LogFAQs > #882143779

Raganork posted...

Zeus posted...

I don't get that? If it's a physical item, how could it be shut down?

Online-only games get shut down all the time. I presume PO's talking about Destiny, which will most likely be shut down when Destiny 2 launches. Once those serves are gone, that disc is about as useful as a frisbee.

Destiny was the one I was thinking about when I said "soon will be", but if I recall I think Spartan Ops for Halo 4 has also shut down permanently at this point (and honestly, without an Internet connection, about 70% of the Halo 4 disc is useless regardless). And I think the servers for NBA Jam have been down for a while. I might own other games that can't access online requirements (and I know that if/when BioWare/EA stop supporting Dragon Age Keep I'll lose my ability to import games saves into DA:I forever), but I can't rattle them all off at whim.

This is going to become more and more of a problem as games become more and more online-focused, though. GTAO and ESO are stone-cold fucked the moment the servers go down, games like Saints Row III and IV lost minor functionality when THQ went out of business and their servers went away, and every multiplayer game that sacrificed local couch co-op in favor of online-only play basically becomes a drink coaster the moment the servers go down.

We are slowly entering a future where we don't own media at all, we merely rent it. Games, music, movies, even books - digital streaming services are driving physical media away, and we don't really own streaming media as much as we rent the right to use it.



Raganork posted...

Questions such as "do I want to spend $150 a year to play FFXIV, only to have nothing to show for it in a decade once the servers are gone?" are things I've been contemplating.

I've thought the same about GTA and ESO, but in my case my absolute unwillingness to pay a subscription fee for any game helps salve that particular wound. And my usual answer for it is that, if I'm given enough time in advance before the game shuts down, I'll probably just take in-game screen shots of all my stuff and anything I'm proud off so I can at least look at it later.

Then again, my account in KoL (which I haven't played in years at this point) has a metric shit-ton of items that are probably worth thousands of dollars worth of real-world money if I ever sold them (not to mention the hundreds of hours worth of time I sunk into it), and that's just been sitting around and I barely ever think about it, so I've at least got practice at cutting the cord.



Zeus posted...

Given how many random shoutouts I've given to the musical, it can't be surprising.

The problem with making constant references is that, in order for any of us to understand them, we ALSO would have to have watched it. Which I am guessing most of us have not. Or that the ones who have didn't memorize it enough to immediate recognize lines of dialogue or lyrics


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
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