General Category > General Discussion
Media - Digital or Physical?
TyrannicalFascist:
So let me start by saying that I'm staying physical with video games for many, many reasons, with a big one being that people make awesome covers for their cases. :P Besides, playing Super Mario World on the Wii U isn't quite the same feel as the SNES, not to mention a lot of old games aren't available digitally or able to sync cross-platform in the same way you can with, say, Kindle or Audible. And I've played many classic games by emulation, which should be more convenient, but it just doesn't feel right. Plus I've lost access to digital games I've bought before... >:(
But beyond games, I'm kind of all over the place. As a Star Wars fan, I've bought a lot of the old Expanded Universe media. I mainly bought audiobooks on cassette tape or CD for novels, with the occasional paperback for an odd young reader novel or book that didn't get an audiobook. Over the years though, I've found I almost never get a tape or CD out to listen to the audiobooks when I can just listen to an m4b file. So I've ended up buying audiobooks digitally now, and I've been converting the rest I had and likely will sell most of them so I stay all-digital for audiobooks both past and future.
For comics, I always preferred to wait for collections rather than get single issues. I currently have most of the Dark Horse Star Wars Omnibus collections, plus a good chunk of the Trade Paperbacks that were not collected in them. The only new Marvel Star Wars releases I've picked up so far are 2 of the Epic Collections (which collect Dark Horse comics in chronological order), which I think make a great compliment (and eventual replacement) to the DH Omnibuses. But now with all the new canon books coming out and the impending collections of Marvel's new canon series, I'm starting to think about possibly going to all digital releases from now on. On top of that, a lot of the books and comics I already own physically are also available digitally at pretty good prices, so I can't help thinking maybe I could sell my physical copies and use the money to get the digital versions...
I'm finding a lot of these things take up a ton of space in my house, and I want to be more selective about what kinds of media I truly care about owning physically. Unlike my games, I rarely pull some of them off the shelf for a re-read - sometimes with comics, but very rarely with books. Sure, a book can have a nice cover too, but the inside is almost entirely pages and pages of text, so I'm not so attached to owning them physically as I am with games.
One big factor for me though is how good the digital service is. I like using iTunes to buy my music and audiobooks and can easily sync it to my iPod or keep them on my PC. On the other hand, I still own a lot of Blu Rays and DVDs (not to mention some VHS and LaserDisc), and I see the Ultraviolet copies only as a nice bonus. VUDU is okay in a pinch, and I do like their $1-2 digital conversion service, but I just find it and most other similar services klunky and not visually appealing. Plus I like the cover art and usually watch the bonus features, so I won't be going digital-only any time soon there.
So I'm kind of split on what to do with books and comics. I do like the convenience of being able to access all my potential Kindle books from anywhere on pretty much every device I own. I've bought some books for Amazon Kindle before and I like it, but I've never bought a digital comic before.
How do you guys prefer to get your various media types these days? Music, Movies, Books, Comics, etc. Especially in terms of comics, I know very little about the pros and cons and what services everyone uses. Does anyone buy comics digitally through Amazon? Are there any problems or risks with digital that you worry about, like that they may be removed in the future? Has anyone gone digital and regretted it?
Quazimoto:
I'm physical media all the way. I do find myself listening to music digitally more often than off a CD, but I still keep the physical discs.
That said, all the music, movies, and books take up a LOT of space. Being that I plan on living in a tiny house one day, I've been slowly working on my music and movie collections, getting rid of what I can and keeping only the ones that are most important to me. I used to have over 1,500 DVDs and more than 1,000 CDs. Not quite done eliminating things just yet, but I'm already down to about 375 DVDs and 350 CDs. It actually feels great to have a smaller collection of the music and movies that are most important to me.
Books will be hard. I've got about 400 vintage hardcover novels (mostly westerns and romances) and I do need to whittle that down a bit. I'm thinking if I can get to about 250ish it won't take too much space. I'd never go digital on books. Could handle it with music, movies, and games if I had to for whatever reason. But being able to hold the book and smell the paper and ink is part of the charm of books for me. Of course, that's more prevalent with older, hardcover books, so I can see why digital editions of newer things would appeal to people.
Games will be hard too. I'll never get rid of all of them, but I'll definitely start getting rid of those that I don't anticipate ever needing or wanting to play again.
Thankfully, I've found a more streamlined storage solution for disc based media that allows me to keep all the artwork, but only uses about a third of the space, so I'll be able to keep more than I otherwise would using the original cases.
I can see the benefit of going digital with things, but it's just not for me. I like being able to hold things in my hands and feel like I actually own something. With digital media, one big hiccup in your computer and it's all gone. Sure, you can back things up, but that is a huge hassle and time suck to transfer everything back and forth.
I don't think I'd ever advocate going all digital to someone. But, for anyone dealing with space issues, I would definitely recommend lessoning the collection and keeping only the most important music, movies, games, and books. It is really hard at first, but once you get over that hump and stop thinking about it as something you have to do, having a smaller, more meaningful collection is pretty awesome.
Thom Grayson:
Digital 'feels' cheaper. Especially with books/comics. I've dabbled with ebooks and digital comics, and found them universally off-putting.
For games though, if it's digital-only (especially if its free with PS+!) I will usually take it and try it out anyway. Physical games look better on a shelf, but when playing them, whether there's a disc in the drive or not doesn't change the experience, unlike with books/comics where the physical form of the thing is essential to how it feels. If a physical version is available though, I will, 10 times out of 10, skip the digital version.
For music, I still like CDs, mainly because they strongly preserve the concept of an 'album'. Digital music encourages picking and choosing in a way that I think undermines albums.
Movies however, I find myself caring little the form it comes in. The experience isn't changed by it being on a disc or not, and I don't often rewatch movies, so having a physical 'thing' on a shelf doesn't make me like it more, unlike with games, where the collecting is almost as important as the playing.
FritzWhite:
Space is a concern for me. I don't like having tons of stuff because I hate when things feel crowded and cluttered, so my feelings on collecting are mixed because I do enjoy having a collection of games. The way that I approach it is too be super picky with my pickups and I've gotten rid of a LOT of stuff I used to have. I have a very small comic book collection and did the same thing with thinning it down. I do have some comics I want to get rid of if you're interested in Batman, Superman, or X-Men. I have a few other characters and series as well.
I never thought I'd say this, but having played the Xbox One I can definitely see the positive of going digital and being able to access any game in the blink of an eye, but I like to trade some games when I'm done with them and prefer not to be stuck. I picked up State of Decay a few months back and hated it. I quickly flipped it and only lost a few bucks. I'll stay physical for now, but if everything were to eventually move to digital in future game console generations I'd probably just trade the Xbox for a PC and do it right.
Madducky:
Oh physical, hands down; every time.
As it sits with digital download ANYTHING, you are left to the whims of our corporate overlords to change policy at the drop of a hat. I lost money when SONY shutdown the connect.com music store! I didn't get a chance to burn my ATRAC files into a music CD, now that money (and trust in the medium) are lost forever. It has also happened to walmart's original digital music downloads.
STEAM has a novel OEL (End Of Life) plan. They will allow you to save your bought games and turn off the DRM crap once and for all. That is a great idea!
As for the hear and now?I see only very minor convenience as the big selling point to going digital. If I did go digital on my WIIU, XBONE, and XBOX 360, ETC, it would cost me a fortune in external HDD's just to hold the stuff that I could get on-line. But in all fairness, when MS allowed external drives on the X360, I did grab a 4TB one just to help with the free TV shows, games for gold, for the XBONE, I had no choice whatsoever.
If digital goods were ever treated as purchases than licenses, that cannot be sold or traded, I would be much more tempted to go that route.
But for now, I'll download a demo, but stick with actually owning my games.