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I typed my response hastily - I'm not against them existing, what I meant was I hope they never replace consoles. I have no desire to pay a monthly fee to play

by geddy 8y ago

I typed my response hastily - I'm not against them existing, what I meant was I hope they never replace consoles. I have no desire to pay a monthly fee to play hundreds of games. The game list could be virtually unlimited, but there's always a real, tough limit - my free time. I can still only play 1-2 games per month and I'd rather own a copy of it. Having access to hundreds, to me, means I'll essentially play a game for 5 minutes, then the next one, then the next one... until I've had an hour of no real experiences. In this backlog culture, it'll be a miracle if anyone ever finishes a game again.

Jyaif 8y ago
Regarding your last paragraph, I wonder how you feel about Netflix.
coldtea 8y ago
>The game list could be virtually unlimited, but there's always a real, tough limit - my free time. I can still only play 1-2 games per month and I'd rather own a copy of it. Didn't say the same thing for music? And yet how many buy CDs or download music anymore, compared to Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube/etc? An irrelevant (and aging) minority. And at least for music it makes sense. One can and do listen to the same album 10 and 20 years on. And of course multiple times in the same year. Whereas, after someone has finished a game, how often will they come back? And for what percentage of games? And how would a game subscription would hurt their occasional "lemme play this again for a couple of hours" trip down the memory lane?
- kgwxd 8y ago
  It's that last part that keeps me buying exclusively DRM-free, Linux-friendly PC games. You can't even rely on a console working in the future anymore, or Windows not updating automatically into incompatibility. If it doesn't work, best you get is a not-quite-right recreation on a new platform. Worst case, old YouTube play-throughs are all you have.
endorphone 8y ago
The value proposition is that while there are many options, the average subscriber only partakes of a small number that best fits them, the options evolving and changing over time. Netflix has thousands of programs but I feel no obligation to watch them all, and just the tiny subset that I enjoy monthly makes it well worthwhile.

by geddy 8y ago

Jyaif 8y ago

Regarding your last paragraph, I wonder how you feel about Netflix.

coldtea 8y ago

>The game list could be virtually unlimited, but there's always a real, tough limit - my free time. I can still only play 1-2 games per month and I'd rather own a copy of it. Didn't say the same thing for music? And yet how many buy CDs or download music anymore, compared to Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube/etc? An irrelevant (and aging) minority. And at least for music it makes sense. One can and do listen to the same album 10 and 20 years on. And of course multiple times in the same year. Whereas, after someone has finished a game, how often will they come back? And for what percentage of games? And how would a game subscription would hurt their occasional "lemme play this again for a couple of hours" trip down the memory lane?

kgwxd 8y ago
It's that last part that keeps me buying exclusively DRM-free, Linux-friendly PC games. You can't even rely on a console working in the future anymore, or Windows not updating automatically into incompatibility. If it doesn't work, best you get is a not-quite-right recreation on a new platform. Worst case, old YouTube play-throughs are all you have.

endorphone 8y ago

The value proposition is that while there are many options, the average subscriber only partakes of a small number that best fits them, the options evolving and changing over time. Netflix has thousands of programs but I feel no obligation to watch them all, and just the tiny subset that I enjoy monthly makes it well worthwhile.