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SvennoJ on 07 August 2013
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Mythmaker1 said:
SvennoJ said:
 

The Wii has online multiplayer, but I wouldn't call it (much) evolved from the online capabilities of the dreamcast. I don't know anyone personally who has played online on the Wii.

Disc locked content makes no sense at all. Expansions were flourishing before DLC took over. I bought 6 alone for EQ, which is an online game even. Many games had great expansions, AoE, Sims, Half-life, etc.

Gaming magazines are mostly gone because there is no more need for them. If demo discs, extra little games would still need to be distributed physically, they would still exist.

Game shops definitely feel the pinch from digital distribution. If they had expansions and indie games to sell as well that would help. Big box stores can steal their anual big releases, but they don't have the space for all the rest, which is taken away by digital distribution. Plus the pc game market is pretty much gone entirely from retail.

Anyway, I enjoy the ease of digital distribution as well. Love the ease of getting great indie games, and ps+ is definitely putting a dent in my retail buying habits, yes I'm part of the problem too. DLC not so much though, buying an expansion felt a lot more exciting then downloading a tidbit of dlc. Plus that demo disc with a great magazine, much better then waiting hours for 1 demo to download, then worry about HDD space.
As far as online multiplayer, yes it can be fun. It never reaches the heights of splitscreen or lan play for me though. I rather have more focus on games that can be shared in the same room.

It does exist, though. And outside of multiplayer, it provides several important features, primitive though much of it is.

You're right that disc-based expansions did exist, and to a degree still do. However, there's an interesting thing to note: all of the games you mentioned were PC, and none of them were console. Oh, they existed, but very, very few actually made it to market because of the technical and financial hurdles. Those that exist today are something of an anachronism, and are usually only used for really, really substantial material.

You're right in saying that magainzes aren't needed. The thing is putting games in won't help. Because all it will do is hasten the death of actual journalism, since it's being propped up by gimmicks; then, when someone gets in there to undercut them by offering demos without the magazines, and for cheaper, they have no leg to stand on.  It's what's causing dirty magazines to die a slow, painful death to internet porn.

Game shops definitely are feeling the heat from online distribution. But the reason they have to rely so much on pre-owned sales is because big-box stores are taking a lot of their new-game sales away. Digital distribution is a distant second, especially for places like Gamestop that have their own online distribution channels.

It really is hard to conceive of console gaming without online...but without the added convenience you brought up, it would ultimately be a much lesser industry than it is now.

You're right, I can't remember many console expansions. I have the Dragon age: Awakenings expansion on disc, that's about it. Pre hdd expansions were simply new games on consoles as they couldn't add to or require the previous game to be there I would assume. One could argue that the likes of FF X-2 are comparable to the old disc based expansions on PC.

You write the part about the magazines as if hasn't happened yet, it's exactly what happened. Cheaper demos -> download for free. It was nice though when you could play the demos straight from disc. That doesn't happen anymore anyway, the last demo disc I had was with ps move. What a nightmare, everything had to install first, painfully slow.