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It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

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Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#251

Post by RuggedPineapple »

embedding-shape wrote: post #127
demaga wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but UI needs to reflect that too. I just opened Steam to verify - it definitely says 'Buy {game_name} - Add to Cart'

I remember saying the exact same thing here on HN like two weeks ago, which someone then promptly corrected me saying that Steam/Valve actually "explain" what their "Buy" means right before payment, and I think they were right, there is some greyed out text somewhere explaining you don't actually "Purchase a copy of the game" but you license it via Valve/Steam somehow, can't remember the details atm, later at the che…

>greyed out text

You mean the full color box thats for all practical purposes the same size and prominence as the cart you're checking out?

https://imgur.com/a/0fkh4l3

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#252

Post by password4321 »

benj111 wrote: post #72
password4321 wrote: post #7

Ownership as in resale-able. Eventually someone important enough will force digital resales to become reality, changing everything to require KYC.

KYC? The only context I know it from is 'Know your customer' in banking.

If digital games are basically equivalent to a currency, in comes the regulations.

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#253

Post by tjpnz »

beloch wrote: post #115

"But most people use Steam anyway, I hear you say. That's true, but you can still own your games on Steam. Very easily, in fact! Steam doesn't apply a hard DRM for games on their platform, you can bypass it and play your games offline without the launcher if you know what you're doing." -------------- When it comes to PC games, the real peace of mind comes from cracks and piracy. Sure, a single player game that requi…

>When it comes to PC games, the real peace of mind comes from cracks and piracy.

I still have nocds for some of the old GTA and Warcraft games. Pretty sure you can't play the originals any other way now with all the "definitive" and "reforged" editions having taken their place.

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#254

Post by incompatible »

user_of_the_wek wrote: post #123

I‘m wondering if there’s a better term to use than „digital games“. Those physical discs are just as digital as anything else.

Yeah, I was going to say that. Somebody has to pedantically state that it's a pretty silly terminology.

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#255

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS »

rgmerk wrote: post #249
homer456 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a minimum of 600 hours of training to get licensed to cut hair in California. Pex plumbing is banned in Chicago as a union protectionist regulation. The "chicken tax" regulation scheme has screwed up the US truck market for decades. Electrical code requirements for the wiring of kitchen islands have changed drastically with very small justification within a short span of time. To this day it is illegal to tr…

> Many European countries have draconian laws about air conditioning that are killing people this summer Cite your sources. There are specific issues in specific places (eg heritage restrictions in Paris), a higher prevalence of shared infrastructure rather than single family homes, and a higher level of renting rather than home ownership. And there are people on the green-left end of the political spectrum in parts…

> climate simply hasn’t, until recently, required it.

I would qualify that as it hasn't required it since the invention of air conditioning.

Which also isn't strictly true; the high temperature for Paris on July 1st this year is identical to the high for the same day back in 2015[1], and there are several times since 1970 that the temperature was over 30C.

Other sources[2] indicate 1947 was just as brutal as 2019 and 2022, and the warmest night was in 1772 (27.5C)

[1] https://weatheronthisday.com/intl/paris/7/1

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Paris (standard Wikipedia reliability warning applies)

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#256

Post by scared_together »

zulban wrote: post #205
pocksuppet wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did this in California, now online stores in California only let you rent games for an indefinite term. Exactly the same as before but the button says "rent"

You're implying that's the same but it's obviously better. Nothing wrong with renting when you're told you're renting.

The problem of false advertising is resolved but the problem of consumer freedom remains. If all digital marketplaces for a particular art only offer rents, without any option to buy or any physical media to serve as an alternative, that would still be a problem even if the rents were presented honestly.

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#258

Post by scared_together »

password4321 wrote: post #7

Ownership as in resale-able. Eventually someone important enough will force digital resales to become reality, changing everything to require KYC.

> Eventually someone important enough will force digital resales to become reality

Honest question: why? Why would anyone important enough to hold that power actually use it to force resales to exist? Who actually has the incentives to make this happen?

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#259

Post by user3939382 »

feoren wrote: post #103
jbombadil wrote: post #39

I am generally not in favor of adding regulation, but this is a place where I would support it. Anything that you BUY needs to be your property. This means you must have the ability to: 1. Transfer ownership of it (either temporarily as a loan or permanently as a sale). Digital-only doesn't preclude this: the store can have a "transfer" functionality. 2. (Within reason) use it at your discretion at any point after th…

You're not in favor of adding regulation, except when it comes to issues you understand and care about. All the oversight and regulation about everything you don't care and/or know about is big bad government overreach. Every government agency is a useless waste of your tax dollars, except the ones you rely on and the ones where you have friends that work there. Do I have that right?

You’re making an equally nebulous point, as if all govt regulation is good and overreach doesn’t exist by definition or something.

Re: It's not about physical vs. digital games, it's about ownership

#260

Post by HDBaseT »

benoau wrote: post #25
hx8 wrote: post #10

Absolutely this. Fifteen years ago World of Warcraft was at its peak. You had 12 million people paying a monthly fee, plus buying the occasional expansion pack. No other gaming company had seen reoccurring revenue numbers like that before and it changed the industry. One aspect of this was that if you stopped paying you lost access to the game. The industry has been looking for the next way to level up this subscript…

> I'm optimistic that the raise in PC gaming will act as a balance for the obvious greed of the consoles. Why? Steam has never done anything to support ownership of games, their policy completely bans transferring licenses or accounts to other people or leaving them to someone when you die. Their next CEO is someone who has only known extreme wealth their whole life and gets the job because daddy started the company,…

To play devils advocate, Steam has one of the most generous sharing functionality on all digital media. Steam Families.

The whole "we prohibit transferring accounts from dead people" is likely just a catchall to prevent liability and responsibility when people say "oh my brother cheated on my account" or "my brother said XYZ on Steam forums".

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