10th May 2004, 3:38 PM
Maybe the HD is removable and replacable with others...
Still, the entire concept really sorta defeats the whole purpose of owning a game. If I want something like this, I HAVE online sites that will let me pay a fee to keep games as long as I want and just get them mailed to my house.
In other news, yeah I want to know myself why PC games have never been rentable. I suppose those same online sites may eventually add them to their lists of things. If it turns out it's piracy related, then once again thiefs have ruined a perfectly good thing for me personally due to their selfishness!
Anyway, back to this, yeah honestly it's an interesting idea in theory, and one of my old programming teachers really actually WANTS a future where you get EVERY bit of data online and never have to bother with physical media again. I however, don't. I like being able to play each and every one of my games "off the system" as it is. Having to rely on the existance of that company to know my product will work is not my idea of true ownership. I remember XBand, great idea, but due to not having the forsight to have a set of instructions on how to set up your own XBand server, when the company died, so did the service, and now all I have is a useless purple brick that plays generation x music. Maybe someone will one day decide to hack the thing and set up their own server, then publish the ip address to connect to in order to get to it. Of course, to get your XBand hooked up to THAT, they'd also have to provide a sort of spoofer for the PC that tricks the XBand into thinking it dialed into the network, then the PC, once it got the XBand connected to it's modem, would then go online itself and go to that server.
Once this guy goes belly up, and I still have a feeling he will considering his past, I have a feeling people will be equally unable to do anything. Worse though, unlike the XBand, which only did the job of connecting people, all the games and the device itself being things you owned, the GAMES won't actually be anyone's to legally distribute. Even if someone did set up a server, it would certainly be shut down because, after all, they WOULD have to break the law and provide the games for download. I fully agree with the illegality of it, but it's just another downer. Besides, I have a strong feeling that your games would be considered illegal even if they WERE still on your drive once the service failed, just like if you stopped payments and cancelled it, and as such, it would likely require you to sign in even if it's just a single player game to confirm your account before you start.
Really, in a true communism future where the evil of humanity is eliminated and people can exchange ideas freely while giving in return where the internet and everything about it is free, yeah, making ALL data online is a good solution. However, that future will NEVER occur and CAN never occur, and as such, I have to say not only is this idea not feasible now, I don't think it EVER will be. A single service for free games on an account is the only way a company can make a profit off this, and as a result you are tied to that company in order to use the machine. The alternative is what is already being done, that is, just downloading free games anyway legally online that people make now and again, but the generous people who make those nifty games make no profit off them, and thus there will only be so many, and only be so much quality one can get, out of that.
All I'm saying is the closest we'll ever get to this thing being a working model, if you ask me, is the current system of free games being made and published online for download by non-profit groups. Great though it is, it's never going to be the standard.
Eh, I guess that means I don't think this will take off. Then again, XBox Live succeeded, and that ties people to a single company too.
Still, the entire concept really sorta defeats the whole purpose of owning a game. If I want something like this, I HAVE online sites that will let me pay a fee to keep games as long as I want and just get them mailed to my house.
In other news, yeah I want to know myself why PC games have never been rentable. I suppose those same online sites may eventually add them to their lists of things. If it turns out it's piracy related, then once again thiefs have ruined a perfectly good thing for me personally due to their selfishness!
Anyway, back to this, yeah honestly it's an interesting idea in theory, and one of my old programming teachers really actually WANTS a future where you get EVERY bit of data online and never have to bother with physical media again. I however, don't. I like being able to play each and every one of my games "off the system" as it is. Having to rely on the existance of that company to know my product will work is not my idea of true ownership. I remember XBand, great idea, but due to not having the forsight to have a set of instructions on how to set up your own XBand server, when the company died, so did the service, and now all I have is a useless purple brick that plays generation x music. Maybe someone will one day decide to hack the thing and set up their own server, then publish the ip address to connect to in order to get to it. Of course, to get your XBand hooked up to THAT, they'd also have to provide a sort of spoofer for the PC that tricks the XBand into thinking it dialed into the network, then the PC, once it got the XBand connected to it's modem, would then go online itself and go to that server.
Once this guy goes belly up, and I still have a feeling he will considering his past, I have a feeling people will be equally unable to do anything. Worse though, unlike the XBand, which only did the job of connecting people, all the games and the device itself being things you owned, the GAMES won't actually be anyone's to legally distribute. Even if someone did set up a server, it would certainly be shut down because, after all, they WOULD have to break the law and provide the games for download. I fully agree with the illegality of it, but it's just another downer. Besides, I have a strong feeling that your games would be considered illegal even if they WERE still on your drive once the service failed, just like if you stopped payments and cancelled it, and as such, it would likely require you to sign in even if it's just a single player game to confirm your account before you start.
Really, in a true communism future where the evil of humanity is eliminated and people can exchange ideas freely while giving in return where the internet and everything about it is free, yeah, making ALL data online is a good solution. However, that future will NEVER occur and CAN never occur, and as such, I have to say not only is this idea not feasible now, I don't think it EVER will be. A single service for free games on an account is the only way a company can make a profit off this, and as a result you are tied to that company in order to use the machine. The alternative is what is already being done, that is, just downloading free games anyway legally online that people make now and again, but the generous people who make those nifty games make no profit off them, and thus there will only be so many, and only be so much quality one can get, out of that.
All I'm saying is the closest we'll ever get to this thing being a working model, if you ask me, is the current system of free games being made and published online for download by non-profit groups. Great though it is, it's never going to be the standard.
Eh, I guess that means I don't think this will take off. Then again, XBox Live succeeded, and that ties people to a single company too.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)