thepyrethatburns said:
That doesn't wash. If a person can't figure out how to use the download service on their 360/PS3, then chances are they can't figure out how to make their controller work.
Actually you'd be suprised how there's a pretty wide canyon between 'can't figure out the dowload service' and 'which one is the
on button?'.
I'm going to take a guess that you don't have to deal with too many people who aren't very tech savvey, if you did then you'd realise that this is a very real issue.
Sorry to break it to you but you can't really disprove this one, why do you think we still have IT specialists and computer repair men? Why do you think that most people still get ripped off at PC world? (hint, they
don't know any better)
We shall always have idiots who need a helping hand, and as long as there is a barrier of understanding in the way it's always going to be preferable to have a more simple and mundane way to get what you want or need.
The luddite argument also doesn't work. Not everyone wanted to upgrade to an HD TV (I held out until around the time that Dante's Inferno came out.) but the industry eventually moved on anyway.
HD Tv's are avaliable but you look in most super markets and electronics stores and they still have non-HD TV's for sale as well (not everyone can afford HD you see), it's not so luddite an arguement when you consider this is why quite a few people I know
still refuse to get a bluray player (wasn't that going to be the new format that everyone was going to have to switch over to eventually?).
I
still don't have a HD TV (if you want to buy me one then by all means be my guest).
Gift cards have been doing a brisk business and both Sony and Microsoft have been selling those for awhile now. Yes, some people do prefer actually handing an object to their kids but the gift card has become increasingly accepted as an alternative.
Accepted but still not universal and standard (like buying those Farmville point cards or a stripper for a friend's birthday, sure, it's acceptable these days but not really something I can see becoming the norm and probably rightly so).
Gift cards may be able to sustain themselves but I gurantee you that most people's Christmas/Birthday lists probably include a copy of the new Modern Warfare or Battlefield title rather than a gift card for 1200 MSP's (the cards may be acceptable but they're far from standard).
Most of those people don't stay away. Sony had the worst hack both in terms of volume of credit card information stolen and corporate response and people came back. Sure some people go into a panic and delete their accounts but they almost always come back. Ask those friends how many of them have gone back to a social network (if not Twitter) since they deleted the accounts.
And how many people now have probably sworn off of EA's future titles as a result of the 'Origin spys on your computer' thing? DRM and other measures taken by the games industry itself have on occasion proven to be more than distasteful to a lot of people (we already have to take enough shit from the games as a result of said DRM when we buy a physical copy in person, imagine how much more complicated and annoying it'll be when the entire process has to take place online through the developers).
And while many people have returned to the services that were hacked this doesn't change the fact that it does scar the mentalities of a lot of people (especially those who aren't as computer savvey who you seem to ignore in your arguements...and that makes you a
big meany).
Businesses don't operate on the theory of "everyone must be able to upgrade or we don't do it". It's the same thing as HD TV. Eventually, businesses just decide that it's time to cut the luddites off.
Again with the luddites thing (you really think highly of yourself, don't you?), HD TV's still aren't the norm and not everyone has one (unless you live in a rich neighborhood where everyone has at least two in which case I forgive you for being ignorant on this matter). There will always be a business in buying the physical copies of games because businesses do operate on the formula of 'there is a crowd out there who are willing to buy our products, let's cater to them', I can see a
revision of how these stores work but to say that this will result in them simply not existing is perhaps going over the top into the wet dreams of pirates and PC gamers everywhere.
It's funny that you mentioned arcades here. How are they holding up? The aesthetic and social value of a place tends to take back seat to convenience. A large part of the reason arcades started dying was the convenience of just being able to play games at home. A lot of people will choose a convenient download service over the questionable social value of the local Gamestop.
There is a significant difference between the reasons arcades closed down (it was more conveinient to play at home) and the reasons you're suggesting stores would close down (it's more conveinient to download games) seeing as the second one isn't nessercarily true and only presents one form of conveinence rather than the multiple forms that consoles at home had over the arcade (you had infinate continues and only had to pay once to play as many times as you liked as well as the fact that you didn't have to share a booth with others, for kids, the primary people who went to arcades, this was more than enough reason to not go anymore).
Downloading games online is only advantagous to people who aren't catered to by the current idea of buying games in stores (or ordering them online since this still requires a physical product to be shipped).
The conveinience of not having to leave your front door is matched by the conveinience of being able to purchase second hand games for a lower price as well as the conveinience for people who are new to buying games (for whatever reason whther it be because they're new gamers or because they're buying it for someone else) can ask for advise and get direction and reccomendation in terms of what they should get from an actual person rather (never underestimate the fact that some of us just like hearing an opinion from a real person rather than some blanket star system that doesn't really tell us anything).
Yeah, downloading means no travel and not having to worry about a game being in stock but those are only two of the many concerns that people face in terms of looking for games (and those two conveiniences aren't really enough to ditch the entire physical stores altogether).
For the last time, HD TV. Those people will eventually have to adapt or go without.
For the last time, HD TV is a horrible example to use because it actually shows how my side of the argument holds more weight than yours (not every TV for sale out there is a HD TV, you can still buy regular ones, the fact that they're referred to as 'regular ones' should be the hint you need there).
I'm including this just because this deals more with the used market. Once again, the industry is attempting to both kill the used games market as well as get gamers to see that as a good thing. The industry isn't going to care if you aren't getting those deals anymore.
The industry doesn't care but at the end of the day their attempts to get rid of second hand gaming will only be successful as long as they offer an alternative that doesn't alienate or cut off the people who previously relied on it (in fact, this idea of all deals being electronic pretty much eliminates the capacity for a lot of gamers to get most of their games because
they simply won't be able to afford them, by providing no alternatives this is creating a monopoly, which is always a bad thing for customers).
The CEO's and heads of marketing and finance may may not care about the concerns of the average gamer but the average gamer (you know, the one actually paying for games and giving their money to the companies in question) will certainly care.
