Fond Memories and Physical Media
The bookshelf next to my bed is proudly lined with every console that I've ever owned. At least one from every console generation (post NES). Beside that shelf is another, smaller shelf chronicling my 16 or so years of gaming. Titles range from cult classics, obscure RPGs and bizarre puzzlers. My collection might not be the biggest, or the most complete, but what is increasingly unique about it is that it is physically there.
Physical games are becoming increasingly difficult to find. While more people are playing games than ever, a sizable portion of those people aren't buying those games in stores. Most people are getting their games through digital distribution, not counting the number of players who pirate software.The industry is making a more concerted push every year to reduce the costly manufacture and distribution of discs and up digital sales.
Already there are plenty of must-own arcade and indie games that can only be downloaded through a digital source. Rental stores are disappearing at a blistering rate and eventually physical retail stores will follow suit. Cases containing games will be specialty collectors' items the way records are for music.
The Sega Dreamcast I own is the same one I played in 1999. When I play Evolution: The World of Sacred Device it's on the same disc that I played it on for the first time ever. The years may have gone by but this is how the player can get to the experience the developers intended. There is an authenticity to having a physical copy that you can't get with a file folder on a hard drive.
Like many people my age (22), I grew up with games as something that were lent back and forth on the playground, or coveted relics that awaited me after many months of scrounging for money. One of the most formative experiences to me (as someone that plays games) is the independent rental stores near my childhood home run by friendly, amenable gamers. Going to the mall and browsing the shelves at the game store was sacred. Setting the controller down and watching the intro screen flicker by before burning through a great game was an integral part of my childhood and it all centered around the physical copy of a game.
It isn't as though digital distribution is an evil thing, or even that it has many disadvantages. The benefits of having a full title to play in under a minute for a reduced cost are clear. But I feel that gaming has lost one of its sacred rituals. Tracking down a classic title from bargain bins, pawn shops or mail-order websites has its rewards as a collector, but it's lonelier now that games are becoming a virtual commodity and not tangible treasures.
To read more of my personal meditations on gaming (especially Japanese gaming), please visit my personal blog at http://themolloyboy.blogspot.com/.