Prediction: Downloading, death of videogames and media as a redeemable product

[RegalSin]

So here is the thing, when people make products, they have various importance of a product.

As well know, videogames, and it's counter part comic books all are media products that are not respected as artforms. Animation itself has declined over the years as well.

After ten years, of pointless war efforts, and the decline of economic strenghts. The
value of products have increased ( primarly because of Oil as fuel source ). More important because everybody is dependent on CD's instead of cassettes ( tape, chip )
the prices have risen, and so forth.

However a new treath that is becoming a reality. People are downloading and paying for videogames. Yes the costs are cut tremendously, but at the same time, those people. Consumers are buying products without a body

Just think about it? You just paid for something that you can not.

1. Feel in your hands
2. See without electricity
3. Sell for it's value.

This is not the age of the corperate latter anymore. This is the age when people are
using things that was once valued at thousands of dollars for mere, pennies while resources that was once prolific is now becoming most expensive. Think about when you had a VHS with over 26 episodes, and it costed ten dollars. Then think about a proffessional made VHS with three episodes.

Look at the NDS. Those things are small as a half-a-dollar. Look at the PSP, which is basically a pocket sized GCN. Finally think about where the PSX has came from, the Mega Drive and even the PCE. Finally records. All of these are products and over the years the cost of resources that have been used even before the 18,00's have risen.
Kept in huge gigantic rooms, with wall to wall storages. Yet our fictional material are kept in boxes, some in storage and others under a bed.

The flat fact I was trying to make, if people stop producing real world products of ficitonal materials, and becomes 100% dependent on elecity. All will be lost.

I am talking about a future were they use lies, to make it a world where everything is programmed and told threw electricity. After that we have nothing. That is a prediction.

[futureman2000]

Yeah, I see where you're going here. Main problem for me is the limited property rights that you acquire when buying media in an electronic-only format. It's definitely the direction things are moving in.

As far as this type of media goes, I think that OnLive is the future- or is ahead of its time anyway.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, it sucks.

Some of your thought process is a bit crazy (tape sucks, tape has always sucked, f*ck tape) but as usual your thesis is correct.

This is why I buy as much stuff on Bluray, CD, and vinyl as I can. Sure, its convenient to buy a download of a game or an album, but when the rights expire the thing stops working. Then you have to wait around for the thing to be relicensed, assuming it ever happens, in order to get a working copy again.

On the over hand, PCE fans have games that nobody even knows who owns the rights to anymore. It doesn't matter as long as you take care of your copy. An vinyl records...dang, those things are the kings of reliability. I've got records that are over 60 years old and still sound good.

Perhaps this shit will get better and not worse. After all, when iTunes first started the files were all 128kbps and were DRMed to hell and back. Now the stuff is 256kbps and non-DRMed. That's a pretty huge improvement.

[SignOfZeta]

whoops, quoted myself

[rag-time4]

So here is the thing, when people make products, they have various importance of a product.

After ten years, of pointless war efforts, and the decline of economic strenghts. The
value of products have increased ( primarly because of Oil as fuel source ). More important because everybody is dependent on CD's instead of cassettes ( tape, chip )
the prices have risen, and so forth.

However a new treath that is becoming a reality. People are downloading and paying for videogames. Yes the costs are cut tremendously, but at the same time, those people. Consumers are buying products without a body

Just think about it? You just paid for something that you can not.

1. Feel in your hands
2. See without electricity
3. Sell for it's value.

This is not the age of the corperate latter anymore. This is the age when people are
using things that was once valued at thousands of dollars for mere, pennies while resources that was once prolific is now becoming most expensive. Think about when you had a VHS with over 26 episodes, and it costed ten dollars. Then think about a proffessional made VHS with three episodes.

Look at the NDS. Those things are small as a half-a-dollar. Look at the PSP, which is basically a pocket sized GCN. Finally think about where the PSX has came from, the Mega Drive and even the PCE. Finally records. All of these are products and over the years the cost of resources that have been used even before the 18,00's have risen.
Kept in huge gigantic rooms, with wall to wall storages. Yet our fictional material are kept in boxes, some in storage and others under a bed.

The flat fact I was trying to make, if people stop producing real world products of ficitonal materials, and becomes 100% dependent on elecity. All will be lost.

I am talking about a future were they use lies, to make it a world where everything is programmed and told threw electricity. After that we have nothing. That is a prediction.

Nice post! A few things Id like to point out in response, trying to be in order:

- In terms of certain other commodities, namely gold and silver, the price of oil is on the decline. In terms of the US dollar, oil and other commodities are going up. Its the US dollar thats going down, not really that oil is going up.

-video games are an arena where market forces have been fairly vibrant over the years, with various companies innovating and competing with one another for market share. I would argue that the primary customer base buys games for entertainment, while a smaller part likes to collect the physical media. Therefore it makes sense that game producers will tend toward downloadable content since they are marketing primarily to people who buy for entertainment. There are other factors, such as used game trade ins and resale value... but as we know retailers dont give much for used games so its rational for the customer to buy downloadable games if the price point is low enough.

-The US economy is increasingly service heavy, with actual manufacturing moving overseas. Some believe this is unsustainable long term.

-10 years of war may not be pointless- I think a big part of US military power is aimed at forcing others to accept US dollars, which we can print faster than anyone else can.

-The US dollar itself is very similar to downloadable media... the US dollar is not backed by any market commodity. The only reason it is useful is that people around the world are forced to accept them, and most still accept by choice. If people lose interest in the US dollar and use alternative currencies, they will be worth less than unused paper.

-Electricity requires some type of physical resource to produce, so there will still need to be some type of resource harvesting to produce electricty as well as any man made electricity interfaces.

Here is Ron Paul talking about the US money supply, and silver vs oil:

[Tatsujin]

YEAH IT SUCKS EVEN IMENSE.

but watch the PSPgo it was le failflop deluxe.

[soop]

I've always said, when it comes down to a system in which one-use online codes, always-online only gaming and non-physical media are prevailent, I'm voting with my feet.

As someone who waits months to get a release for about half price, I don't stand to benefit from that kind of system at all, and there are still plenty of games for other systems I've never played.

I predict that if they try that, even though they've got people bending that way anyway, it will fail.

[rag-time4]

I've always said, when it comes down to a system in which one-use online codes, always-online only gaming and non-physical media are prevailent, I'm voting with my feet.

As someone who waits months to get a release for about half price, I don't stand to benefit from that kind of system at all, and there are still plenty of games for other systems I've never played.

I predict that if they try that, even though they've got people bending that way anyway, it will fail.

As consumers we have to vote with our dollars. Games like Super Mario Allstars 25th for Wii show that there is a good market for limited run, high-quality games on physical media.

[SignOfZeta]

I've always said, when it comes down to a system in which one-use online codes, always-online only gaming and non-physical media are prevailent, I'm voting with my feet.

As someone who waits months to get a release for about half price, I don't stand to benefit from that kind of system at all, and there are still plenty of games for other systems I've never played.

I predict that if they try that, even though they've got people bending that way anyway, it will fail.

Heh, a while back Bandai released the previous Super Robot Wars game in the PSP store thinking that people would want another chance to play it since a new game was coming out. The games sorta dovetail (SRW Z2 was released in two parts like SRW F was) and it was previously UMD-only. What was bullshit is that they wanted 7,330円 for it, which was about 1000円 less than the UMD version. WTF? Who the f*ck would buy this? You can get a used UMD version for probably 3000円. It would be interesting to see how many they sold. $80 for a download of a year old game that was $90 new is pretty f*cking ridiculous. Its not rare or anything either, they probably sold 250,000 copies or so.

I've always said, when it comes down to a system in which one-use online codes, always-online only gaming and non-physical media are prevailent, I'm voting with my feet.

As someone who waits months to get a release for about half price, I don't stand to benefit from that kind of system at all, and there are still plenty of games for other systems I've never played.

I predict that if they try that, even though they've got people bending that way anyway, it will fail.

As consumers we have to vote with our dollars. Games like Super Mario Allstars 25th for Wii show that there is a good market for limited run, high-quality games on physical media.

I get what you are saying, but I have to say, that release wasn't a very awesome deal, IMHO.

[Necromancer]

I get what you are saying, but I have to say, that release wasn't a very awesome deal, IMHO.

Same here.  It seemed like a bit of a rip off compared to NeoGeo/Genesis/etc. compilation discs with dozens of titles included or compared to the $8 VC titles.

[SignOfZeta]

I get what you are saying, but I have to say, that release wasn't a very awesome deal, IMHO.

Same here.  It seemed like a bit of a rip off compared to NeoGeo/Genesis/etc. compilation discs with dozens of titles included or compared to the $8 VC titles.

My problem was that it was just a VC ROM on a disc, literally. They could have done something, anything, like throw a little mini-documentary about Mario on there or a gallery or something. A special episode of Nintendo Week (or whatever that Wii Channel show is called). It wasn't exactly expensive or anything, but aside from the physical packaging it was very low frills. It does come with a soundtrack but...seriously, who actually listens to NES soundtracks?

And of course it should be said that the ROM they included was the original All Stars, and not All Stars with World on it. Honestly, if they had just used the World version I probably would have satisfied since the battery in my World cart is dead.

To its credit, it is the usual "as good as it can possibly get" level of emulation I've come to expect from Nintendo, which is nice, and maybe we take that for granted. It doesn't have the shitty fake low res blur of many compilations on PS2, etc. Did you know the bosses don't flash when you shoot them in the Metal Slug games for Wii? Many of those compilations are really rushed and obviously put together by outsourced companies with zero interest or knowledge in the subject matter.

[esteban]

I get what you are saying, but I have to say, that release wasn't a very awesome deal, IMHO.

Same here.  It seemed like a bit of a rip off compared to NeoGeo/Genesis/etc. compilation discs with dozens of titles included or compared to the $8 VC titles.

...
It does come with a soundtrack but...seriously, who actually listens to NES soundtracks?
...

I will gladly take that off your hands if you don't want it. I listen to old tunes from early arcades/consoles (not surprising to you, I'm sure).

[SignOfZeta]

Sorry, it's going to sit in its perfect cardboard container forever.

I did actually listen to it once.

[esteban]

Sorry, it's going to sit in its perfect cardboard container forever.

I did actually listen to it once.

Crap! Perhaps we can work out another arrangement?

[SignOfZeta]

I'm much more likely to just sell the entire thing. It's a sin to break up something like this into pieces.

Although its highly unlikely I'd sell the entire thing either. Aren't these common now?