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Game streaming is a great option to have but it incentivises the same behaviour we've seen from companies that move to a SAAS model: Charge a monthly fee and re

by Jochim 3y ago

Game streaming is a great option to have but it incentivises the same behaviour we've seen from companies that move to a SAAS model: Charge a monthly fee and remove the option to own the product. Not actually owning the games is a problem. Nvidia's service, GeForce Now, originally allowed you to play any game you had purchased on Steam, under the theory that you were using your license to play it. Their library was decimated when that was challenged legally. Most of the services don't offer the same modding options as you would have on PC either. If I were to pick between the two, I'd rather we move towards having more control over the things we purchase than less.

johnnyanmac 3y ago
too bad the choice isnt ours and we've long seen how other audiences in other media have chosen. People simply don't care about those things as a majority
- Jochim 3y ago
  I hesitate to blame the audience when vendors are all too keen to force the transition themselves. See Adobe, Microsoft, and Atlassian's discontinuing/restriction of on premises licenses for their products. People often seem to have a general sense of helplessness when it comes to large businesses, why get upset about it when there's nothing you can do? I don't see anything unless people find the motivation to make it a political issue. A personal anecdote that I think exemplifies the problem: I was once double invoiced for custom charges by FedEx. The phone number on the invoice lead to a phone tree where every option simply hung up. Depending on where I looked there were three different email addresses, and an online form; only one provided an automated response and my first three emails were ignored entirely. Their customer support line was unable to connect to that department. At one point I was given an individual's work email and received no response either. Despite this, I continued to receive past due, and final notice letters from them. It took months and hours of my time to resolve a problem they created, had I not persisted, I would have had to deal with collections and credit agencies. Why should we allow companies behave this way without repercussions?

by Jochim 3y ago

johnnyanmac 3y ago

too bad the choice isnt ours and we've long seen how other audiences in other media have chosen. People simply don't care about those things as a majority

Jochim 3y ago
I hesitate to blame the audience when vendors are all too keen to force the transition themselves. See Adobe, Microsoft, and Atlassian's discontinuing/restriction of on premises licenses for their products. People often seem to have a general sense of helplessness when it comes to large businesses, why get upset about it when there's nothing you can do? I don't see anything unless people find the motivation to make it a political issue. A personal anecdote that I think exemplifies the problem: I was once double invoiced for custom charges by FedEx. The phone number on the invoice lead to a phone tree where every option simply hung up. Depending on where I looked there were three different email addresses, and an online form; only one provided an automated response and my first three emails were ignored entirely. Their customer support line was unable to connect to that department. At one point I was given an individual's work email and received no response either. Despite this, I continued to receive past due, and final notice letters from them. It took months and hours of my time to resolve a problem they created, had I not persisted, I would have had to deal with collections and credit agencies. Why should we allow companies behave this way without repercussions?