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PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

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Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#151

Post by danudey »

amlib wrote: post #25
PaulHoule wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever you think about Microsoft, they are a good steward of their platforms and go to extremes to maintain backwards compatibility -- even if they are always moving your cheese in the UI.

Except for the hundred thousands if not millions of people who lost their Minecraft account due to the way Microsoft handled multiple successive account migrations, also including the many accounts that were stolen due to lax security. And since digital ownership legislation is a joke consumers have pretty much no recourse.

I lost my original minecraft account because I wasn't able to get in contact with them. I had the original purchase information as required, but it wouldn't accept it. I contacted the e-mail address they said to get in touch with but heard nothing. No matter what I did nothing happened and now my old account is gone forever.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#152

Post by danudey »

Grombobulous wrote: post #134
DANmode wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pirated and modded scene is the place to be anyway - so I hear.

Modded, yes. The Minecraft mod scene is incredible. The Create mod ecosystem is my favorite. Pirated? Really? How cheap are you guys? It’s a $30 game with all ~15 years of content updates included. I’m not trying to be some kind of corporate bootlicker here but I think you have to have apathy toward taking care of the stuff you own to have failed to get your Minecraft license converted from the Mojang account.

Saying 15 years of content updates feels disingenuous when most of those years, at least lately, feel like minimal updates from a company that's out of ideas and doesn't want to change anything that might have a chance at annoying some people.

It seems like every year is "a new mob and a new biome", which is... not much. If you sign into Minecraft from five years ago I doubt you would notice many changes at all.

To be fair, Minecraft is a huge thing to be a steward of, and they're doing dual-development across Bedrock and Java, but... it's obvious that this isn't what they want to be doing and I think at some point they just need to make a decision what they want to be, let everyone know, and start making it work.

Also, with regard to Mojang account - I tried to get mine converted. I followed the steps, they didn't work. I opened a ticket, no one responded. I worked on it for six months and couldn't get any reply from them until it was too late. Now I've lost that account, not because I didn't care but because they didn't seem to.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#153

Post by johnnyanmac »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #144
johnnyanmac wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The true answer here is that people went where the games went. And those AAA distributors preferred a middleman doing everything for them in exchange for getting a cut. From there, AA and indies went to the middleman because they more or less had to to compete. Whether or not you consider market capture the whims of the consumer or a natural consequence of capitalism is a more philosophical question to ask. On a more…

It is market capture, and you don’t get to just hand wave it away with how it’s only philosophical. It has real world ramifications, it is a real consequence that can put consumers under duress (distorting the market) and/or leave them with no viable alternatives (which a free market is allegedly supposed to prevent)

>It is market capture, and you don’t get to just hand wave it away with how it’s only philosophical.

I don't get to declare it one way just because I think it's true either.

If people truly want all their eggs in one basket, is it market capture if you are 100% upfront (which these companies aren't, but lets suppose), and people come into it anyway? I suppose my philosophy here comes down to "you can only protect people from themselves for so long before exploitation simply becomes business". Why try and spout freedom to those who actively seek someone or something to be controlled by? Why spout principles of ownership to those who will relinquish it every time for a "cheap" subscription?

Now the real answer is another scary word to this community: regulation. It's been beyond time we had proper digital ownership laws. But we're a very long road away from that in the US.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#154

Post by Grombobulous »

danudey wrote: post #152
Grombobulous wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modded, yes. The Minecraft mod scene is incredible. The Create mod ecosystem is my favorite. Pirated? Really? How cheap are you guys? It’s a $30 game with all ~15 years of content updates included. I’m not trying to be some kind of corporate bootlicker here but I think you have to have apathy toward taking care of the stuff you own to have failed to get your Minecraft license converted from the Mojang account.

Saying 15 years of content updates feels disingenuous when most of those years, at least lately, feel like minimal updates from a company that's out of ideas and doesn't want to change anything that might have a chance at annoying some people. It seems like every year is "a new mob and a new biome", which is... not much. If you sign into Minecraft from five years ago I doubt you would notice many changes at all. To b…

As far as the approach to content updates, I think what you describe is exactly the right one. Mojang knows that anything more opinionated belongs in a mod. Minecraft is more of a platform than a game.

I’ve seen the debate come up often about software that should just be a one time purchase, it’s “done” and that we don’t want to be paying a subscription for every little thing, so my feeling is that for a buy-once game like Minecraft having so many content updates for so long is a real plus.

As far as your loss of your license, that’s really unfortunate, and hopefully a rare circumstance. I’m disappointed that support wasn’t able to help you.

Pragmatically, if I liked the game enough, I’d probably just buy it again. Most of my most-played old games have been purchased multiple times for some kind of reason like a format change or something along those lines. I’ve definitely bought Morrowind multiple times. I owned Oblivion on a disc, then bought the steam version, then bought the remastered version.

I absolutely realize how you absolutely shouldn’t have to buy the game again.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#155

Post by Grombobulous »

DANmode wrote: post #147
Grombobulous wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modded, yes. The Minecraft mod scene is incredible. The Create mod ecosystem is my favorite. Pirated? Really? How cheap are you guys? It’s a $30 game with all ~15 years of content updates included. I’m not trying to be some kind of corporate bootlicker here but I think you have to have apathy toward taking care of the stuff you own to have failed to get your Minecraft license converted from the Mojang account.

Not a player, but at one stage I believe there were mods that only ran on older, pirated builds.

I think that’s pretty rare these days, if not entirely unheard of.

It’s common for mods to not work on the latest release, though.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#156

Post by Forgeties79 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #153
Forgeties79 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is market capture, and you don’t get to just hand wave it away with how it’s only philosophical. It has real world ramifications, it is a real consequence that can put consumers under duress (distorting the market) and/or leave them with no viable alternatives (which a free market is allegedly supposed to prevent)

>It is market capture, and you don’t get to just hand wave it away with how it’s only philosophical. I don't get to declare it one way just because I think it's true either. If people truly want all their eggs in one basket, is it market capture if you are 100% upfront (which these companies aren't, but lets suppose), and people come into it anyway? I suppose my philosophy here comes down to "you can only protect peo…

Ain’t scary to me. Regulation all the way.

I just don’t generally agree with variations of “caveat emptor”

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#157

Post by Forgeties79 »

opan wrote: post #148
Forgeties79 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair but the form factor is completely different. Dreamcast/xbox I’d consider the real base for modern controllers. But my original point is that once the 360 controller came out everyone (except Sony) has basically 90% copied it. Everything before is pretty distinct.

While Switch is 360-esque now, the Wii Classic Controller had symmetrical sticks at the bottom, Wii U Pro Controller and GamePad had symmetrical sticks on top. So Nintendo wasn't totally committed to the 360 design even if the GameCube controller was almost there before. (Not gonna count the Wiimote as it's a little too different) Steam Deck and Steam Controller have symmetrical sticks as well. I don't think it's as…

You’re getting too nitty gritty. The general shape/form factor for all controllers, as well as 90% of the button/stick layout, was basically locked by the 360. Every diversion is either Sony or window dressing.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#158

Post by thewileyone »

I bought the Orange Box years and years ago and to install this Steam launcher to play Counter-Strike, what a pain in the a$$. Stop playing, promptly forgot about it.

Years passed, and wanted to play something else that was on sale on this Steam thing that seemed familiar so reinstalled it. To my surprise, my old Orange Box games were still there.

That has led to an unhealthy 20 years of hoarding on-sale games like Smaug.

Thanks, gaben!

P.S. Sony is screwing their fans.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#159

Post by monocularvision »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #150
monocularvision wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t change the topic. The general council (lawyers) at companies are making the decisions around cookies banners and the like, not the folks trying to make money. Regardless of how you might interpret the law and requirements around GDPR, the legal profession as a whole seems to think the crap we live with today is necessary. If it isn’t, it’s on the EU technocrats to clarify in communications, written rules, and o…

Two things can be true. And clearly, you think billion-dollar companies making dark patterns, ignoring web standards and choosing to track people left and right are less to blame the inconvenience of a banner (that warns you they do) than the people trying to protect your privacy and did it imperfectly. I have made enought web sites and app that don't have a banner to know it's perfectly possible, even today. I have…

You bet I am angry. I am tired of people defending a law by saying “that’s not what it was meant to do!” As if the intent matters one bit. What matters is the result of the law. And the result of this regulation is to make the web universally crappier than it was before. It did basically nothing to improve things in the real world.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#160

Post by rvba »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #101
rvba wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The results? By random googling I found that they have 200 million active users, who bought 16 billion in gross merchandising value? 18 thousands of games launched there per yer? Arguably if someone is in PC gaming, they at least know what Steam is?

>the results? Would you say the market demanded Ticketmaster based on the results?

That is actually a really good point.

However Ticketmaster is a monopoly. There are (still) alternatives to Steam.

But yes, it is getting into a monopoly, or oligopoly position.

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