I also don't miss patching disc-games either; especially games w/ lots of patches and patches you need to do in order properly too.

For example - NWN1 and NWN2 must be a total nightmare, to get all the patches, expansions, and install them right, in the right order and all.

Was easier for me to re-buy NWN2: Complete Edition and just do one big install of everything w/ everything all up-to-date & with every expansion included. No muss, no fuss.

COH retail versions w/ their patch-order and whatnot must've been a mess from retail, too.
COH Patch list here (retail version) - https://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/982/7

it's basic not needed when you buy a digital game you buy a "one" single license to that game
only thing you need keeping is the license code and receipt you bought the game.

with that you are within your rights to even download a illegal copy and play the game nobody can do anything against that
of course not that fancy as having it on your GOG or steam account.

that's also the reason they try to push hard on "cloud" this kind of change the buying rules you never buy a license but you buy access to content.

You know, only in the sense that having a physical copy felt somehow more secure. Losing data on a hard drive feels more likely. It's not a logical position or anything. Other than that, yeah, nah, digital copies are way more convenient. Even music CDs, which I do like to collect, I always rip to my computer for convenient listening.

I definitely do. I also miss the long design journals that came with them, or even the giant manuals of sim games (including SimEarth and SimCity -- those were treatises!) The Sid Meier's Pirates! (original CGA) map hung on my wall for years, even after I had stopped playing it often. (And during play it was helpful!)

But physical releases became lame even before digital distribution took over. My The Sims 3 boxes are nothing but DVD cases that were shrink-wrapped with a disc and code in them, with a one page double-sided insert of legalese.

You are probably right but in my experience, probably different to others, I conserve a lot of nearly 30 years old CD's, games and music and they are functional, what is in extintion danger is the CD reader bundled with new computers.
But I do not conserve any kind of digital data from that time, nor any Hard Drive.

The boxes itself?
No, not really. It's nice to have a wall of boxes to look at, but they just take up space and ultimately, how much time do you spend looking at it anyway?

Now, when we come to the content of physical boxes, yes, i miss it.
Real manuals were good of course. The whole "manual on the disc" was ok, but "manual is on a website" was a horrible thing to do, especially when the company and their website went defunct...(like with THQ)
All the extra content you'd sometimes get? Nice but how much time do you spend with that anyway?
Most important though: A Game on a disc, which nobody can mess with
The big negative of the digital only movement is that you're basically a slave to the decisions of the copyyright holders:
- License runs out? We saw that with Rockstar and GTA: Tons of music just got removed. Worse: Games get removed, never to be sold again because of it
- Censorship. Pathetic developers caving in to the demands of a few batshit twittards. We saw that with games like Chuchel or Pillars of Eternity.
- You got some old game that doesn't work on your modern PC? But it needs Steam/Origin/whatever, which doesn't run on the old PC you want to use with said game? Good luck trying to find a old version of said software to be able to use it and good luck going the pirate way without getting a virus

Other than that, nah, i really don't care. Just trying to imagine how much space my digital game collection (3002 games atm) would take up, when already all my old physical games (around 2000 but several hundred PC games are just a jewel case, thankfully) eat up a ton of space, makes me happy i don't have to mess with that anymore.

And no, i wouldn't pay extra for physical boxes, especially knowing that how greedy companies are, all we'd get is a flimsy "eco" dvd case with a key and not anything else anyway.

I wonder how much % ended in dumpsters after a few days.

That is one of the main reasons I prefer physical. That you get the base version which you can then patch as you see fit. Especially RTS games had a terrible habit of coming out, then releasing patches exclusively for multiplayer balance and completely ignoring single player campaign/content. The multiplayer then proceeded to die a couple of years later and the original intended balance of the campaign missions is permanently greatly upset because of it.

ARPGs are also a frequent victim of this where skills, builds and items can get buffed/nerfed on a whim.

One of the main things I dislike about digital distribution (besides DRM) is that you are always served only the version with the latest patch and no way back (most of the time).

I loved the Ultima VI cloth map that came with the original game!

Nowadays I do not care about any physical extras.

Let me download an offline installer and I am completely happy.

All the best to you!

phil

I do miss physical packages.

Nowadays I feel downloaded games are not as worthy and the less I spend on it, the better.

But wasn't always like this.
I have over 600 original, boxed games from DOS era up to 2010/12 years.
Many deluxe editions as each box was a joy to open.
And I was willing to pay good money for them.

Was also an age where most games (not all...) were kind of usable out of the box.
All this Early access and DLC was not a thing.

Do I miss them? No, not really. I do like having them, and I've collected a fair number of them by now, but I only occasionally have a look over. At the time they were a library that I actively used, but now digital versions have more or less replaced them for their ease of use (or any use at all, since hardware has become an issue with quite a few games in my physical collection).

I never bought physical games. This period must have been terribly cumbersome.
When I see that my grandparents need a whole closet to store their old games that no one ever plays. I dare not imagine all these games that you only play once, if you had to put them away.

This can be a game-to-game and case-by-case thing.

Yeah, your argument's for a totally different reason than mine: that you want to use older said version of a game b/c said patch wrecked your game somehow for whatever reason - i.e. old version had better balance; you preferred older version; old version runs on your system and say new version doesn't work; certain mods don't work on new version; older saves don't work on a newer version; etc etc.

And that certainly is fair, especially if you have a Single Player game and you want to play how you see fit; and/or you can get a Multiplayer game going w/ other players running the same exact version you're running.

My instance for NWN1 and NWN2 was based on the fact: you want everything in a certain game all up-to-date, for whatever reason - i.e. you need said updates to enabled & run certain expansions/DLC's/whatever; you want all the newest updates & features from that; etc etc.

For example, I'd love to back-patch / down-grade patch say Krater [on Steam] to an older version b/c they broke saves for older version when they added Co-Op Mode Patch/Update, as I was some 10 hours or so already into the game - if someone ever made a down-grade mod or something. So, those saves have been worthless to me. Ain't been back to that game b/c of that - they probably should've had two different entries on Steam at some point there: one for Co-Op Edition and one for Old Version; or say stuck say old version (Before Co-Op Patch) in the "Beta" game section of Steam, for players to access if they want/need it. FatShark will be FatShark though. [shrug]

And some games, like say GTA: SA (especially if you own from Steam or Rockstar Store) - it's better to down-grade your game (as there have been unofficial patches made for this), if you're trying to run certain mods, features, and whatnot. Can be important, if you have older saves and/or trying to run other older mods.

Of course, if you have GTA: SA on disc from retail on DVD disc (provided you have a DVD drive) - you can install and then patch it however, provided you have the old patches stored somewhere and/or can find the patches online somewhere (probably on GTAForums or say on PC Gaming Wiki).

Side note - I own GTA Trilogy (GTA3; GTA: VC; and GTA: SA) all from retail on discs; and also on Steam.

I miss getting games and taking that plastic off of them it was so satisfying