this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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It comes pretty close to feature parity in terms of ownership. My kids can play my steam library on their own computers, I can play it on any machine I own, I don't have to pay them any kind of rental fee, and they maintain my software for me.
Only thing I can't do is what...sell my games to someone else? I don't do that anyways.
I'm not betting on Steam disappearing in the next ten years. I probably wouldn't even bet that they'll disappear in my lifetime. But, they could, anything could happen, and then you don't have that library anymore. Physical is the only way to truly own.
That's exactly my point. Steam has allowed me to OWN Half Life longer than I would have been able to with physical media. Those CDs don't last that long. I'm not that careful.
So the balance is "own my own stuff and all the problems that come with keeping it pristine so that it continues to work, taking up space in my house" - or the infinitesimally small chance that STEAM goes belly up. Steam has allowed me to own my games for a lot longer than I could have kept them myself. So the argument of "oh they could go away!" doesn't really hold any water for me. Especially for games with an online component (which is all of them now) -- What's the use of physical media when the game requires some servers that vanished long ago anyways?
That's a strange point, imho. We disagree on what own means. You being bad with your physical media doesn't mean you didn't more truthfully own it. We will have to agree to disagree, have a nice day.
Well then you don't own your home. With that argument, nobody does. Because the government has the ability to take your home from you, then you don't own it.
Ownership has granularity to it. You're failing to see the grey spaces in between, and only seeing black or white.