Metal Man said:
Yeah, I know what you mean. Even though I listen to my stereo content at home through my HTPC, I still like to buy the CDs and DVD-A's and rip them myself. I have a nice ASIO sound card so I don't have to worry about unnecessary resampling going on behind the scenes. I was really skeptical about this at first, but I think the DACs in that sound card actually sound a little better than the ones in my receiver. That wasn't even the reason why I bought that sound card, so I considered that to be a nice bonus. I just wanted something that could automatically change the output sample rate to match the source file. All my 5.1 content is handled by my DVD-A/SACD player, though (including my 5.1 remixes of NES music!). Anyway, just to give an example, I backed the Video Games Live: Level 3 Kickstarter, but I didn't give enough to get the CD as a reward. I figured I would just pick it up after it released. Much to my disappointment (maybe I missed the fine print somewhere), the CDs were only offered as backer rewards and the album was released in digital only. I still haven't picked it up yet, even though CDBaby has a FLAC version. |
Yeah. I have maybe 12 games on Steam. I think I've beaten one of them. The rest, all great games mind you, just sit there. Sometimes I'll think about that when console releases are slim or I'm short on money or whatever and I'll open Steam up to play and it just, I can't get into it. It's the same exact thing with ios games. I think I've beaten like 2 since 2011.
I have done alot of thinking about this and my hypothesis is two part. First, for most of us (I'm in this group) who grew up in the pre iTunes/Steam/Netflix era of video rental stores, CD walkmen and NES carts, there will always a challenge enjoying virtual media vs. physical media because it's just burnt into our brains. Secondly, I think there might be an evolutionary link at play as well. Nature did not intend for our survival drive to account for things that don't exist/can't hold in our hand. You can't hunt or gather virtual food. Early man knew they were the owners of something buy seeing and holding it. Downloading does not give one the feeling of ownership. You can SEE it, but it's behind glass. It's behind some wall or screen that I can't get to. I can't HOLD it and set it on a shelf etc. I think that is part of the problem as well. We have all these songs and games downloaded, but are they really...there?
