that are too young to know the difference.

As for the rest of what you said, good for you man, seriously. I'd never try to change how you feel.

I just find it funny that a guy like me must fit into some silly category to simply prefer the digital age.

I used to be nostalgic. I used to keep the cases and the covers and the manuals and everything. I used to line them up on my shelf and proudly watch my collection.

Nowadays, if I can find a digital copy of a game I already have and I can get it for cheap, I'll buy that and throw away the physical copy. Digital means not having to mess around with the games' websites for patches, means not having to rummage around for the discs to install and play games, means I don't have to worry that the last game store in my area has effectively shut down, and means I don't have to put up with useless boxes taking up my shelf space which I could use for something else.

Make no mistake, it took me years to gradually let go of my emotions and nostalgia and embrace practicality and convenience, but now that I have done so, I am never going back.

I'm nostalgic for the pre digital days but can't say I miss it. I still buy all of my games the old fashioned way by not pre ordering or downloading but just going to the store when they come out and buying a physical copy. I've noticed that Gamestop is often sold out on day one but Target never is, weird.

@madrocketeer:

Plenty of good points man.

Possibly the biggest one for me is access. Access to older games at any time, access to niche titles that would never see the light of day on a store shelf, or access to download my game to any machine anywhere I'm at.

A friend can tip me off to a cool game that I've never heard of, and within 10 minutes I can be playing a game that would be impossible to find in stores.

I remember back in the day calling up multiple retailers to see if they have a game in stock. And sometimes you can tell the clerk just doesn't give a **** and bluntly says "no". Then I'm driving all over town from store to store until I find out that either they were bullshitting me and they did have the game or they were being honest and I just can't get my hands on the game I want.

So glad those days are behind us. I want a game, I click a button, done.

I game on PC and I will only buy digital for indie games or if there is no physical version (I have bought a few games from overseas even) I will only buy it when it's on sale for $10 or less.

Definitely. I remember when Supreme Commander was launched, I had to keep revisiting my local game stores for a month before the thing finally arrived in my neck of of the woods. I also remember spending years in deep regret for selling my copy of System Shock 2, and I would drift around the same game stores hoping they might have a spare copy somewhere in the back.

Nowadays, I'm about a hair's breadth away from pre-ordering Civilization VI. If I go ahead and do so, I'll be able to download and play on launch day like everybody else. And whenever I want to play System Shock 2 again, I can just fire up GOG Galaxy and click "Install."

So, nope, I don't miss the pre-digital days one bit.

I'm the same. Started gaming early 90s, and loved having a collection of games. But the thing is that I realized I loved playing games more than just having them. PC arguably had the best game boxes out there, so it's weird to act as if PC gamers shouldn't even be the ones who miss physical copies. It's just a matter of the benefits GREATLY outweighing costs of going digital. So much so that it's near impossible to justify buying a hard copy of a game.

This is really what it all boils down to. One can't really help, but awe at just how gigantic a selection of games and experiences we have access to in seconds with digital.

And the fact that I could literally have 10,000 games on the PC I'm typing on now, then fly to Europe, log into my Steam account on someone else's computer, and download all of them. That's amazing too.

The games I bought digitally 10 years ago still run on my newest PC. The PC I buy in 10-20 years will also be able to play those games. Also amazing.

I'm amazed.

I think I much prefer digital nowadays. I still have the disc version of Crysis and guess what? It's not working again after some Windows 10 updates. But, I'll bet the digital (Origin) version works just fine.

Not at all. I actually prefer digital and being able to acquire a game from my home without taking a drive. We're moving forward.

@beardmad:

To be honest, I'm not even amazed that you're amazed at how amazing it is because when you think about it, it is pretty damn amazing. It's like an endless maze of games.

No seriously, it is awesome lol.

Digital gaming is awesome but there is still something satisfying about physically holding a new game as opposed to just lazily laying in my chair as a game downloads.

Physical all day.

Disc should always be an option, always. And digital should be cheaper on release day. However there are promos and deals that could ease the price of buying digital games on release day. Or you could just wait till digital gets discounted more or as much as disc. I do remember the days when I saved up cash and went to FuncoLand & EB Games to buy a game. I'm glad GameStop is still around but I haven't shopped in there in years and when I do step in there, I just browse around just to browse around without intent on buying anything.

I have fonder memories on buying music cassettes/CDs though. I remember every payday I frequent Rasputin music store and I think it was FYE to buy cassettes/CDs. I had a bunch of cassettes/CDs but when I moved I kept the CDs in a CD folder holder thing and threw away the plastic cases and art work. Thinking back, I should have at least kept the art work lol, ah well. It would still be in storage now anyway. I still use CDs to burn mp3 music from time to time though for the car but now I also have music on a USB stick. I do have a nice collection of blu-ray movies though, I've gone digital with movies too but I still like getting neat packaging for only movies I really like if they have exclusive steelbook, digibook, etc. packaging.

nope digital is better and more convenient

the only physical games i buy anymore are a few specific collector's editions

I want choice

I don't want all digital, and I don't want all physical copies either.

I don't. I still live those days. I buy almost all new PC games from retail stores. Why? Because they're cheaper than digitally. Just got Mafia 3 10 € cheaper than on Steam. Going to get BF1 from retail as well. Again 10 € cheaper than on Origin like most games are.

Not even a little.....

Heh, it was still digital back then too.... I don't miss having to go somewhere to imbibe my 1's and 0's from a plastic platter.

...and I never much cared for the analog manuals.

@i_p_daily: the fact there you basiclly paying for one anf getting 2 when you get digital. Its safe to say it balances out the price.

W.e games both me and my bro want i can just buy one time digitally.

All the time. But digital era have its own advantages. It brought back mid tier gaming and made it easier for new comers to show their skills. I just find products from mid 90s-mid 2000s extremely good though compared to most good stuff of today, even if I've never experienced them before (games, TV shows, movies, songs etc).

I remembered I liked going to the store as a kid buying a new game the day it released. Sneaking out of school, and go buy it, reading the booklet on the bike.

Now I just like that I don't have to go to the store, that I don't have to take it where ever I go, because digital automatically goes wherever I go. I don't care about the "but do you really still own it, if it's only connected to an account"

Hell no.

Anyone here miss the floppy disk days? I think some games reached 10 or more floppy disks. ;)

At least, on the Amiga, I can daisy-chain up to 4 floppy drives, I think. I never had more than two though.

Worse, there were two floppy disk formats for MS-DOS: 3.5" and 5.25". It'd be four if we counted double density and high density for the two sizes.

As for DVD discs..... My 2009 X-Plane 9 (boxed) came with 6 DVDs (76 GB total) to hold the worldwide scenery.

Digital is perfectly fine with me.

Nope.

The point is to play video games. I don't care about stores and discs, give me whatever's easier.

I like physical games, but, most of the games I have are digital.

What really pisses me is that the price of digital games remains the same for years while the price of the same game in physical form drops, for example ( other than ocassional sales ) COD MW3 is still 50 bucks in the XBL/PSN store while you can get a physical one for 20 dollars ( and if it´s used even cheaper ).

There are definitely some perks to getting a game digitally... but more and more as I get older, I'm still preferring the good ol' physical copies. However, devs are starting to launch games on disk at retail with parts of the game missing (ie. Gears 4), and you have to download the rest. Which is ridiculous.

That's one thing I appreciate about Nintendo games... very rarely do you have to do a major day 1 update or do they ship a game with parts of it missing.

I dont bother with physical discs anymore, I buy everything digital, its always cheaper that way too.

With regard to physical media, I miss the days before the used game market boom when retailers would make an effort to keep a full new copy stock of games for each system. Now, they only order games on the basis of their pre-orders, once they're out of those they just seem to sell used, shitty used copies of questionable integrity with no original case or cover art, just a box with the game's name typed on it and all I save there is a few bucks. I can more often just save by ordering new from Amazon so why do people act like buying used from GameStop is thrifty is beyond me. As for older games, they'd always keep a nice big selection of cheap $20 games and greatest hits. They don't do that anymore.

As for digital today, at least on Xbox One, I prefer it more. I save $5 in sales tax on new games, get a $6 rebate on all new game purchases, as far as I'm concerned that's a net benefit considering I don't sell my games right away, and when I do get to selling them I'd get a lot less than that net benefit trading them in, and I still get to retain them. I enjoy not having to disc swap. Installing them is a lot less hassle. I can have them install in background and play anything in my library while I do that. I can keep a decent 2TB external HDD with more games on it than I know what to do with.

For PS4 and Wii U, I still buy physical, but that's more because I don't game on them nearly as much and my library is a lot smaller, plus I don't have faith in either companies' DRM policies. Sony has shown to screw over customers who get hacked threatening to take any money spent on their CC or threatening to lock their accounts, having them lose all their purchases and years of trophies. On Wii U, well, Nintendo only just got the unified account, so I've yet to warm up to them there.

Nope, jumped on that band wagon from the first day I could. No clutter from disc boxes, no faffing with installs, just click a few buttons and wait for the game to install then play.

Also my house would look like a game shop without digital and I don't want to live in a shop. I get all my movies digitally as well.

It was a cool era. But I don't miss it. I can get games for much cheaper prices than the PS2 days and before. Whether digital or physical, since there's so many competing stores and sellers with excessive inventory.

I also don't need to purchase game guides to beat more complex games. Or to find all the secret areas. Just a quick google for a walkthrough, whether written or in video. And just how much online gaming has expanded. What I do miss is the prevalence of cheat codes in single player.

Serious case of the member berries on this thread

Remember Chewbacca?

The only thing I don't like about the "digital age", per say, is indeed the broken games on release + the "day 1 patches" which sometimes are almost as big as the damn game. That crap annoys me a lot, otherwise while I do like a nice collectors box, I couldn't really care if there is a disc inside or a download code. As long as it works, I'm fine.

Police men were taller back in the old days too, and summers went on for evvverrrr.

No, I don't miss them in particular. I do miss being younger and care free but let's not confuse the two here. Games back in the day never went down in price to the degree they do now, and if you couldn't find one in the shop you were out of luck. Old games would be the same £39.99 they were on release. And digital games can be fixed. Yes, we know companies over rely on this fact by releasing broken games and patching but in the cartridge days a broken game was broken forever. There are some infamous examples of games that you can't complete because they are broken flat out.

Discs were and are notoriously easy to scratch too. Digital games do not have this problem.

There are pluses and minuses. Of course in these days of digital, you are essentially hiring the game not buying it as I found out when Apple replaced a David Bowie album I'd bought with an identical one, took the original off the store and suggested I rebuy it when I complained. Steam could take the games off their store if they wanted, or even go out of business and you'd lose everything. Hell, Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo will stop supporting your games online some day and you will lose them especially if they rely on online services.

But I don't miss having to blowing on the cartridge, not being able to find games, the price of even old games.

What about all the youtubers and collectors with tons of games and discs and stuff in the background PEOPLE LIKE THAT STUFF people like the clutter.

These people are not oldschool people there just regular gamers who love to have like the box the warming stuff.

What is wrong with you man i understand not wanting a toy or a action figure but the physical game is awesome bro its way better than a toy or something physical like that the disk is the funnest part,

I prefer having the physical copy. Especially if it's a game I really like. Although I do love the ridiculous sales that pop up from time to time.

I have more of a problem with all the patches and mandatory installs. I'm not the most technologically savvy person on this board, but why the hell do we install 50GB to our hard drives when the games are pretty much the same as what we were playing on 360/PS3 and yet there's no benefit with regards to load times or performance. Then we also get to download 5+ GB for the patches. It's annoying as shit , (atleast the PS4 lets you play a game pretty quickly from what I hear ) but the XBONE is a nightmare.

I prefer digital.

I don't have to go to some crap store that tries to push pre-orders on me. *cough* Gamestop *cough*

I can pre-load the game, and begin playing almost immediately when the game is released.

Err, there is actual loading time and performance difference? Pulling data from the HDD is significantly faster than pulling it from the DVD and processing it in real time. On an HDD, it's also uncompressed, for faster access. Because if a data is compressed on a DVD, it has to bring the data over to RAM, uncompress it, process it, and then move onto the next data segment.

Miss yes and no. I liked the days when I got a game booklet explaining how to play the game but to have a game digitally isn't that bad. Means I don't have to disc swap as much. So I kinda like the digital era.

If someone likes the clutter and feel of living in a shop that's their choice. Collectors like @dynamitecop like that kind of thing and even though he has a fantastically displayed collection, it's not for me.

No idea why you're blethering about "old school" that's completely irrelevant to anything I said.

I have more than enough physical games with over 400 boxed games in my loft. I don't need anymore nor do I have the room for them. I've been gaming for over 40 years, digital has only been around for 11 or so.

nope not 1 bit. I don't miss records, tapes, cds, VHS, etc

I remember having to buy racks to store all this crap. CD towers with hundreds of Cds on them. when i got my 1st Ipod i ripped all my music to the ipod and threw out every CD and tower I had lol. I don't see the point in physical except for 4k Blu Ray. outside of that, not really a need for it IMO. But hey to each their own. Keep on taking them member berries

I do.

I miss the days where all on your PC games weren't tied down like hostages on a single account. You know, where you could actually sell the games someday if they were shit? And your serials weren't a single-use item per account. You could re-use them without the need of any forced account. PC gaming has become valueless. At least console games still hold up some value when you go out to sell them.

What a joke PC gaming has become.

PS. If I find a digital version and a physical release of the same game with the Digital copy for significantly less money (<$10 vs. $30+), I'll probably go with digital. There's no point in going physical anymore. The serial number is non-transferable anyways.

I don't miss pre-digital, but I miss when games came with a nice booklet with story elements and art in it. Now these games come with a leaflet that generally has nothing to do with the game you just purchased.

Typically, I buy digital anymore. A game has to be on a really good sale for me to buy the physical version.

@DragonfireXZ95:

My point was that things don't seem any better then on 360/ PS3 even though there generally weren't mandatory installs, and when they were there they were far smaller.