This is LUDICROUS. Can we normalize buying physical media again, please?
"The 23 steps of purchasing my kid a Sony PC game on Steam for Christmas"
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1hmknwg/the_23_steps_of_purchasing_my_kid_a_sony_pc_game/
@killyourfm I think we as a society haven’t gone through enough events where a license server goes down permanently, taking down your ability to access any of “your” media, to have a conversation about what it means to physically own your own stuff.
When I “buy” a game on Steam or PS5 Store, I understand that I’m actually renting it, as well as the storage for my game saves, and I may lose access to both at any time. I don’t know how many people internalize that.
@drahardja You're absolutely right. I guess nothing that "hits home" hard enough.
Interestingly, I see that conversation happening fairly regularly in the eBook space, with lots of people advocating for Kobo and switching away from Kindle.
@killyourfm I think the removal of “1984” from the Kindle store 15 years ago (gosh, has it been that long?) gained enough popular traction to spark a conversation about eBooks that has fortunately reached critical mass. I think it would take something like Steam going bankrupt or Microsoft discontinuing Xbox to start a similar conversation about games.
https://gizmodo.com/amazon-secretly-removes-1984-from-the-kindle-5317703
@drahardja And how disturbingly hilarious that it was "1984."
More recently, people have been up in arms about book covers being changed whenever things like TV or movie adaptations happen.
@killyourfm @drahardja switched from Kindle to Pocketbook but removing DRM is a pain. Furthermore I only found a single ebook vendor, where I can easily buy “niche” programming books. Often I have to resort to Amazon again and de-DRM. The monopolies tying devices to vendors need to be broken. Especially Amazon and in Germany Thalia as well.