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During my visits to gaming websites I often see comments and articles about the digital only age being a great concept and how gamers should be excited about it. I often found the excitement for this idea to be very bizarre. The world of purely digital has been a god send for things like movies and music but I feel that when it comes to video games it should not be seen as the second coming of Jesus and more like the end of consumer freedom. The Digital age affects so many aspects of the industry and I will hopefully be able to address each one by the end of this article but my main focus will be how it affects gamers/consumers.

One of the best things about the digital age is that it turns your console of choice into a sophisticated dispensary of quality product. No longer does a gamer have to find a disc or cartridge and instead are given the ability to experience any piece of purchased content at anytime. I can’t get enough of Netflix, Pandora and streaming things from my computer. It is amazing how much time was wasted searching for or worrying about these kinds of things. Furthermore, gamers do not have to worry about keeping their content from being damaged. The introduction of cloud saving and the concept of a purchasing history, means if the data is ever damaged in any way, their will probably be a means of recovery.

The major bonuses of going purely digital for a game company is there are fewer losses from the used gaming market. Whenever a used copy of a game is sold, game developers see it as one less copy that was bought. Game developers have often viewed the used game market as bad as pirating a video game. The purely digital age also allows developers to cut costs because they no longer have to produces storage for their product. Memory in a storage center for millions of users is less expensive then it is to make personal data storage for each individual user. The lack of personal data storage also cuts costs on shipping and makes more shelf space in a retailer. These are all good advantages for the industry and it is easy to see why a game developer and some retailers would find this attractive but I find a few problems this creates for a consumer.

While I sympathize with game developers losing money because of the used market I feel that as a consumer I should have every right to sell a product that I have purchased. It seems ridiculous for me to have some proceeds of mine or a companies profit to go to a game developer just because they created the game. If lets say I bought a video game for 60 dollars and sold it to someone else for 60 dollars but I had to give 10 percent of that profit to the developer. In what realm of rational thought is this fair? Living in a digital age means I no longer have the freedom to recoup my losses for a poor judgment. This also leads to my inability to purchase more products because I lack the fund to do so. Games are expensive, I know because I have purchased many and can honestly say that if I wasn’t able to sell games then my spending habits would decrease in ferocity.

The digital age not only affects my purchasing but it also affects my ability to try. Video game demos are good and all but they are often not a true representation of what the end product will be. Game demos are made to sell the end product so of course a developer will not show you all the messed up jank about their game because that will make a consumer less likely to purchase. I have often just borrowed a game from a friend to see if I liked it and whether or not I should buy it at all. The digital age restricts me from doing this and forces me to go thru the hoops of spending time at a friend’s house for the sole purpose of seeing if the game is up my alley. If I truly enjoyed borrowing the game then I would most likely want to purchase a copy for myself, which means another sale.

This also complicates matters if I want to turn a video game experience into a shared experience. If the new Super Smash Bros were to come out only digitally this would lead to me not being able to bring this experience over to a friend’s house. For that last scenario assume I have a small space and that my friend knows more attractive people…..wait….no need to assume, it’s already true. How do I share my multiplayer party game if I have to bring my game console with me wherever I go? Hell I am doing the developers a favor by exposing their awesome game to more people. The digital age forces gamers to consider who will buy those kinds of games amongst friends.

The final part of this is a little superficial and does not apply to everyone. When I was a child I often relied on video game sales associates for their advice for quality product. If it wasn’t for a gamer telling me what games were good, I would have missed out on games like Star Fox64, Final Fantasy 7, Power stone and many more. The digital age means that I have no reason to go into a store and buy things. Now that I am older I can simply do the research myself but I have to feel bad for all the kids who could be purchasing the next digital cartoon network game when they could be buying the next Super scribblenaughts or the next final fantasy. Going digital forces parents to do research on good quality games or just buy whatever crap their child thinks will be good.

Lastly the coming of the digital age means the death of the midnight release. I know that this subject is not important to everyone but hear me out. The option of the midnight release is great because it gives a place for gamers to meet and discuss video games. Yes they could do that on the internet but sometimes it feels good to have an exciting and occasionally stimulating experience about video games. It can lead to competition, rivalry, friendship and dare I say love. Granted any love formed from waiting in front of a Wal-Mart for a copy of Final fantasy 20 will most likely be weird geek love where there is a lot of cos/role playing involved but its still love. These experiences have to be fun to some people otherwise we wouldn’t wait for a store to release a game. The Digital age means advancement and a lot of good things but it also means a lot of changes that have the potential of hurting the Video game community as well.