: I'm currently standing next to a bookcase filled with an Edge magazine
: collection and all of my 360 games, I definitely had a long history of
: buying games starting in high school. If I could send all of these discs
: in to get whatever digital license microsoft could revoke at any time I
: would still take the deal. That is because the convenience you believe is
: an illusion are conveniences I happily enjoy given the risks. Your value
: in property is just something I don't have, I prioritize my life in a
: drastically different way. I'd rather work towards having more consumer
: friendly licenses, whether that's through laws or market forces.

: Like really, I do not see things that don't have to be physical, as property.
: This desk I have, that's property. I think it's weird to take something
: that could be copied so easily, with so little effort, and tie it to a
: physical disk and declare it's property. It's an illusion of the physical
: nature of things. That's probably why we can't see eye to eye mate.

Technically, it is all physical. The data that is the software is written on the physical disk; it's manufactured in a plant and sent to the stores for you to buy, each disk being identical. Just as if you were to buy a physical table from Ikea, manufactured at a plant with each table being identical. What if you were merely renting your furniture? What if you owned nothing, but you paid prices for everything you have, which could be taken back at any second on the owner's whim?

*shrug* Personally, I don't mind digital if it's cheaper, or I don't mind digital if buying the physical also gave you access to digital. I like physical because it's not just the software you're paying for, it's also the art, the creativity, the packaging, the manuals, all of that is from the creator.

Yes indeed, each of our values may be placed in different things, and I thin kit's fine that you don't have the same value placed in holding physical media, because what you want (to pay and use) is the software experience - and that's great. Digital is for you.

I think that's why when it came to app store games, a $10 game fares much worse than a $2 game, and a $50 game likely won't sell at all. If I pay $5 for a great game from an app store and it's removed after I've deleted it so I'll never get it back, that won't bother me as much. If I pay $60, you'd better believe I'll want to have access to that game as long I feel I "own" it.

Technically these days there's not as much to worry about, never having access to software again, since eventually someone will find a way to emulate systems and supply versions of the games (especially once classics or abandonware) - games will pretty much never disappear from the face of the earth; well, other than that neat arkanoid clone I programmed in highschool the source for which I've completely lost :(

Nonetheless, there's something about having a physical copy of something you bought, in your hand, knowing that you are the sole individual responsible for its continued existence and freedom to choose for anyone to enjoy whenever we want. That's what we'll pay for, as with anything else we own :)