Digital Gaming or Disc Gaming

As the internet and other digitally distributed media continue to consume our world, video gaming is holding tightly to the tried and true ‘physical’ media. The disc. The battle against cloud gaming and digital downloads is a difficult one. While many industry analysts and critics of traditional media distribution believe disc gaming will soon be on it’s way out, others (myself included) feel otherwise. Here’s why…

Stability & Security

The biggest advantage of digital gaming is convenience. You get to load up and exit a game without ever having to physically load or eject anything. Without any game cases to store you’re left with a lot of free shelf space to put a plant, or a picture or heck even an action figurine. While all of that is certainly appealing, the problem is there’s a trade-off for all of that convenience and unfortunately it’s usually stability and security. Digital information is susceptible to corruption. A few missing or out of place 0′s and 1′s and suddenly your digital game is unplayable. With a hard disc that won’t happen. All those 0′s and 1′s are safely embedded on to a tough piece of plastic.

Then there’s your save data. Imagine having logged in 20+ hours of game time in an epic RPG. You save your progress, turn off the system and head for bed. The next day you get up for work. All day (while you pretend to look busy as your boss walks by) over and over, you try to recall where you last saw that awesome piece of armor, or who was that shop keeper you were supposed to talk to to get that important piece of intel. On your way home it dawns on you. Oh my god! You rush home excited.” Finally I got it”, you think to yourself. You get home, throw off your jacket, turn on your [insert favorite game system], and load

This is the reason why controllers are made very durable.

up the game. You get to the title screen, load your save file and…wait for it…nothing. You’re instead met with an error message. Your game is gone. All that hard work, all the items you collected, and missions you completed are gone. You just wasted several hours of your life.

True this sort of thing could happen whether you’re saving to a cloud storage service, a hard drive, or a memory card, but it goes to show you just how sensitive digital media can be. Should you entrust everything to non-physical media. Your save data AND the game itself? If the network is down guess what? No gaming tonight.

Hackers have proven it very possible to reach into your system and retrieve your account password, and in some instances take control of your gaming system all together. They could either target you individually or the entire network as we’ve seen in the past. Cloud gaming for example is a great service, but it’s not without flaws. Yes cloud services are pretty reliable, but believe me when I say they can never be as secure or stable as the user actually having direct access to his/her game disc and save data. All of your precious digital data is helpless once a security’s firewall is breached. No security system or measure is impenetrable; not the Playstation Network, not Xbox Live, and not even the FBI or CIA.

At the client level security is even worse. You may think you’re clever with your 15 character password, and have top of line anti-virus & spyware software, but you’re not and you don’t. A hacker with enough skill, and a sense of humor, can replace your Elder Scrolls: Skyrim files with Bratz & Friendz: Beach Party Dance Off (probably not even a real game…yet). A close friend of mine had something similar happen to him. Some jerk crawled his way into his

Sooo many 0's and 1's. So much power for just two numbers. Just look at that balance. How could anything go --hey wait is that a 6?!

computer and replaced his Civilization root file with a huge file of porn. Now that’s a drastic example of losing game data, the reality is you’re more likely to lose game data from something as simple as a corrupted program.

Yes statistically you’re less likely to encounter a problem with hacking. You’re just one fish in a sea of millions. However, with cyber attacks increasing every year, and hackers becoming bolder and better equipped, and their targets becoming more numerous, do you think your chances improve? I’d rather have as much control over my gaming as possible.

Memory & Memories

One of the arguments made against disc based games is storage. Where the heck do you keep all those games? A drawer perhaps? Maybe two drawers? A bookshelf? An entire closet? Depending on how many games you’ve purchased and kept throughout your many years of gaming your storage situation could vary drastically from the next guy. The average gamer usually owns two systems or consoles, and purchases around 4-6 games a year per system. That adds up to a lot of games over a console’s life cycle. Often gamers will hold onto many of their older games even after they’ve entered into a new generation of game consoles. Even for just the average guy that can lead to a lot of accumulation in just a few short years. With digital games you completely eliminate that problem, but in the process you create a new one; how do you let friends borrow a game?

"Um, I'm going to have to say 'no' on you borrowing my system"

Let’s say your friend wants to play Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. If you owned a physical copy you could tell him ”no problem, I’ll bring the game with me the time I come over so you can borrow it”. However if you only owned a digital copy of the game you’d have to bring over your entire console, and chances are you wouldn’t be leaving it behind for an extended amount of time.

Borrowing is a basic human gesture of kindness. It’s a simple interaction that helps to strengthen a relationship. It’s a bonding tool. Letting a friend borrow a game is an inherently fun thing to do. Not only do you help your buddy out, but in the process you potentially introduce him/her to a new world. Maybe you’ve been trying to get your buddy online with you to join your Call of Duty clan, and you know he’d love it if he would just try the game out. Without even realizing it, you’ve now started a micro marketing campaign between you and your friend. If your friend enjoys it, there’s a really good chance he buys the sequel when it comes out. These moments of borrowing or swapping games happen all the time, and often do more for the health and long term survival of big franchises than any advertising firm could ever hope to do. There’s also the added bonus of you both now being able to talk or reminisce about something you mutually have an interest in. That’s something you can’t quantify with numbers.

A Collection of Connections

We need to mention a user’s physical connection to a game. Opening a game case for the first time, or reading a game manual is still an event for a lot of gamers. Being able to say you ‘own something’, means something to a lot of people. Humans have always found meaning and placed value on objects, great or small. Material possessions don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but sometimes the material things do matter. Much in the way a tablet can mimic, but never truly embody the spirit of an actual book. I’ve downloaded hundreds of digital ‘ebooks’ and I really have no inclination to read a single one. I somehow feel less human when reading a digital book. It feels ‘off’. Some one tried to sell me on the idea of getting into digital comic books…I almost punched him in the throat. Books are real. I can pick one up, look at it from all angles and turn it’s pages. I can maybe even marvel at the craftsmanship of the cover and binding. Video game discs have a similar appeal.

Finally we needn’t forget resell value. Digital media has given developers and publishers more control over the things we purchase. All too often games are purposely left incomplete so that later the developer can release a new character, weapon, or…horse armor *cough* for a fee. Look, I’m in total support of most DLC. I think if done properly it can dramatically extend the life of a game. However, when a supposed ‘full’ game is released with inadequate content, DLC turns into a clear case of trying to fleece the consumer. Like horse armor.

Nothing says 'DLC' like Capcom.

Then there are the arguments from video game developers that used game retailers (an industry that has been around since the late 1980’s) are greatly under cutting their profits. Suddenly now it’s a problem. Video game companies have resorted to blocking users from accessing certain DLC content. They put up digital walls. All in attempt to extort more money from people. I used the word extort because in no other industry does a person get penalized for buying used. Imagine buying a used car, then a week later getting a call from Honda saying you can’t drive it or saying you have to pay an extra $10 dollars at the pump even though legally you own it. If we go 100% digital we one day might find we can’t even access our games when we turn on our systems because it’s Wednesday and that’s when you have to pay your game tax. Don’t worry for a few bucks they offer a DLC accountant.

Even though gaming online may be limited or cost someone extra for your used copy, the option to get some sort of cash return or store credit still remains if you have a hard copy. A digital copy will do you no good.

I’m not saying abandon streaming or digital gaming all together, on the contrary. I firmly stand behind an industry equally invested in both DLC and physical gaming. I know I’ve laid out my argument against 100% digital gaming, but truth be told there are problems associated with disc based gaming as well. Cost is the #1 enemy of the disc. However, if we adopt a culture that supports both digital and physical gaming, much in the way we do now, we can dictate market prices and the inherent value of having both types of media available. Having options is a good thing.

September 18th, 2011, Ed Reyes and Ben Rosado

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