Current Events > What the fuck is the point of discs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I bought the physical version of Marvels Spider-Man Game Of The Year Edition and its still like a fucking 80GB install in total.

Might as well just buy it digitally, at least then youre not forced to swap in and swap out pointless discs just to play.
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Calling it "physical" sounds like something a teenager would say.

Uhhhhh that ones digital so this one's physical uhhhhh.

It's not wrong , but it sounds stupid.

"I bought the physical one!" I'll just keep saying hard copy lol.

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They recycled all those old AOL discs since they have no more room in the dumps.

The license is on the disc instead of on your account

This means you can sell the game, once youre done, or let a friend borrow it.

THats the main point AFAIK, its nr1 for me atleast.

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So it "physically" feels like you own a game/movie or some shit like that

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Being able to physically own something is an advantage

For people like me with crappy internet connections. A 80gb install from a disk takes like 10-20 minutes at worst. A 80gb install using my internet would take at least 3 days.

And before you ask "why don't you just get better internet?", because nothing else I use the internet for requires a stronger connection.

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because dodecahedrons would be too damn awkward.

Slayerblade11 posted...

Being able to physically own something is an advantage

Only for collectors.


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Slayerblade11 posted...

Being able to physically own something is an advantage

IINM, the EULA says you don't really own the product (the game) even if you own the disc.
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St0rmFury posted...

IINM, the EULA says you don't really own the product (the game) even if you own the disc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

I basically only by physical because it tends to be cheaper at launch.

If I can still play these games in a decades time I'm happy either way. Either way it needs to be supported by Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo because of patches and updates.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

Calling it "physical" sounds like something a teenager would say.

Uhhhhh that ones digital so this one's physical uhhhhh.

It's not wrong , but it sounds stupid.

"I bought the physical one!" I'll just keep saying hard copy lol.

Weirdest flex ive seen in a long time. Hard copy? As opposed to what, soft copy?

Digital and physical are industry standard terms, guy.
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EffectAndCause posted...

Hard copy? As opposed to what, soft copy?

yes

Thats so much fucking worse LOL.
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Questionmarktarius posted...

St0rmFury posted...

IINM, the EULA says you don't really own the product (the game) even if you own the disc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

In a notable case, the High Court of Paris found against Valve for not allowing the resale of games from the Steam digital storefront, requiring Valve to comply with the European Union Directives of first-sale doctrine within three months, pending appeals.

Don't really get this part, does that mean you can resell a game you bought on Steam within 3 months?
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St0rmFury posted...

Don't really get this part, does that mean you can resell a game you bought on Steam within 3 months?

Valve had three months to implement a resell system, or appeal. Valve appealed.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/19/20874384/french-court-steam-valve-used-games-eu-law

Questionmarktarius posted...

Valve had three months to implement a resell system, or appeal. Valve appealed.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/19/20874384/french-court-steam-valve-used-games-eu-law

I honestly don't see how it would work, but I will read it later.
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I bet you also scoff at CD users

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Wii_Shaker posted...

Only for collectors.

Or people who literally do the opposite of collecting.

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inloveanddeath0 posted...

I bet you also scoff at CD users

At least with CDs its a clear and obvious pro and con.

CD = you have to put in and take out discs for each individual album which is inconvenient but it doesnt take up any space on your computer/sound system and there is no limit to what you can own

mp3 = you have all your music on your computer and can instantly listen to whatever you want, but there is a limited amount of space so you can only have so many songs

Where with video games its like:

Digital = you have all your video games on your console and can instantly play whatever you want, but there is a limited amount of space so you can only have so many video games

Physical = you have to put in and take out discs for each individual game which is inconvenient...and also it takes up pretty much the same amount of space as digital games do, so basically fuck you
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Another massive con with digital is that the company can stop supporting it, so if you've deleted something to make room for something else, you're out of luck.

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EffectAndCause posted...

At least with CDs its a clear and obvious pro and con.

CD = you have to put in and take out discs for each individual album which is inconvenient but it doesnt take up any space on your computer/sound system and there is no limit to what you can own

mp3 = you have all your music on your computer and can instantly listen to whatever you want, but there is a limited amount of space so you can only have so many songs

Where with video games its like:

Digital = you have all your video games on your console and can instantly play whatever you want, but there is a limited amount of space so you can only have so many video games

Physical = you have to put in and take out discs for each individual game which is inconvenient...and also it takes up pretty much the same amount of space as digital games do, so basically fuck you

Unless you're using a Nintendo console or a Vita, space is not a problem

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Definitely not true, RDR 2 alone takes up like 1/4th of my entire PS4 storage.

And yes you can say Just buy more storage, but that only reinforces the point of the space issue.
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Oatcakes posted...

Another massive con with digital is that the company can stop supporting it, so if you've deleted something to make room for something else, you're out of luck.

That doesn't hold all that well with practical examples. That's true with older games, but you'd never need to delete the zips for old games because they're so small.

With new titles, the disc isn't even the whole game. Once support goes down, you're left with an incomplete game.

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EffectAndCause posted...

Definitely not true, RDR 2 alone takes up like 1/4th of my entire PS4 storage.

And yes you can say Just buy more storage, but that only reinforces the point of the space issue.

External HDD are cheap nowadays. If you got a stimulus check I don't want to hear a single ounce of whining. 600+ unemployment per week I'm sure you can invest $100 in an external HDD

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Guide posted...

That doesn't hold all that well with practical examples. That's true with older games, but you'd never need to delete the zips for old games because they're so small.

With new titles, the disc isn't even the whole game. Once support goes down, you're left with an incomplete game.

It's also more of a thing with modern (previous gen) gaming consoles than PCs.

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EffectAndCause posted...

Digital and physical are industry standard terms, guy.

"It's not wrong, but it sounds stupid."

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EffectAndCause posted...

And yes you can say Just buy more storage, but that only reinforces the point of the space issue.

Not really. It reinforces the issue with you not having enough space.

Uncompressed audio is the shit.

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Guide posted...

That doesn't hold all that well with practical examples. That's true with older games, but you'd never need to delete the zips for old games because they're so small.

With new titles, the disc isn't even the whole game. Once support goes down, you're left with an incomplete game.

This is essentially my view. I buy physical because I like collecting the boxes lol. That's it.

Also TC, current gen consoles only use the disc for installation and license verification. Every game is 100% installed and run from the hard drive, regardless of physical or digital. The only benefit to physical is that your license is not tied to your account, so your friends can borrow/ have your games.

However, 90% of the time "complete" editions have the initial release copy without patches on the disc and the dlc as digital codes anyway lol. I can think of 2 games that are completely on disc in their "complete" editions: Horizon Zero Dawn and the Witcher 3 complete.

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Game size is going to drop dramatically once we perfect dynamic AI speech and make voice actors obsolete.

AzurexNightmare posted...

"It's not wrong, but it sounds stupid."

Hard copy and soft copy sound way stupider. Physical and digital literally describe what they are, hard and soft are how you fuckin boil eggs.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

Not really. It reinforces the issue with you not having enough space.

Uncompressed audio is the shit.

Yes, exactly. Needing to buy more space is a con of digital music compared to CDs.

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In most of the cases, the game is still on the disc.
But it was developed with the faster data reading speeds from the harddrive instead of from the disc.
If Spiderman had been running from the disc directly, then you would have longer loading times, worse graphics, shorter drawing distance and cut parts of the map.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

"It's not wrong, but it sounds stupid."

Because saying "hard copy" is big brain lol

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ChrisTaka posted...

Because saying "hard copy" is big brain lol

I only said I prefer saying hard copy but it sounds stupid too actually. :)

Physical and hard copy suck.

Maybe I just miss the era of games where we didn't need the distinction lol. But digital is awesome because it's so convenient when you're in VR.

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EffectAndCause posted...

Yes, exactly. Needing to buy more space is a con of digital music compared to CDs.

I only buy CD's of really good soundtracks and favorite music (presumably like everyone else) and it's nice to have a few albums and have the rest of my music digital.

Buying extra storage space is cheap and having things digital is very convenient. I wouldnt want my whole collection on the wall

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Anything else aside, because you bought the game physically you were able to choose the cheapest, or otherwise best suited purchasing choice for the game for you. Whereas with digital, Sony (or any other console manufacturer) have the monopoly on how you can obtain the game and at what cost.
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EffectAndCause posted...

I bought the physical version of Marvels Spider-Man Game Of The Year Edition and its still like a fucking 80GB install in total.

Might as well just buy it digitally, at least then youre not forced to swap in and swap out pointless discs just to play.

you'd rather the console load the data direct from the disc? no thanks. load times have been bad enough this gen.

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i think it makes people they feel like they have some sort of agency over companies even though most discs are basically glorified installs these days

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Cheaper cause you can get used I guess and some people trade with others locally or just resell it.

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TwoDoorPC posted...

you'd rather the console load the data direct from the disc? no thanks. load times have been bad enough this gen.

Yeah we moved away from that for a reason. I understand the convenience of popping in a disc and just playing immediately like the old days, but not to compromise the entire experience.

Extra storage isn't even expensive.

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Physical just means you don't get to play your game if something happens to the disk.

Digital means you can just redownload the content.

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We're gonna have some major physical and digital politics when Playstation network gets taken off of PS3.

Nobody cares about ps3 much these days obviously but it'll throw into question how long digital games belong to us.

I mean maybe they run PSN as a single service for everyone and they won't take it down but I doubt it. I don't know. They took PSN off of the PSP a long time ago.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

I only buy CD's of really good soundtracks and favorite music (presumably like everyone else) and it's nice to have a few albums and have the rest of my music digital.

If I can buy a CD on Amazon and get autorip, for cheaper than just buying the MP3s directly, I'm buying the CD.

TwoDoorPC posted...

you'd rather the console load the data direct from the disc? no thanks. load times have been bad enough this gen.

I prefer all or nothing. Either the entire game is on the disc and it takes no space on my console aside from the save file OR the entire game is digital and I dont even need a disc.

Needing a disc but it also takes a ton of space on your console is the biggest lose-lose you can possibly have.

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EffectAndCause posted...

Needing a disc but it also takes a ton of space on your console is the biggest lose-lose you can possibly have.

Once you're sick of the game and uninstall it, you can still sell the disc and cut your losses.

Well have to agree to disagree because ive never sold a video game since the day will always come where I want to play it again.

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EffectAndCause posted...

I prefer all or nothing. Either the entire game is on the disc and it takes no space on my console aside from the save file OR the entire game is digital and I dont even need a disc.

Needing a disc but it also takes a ton of space on your console is the biggest lose-lose you can possibly have.

I wouldn't want crappy disc reading back. Stop being cheap and buy extra storage. Easy solution.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

I wouldn't want crappy disc reading back. Stop being cheap and buy extra storage. Easy solution.

Or ill just do the smart thing and never buy discs again because in 2020 theyre absolutely pointless.

Only reason I bought these physical is because there was a buy 2 get 1 free.

Ive been all digital for years and now that I know how unnecessary discs are ill never buy another one.

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