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We already see this problem with other streaming media services; just because something is available today doesn’t mean it will be available tomorrow. I don’t

We already see this problem with other streaming media services; just because something is available today doesn’t mean it will be available tomorrow. I don’t want to give that much control over to someone else. I don’t need all-you-can-eat content. Just let me pay for the music/movie/book/game that I want and enjoy it for what it is, and know I always can just use my copy without needing to be plugged into the internet. I guess this view probably makes me look like an old man yelling at a cloud, but I’ve managed to find a way to survive without signing up for Netflix, and I hope I can still play games in the future without needing to sign up for a streaming service.

keyle 7y ago
Yes, it really sucks when you add a movie to 'my list' and then you think about watching it tonight and poof, it's as if it was never there. It's adding insult to injury that it just vanished off '_my_ list' too.
tetha 7y ago
I have lost dearly held content to the internet deciding to not host it anymore, including spotify. At this point, I trust my backup 2x SSD mirror more than some cloud. So I guess we're two old guys yelling at clouds. And this will just go even more fucked once the article 13 of the EU goes weaponized in 2 years.
- 0_gravitas 7y ago
  I remember an xkcd that was basically saying if you really want your files to be portable and available reliably until the end of time, the only solution is to pirate it
  - VibrantClarity 7y ago
    https://www.xkcd.com/488/ https://www.xkcd.com/488/
codetrotter 7y ago
I am not so worried about games and movies — having access to them is a plus but I wouldn’t be too upset over not being able to revisit a specific game or rewatch a specific movie. Music bothers me a bit more because I like to listen to a lot of my favorite music again. What worries me the most about this trend is what impact it will have on the computers we use. Today you can buy a powerful laptop or desktop. You can write software on it, for it, for any purpose at any time. You can distribute that software to others freely, and you can permit others to run your software for any purpose under permissive terms of your liking that still protect the rights you have over your intellectual property, the software that you wrote. I might be falling trap to the “slippery slope” fallacy here, but the way I see it, once the majority of new games, movies, music and other entertainment is all accessed via streaming, and all of the big players in software move the applications that are used in business and in education to the cloud, the computers we use may easily: 1) Become too weak to do intensive work locally, because everyone are using them as thin clients only, for interacting with software that is run in the cloud. and/or 2) Become so locked down that we lose the ability to distribute software outside of cloud delivery mechanisms controlled by corporate entities. I am not anti-corporate. But we cannot allow the corporations to be in control over the software that we use, in this way. Not because they are corporations or because they are capitalists or anything that. The same would be true of any entity, whether that entity be a business, a state, a body of the government, a non-profit organization or even just a person. When we allow someone else to gatekeep access to the platforms we use, we are handing our freedoms over to them. I use an iPhone that is running iOS. I can afford to allow my phone to be this restricted because I have other computing devices that allow me to develop software for them on them, and to run software written by others on the operating systems that those other devices are running. But if none of my devices allowed me to do this, and no devices on the market allowed me to do it either, then where would that leave me? And where would it leave us? The humanity. In my opinion, the ability to develop software freely, to distribute that software to others freely, and for them to be able to run that software freely, is so essential to our society and to the future, that if we lose this then we need to take drastic measures to regain the control that we lost as quickly as possible. We would need to crowdfund the development of computers that allow us to do what these future locked down computers don’t. And we would need to ensure that these freedom-friendly computers become used by so many people that we could continue to develop these machines and be able to continue to produce them, at a reasonable price. So that the ability to develop and run any software for any purpose will always be possible.
SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
It’s not all doom and gloom, that sort of mentality is still alive and well in the indie scene. Specifically people who make games like FTL (Rimworld and Factorio are two more recent examples of fantastic games that don’t require internet connectivity) are keeping the dream alive. My rule of thumb is to never buy games on Steam and only get them through GoG or directly from the developer. Sometimes there are a few titles that I really really want to play but are too tied to Steam and not on any other platform (I’m looking at you, Tabletop Simulator!) but for the most part as long as you are ok with staying away from AAA titles you can avoid always-online lock in and still have an amazing gaming experience.

keyle 7y ago

Yes, it really sucks when you add a movie to 'my list' and then you think about watching it tonight and poof, it's as if it was never there. It's adding insult to injury that it just vanished off '_my_ list' too.

tetha 7y ago

I have lost dearly held content to the internet deciding to not host it anymore, including spotify. At this point, I trust my backup 2x SSD mirror more than some cloud. So I guess we're two old guys yelling at clouds. And this will just go even more fucked once the article 13 of the EU goes weaponized in 2 years.

0_gravitas 7y ago
I remember an xkcd that was basically saying if you really want your files to be portable and available reliably until the end of time, the only solution is to pirate it
- VibrantClarity 7y ago
  https://www.xkcd.com/488/ https://www.xkcd.com/488/

codetrotter 7y ago

I am not so worried about games and movies — having access to them is a plus but I wouldn’t be too upset over not being able to revisit a specific game or rewatch a specific movie. Music bothers me a bit more because I like to listen to a lot of my favorite music again. What worries me the most about this trend is what impact it will have on the computers we use. Today you can buy a powerful laptop or desktop. You can write software on it, for it, for any purpose at any time. You can distribute that software to others freely, and you can permit others to run your software for any purpose under permissive terms of your liking that still protect the rights you have over your intellectual property, the software that you wrote. I might be falling trap to the “slippery slope” fallacy here, but the way I see it, once the majority of new games, movies, music and other entertainment is all accessed via streaming, and all of the big players in software move the applications that are used in business and in education to the cloud, the computers we use may easily: 1) Become too weak to do intensive work locally, because everyone are using them as thin clients only, for interacting with software that is run in the cloud. and/or 2) Become so locked down that we lose the ability to distribute software outside of cloud delivery mechanisms controlled by corporate entities. I am not anti-corporate. But we cannot allow the corporations to be in control over the software that we use, in this way. Not because they are corporations or because they are capitalists or anything that. The same would be true of any entity, whether that entity be a business, a state, a body of the government, a non-profit organization or even just a person. When we allow someone else to gatekeep access to the platforms we use, we are handing our freedoms over to them. I use an iPhone that is running iOS. I can afford to allow my phone to be this restricted because I have other computing devices that allow me to develop software for them on them, and to run software written by others on the operating systems that those other devices are running. But if none of my devices allowed me to do this, and no devices on the market allowed me to do it either, then where would that leave me? And where would it leave us? The humanity. In my opinion, the ability to develop software freely, to distribute that software to others freely, and for them to be able to run that software freely, is so essential to our society and to the future, that if we lose this then we need to take drastic measures to regain the control that we lost as quickly as possible. We would need to crowdfund the development of computers that allow us to do what these future locked down computers don’t. And we would need to ensure that these freedom-friendly computers become used by so many people that we could continue to develop these machines and be able to continue to produce them, at a reasonable price. So that the ability to develop and run any software for any purpose will always be possible.

SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago

It’s not all doom and gloom, that sort of mentality is still alive and well in the indie scene. Specifically people who make games like FTL (Rimworld and Factorio are two more recent examples of fantastic games that don’t require internet connectivity) are keeping the dream alive. My rule of thumb is to never buy games on Steam and only get them through GoG or directly from the developer. Sometimes there are a few titles that I really really want to play but are too tied to Steam and not on any other platform (I’m looking at you, Tabletop Simulator!) but for the most part as long as you are ok with staying away from AAA titles you can avoid always-online lock in and still have an amazing gaming experience.