How is that different from any other game out in physical copy? You'd go online to find patches/updates, download and install them. Did you get mad at developers years ago when a patch was put out and it didn't come on the physical copy you purchased or did you go online and download and install it? Even if you had to download and install 20+GB of patches, you didn't have to download and install the original 150+GB of a game. Right now that's still a problem for a lot of people in the US with data caps.
I never got mad at this whole affair at all, I applaud the move to digital distribution for anything that can be done so. Music, video, and games. They're built for digitalization.
But honestly, your arguments pro-physical still don't make sense. To each their own, sure, that's always the easy way out of any discussion. But let's talk common sense. We've been on a sliding scale with regards to gaming and digital distribution, but also on how games are
delivered. There was a time, way back when (decade+ ago by now?) when a physical disc copy was actually worth something. The base game was actually a playable thing, it was complete enough, you could reasonably play it without a patch, there was no blocking issue left in it, performance was okay from beginning to end.
Somewhere along the way, we lost that quality in game releases. Even Baldurs Gate 3, which is widely respected as are its developers for the quality of its release... released with an Act 3 with abysmal performance and lots of glaring issues. You don't even really want to play it like that to enjoy it as the devs intended.
Today's reality simply is that a physical game is obsolete even at the moment its released already, simply because the quality of that release is below par.
And we still buy it.
You know what would really be a great move for Larian? Release this Collector's box
at the moment they're going for that Definitive Edition. You know, when the game's actually
done. Whatever they put in the current edition is a complete and utter bullshit product, an emotional purchase at best, with no actual value. Asking for an actual complete game in that box is as twisted as it gets. And buying that box now is confirmation to Larian and all other Collector's Editions that they don't even have to care about it, it gets bought anyway because collectors can't resist their urge regardless. Good luck with that.
yeah but it's being sold as a collectors item so ... UHM
See above. Its being sold as a game, with a collector's bag along with it. They include a disc. Its the game. The idiocy is in expecting them to put an actual 'full game on those discs'. Its asking something impossible.
The closest we get to owning media (PC games) we pay for these days is off GoG. You can download all the files to your side, then install and play the game on your system when you want. You don't have to connect to a digital library and still be stuck with any kind of DRM.
Exactly, so how does a physical copy of the game that contains glaring bugs help you when you have the game on GoG?
The ownership argument does not hold water in 2023. Or in 2018. Or 2015. Or 1995.
We have always owned a license, this does not change. It only changes when you choose to forfeit your consumer rights by stopping to buy games and instead subbing to cloud services to game. You said it yourself - but forgot to realize there is a big big difference between subbing Netflix or Xbox Game Pass and downloading a game off Steam or even Uplay/Origin. Its a completely different kind of contract, bound by different legal terms. On top of license ownership, we also have a vibrant gaming community, if there is any goodwill between dev and community, things get done to keep games playable when they're no longer in the earnings model of a company. And honestly thats where the best gaming happens, in communities built on goodwill. Look at modding. Same thing. The PC will always be
the platform for that space, it won't change, no matter how corporate tries to strangle it. Its the simple dynamic of human ingenuity and exploration happening there. It won't stop. The only segment of the market where things truly get blocked professionally, guess what, is in the segment of games where shareholders demand where the market goes. Its the segments where you really don't want to be found as a gamer, a consumer, or even human being.
That is what we should be up in arms against. Triple A cash cows, and the masses 'loving them'. They're the enemy of true innovation, good gaming, and good communities. Not some misperceived battle for 'ownership' that was only ever real because you had a physical disc in hand. Even back then, you had a license to use.
I agree with a lot of your arguments, but the physical copy is not the way to defend them, simply because the state of the game is sub par on that physical release. That ship has simply sailed, and is luckily replaced by far better paths to get what you want, digitally. Data caps... yeah. Talk to your government to get their ISPs in line. Regulate. The EU managed it, why can't you, just vote better. Thats what societies are for, getting shit done
together.
box.baldursgate3.game
