When it comes to ownership though. . .*shrug*. People have been paying for subscription entertainment services for years, and "buying" company controlled games is just another form of that.
No, it's not. It's different. What we have here isn't the equivalent of a Netflix membership, it's the equivalent of buying a DVD that has a time bomb implanted in it. Worse than that, really. You're paying full price, they're claiming that they're selling you a game, and you're not. None of those things go together. It is semantics, yes, but it's more than that - it's cost and rights and property.
Do you own the game? Not completely, I suppose. Does that matter? Not to me it doesn't.
I disagree with this so strongly it's hard for me to put it into words. Would you be okay with not owning anything? With everything being on lease to you? Your house, your car, your books, your furniture, your TV, your stereo, everything? All capable of being taken back at any given point? With being beholden to the whim of some corporation which sees you as a couple dollar signs? With having lived and worked and paid for thirty years and yet having nothing to show for it in terms of goods, ownership, equity, whatever? If not for any of those things, why for games? Make no mistake, this erosion of ownership is fucking you and making the megacorps fatter, and you're saying you don't care. This boggles my poor mind.
Worst case scenario, the company goes belly-up, and shuts down their servers in a year or so, without providing any alternate means of playing the game. [...] However, "subscription gaming" is not the disaster you're trying to make it out to be, and is still a far better deal than a lot of rampantly popular services that no one thinks twice about paying for. The demise of ownership will not kill PC gaming.
It absolutely will. Imagine if no one could read books older than twenty-five years, and no one could watch movies older than ten, and no one could listen to music older than fifteen. Would that be the death of literature, cinema, or music? It sure as fuck would, and we would all be a lot worse off for it.
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Ubisoft DRM (Or how to make sure I never buy your product again)
19/02/2010 05:54:02 PM
- 723 Views
I don't think these companies realize they're encouraging piracy.
19/02/2010 06:11:51 PM
- 720 Views
Yep. I have been unable to understand the company reasoning behind such systems.
19/02/2010 06:54:22 PM
- 474 Views
There is only one reason I can see. To destroy PC Gaming
19/02/2010 06:59:45 PM
- 520 Views
That doesn't make any sense.
19/02/2010 10:53:50 PM
- 538 Views
Re: That doesn't make any sense.
20/02/2010 09:04:53 PM
- 490 Views
So the crux of your explanation is that simply ceasing to publish PC games creates bad press.
20/02/2010 09:47:36 PM
- 458 Views
Well, we have two options: the first is going to require that we kill you.
23/02/2010 11:11:28 PM
- 534 Views
PC games should just drop all DRM measures or go with Steamworks.
19/02/2010 08:34:44 PM
- 585 Views
Don't get me started on Steam again, it's just as insiduous as other DRM 'solutions'.
19/02/2010 10:37:00 PM
- 510 Views
I might resist more if I weren't a Valve game fan, but it's a pretty solid service.
20/02/2010 02:59:40 AM
- 490 Views
Steam has managed to reach a balance where it offers something
20/02/2010 04:57:08 AM
- 499 Views
Re: Steam has managed to reach a balance where it offers something
21/02/2010 11:37:40 PM
- 483 Views
Agree on the functionality complaints, disagree on the ownership bit.
23/02/2010 11:40:06 PM
- 496 Views
Is that really how you play games?
24/02/2010 10:54:42 PM
- 528 Views
Yeah, I rarely replay old games.
25/02/2010 12:48:10 AM
- 515 Views
It will kill PC gaming.
25/02/2010 12:06:12 AM
- 508 Views