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I have always been a "green" guy, with very little space at home to boost, so I really prefer all digital.
Post edited August 19, 2021 by Enebias
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idbeholdME: Pretty much EXACTLY this.

It does fade, but there is a HUGE difference between burned (something you make at home) and pressed discs (what you get in retail). While a disc you burn something on might be useless in 5 years, pressed ones can last decades. I already have multiple 20+ year old CDs that still work fine. If you store them properly, they can last a long time.
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Jon_Irenicus_PL: Would it be possible to get a disc pressing machine at home???
Why would you get a disc presser? Just get high quality Blu rays
And a Blu ray burner to burn them yourself with free software like cf burner xp or imgburn If you burn them slow and use
High quality media they should last ad long as a pressed disc or at least
Longer than you will ever need.
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Jon_Irenicus_PL: Would it be possible to get a disc pressing machine at home???
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wanker666: Why would you get a disc presser? Just get high quality Blu rays
And a Blu ray burner to burn them yourself with free software like cf burner xp or imgburn If you burn them slow and use
High quality media they should last ad long as a pressed disc or at least
Longer than you will ever need.
why do you need to burn them slow?
I'm no longer a fan of physical editions. They're quite pointless in the era of digital distribution. Digitally acquired games are easily updated and are still DRM-free (at least on GOG). Besides that I don't have space in my room to store the physical boxes. When you have 500 games or more, imagine the amount of space that's needed to store them. The only thing that worries me are older games which aren't available in digital distribution...
No.

10 years ago, I would have mentioned the environment. However, I look at the disk space my collection takes and must acknowledge an environmental footprint for that (I guess that could be circumvented if a centralized agent could be trusted to store gamers' collection for them indefinitely). Still better than if it was all DVDs I guess (my collection can still fit on a single disk or in my case, 2 since I'm using RAID 10... if it was boxes and DVDs, I'd have thousands of those).

However, there is the convenience:
- I don't need to figure out how to circumvent the original medium's protection mechanisms when I need to change the medium of my backup (no physical medium lasts forever)
- Even taking backups into consideration, It takes a lot less physical space
- I don't need to swap disks, I can just download (in my case, from the backup on my local LAN, which is a lot faster than the internet)
- I don't need to deal with the limited selection/inventory of brick & mortal stores. Voluntary withdrawal from the publisher non-withstanding, all games that were made available at the web store will always be available, any time of the day, any day of the year and there is no supply shortage or delivery delays.
- I don't need to deal with a clerk potentially commenting on or otherwise judging my purchases
Post edited August 19, 2021 by Magnitus
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Sarafan: I'm no longer a fan of physical editions. They're quite pointless in the era of digital distribution. Digitally acquired games are easily updated and are still DRM-free (at least on GOG). Besides that I don't have space in my room to store the physical boxes. When you have 500 games or more, imagine the amount of space that's needed to store them. The only thing that worries me are older games which aren't available in digital distribution...
You can fit 2 16 terbyte hard drives in a small box easily, 2 so you have a backup or
Course.
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wanker666: Why would you get a disc presser? Just get high quality Blu rays
And a Blu ray burner to burn them yourself with free software like cf burner xp or imgburn If you burn them slow and use
High quality media they should last ad long as a pressed disc or at least
Longer than you will ever need.
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Orkhepaj: why do you need to burn them slow?
To he safe, lower chance of failure, plus the burn marks will be deeper so
Data will last as long as possible. If you use good media the data still might last
Pretty much forever if you burn at rated speed, but I play it safe
And burn slow.
Post edited August 19, 2021 by wanker666
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wanker666: You can fit 2 16 terbyte hard drives in a small box easily, 2 so you have a backup or
Course.
That's my point. :) Storing physical copies takes space in the real world. Storing digital copies doesn't (almost at least).
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wanker666: You can fit 2 16 terbyte hard drives in a small box easily, 2 so you have a backup or
Course.
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Sarafan: That's my point. :) Storing physical copies takes space in the real world. Storing digital copies doesn't (almost at least).
If you have less than 5 terabytes of data you can use 2.5 inch drives
Which can fit in an extremely small box. Or if your rich you c an get some massive
Nvme ssds(small in size massive in capacity). Ssds can be extremely dense
And small they are just really expensive.
Absolutely not. The only physical part I'd prefer to the digital equivalent is the manual, but my ideal would be no manual necessary and all needed information to be found in-game anyway.
Post edited August 20, 2021 by Leroux
I miss the artwork and the manual(s). I don't miss having to store the boxes somewhere.
Physical all the time. I get digital is convenient but, for me, nothing beats that box art and THE SMELL.
Attachments:
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Leroux: Absolutely not. The only physical part I'd prefer to the digital equivalent is the manual, but my ideal would be no manual necessary and all needed information to be found in-game anyway.
Of course, a manual on a large, say 10" tablet, is a quite good substitute ... even better on a large tablet type PC or spare laptop.
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Orkhepaj: why do you need to burn them slow?
Are you familiar with buffer under-runs and burn errors. That can usually be avoided by burning slow with decent media. Many have learnt the hard way by doing otherwise.

Burning fast is more often than not a false dichotomy.

Many of my friends have good coaster collections or reflector discs to scare away birds in their garden ... I don't, just a small handful, because I learnt that lesson early.

Don't go cheap and don't go fast .... and better still, don't use discs at all, as HDDs are far superior if treated right, and certainly more cost effective.
Post edited August 21, 2021 by Timboli
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Timboli: Of course, a manual on a large, say 10" tablet, is a quite good substitute ... even better on a large tablet type PC or spare laptop.
Emphasis on quite.

It's still inferior to a physical, printed manual. For sim or strategy games with big manuals, it's much easier to find things in a physical book than wrestling with a digital copy (especially if they've just done an image scan rather than an OCR scan of the manual)
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Sarafan: I'm no longer a fan of physical editions. They're quite pointless in the era of digital distribution. Digitally acquired games are easily updated and are still DRM-free (at least on GOG). Besides that I don't have space in my room to store the physical boxes. When you have 500 games or more, imagine the amount of space that's needed to store them. The only thing that worries me are older games which aren't available in digital distribution...
Currently PC physical releases usually include a redeemable code, so these releases are mainly for art books, statuettes and what not, however as for any releases that include USB sticks / discs or for older releases floppies, then I'm all for it. Personally, I'm very much into preservation, both physical as well as digital and as you've said "older games which aren't available in digital distribution" are the main reason for it. Having them big boxes means that I have these games and don't have to worry about them disappearing into the void. As for space.. what can I say.. I live in a house made of carton big boxes at this point!
Post edited August 21, 2021 by watvin
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watvin: Currently PC physical releases usually include a redeemable code, so these releases are mainly for art books, statuettes and what not, however as for any releases that include USB sticks / discs or for older releases floppies, then I'm all for it. Personally, I'm very much into preservation, both physical as well as digital and as you've said "older games which aren't available in digital distribution" are the main reason for it. Having them big boxes means that I have these games and don't have to worry about them disappearing into the void. As for space.. what can I say.. I live in a house made of carton big boxes at this point!
I'm not against physical editions in overall. When we're talking about older games, which aren't available in digital distribution, the physical editions are basically our only option. We don't have a choice, so it's this or nothing. There are however people who have several thousands of games. It would be impossible to store all of them in physical editions. This would require a warehouse. ;) Of course I understand people who like to collect big boxes. It's good when people have a choice. Your collection must be really impressive! I believe that you showed part of it during one of the staff streams on Twitch... :)
Post edited August 21, 2021 by Sarafan