As most people know, PSN and Xbox Live have been on and off, though mostly off, the past few days. The culprit is apparently a DDoS attack that "hacker" group Lizard Squad had been promising for quite some time. Now, let's be clear - this is crap. Hopefully, every last member of Lizard Squad will be found and be made into nice leather handbags, and people who enjoy playing online will be able to get back to it sooner than later.

Also, let's not kids ourselves, PC elitist bastards - this can happen to Steam or Uplay or Origin or anyone else. That the consoles were targeted is little more than a desire to screw over the most people on Christmas of all days, when tons of consoles were being given as presents. Put bluntly, the only thing saving the various sundry PC platforms is the lack of massive new users on this otherwise joyous holiday.

Either way, this is miserable for all PS4 and Xbone gamers. And yet, perhaps this is a needed dose of reality.

We live in an age where more than a few people are advocating the end of not just physical goods, but of ownership in general. More than a few people are tying their purchases to DRM platforms and digital console purchases, throwing their ability to use the products that they're paying a considerable amount of money to the hands of fate. Be it on PC, Xbone, or PS4, companies are pushing hard to convince us all that nothing can go wrong, and that digital distribution and DRM are not only okay, but preferable to traditional ownership.

Well, during this blackout, I've been able to fully use all my PS4 games, and the couple games I have for my new Xbone. I didn't need to worry about whether I already had them installed, or if I needed to finish the installs, or if I'd be able to re-download something in case a deletion is needed to make room for a new game. Basically, it's been business as usual for me, and for those of us who haven't surrendered all our consumer rights to the fragile ether of the internet.

This isn't the first time this happened, of course. In late June to mid-May of 2011, an actual hack of the PlayStation network forced the service down, as well as compromising users' personal information. Sony threw a few (digital) games at their customers, and endured several lawsuits from the data theft.

Now this isn't anywhere near as bad, at least as far as anyone knows. All signs point to this being no more than a bunch of kids slamming servers to the point of compromising functionality. And that, my friends, is the issue.

By going all-digital, especially DRM-based digital, consumers leave their gaming choices to the fates. If a game isn't installed when the servers are being crapped over, the player is SOL, with no real recourse. It's a matter of luck whether a game, or in this case a whole network, won't go to crap at the very moment a user has free time... Especially in high-profile times as the holidays.

I'm reminded of the raving Xbone fanboys who, after the 180, petitioned MS to stick to their original DRM plan. Could anyone imagine how bad this would have turned out if that were the case? People getting Xbones on Christmas Day, only to hook them up and find them little more than paperweights. Sitting there every hour, trying to see if XBL is on long enough for the check-in... This would have been far, far worse than it is now.

The issue isn't with using the internet, obviously. The issue is that so many people seem willing to let the internet use them, effectively. By being completely dependent only on the internet, without any way to function offline, we open ourselves more and more to this sort of attack, and with life as hard as it is already, do we really need to enable a bunch of script kiddies to ruin our gaming?

I know I won't. The digital-only zealots can have that headache, and for me, it'll be business as usual.