Posted February 24, 2012
high rated
Before I start with my little exposition on this matter, I know that certain members of this forum are going to start screaming out insults at me about how I'm being "vain" or "attention-seeking" or whatever. Let it be said - I really don't give a shit. I just feel the need to say my piece on this subject and then be done with it.
I've been a gamer for the best part of 25 years since I first played Wonderboy in an arcade. At the age of 5 I could barely actually reach the controls - the Greek restaurant owner who owned the machine would get me a stool to sit on and open the coin box so that he could start the game anew for me when I lost.
Since that time I, must like the majority of users here I suspect, have owned computers and consoles of every generation, from the 8-bit C64 through to the PS3 and a fairly modern PC. I've bought games on cassette, 5.25" floppy disc, 3.5" diskettes, cartridge, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Bluray and as downloads. Hell, I was buying indie games digital for the Amiga, downloading 2-3 Mb of game over a 28K modem before digital sales were even considered realistic.
Until around five years ago, I may not have agreed with every development that had occurred in the industry, but I felt that the industry and gaming as a whole was heading in an overall positive direction.
Then in 2006, the Xbox 360 and PS3 came onto the scene, and Steam began to come into its own. Suddenly a culture developed where publishers did nothing but emphasise THEIR rights and OUR obligations. They became so obsessed with the idea that we didn't "own" our games, that we just played them. They frantically tried to prevent us from selling our used games with pathetic marketing campaigns, account-binding DRM and trying to raise the profile of digital distribution.
To me, all these efforts have turned games into a throwaway commodity. I don't want to be continually dependent on the publisher to use my games, yet the publisher wants to foster a culture of perpetual dependence so that they can squeeze ever increasing amounts of money out of gamers. When you buy a game today, you're not buying a game, you're buying a leash to tie around your own neck.
I personally can't stand all the PC vs. console fanboy wars. I loved PC gaming until recently, and I also enjoy my PS2, if only because console gaming in that era and eras before it were a completely different experience to computer gaming. The PS3 and 360 on the other hand are nothing more than cut-down PCs with console games now either being poor ports of PC games or PC games being poor ports of console games. Both platforms have lost their identity altogether.
When I buy a game, I buy it to play it and keep it. I want to be able to go into a store, take a risk on an unknown game and remember where I bought that game, not have to follow the crowd simply because I know that I will not be able to sell that game afterwards.
As an example, Beyond Good and Evil is one of my favourite games of all time, but if it had DRM or had been solely digital, I probably would have never even experienced it. I saw it in Karstadt, thought it looked intriguing and decided to shell out the 50 euros for it. It has since become of the most influential titles for me.
Now, it all has to be digitally downloaded or bound to an account, simply because publishers wish to control what you play. I understand that digital provides indie distributors with the means to sell games on a shoestring budget, but let's be honest - barely 2-3% of indie games ever even succeed in earning back their budget.
Now, I can scream until I'm blue in the face about digital distribution, DRM and DLC, but the fact of the matter that I'm in a dwindling minority on the PC, a community that is so desperately scared of its platform disappearing that it will do anything that the industry demands of it. That's fine, but it's not something I can be a part of anymore. I'd been tempted to move to console gaming, but with a similar mindset on the consoles, I've lost all interest there as well.
I'm not going to sell all my games on the PC out of some hollow protest. That would be just wasted money. I'll no doubt come back to my considerable backlog of games and play them from time to time, but I almost certainly won't be buying many more. I may pick up the odd cheap title off GOG or from Media Markt or Saturn, but gaming isn't the passion it used to be for me.
People around me have been telling me how they've noticed that I've been gaming less and less lately. That's what got me thinking about this here. It wasn't a deliberate action, rather a result of my disillusionment. I guess it's my subconscious telling me that I can no longer identify with it.
And so I've come to the point where I have to act on this, say my piece and focus my energies on my other pursuits, which I am now doing. I'll still be looking over the GOG forums, as I find it's a great community and a great place to discuss all kinds of things, not just gaming.
I've been a gamer for the best part of 25 years since I first played Wonderboy in an arcade. At the age of 5 I could barely actually reach the controls - the Greek restaurant owner who owned the machine would get me a stool to sit on and open the coin box so that he could start the game anew for me when I lost.
Since that time I, must like the majority of users here I suspect, have owned computers and consoles of every generation, from the 8-bit C64 through to the PS3 and a fairly modern PC. I've bought games on cassette, 5.25" floppy disc, 3.5" diskettes, cartridge, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Bluray and as downloads. Hell, I was buying indie games digital for the Amiga, downloading 2-3 Mb of game over a 28K modem before digital sales were even considered realistic.
Until around five years ago, I may not have agreed with every development that had occurred in the industry, but I felt that the industry and gaming as a whole was heading in an overall positive direction.
Then in 2006, the Xbox 360 and PS3 came onto the scene, and Steam began to come into its own. Suddenly a culture developed where publishers did nothing but emphasise THEIR rights and OUR obligations. They became so obsessed with the idea that we didn't "own" our games, that we just played them. They frantically tried to prevent us from selling our used games with pathetic marketing campaigns, account-binding DRM and trying to raise the profile of digital distribution.
To me, all these efforts have turned games into a throwaway commodity. I don't want to be continually dependent on the publisher to use my games, yet the publisher wants to foster a culture of perpetual dependence so that they can squeeze ever increasing amounts of money out of gamers. When you buy a game today, you're not buying a game, you're buying a leash to tie around your own neck.
I personally can't stand all the PC vs. console fanboy wars. I loved PC gaming until recently, and I also enjoy my PS2, if only because console gaming in that era and eras before it were a completely different experience to computer gaming. The PS3 and 360 on the other hand are nothing more than cut-down PCs with console games now either being poor ports of PC games or PC games being poor ports of console games. Both platforms have lost their identity altogether.
When I buy a game, I buy it to play it and keep it. I want to be able to go into a store, take a risk on an unknown game and remember where I bought that game, not have to follow the crowd simply because I know that I will not be able to sell that game afterwards.
As an example, Beyond Good and Evil is one of my favourite games of all time, but if it had DRM or had been solely digital, I probably would have never even experienced it. I saw it in Karstadt, thought it looked intriguing and decided to shell out the 50 euros for it. It has since become of the most influential titles for me.
Now, it all has to be digitally downloaded or bound to an account, simply because publishers wish to control what you play. I understand that digital provides indie distributors with the means to sell games on a shoestring budget, but let's be honest - barely 2-3% of indie games ever even succeed in earning back their budget.
Now, I can scream until I'm blue in the face about digital distribution, DRM and DLC, but the fact of the matter that I'm in a dwindling minority on the PC, a community that is so desperately scared of its platform disappearing that it will do anything that the industry demands of it. That's fine, but it's not something I can be a part of anymore. I'd been tempted to move to console gaming, but with a similar mindset on the consoles, I've lost all interest there as well.
I'm not going to sell all my games on the PC out of some hollow protest. That would be just wasted money. I'll no doubt come back to my considerable backlog of games and play them from time to time, but I almost certainly won't be buying many more. I may pick up the odd cheap title off GOG or from Media Markt or Saturn, but gaming isn't the passion it used to be for me.
People around me have been telling me how they've noticed that I've been gaming less and less lately. That's what got me thinking about this here. It wasn't a deliberate action, rather a result of my disillusionment. I guess it's my subconscious telling me that I can no longer identify with it.
And so I've come to the point where I have to act on this, say my piece and focus my energies on my other pursuits, which I am now doing. I'll still be looking over the GOG forums, as I find it's a great community and a great place to discuss all kinds of things, not just gaming.
