Let’s take a look at what game ownership means to me personally as well as how the meaning of game ownership is changing as we head into a future of digital-only distribution.
I tend to buy books well in advance of me actually reading them. Sometimes it takes years before I start reading a book I’ve purchased. Ready Player One? It’s sitting there on my shelf. I might get around to that one this year (I really want to). In reality, it’ll probably be another year – after I finish up this large stack of unread comics and finish all of those console modding projects (which are still coming).
I often buy the extraneous books that litter my shelves when they’re on sale or because of a recommendation – with the expectation that the book will be there for me whenever I get the time and inclination to read it. The pages might yellow over time, but the words will still be there – the story still relevant.
The same applies to my collecting video games. For example, I’ve been meaning to play Final Fantasy IX for well over a decade after I purchased it. It’s still waiting there on the PlayStation disc for me – ready to be played. What’s stopping me? Well, I’m just busy. Some people procrastinate work. I procrastinate playing long games and reading to pursue other, short-term interests.
I used to rent games and movies a lot more in past decades (I think we all did when we had more time, but less money – i.e. high school / college). I’ll still occasionally use services like RedBox or local mom and pop video rental shops to catch up movies I missed in the last year. And when I rent a movie, I tend to watch it immediately and then return it as quickly as possible. A part of me realizes that it’s not mine and that I should get it back to the owner before it’s lost or damaged.
There’s a nagging voice in my head – some complex of the mind drilled into me by my parents long ago. Rental time is ticking away – drifting slowly but surely toward the deadline. So, after watching a movie, I rush back to redeposit it – lest I forget and be charged a late fee. Of course Netflix and GameFly are easier on my mind about the rental time (you keep the game as long as you want), but there’s still the matter of me not using their services enough to warrant the monthly fee. I’ve went a whole month without watching anything on Netflix.
Meanwhile, those unread books and that Final Fantasy IX sit there untouched, unplayed, unfazed by time. And you know what? It’s fine. I own those copies, ready at any time, secure on my shelf. And outside of unnatural disaster or my untimely demise, I fully intend to enjoy them – just not today.. not right now.
(Alas poor Yorick.. he never got to finish the Arc The Lad series..)
That’s partially why I collect – to capture future experiences (even though I’m not ready for them currently). There are games you run across at opportune times and/or prices; so I buy these when I can – whether I can play them now or not. And while Steam, GOG, and Everdrives (flash carts) have gone a long way to make games accessible without a tangible copy, I still enjoy holding and owning the original physical one. Even if it’s a reproduction, it’s a hand-made cartridge – and often with awesome label art.
As far as books and movies go.. there are streaming services and cheap copies for those as well. There are also plenty of films (like some of the Godzillas and monster flicks) that didn’t escape from VHS onto digital media (well not legally anyways) and are now sought after by fans.
As we move into the digital age, the role of the media consumer changes. Companies move on to other systems and media, taking down multiplayer servers or servers with patches for these games. Also, some newer single-player games, due to DRM (Digital Rights Management), require a server to be available even for a single-player game (case in point: Diablo III for the PC).
For many games, when Sony, EA or another company shuts down their DRM servers, all the copies of games that rely on those servers will cease to function (or function at some lesser capacity). Even when that’s not the case, when the console it’s installed on ceases to function, the game is gone with it (as the purchase is tied to the console to ensure it cannot be transferred or copied). How can I replace Afterburner: Climax when my Xbox 360 drive breaks down (as it’s no longer purchasable)?
(Afterburner Climax was discontinued from the Xbox Live store at the end of 2014. TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled was delisted in 2011.)
It’s almost as though we’re given the game to play for a limited time per the discretion of the corporation that produces it (or until the system it was downloaded on breaks down). And previous attempts to revive multiplayer games (running software to mimic the multiplayer server) by reverse engineering the protocol has been met with legal action under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) – case in point: Blizzard Entertainment’s attempts to shutdown bnetd.
(Many of the games I’ve yet to play require some sort of downloadable patch to finish or to address some issue – patches that unfortunately won’t be available at the time I get around to playing them.)
I don’t expect that one day a few years from now I’ll open up my physical Ready Player One and the words will have faded away. I also don’t expect that I’ll insert the FFIX disc I bought several years ago into my old original PlayStation and have an error come up about the game being out of date or requiring a firmware update that is no longer available.
(Copies of the US Constitution are fading away. Fortunately, my copy of Ready Player One is holding up just fine.)
When I look at purchasing a game through a service like Steam or as a downloadable on my console, I approach the purchase with a different frame of mind (valuing the current experience and the convenience over long-term playability). In these cases, I see the “purchase” as something analogous to buying a season pass to an amusement park.
I’m paying for a limited-time experience – not for a long-term product. To me this is the same as renting a video game back in the 90’s so that my friends and I could play it for a weekend (actually DIVX DVDs comes to mind).
(Not just an awesome character on Penny Arcade, the DIVX player was the pinnacle of DRM in 1998 – a disc player which would contact an external server via a phone line to allow you to watch the media you “purchased” for 48 hours. After that you could extend or purchase the media – again, watchable as long as the server was up. The system was discontinued in 1999.)
If I’m not able to play the digital-only game 5 years from now, I’ve already taken that into consideration. And I’m not really against digital-only purchases. Usually these downloadable games are priced somewhat cheaper than physical releases – which makes it a win for the publishers (who don’t have to create a physical copy) and a win for the gamers (who get the experience for a bit cheaper). And a lot of people don’t care about being able to play a game years from now. Gamers who play the game in its prime are easily getting their money’s worth on the current gaming experience.
(Two excellent digital-only games as the time of this article – well-worth the money.)
But when it comes down to it, I’m not a gamer that plays a game to completion right after purchasing it, so when weighing the pros and cons of a digital purchase (be it a Kickstarter or a marketplace purchase), I have to factor in how much I’ll be able to play the game before it theoretically “expires”.
So what do you think? Are you renting the games you have digitally-only copies of? Are you fine with that arrangement?
Now for shameful self-promotion:
I sell hand-made (or modded) items (like back-lit custom Game Boys) here (etsy).
And I also sell extra used games and manuals I pick up here (ebid) and here (ebay).
Also, please follow me on Twitter and Instagram (@UrzasRage) for pics and announcements.
Proceeds from my shops either go back into my collection as game purchases (so that I have more to write about), for more game-chasing, or are given to gaming-related charities.