Since you're ignorant and historically illiterate videogames grew up in a totally oligarchy dominated environment given regulatory capture of big publishers, movies and music industry from previous decades. So copyright law was ripe to have all sorts of bullshit regulations written into it because the public does not understand technology or software. The whole reason why people "accept" that they don't own the shit they pay for is because they are ignorant of who "the legal rules" serve - aka the tiny rich elite corporate executive minority, not you. AKA if you believe your government works on behalf of you, you're not historically or politically informed enough to talk about the theft of videogames.

If I keep any of the game and files and I'm getting money for a game and not giving you the game completely, I've stolen a part of the game. AKA any game with an "online requirement" is controlled by files and code not given to you on computers at corporate offices hundreds of miles away.

The whole ideology of games as a service is corporate propaganda (aka which began with rebranding normal RPG's as mmo's) was the beginning of corporate propaganda war to take control of software out of peoples hands.

You are the exact reason why modern gaming is such shit. Anyone who doesn't know mmo's are a scam and steam was the game theft heist.

The difference was pre high speed internet everywhere, guys Gabe newell were not completely comfortable bicycle chaining software to servers inside their offices until it was deemed safe and profitable enough to to so. High speed internet everywhere made push button software theft from the public easy, all they have to do is write a piece of software and hold part of it on servers inside their offices and not release the other part while their customers are 100's of miles away.

AKA in an internet enabled world sellers of software have all the power, consumers have zero. Because too many of the game buying public are idiots, morons, etc, aka incapable of participating a market given how stupid and ignorant they are.

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I'm not calling you anything. My tone is just anger at the loss of fun we used to have in the 90's until people who are easy to manipulate came online and into gaming thereby ultimately destroying videogames on the PC as a hobby.

I'm waiting for all of my boxed games,manuals and cloth/paper maps and little cards and floppies and 3'' inch and discs and collectors boxes and trinkets that some games had as a bonus to become valuables and then saying ''Not for Sale'' at any price.As for the games nowadays,cheap and nasty distribution that will only get worse.

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I've still got physical boxed copies of various games from over 25 years ago, but they're tucked away in storage, so I can't say that I'm all that nostalgic about them. Indeed, I gradually find myself more content with gradually replacing them with digital versions when they've become available on GOG.

Since a more reliable internet connection became available where I live, which is a very rural part of southern Spain, I've mostly bought and downloaded my games from online stores. Since 2015 I've only bought games from GOG and that was also the last year I bought a boxed game, which happened to be The Witcher 3.

I think it's fair to say that I'm more interested in the content of the games themselves (the software) these days, than what type of packaging they come in, and so long as they're DRM free, I'm happy.

I would be perfectly happy with buying only digital games for the rest of my life (due to the DRM-Free aspect), but I also appreciate physical copies in some respects. Personally, I would want my physically copies to be in the perfect file format (no disks, high quality 'universal cartridge' only), and come in a nice, small, stylish box. It would also be cool to see a visual walkthrough come with every game (sort of like the old Nintendo Power guides/hint books), but that wouldn't be a deal breaker.

* Edit: I realize that there's no such thing as a 'universal cartridge' ... but that's what I'm hoping to see in the future.

I think I bought my first digital game for Christmas, 2011.

Now it's pretty much all I buy, and mostly sale stuff. Aside from the inconvenience of storing that stuff (I have a few discs of games I can't find the dang key to actually install anymore), it's just - like it or not - far more convenient to price and shop for games from my desk rather than driving around the city to see if there's a sale at Superstore this week, and if so, do they still have copies of that game even in stock?

How to make physical copies atractive to the modern gamer?

It would take something on the scale of Steam going under, and in the chaos of the mess not being able to get people access to their games.

I don't think that it would be successful through the usual ways.

I believe that newcomers don't "understand" the whole appeal to boxed copies that makes happy older gamers.
It has been like the shift from customer to consumer: especially with internet accessibility and sales, video games (just like films, series, music) are now devalued, the current deflation of anything culture-related (same thing for information) has been accepted by many, and I should say, maybe by the majority. Sources aren't verified, trust is now a matter of beliefs.

Many refuse to have anything gaming-related at home beyond the hdd of their computer, because of two main reasons:
-the idea that boxes (paper and/or plastic cases) are bad for environment
-they want to hide gaming as a hobby

Concerning the first point, it's hypocritical since cloud services and servers running H24/24 D7/7 aren't good either for environment, and I am very doubtful about everything else they do concerning environment, like eating food having palm oil or not letting plastic bags on ground or beaches... And I don't even speak about smoking or driving cars... Being concerned about boxes games and environment isn't even the very first priority concerning environment but yet gaming is the very first domain where people are claiming thinking about environment. Sorry I don't trust them.

Concerning the second point, either they are ashamed of gaming because of conditioning, or they are afraid of non-gamer people they know. The main problem is not to be proud of playing video games by keeping boxes (seriously, it's just boxes...) but to frankly and easily feel shame of having these boxes, or even only of other people knowing that they play games. The "funny" thing is that many of them are strongly against keeping boxes in that regard and feel the need to shame people who "dare" keeping these boxes at home. "Jerks", "freaks", "geeks", "nerds" and so on. This strong stance, with a bit of hatred, against others who don't try to hide is a serious sociopathic stance, because by hiding their hobby they try to be "like" "normal people". When you are fake to others, you are fake to yourself. The whole rejection of rights concerning digital goods and games is reflecting the contempt inside.

There's something else maybe: to exclude boxes (and it's the same for dvds and books) you gain place at home. To obtain what? More place only? Or to fulfill place with something else? With housing crisis, it's perhaps a diversion to hide that people are poorer now than before especially when it comes to housing, so the problem isn't "boxes" and people shouldn't be addressing "boxes" as a problem but the whole housing system and the purchase power.

And if people need more space at home because it isn't because of "boxes" but more because working conditions are worse? Again boxes are a false problem.

To me, physical copies and gaming as an extense, are showing how prioritsing things are the real problem in our current societies. Choices and assuming them are essential.

The only solution maybe is education, and admitting there are problems there. But again, it just seems to be a lost cause.

well... calling people with a different view than yours for "morons" is not exactly what I call an adult engagement on an intellectual level.

As if anyone who believes in the legitimacy of these criminal companies is not an idiot. Where in any other industry can you find so many idiots defending being bent over a barrel to pay more for the same game for less fun? Season passes? DlC's? Microtransactions? Gacha fucking gambling and lootboxes are you shitting me? I was there during the 90's idiot, where I saw COMPLETE RPG GAMES that we used to get for the PC that came with both single player and multiplayer relabelled mmo's and people bought the corporate propaganda hook line and sinker.

There is no logical reason for world of warcraft to be a subscription game you don't own, it was probably the biggest scam in all gaming history. It was proof the average gamer is downright retard level stupid.

Before internet companies were forced to give you the entire game, modern business models are based on you not owning the product you are paying for. So yeah its pretty much fraud and an end run around your rights to privacy and beign in control of your software and computer.

Considering that videogames are literally being destroyed and games are literally sold broken from the get go by drm in a fraudulent manner, anyone who thinks the modern gaming environment is good for gaming is definitely an idiot. The reason this site even exists and the FCK DRM initiative is because the intelligent half of the game community lost big with high speed internet penetration.

So no, everyone who is intelligent and remembers QeRadiant and getting server executable's with PC games hates the modern gaming environment. Doom 2, duke 3d, warcraft 2 and descent 2 over kali, that entire era would not be possible today thanks to the sea of morons that entered gaming.

So no there really is only one right answer - where you own and control the software 100%. The only reason I'm having this discussion with you is because high speed internet gave a platform for idiots like you to buy drm infested games. Pre internet stupid people couldn't undermine the rights to privacy and ownership your own software.

It's not just videogames either since windows 10 is a spyware infested nightmare given the average low intelligence of our species on our planet. The internet revealed the average person is a fucking moron, which is we are spied on and monitored by the games and software you use or are paying for.

So yeah online games are "not" a neutral topic because they also enable a permanent foothold for companies to spy and monitor you.

That would be great, indeed.
DRM free games with all the fluff that came with the originals...I like that. :)

You're fucking hilarious.

MAH VIDEOGAMES