You plop down on your couch, weary from a day of work, ready to play some games to unwind. You turn on your Xbox 360, waving your hands through the air to scroll through your video game collection. You settle on Fable 3, tapping forward in the air to start up the game. After a few hours, you get bored and decide to buy a new game. Pulling up the Games on Demand menu, you again scroll through, settling on Mass Effect 3. After thinking it through, you make the leap, buy the game, and let it download as you go about thinking what's for dinner.

 While the above scenario is a little too soon, the idea of digital distribution is not.  It seems to be the hot topic on every gamers lips; Are we ready to give up our library of boxed games for hard drives filled with our virtual libraries? I try to think of both sides of the question, and sometimes the answers I settle on scare me.

 Up until about two years ago, I didn't really collect games. I would buy the games I really wanted, or rent the ones that only interested me. Occasionally I would trade games in when I was low on cash to get that next new release I wanted. The thought of collecting never really occured to me until I settled into my current job where I have some disposable income. I then started researching collecting and the community that surrounded it, seeing the gamer closets and rooms, like little museums that were definitely built on love and memories. So I decided to start hunting at flea markets and Goodwills, snatching up any deal and gem I came across. In the two years since I've started, I build a small modest collection that I am proud of.

With digital distribution, this hobby then becomes obsolete. We will trade our Pipboy 3000 alarm clocks, Master Chief Helmets, and Alex Mercer action figures in for intangible data on a hard drive. That feeling of having a physical copy in your hand, something that you can claim is yours will be gone. You'll swap that disc out for a license to play the game, and your physical book case will become your virutal one. 
 

But then look to the good in digital distribution and can't await its arrival. The creation of services such as Gametap, GOG, Microsofts Games on Demand, and the forthcoming OnLive, have opened the door to a treasure trove of both classic and modern games to people who otherwise wouldn't of had any way of playing these games. I never would've dreamed of playing Freespace 2, Baulder Gate, or Planescape if it hadn't been for these services, as many of these games are out of print. If OnLive delivers on it's promises, I would be able to play Crysis or any other high end PC game on my laptop, and not have to worry about buying expensive video cards or extra RAM to run the game.

The games would also, hopefully, be cheaper. Since game publishers wont have to spend an extra dollar to print boxes and stamp discs, they can pass that discount on to us. Once rare games are finding new lives on digital stores.  Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 goes for an upwards of eighty dollars on auction sites and the black label version of Final Fantasy VII is becoming harder to find. Yet thanks to the Playstation Network, both games are not inexpensive and ready to be experienced by those people who just can't afford the physical copy. With Microsofts Xbox Originals program, gamers can experience Psychonauts and Crimson Skies for on the cheap. I get excited that people can experience these games without fear that brick and mortar retail stores will push lesser known games off the shelf in favor of the next Madden or Call of Duty.

 Digital distribution is a two headed beast. I like having a tangible collection of games and game paraphernalia, and don't want to give that up. Yet at the same time, the future of gaming can have the doors blown off by allowing all gamers access to games at affordable prices and right to our TVs with the touch of a button. 

Just ask yourself if you're ready.