Game News Divinity: Original Sin released on GOG

[Clockwork Knight]

There's one, single argument to buying a physical copy: you like having it on your shelf and looking at it. That's fine, I don't really have any problems with people doing that. But that's all there is to it.

There's also the fact that you can take it off your shelf and install it without worrying about it being unavailable for whatever reason. Unless it requires online authentication, of course.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Not to me. Physical books are always superior, only advantage I see on ebooks is availability (and piracy )

availability, lower price, the ability to take a whole library easily with you anywhere you go, easily readable with one hand, no matter the book, multiple dictionaries for books you read in different languages, ability to look up wikipedia on the fly where wifi is available, annotations on the fly without damaging the book. the only cons are that you need to recharge battery based on your reading frequency (when i'm in hardcore reading mode, that tends to be once a week) and that e-ink screens tend to yellow out a bit under strong direct sunlight. the only people i know in real life who prefer real books are people who read seldom to never.

 

[Grunker]

Unless it requires online authentication, of course.

See: the entire discussion between excidium and sceptic regarding this point

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm not talking about the "it just feels good to hold it in your hands, maaaaan" argument, that's a personal preference and no one will budge on that. Just that the physical media does have an advantage other than being nicer to look at than an icon on the desktop.

 

[evdk]

I'm not talking about the "it just feels good to hold it in your hands, maaaaan" argument, that's a personal preference and no one will budge on that. Just that the physical media does have an advantage other than being nicer to look at than an icon on the desktop.

Which is still a personal preference, because some people simply do not give a fuck or get off on having a 4 digit Steam count.

 

[Excidium]

I'm not talking about the "it just feels good to hold it in your hands, maaaaan" argument, that's a personal preference and no one will budge on that. Just that the physical media does have an advantage other than being nicer to look at than an icon on the desktop.

Did you read the discussion nigger

tl;dr DOS physical copy is a Steam download

 

[mindx2]

It really just boils down to personal taste.

For me, when I go and play one of the games on my shelf I enjoy the act of opening the box and discovering what's inside. I'll look through the old Installation Guide and smile that knowing smile of the times when I would have to make sure I had 558,000 bytes of free memory to run and how much Expanded Memory was available :D. I'll then start reading the manual. As other have stated about physical books, it's the same with an actual manual that you can hold in your hands. Most of the games I collect are classic cRPGs, so here the manual was actually useful and many times just an enjoyable read. Manuals can help expand the game world so much better than so called in-game tutorials. Do yourself a favor and read those old manuals, you'd be surprised how much they add to your game "immersion." Then there are the maps... ah, my beloved maps! Pulling the maps out for the first time and looking at all those different (and deadly) corners of the world to explore just enhanced my anticipation and excitement for the game experience to come. Having that cloth or paper map lying next to my keyboard as I explore these fantastical worlds gave me that extra sense of exploration and added to my "fun." Looking through these old boxes sparks my memory of the wonderful times I had being transported into the worlds they created. Not being the most physical of specimens as I grew up, cRPGs allowed me to be the powerful hero (or villian as this is the Codex after all) and live out those adventures in that magical box called a computer. I like those memories and I suppose I'm just old enough that actually physically having it in my home makes it more "real" that sitting in some cloud on the Interwebz. Think of it this way: Why do we keep pictures of our families and vacation trips in photo albums or on our walls? Because you look at them and they remind you of wonderful things from your past. That is what a good book or game does for me when I look at my bookshelf.

With KS, I am hoping these game designers bring back that sense of excitement and discovery that was part of my old gaming experiences. If they are smart they will tap into that nostalgia itch that old time gamers like myself remember. Make those cloth maps and put the effort into creating a good, meaty manual. These things will only make their games better. Keep in mind that "old time gamers" like myself tend to be better established financially, thus having more disposable income to throw at them (Take My Money!).

 

[Excidium]

With KS, I am hoping these game designers bring back that sense of excitement and discovery that was part of my old gaming experiences. If they are smart they will tap into that nostalgia itch that old time gamers like myself remember. Make those cloth maps and put the effort into creating a good, meaty manual.

ahahaha I wish

Keep in mind that "old time gamers" like myself tend to be better established financially, thus having more disposable income to throw at them (Take My Money!).

I've always said it's a case of having more money than sense

 

[mindx2]

Keep in mind that "old time gamers" like myself tend to be better established financially, thus having more disposable income to throw at them (Take My Money!).

I've always said it's a case of having more money than sense

Each to his own my friend.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Did you read the discussion nigger

tl;dr DOS physical copy is a Steam download

hence the "unless it requires online authentication" remark, meaning that I don't include DOS among those "pick off shelf an play" physical copies. I suppose I could make it clearer but meh the parrot is more inviting

 

[mindx2]

Did you read the discussion nigger

tl;dr DOS physical copy is a Steam download

hence the "unless it requires online authentication" remark, meaning that I don't include DOS among those "pick off shelf an play" physical copies. I suppose I could make it clearer but meh the parrot is more inviting

I plan on putting my GOG edition on a flash drive and throwing it in the box. Of course, I'll have to continually update it as the GOG version is painfully slow to incorporate those updates.

 

[Excidium]

Keep in mind that "old time gamers" like myself tend to be better established financially, thus having more disposable income to throw at them (Take My Money!).

I've always said it's a case of having more money than sense

Each to his own my friend.

Hey I'm not complaining, you fund the game and I reap the benefits. Would be cooler if you people made it clear to developers you want a proper physical copy with install media and documentation instead of paying anything for a box with goodies, but such is life

 

[mindx2]

Keep in mind that "old time gamers" like myself tend to be better established financially, thus having more disposable income to throw at them (Take My Money!).

I've always said it's a case of having more money than sense

Each to his own my friend.

Hey I'm not complaining, you fund the game and I reap the benefits. Would be cooler if you people made it clear to developers you want a proper physical copy with install media and documentation instead of paying anything for a box with goodies, but such is life

Believe me, I've tried to make it perfectly clear my expectations. Now it's another thing if these KS developers actually respond as I've only received the Shadowrun game box so far (big disappointment). However, their anthology short story book was pretty good and helped me better understand the SR world as I wasn't familiar with it's PnP or SNES roots.

 

[Broseph]

What are you going to do with videogame media, insert on your ass?

Yes, actually.

Spoiler

 

[Sceptic]

There's one, single argument to buying a physical copy: you like having it on your shelf and looking at it. That's fine, I don't really have any problems with people doing that. But that's all there is to it.

I know. Other people seem to have a very hard time grasping this concept, though. Which is funny because they're also the people who collect games on Steam so they can look at them. Hence my previous posts pointing this fact out, and as expected said people STILL failed to grasp the concept.

 

[Abelian]

There's one, single argument to buying a physical copy:

Spoiler

That's fine, I don't really have any problems with people doing that. But that's all there is to it.

 

[:Flash:]

There are different kinds of categories of game boxes. There is the DVD in a box with a little printed paper kind of game box, and indeed, why would anyone not prefer a digital edition to that. Then there are the better kind of boxes, where I'd guess it is a matter of preference.
But the top tier of boxes can never be recreated by digital editions. Those, where the material in the box is actually part of the game world, thus making the game world more real.
Take Ultima IV, for example. It's not just about the fact that it has nice manuals and a cloth map, it is the way the entire experience is designed. The items are (excepting the reference card) created by inhabitants of the game world. The intro tells you how you come into possession of those items, thus there is a link from the virtual world to the real world. Then you need those items for you adventures in the virtual world, creating a link back from the real to the virtual world.
In a certain sense the Ultima IV manuals and map were tangibles, bridging the gap between the physical and the virtual world - a topic that much later would become (and still is) a hot topic of computer science research.
It is not lacking in irony the gaming industry inadvertently had a knack for trying to bridge that gap in the 80s, but now that computer science is embracing those attempts, the gaming world is going fully virtual.

 

[Sceptic]

I'm pretty sure all the floppies and old CDs I possess have decayed to the point of nonrecoverability.

A lot of my floppies have. Much to my surprise, my KQ2 floppies worked just fine when I booted the game a couple of years ago - problem being that the PC that had my only 5.25'' drive died shortly afterwards Every CD that I've tested/used still works, including the 20-year-old ones like UKM or Quake. Ironically most of the backup copies that I made of those CDs in the late 90s have died - clearly those Sony overpriced golden CD-ROMs were much shittier than whatever the CD game publishers used to print.

 

[Roguey]

There's one, single argument to buying a physical copy: you like having it on your shelf and looking at it. That's fine, I don't really have any problems with people doing that. But that's all there is to it.

I don't like large downloads and avoid them when possible.

 

[Grunker]

I don't like large downloads and avoid them when possible.

Your irrational dislike does not constitue reason, sorry.

 

[mindx2]

I'm pretty sure all the floppies and old CDs I possess have decayed to the point of nonrecoverability.

A lot of my floppies have. Much to my surprise, my KQ2 floppies worked just fine when I booted the game a couple of years ago - problem being that the PC that had my only 5.25'' drive died shortly afterwards Every CD that I've tested/used still works, including the 20-year-old ones like UKM or Quake. Ironically most of the backup copies that I made of those CDs in the late 90s have died - clearly those Sony overpriced golden CD-ROMs were much shittier than whatever the CD game publishers used to print.

I have game disk from the 80s that still work perfectly fine (Dungeon Master 1987 yet haven't tested all the Infocom ones) yet I still back everything up with it's own CD or thumb drive.

 

[Metro]

There's one, single argument to buying a physical copy: you like having it on your shelf and looking at it. That's fine, I don't really have any problems with people doing that. But that's all there is to it.

I don't like large downloads and avoid them when possible.

Welcome to 2014 -- time to upgrade your 2400 baud modem.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

There's one, single argument to buying a physical copy: you like having it on your shelf and looking at it. That's fine, I don't really have any problems with people doing that. But that's all there is to it.

I don't like large downloads and avoid them when possible.

Welcome to 2014 -- time to upgrade your 2400 baud modem.

Hey, fuck you. You go work in a remote community where your only access to internet is through the extortion prices of a wireless data pack.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

And I'd prefer physical copies too, if the media was actually useful and not just a prompt to install steam

And that's why I never buy physical copies of games that require Steam

 

[SCO]

Got the game to work, only to realize it that the burning effects drag it down to single fps.