Rationally: DRM-free download

Emotionally: disc, box and handbook

: )
Rational (survival) emotions tell me to keep buying rare games on CDs from 00-15' and turn them into digital copies.

Freed games have no desire to go physical until for pure safe copy.
I always ask Game for an opinion.

There is nothing naturally about it. I bet I am older than you, and while I also grew up with physical media, today I prefer digital because of the hassle it was back then. Going from cassettes, to floppies, to CDs, and finally to fully digital formats, each step has been an improvement.

DRM-free digital, though I still do like physical media and still buy them (Blu-Ray or DVD movies, physical Switch games).

I like DRM-free digital because I can always back it up. If I really want a disc copy, I could back up my DRM-free copy to DVD-R or CD-Rs. I can also back it up to a USB stick, or even an external HDD or SSD. It ensures I always have the game I bought (honestly, it's why I love GOG).

DRM-free digital downloads.

My copy of MS Office 2013 was just a serial key and directions on where to download. Just because you have a box that is going to take up space in your house, it doesn't mean that you're actually getting something that is DRM-free or actually contains software on a disc.

That game box may have just a card in it with a Steam Key and directions on where to redeem it for fully DRMed software.

DRM free download. I can burn my own discs.

While the boxes are nice to look at and browse on your shelf, I was always worried about the disc being accidentally damaged or even suffering disc rot over time. Your eggs are definitely all in one basket with a disc.

So even if you screw logic, emotion made me want better than a disc anyway. And disc whirring was also an emotional thing ... hated the noise.

In the end for me, I am emotionally impacted by flexibility. So the logic of whether a disc is better or not compared to a digital download, means the digital download wins out. I can also see to my emotional disc attachment, by burning discs of my digital downloads. It's also not too hard to create your own box or cover for a DVD or Blu-ray case.

Continuing on with the emotional connection, digital downloads can be out of sight and almost out-of-mind, and so reduce depressing home clutter. And that not just being for games, but also books and movies etc.

It also feels great to know I have more than one backup spread around my home, and maybe elsewhere ... less to worry about.

Hell, for nostalgia, I can look at an enlarged box image on my large widescreen computer or TV and drool over that, knowing I have that game safely stored.

Maybe some of that is logic playing a part, but it is also an emotional thing.

But hey, each to their own. :)

i would like to point out no apocalypse can take away my local storage and discs

I used to prefer physical media, but since games these days get *years* worth of updates and patching... there's just no point in keeping an outdated release version (to me, at least)

Why not both?

I've got all my boxed PC games from the 90s on shelves, ready to take down and look at whenever I would like to.

When I'm ready to actually play one, I'll install my copy from GOG.

Rarely, I sometimes like to fire up one of my old rigs from the 90s and install a game directly from the original floppies or discs, and play it on legacy equipment, including CRT monitor. There's just something about having that ability that I love very much.

I mean, there was something just so special about getting a new physical game and opening that box up. Checking out all the goodies they stuff in those boxes like the big Baldur's Gate Guide to Forgotten Realms, or a poster sized foldable map of Morrowind, or my Max Payne mouse pad that I still use today, or what about all those product registration cards... ok, well, those I don't miss. Still, getting one of those boxes to unwrap under the Christmas tree was a treat that can't be replicated with digital downloads. However, having to put in a disc every time I wanted to play a game was a hassle that I do not miss. I suppose one could always download your drm-free downloads and burn them to a disc so I'm gonna have to go with digital as the way to go for me.

I would like to point out that if an apocalypse happens, being able to play the latest installment of Far Cry would be the last thing on my mind. I would rather focus on essentials like securing food and fresh water. Also, I hope you have enough batteries to keep your computer running.

I believe I prefer Physical media but not exactly for the DVD or CD themselves. After all nowadays I could not run it in my Laptop, It is just an installer bundled in a CD, I can say a digital installer is even more comfortable and flexible.

Not for the box itself. I love them but they are just for decorating shelves

I'd prefer physical media because of the proper books/printed manuals. The real fact is that if I own both and I can chooe between an ebook in a ereader or a physical book I use to choose the physical book in my experience.

What you mean is: you have a different opinion than the one I have - which is fine.
Though I don't really see, what our age has to do with that.

If you'd read my comment in total, you would have stumbled over the following sentences:
Quote: "But all this is doesn't matter, because in reality, I don't drive to a game shop/electronics shop anymore, to buy my games.

I buy only digital downloads.
Quick and easy. And dirt cheap."

I went from cartridges to cassettes and floppy disks, to CDs, DVDs and BRs over to "digital download only"...I don't deny the improvement going from one to the next (though cartridges were, and still are, unbeatable in loading times)...but - those improvements were never questioned?
Definitely not by me.
So..?

shrug

I'm still buying PC games on DVD when I find them, so...