Digital Distribution

[Thormodr]

Cardboard is often used in a game package to enclose the manuals and the DVD. CD's are not used for games very often anymore either. I'm referring to actual PC boxed packages, not the dollar bin of old PS2 games.

You are in your imaginary world, if you think CD's are cardboard. Deforestation of every tree on Earth is bad, cutting down trees has occurred throughout history because they grow back.

Your post gets an F for a grade... as do the majority of every post you leave. Please give more effort in the future for the sake of the rest of us.

Ummm...I am looking at my copy of cIV right now and the case is plastic. I think the Civ series has been sold in these plastic cases for quite a few years now.

Digital distribution would save plastic from being made. It would certainly use some energy still but in the long run it will be much better for the environment.

The making of CDs are surely not good for the environment either.

It really is an environmentally better choice.

 

[Suho1004]

Actually, my first Civ CD was made of stone... until I discovered Bronze Working, then it got all nice and shiny.

 

[Chalks]

Ummm...I am looking at my copy of cIV right now and the case is plastic. I think the Civ series has been sold in these plastic cases for quite a few years now.

Digital distribution would save plastic from being made. It would certainly use some energy still but in the long run it will be much better for the environment.

Yep, games have been coming in entirely plastic packaging for a very long time now. It's probably 10+ years since I've seen one of those massive cardboard game boxes.

You're totally right about the environmental concern - although it is probably a minor impact on balance.

 

[Shurdus]

tom2050's response was funny when he did not spot the sarcasm, but it became hilarious when Chalks actually needed to spell it out to him. Thanks tom2050, your posts made me laugh.

 

[Shurdus]

Yep, games have been coming in entirely plastic packaging for a very long time now. It's probably 10+ years since I've seen one of those massive cardboard game boxes.

You're totally right about the environmental concern - although it is probably a minor impact on balance.

Nah, just a few years ago you could get a big carton box with your game. The temple of elemental evil was released not that long ago, it came with a box. Also I got a copy of Planescape: Torment not too long ago, and that one had a cardboard box too. Granted, that game is pretty much 10 years old - or older even - but I got a copy only a few years back with a big box.

On topic, I really care very little what way games are distributed. If they should go all-digital in the near future I will still buy games if I have solid internet - or access at all. If not, then I will stop. It is not something I really care about. It will go all digital in the future, maybe ten years from now. If it turns out to be a problem for me I will stop buying games, if not then I will keep buying them.

 

[Disgustipated]

They used to have the gigantic boxes, but a lot of people complained about the cardboard waste and shelf space taken up by those games. An example of the gigantic boxes are games like Baldur's Gate 2 or Diablo 2. Around the early part of the 2000's they went with the smaller cardboard boxes. By the time Neverwinter Nights came out, it was in the small cardboard box. In both cases the cardboard box had packing cardboard (the ugly brown stuff) box within the fancy outer cardboard and the manual and game disc would be inside.

Lately they still have a cardboard outer cover, but the inner box is plastic. I believe all my copies of civ4 are this way. The plastic is a bit sturdier, and less likely to be crushed than the brown cardboard inner box, but I never had a real problem with the brown boxes, and wouldn't complain if they went back to them. But new games on the shelf still have the cardboard outer cover. That's my point of this post. But often if you get discounted games, older repackaged games, etc, they will be in a plastic box only (similar to dvd box), with no fancy cardboard cover. I'm not a big fan of these, but I will buy them for games I want to play, but I'm not a huge fan of. Games like Civ4 and Civ5 I want everything, so I'd want the cardboard cover with the fancy artwork. What can I say, I like some of the artwork on game covers.

 

[eireksten]

This question is ambiguous; is this a positive or normative question? Should or will?
Be distributed this way, or be ONLY distributed this way?

I'd say yes to will, yes to should, no to only for the near term.

I have the exact same opinion. Voted 'Like the idea', as I couldn't see the OP stated anywhere that he was talking about only DD.

 

[CivFanMUC]

Since I read the question as "only distributed this way", I voted dislike.

Actually, my first Civ CD was made of stone... until I discovered Bronze Working, then it got all nice and shiny.

 

[The_J]

[x] Dislike

I don't have fast internet here, and i dislike to be dependend on a service (= internet). I prefer being independend at this point.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Guys, really. The environmental impact of a single computer game based on what distribution method you choose is negligible. If it concerned you that much, it'd only be logical that you never hop in a (petrol) motor vehicle, including cars and buses. You wouldn't buy food that comes in plastic or cardboard packaging.

Do you realise that the impact on the environment for the production of all the bits in your computer and the energy your computer chews through are huge compared to what is used to produce a CD or DVD and a plastic DVD box and its transportation cost?
I've gotta say, it is the most hilarious pro-Steam argument I've seen. You should request it be added to the "Steam pros and cons" thread.

 

[Harok]

I would have no problem with a company offering incentives (cheaper price, etc.) if you buy electronically but to require it seems absurd.

 

[tom2050]

Guys, really. The environmental impact of a single computer game based on what distribution method you choose is negligible. If it concerned you that much, it'd only be logical that you never hop in a (petrol) motor vehicle, including cars and buses. You wouldn't buy food that comes in plastic or cardboard packaging.

Do you realise that the impact on the environment for the production of all the bits in your computer and the energy your computer chews through are huge compared to what is used to produce a CD or DVD and a plastic DVD box and its transportation cost?
I've gotta say, it is the most hilarious pro-Steam argument I've seen. You should request it be added to the "Steam pros and cons" thread.

Now Steam is good for the environment. Using Steam can also save you from having to buy gasoline. It can make you dinner, and even fetch a bone.

But, we should all help keep the environment clean... even with the fact that global cooling is actually happening.

In other news, I was just at Best Buy last week, and there were still games in huge, behemoth boxes filled with tons and tons of environmentally hazardous cardboard and paper (and the DVD, OMG! ) that were a eco-disaster just waiting to happen. I complained to the manager.

I would have no problem with a company offering incentives (cheaper price, etc.) if you buy electronically but to require it seems absurd.

They are charging more for the digital download, and less for the boxed package... that makes no sense at all... should be the other way around. $10 for 1 civ and a map. The game itself at that price would be in the hundreds of dollar range.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Now Steam is good for the environment. Using Steam can also save you from having to buy gasoline. It can make you dinner, and even fetch a bone.

But, we should all help keep the environment clean... even with the fact that global cooling is actually happening.

In other news, I was just at Best Buy last week, and there were still games in huge, behemoth boxes filled with tons and tons of environmentally hazardous cardboard and paper (and the DVD, OMG! ) that were a eco-disaster just waiting to happen. I complained to the manager.

Also...
Steam users are more likely to leave their computers running overnight (for downloads). Think of all that extra energy consumption. All that coal and oil being burned to power their computers does wonders for the planet.

 

[Zhahz]

Love it when it's simple and clean.

I love to buy software online, download it, and fire it up without hassles.

I don't mind online activation - I much prefer it to CD in the drive (one reason I buy digitally a lot more these days).

I could accept periodic validation of activation, but it's not cool to need something else running in the background while I'm using software I've bought. (Especially if said software isn't even validating over the 'net - why the heck else would it need to exist at all... web tangent driver and maybe steam come to mind)

I've bought software digitally from a variety of sources and the majority do not require any kind of full time anything - most are one-time activation.

 

[RockingKraut]

I've never been good with a CD and I like the fact Steam links my games to my account so I if I get a hard drive crash, I can just log back in and re-download everything. It may take forever, but in the end its worth it all.

 

[Shurdus]

In other news, I was just at Best Buy last week, and there were still games in huge, behemoth boxes filled with tons and tons of environmentally hazardous cardboard and paper (and the DVD, OMG! ) that were a eco-disaster just waiting to happen. I complained to the manager.

Did you wear your pants when you did that?

Just asking...