they are really pushing digital downloads. I don't like digital downloads of games. There is no box. There is nothing physical about the purchase... it feels like a phantom to me; like the product has no value. When I buy something I want to hold it, to feel it... "It's in my possession" .
You know what digital downloads mean to me? Paying for the bootleg copy. You see, newbies, in the olden days you would download bootleg games online . Those games were, as you now call them, digital downloads. I was a part of those days, so to me throwing down $60 today (real fucking money) for a digital download, is fucked up. However for a physical retail copy.... that's different. However the difference is decreasing since boxed versions may not even include a manual, maybe just a petty PDF. They are eroding the physical copy to make you feel like digital downloads are the same, when in fact certain benefits will be lost.
Sure I have some games on Steam, but those were all cheap.. on average $5 each title. I don't mind no physical stuff for cheap products for I see them as a small economic loss. However for $60... I want something to show for it and not just to show for it on my monitor.... but in the real. To who? to myself. "That's mine, that's mine too... I own this, I own that".
These companies just want to get away with charging $60 for permission to run the software. That's the idea. Look at how they are giving games away with BF3. If you call up EA tech support and complain about a service they may throw in a free game (non-physical) . Steam does the same too... the false bans with MW2 had Steam giving L4D2 away for free and also other examples.... Giving away these products is nothing, they're digital. No box to pay for, no paper, no discs... but they send a psychological message to you: "We grant you permission" , "We grant you access" to the game. This sends a subliminal message, "kneel down bitches, you don't own shit" . Yeah... let's see you trade in your digital game..... ohhhhhh shit son, you can't; or even give it to a friend for free (after you have first played it - to give your own copy away).
Though the last couple issues/concerns I expressed above can be solved with a few lines of code here and there, so I believe they'll do it in the near future when enough people have been acclimated with their digital game downloads phenomenon. But with respect to the physicality, to the buying something and it's in your possession and it's yours and you can do with it as you like, aspect of actually owning a game and having it on hand, digital downloads remove this 'freedom'. They want you to understand that when they say "Jump" , you will say "How high?". That's all. Do you accept?
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