I Hate games on discs, they get scratched, and take up space, I used to like buying games in boxes a long time ago, when they had the keyboard overlay card, full manual and printed game map.
When they moved to simple dvd packaging, it just seems like a wasted step, I'm one of the steam lovers, all my games in one place with all the keys tied to my account, no need having to find out a cd is unreadable and finding the box with the key on it was chewed up by the dog a year ago and i no longer have it.
I stopped playing consoles about 5 years ago, my PC has always been far superior than any console, why have a box that i need to rebuy games for, all those extra dvd's to lose/get scratched.
The PC is coming back as a gaming platform, i doubt it will ever die as a gaming platform.
I find your post interesting.
My experience with discs is contrary. I have always treated them with great care. I have never really had a bad disc.
I still do like the contents of a boxed game. I would prefer ED in a box to be honest. I suppose when I launch the game up first time, I'll get my old Frontier map out and pin it behind my monitors on the wall.
I guess the boxes take up space. But that is the point of boxes. It is a collectible. In that sense my orientation, as indoctrinated by how the world was when I was young, is focused on holding something material in the hand.
Steam is really popular and I must say that it is a nice platform although partially if not entirely spyware. Leave it to humans to take an in principle good idea and make it bad. But its popularity is not so strange in a world where more and more 'things' are virtual.
In olden days a board game came in a box of some sort. With the rise of electronics, computer games carried on riding a momentum of how things used to be. So a computer game came in a box too. It was a natural progression.
ICT changed everything. We can now buy and own virtual items, such as starships, virtual weapons, clothing etc. It does not require a box anymore since we can download it all. And so there is a break between the old days and the time we live in post-ICT introduction. People, especially young generations, live in a much more virtual space and add value to their virtual presence and goods much more than older people do. For older people a virtual item is a sort of ghost in the machine, whereas for young people it is not as imaginary. For them a virtual item feels more real.
I wonder how this will affect future generations. Will the concept of holding a physical object in the hand be completely alien to them? Will there be a massive shift to virtual realities where owning something made of information is equal if not more important than a real world physical object? Will materialism be affected in the way that any thing such as a car will no longer be an object of pride and ego but merely a 'any will do to get where I want to be'?
In any case, the material object phase of our species seems to pass rapidly into a virtual object phase. Since we become what we use, as we use technology, it also uses us, we might end up having a dissociated self-image. Our body being less important yet our virtual presence is vital to our career, relationships and social status, we might end up in a much more mental space of existence.
