SvennoJ said:
IcaroRibeiro said:
I'm still a physical album and books buyer as well, yes it's much harder to find. Almost every bookstore is closing now, but well I also love my kindle and I even subscribe the amazon reading service even though I don't use it that much and mostly read digitals versions ok books I've bought I also love physical games. I need fo pay over 80 USD to keep my imported Nintendo physical games because this company aren't even bothering giving proper physical releases for their games here at least I can buy some Sony physical games for reasonable price Overall, I understand subscription is screwing me as a collector, but I still loving it. I'm a music fan, do you know how many whole discographies I could listen thanks to Spotify ? Before it I was a shameless torrent user, used to download three different albums every week only because If I was going to buy any song I wanted to give a try I would end spending over 2k USD a year. This business model allow me to listen whatever I want, digest and then buy the overpriced CD versions only for the albums I find worth it. If one day I have a big house and enough cash I'll try to collect vinyls as well, but most important subscription system is making my favorite hobby finally accessible like it was never before just like I know GP is making gaming accessible for people who could never afford trying so many games like they can now. So, how can I be opposed to it? |
Kind of a contradiction!
I've pirated music, movies and games as well when I had more time than ways to fund my hobby. However, most grow out of that phase and realize it's not only much nicer to own it in physical form but also feels better than de facto stealing.
Subscription services do not encourage that transition, they're designed to get you hooked on them and not let you go, or you collection / play lists / trophies and what not are all gone.
So while it's nice GP is making gaming accessible for people who can't afford to try out many new things, there's no reason to ever move on from subscription services. Which is bad for collectors like you and me. Some stuff will still come out and maybe some things will make a resurgence like vinyl. (I never bought into vinyl, it's not better than CD, CD is better than MP3 though) Most will become harder to get and more expensive. Games will change more towards episodic and evolving game worlds to keep you hooked, but also turn it into keep up or the game will be completely different or even gone when you get back.
As for Kindle, never. I grab a book to get away from screens!
I used to spend over 2K USD on movies, first Laserdiscs, then DVD, then Blu-ray. I bought plenty just to try out. However now prices are up, non mainstream movies are much harder to find or take a long time to order. Renting never interfered with collecting, streaming is putting a huge strain on it. A lot of stores here don't even sell music nor movies anymore. Only specialized stores are left where you pay a premium. And I'm not looking forward to see what's left after this pandemic is over :/ It wouldn't be so bad if Amazon was not also affected, and they also want you to get Prime and go stream. |
I know right? But alas, sometimes we like contradictory things. I can't call myself a collector by any means as I don't have enough financial resources to it, I collect what I can afford I abandoned my piracy habits when I get my first full paid job, but it was only 4 years ago and I still pirating some animes and mangas, but mostly because they don't have official release here, but just for the record I have about over 600 different manga volumes and I'm starting to running out of space to put them together lol
And maybe those 2k a year seems ok-ish for a north American worker from USA or Canada, but I'm just a Brazilian guy, 2k is about the median 6-month income of a Brazilian worker. Unfortunately most of the media I like is from either USA or Asia (mainly Japan and Korea), so accessibility and low price will always be a factor over some of my whims
I can also try to advocate for other fellow producers and consumers from emerging markets!
With a mass-consumption subscription service companies can try to put more people spending money into a specific hobby because now every penny can produce some value. That's how music industry was saved from the extinction it was heading to, you may reduce the revenue from European, American and Japanese markets (usually the ones that spend a lot purchasing music as well as games, theatrical box office, etc) but otherwise saw a massive increasing in emergent markets Latam, China, Southeastern Asia, India, middle west. Don't think the sudden influx of kpop bands and Latin music flooding Spotify charts are just a circumstances. Today we just saw a Demon Slayer film breaking the record of the highest grossing non-English movie first weekend box office in North America. Ok, Japan isn't exactly an "emergent market" but I think you understand streaming services are making anime even more popular and accessible right?
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