"Steam Is The Only Good Monopoly" – The Danger of a Digital-Only Future for Gaming

[Chrkeller]

BraLoD said:

Chrkeller said:

Honestly, I don't know.  I only got into PC 3 years ago.  But I would guess a giant PITA.  

I think that is my point.  Steam excels at keeping games compatible with new hardware, which means replacements are easy.  Given Steam BC, odds are I will update my computer before anything breaks. 

I love the idea of having the real legit hardware, there is something nice about playing old school, it was just a hassle.  Possible I had bad luck. 

Original hardware wins for experience, while emulation is just for convenience, especially in unique situations.  Like Shining Force III Scenario 2 and 3 having english roms.  I don't know how else to play scenario 2 and 3. 

Edit

As for cost, I think PC is way cheaper than building a collection of old games.  Shining Force III is $300 on Ebay, that is a GPU.  Skies of Arcadia on the DC is $150, that is hard drive.  Retro gaming is super expensive for games.  Canon Spike is $300, there is my CPU.  Luigi's Mansion on GC is $50, there is my PSU.  

I could easily build a computer far cheaper than collecting retro games/hardware.  

The later part you are involving physical media vs digital media, I don't think it merits that kind of comparison at least for me, as to me physical media is by far superior to digital media so the price comparison has very little weight.

Even if a game is $300, which I clearly won't buy it, because that's ridiculous, I would still only consider the digital version if it's like $5, at most $10, as I really not value it much at all, most digital games I bought were between $1 to $5.

A great example, I just bought some NeoGeo Metal Slug games on PS4 for $4 each, where the NeoGeo physical version price could go beyond $10000 for some, so yeah, no brainer, but still needs to go as low as it was for me to consider it, as I never bothered buying them for $9 they usually sell for.

I think that having digital as an option is great, it also helps A LOT with preservation, but I really simply don't hold anywhere near the same kind of value between purchasing a physical or a digital game for them to hold any actual weight when compared to eachother.

But that's just me, and I know is not really the cheapest way to be involved with gaming.

I hadn't thought about it, I wonder if my preference for digital is because of my career.  I have moved 4 times in 12 years, including internationally.  Maybe I just got tired of packing stuff up.