My Digital Life - The Bear and Badger

Dinostar77

So, inspired by a pic thread on NEOGAF. Where a user had made the move to "digital where possible" and decluttered his life and his house (his pics are amazing). I thought i'd make a start to attempt the same. One slight problem with "digital" is that you end up with GB's/TB's of stuff. Going through old Hard Disks, USB pens, computers and trying to get everything digital i want to keep onto one single piece of storage is nothing short of a nightmare. Remember the old days of photography, when you used film in your camera therefore every shot had to be the best you could take? Now, just turn on burst mode on your phone/camera and take four shots instead of one. We now have ridiculous number of pictures, definitely quantity over quality.

Remember having your CD's / Vinyl out on display? So when people came around they peruse through your collection? Now its on a HD somewhere if your lucky or across mutliple devices or you just stream from the internet? Question, how do you make a mixtape nowadays? Does anyone even bother? Movies and TV boxset gone the same way. Same could be said for books. The upside of all this is less physical space taken up by all this physical media. The downside, the soundtrack to your life is on a HD somewhere.

I think i personally don't appreciate digital media the same way I cared about their physical equivalents. I haven't bought a music CD in years. I still buy physical books and I haven't created an new photo albums in years (despite the other half nagging me to do so). I have a ridiculous number of unplayed bought games on STEAM sales. I want to switch over to digital, music and photos not a problem. Books, yeah definitely an issue, I like the feel of a physical book. As for games, I'm still stuck with physicals. Mainly because A) i use the play and trade model and b) Digital still isn't always cheaper.

I probably haven't explained myself very well. Going digital only will be tough and i'm not sure if i can. However its what you learn on the journey that counts.

Thoughts and opinions?

Tempy

Neither option really satisfies me. Physical cruft and tat is an issue because of the impact of its creation on the environment, but with digital you very rarely own anything other than a license to use something for as long as the provider allows it.

One of the most interesting (read: boring) areas of game based academia is the issue around curation and archiving, it affects both physical and digital media, ideas around authenticity and even the possibility of repairing and maintaining old hardware and code.

Yossarian

I've given myself over to digital. I'll still buy the occasional physical thing if it's really nice (looking forward to the 20th anniversary OK Computer release this year), but for the most part, digital wins hands down.

regmcfly

I can't move past physical. it's fairly tenable for me because I am good at purging / selling things when done with them. Im only moving past it in terms of music now, and film is a no go for me. that being said, my blu ray collection is only essentials and ones I treasure. I've been raised on books, and the tactile nature of them has taught me to appreciate a physical thing. The heft of carrying a book around with you keeps you reminded to be reading it, shows your dedication to it. Physical all the way for this boy.

WorKid

Fuck physical. I can't afford the space.

Plus convenience and searching.

regmcfly

My wife is a librarian. I can find anything in our upstairs our downstairs book collections

Olimite

With kids physical isn't possible. I wish I knew that 20+ years ago.

regmcfly

Olimite wrote:

With kids physical isn't possible. I wish I knew that 20+ years ago.

Japan's aging, childless population + abundance of Book Offs shows the opposite of that to be true too

yourfavouriteuncle

What's a book off?

Olimite

That said, I draw the line at graphic novels. Just cannot look at them on a screen. Just wish a had somewhere to put my comic collection (which resides (and probably always will) at my parent's house).

Olimite

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

What's a book off?

I wondered that too. Assumed it was some sort of typo.

Yossarian

Actually, books are the one thing that I'd probably be willing to stick to physical for. When it comes to discs that are useless without a box to play them, I think I'd rather just have a box. The fact that books are entirely self-contained objects that can be kept for centuries and still be as fully functional as when they were bought gives them a much greater intrinsic value, IMO.

JonB

I'd gladly go all digital with games if not for cost. Still do quite a bit anyway, but it's a shame it's not cheaper. I'm not attached to the physical objects, and not into collecting, just want the experience.

Books are a little different. I have a load of ebooks and don't mind reading from a screen, but it's handy when doing some research to just have a pile of books there to flick through.

Moot_Geeza

I've got 2500 dvds that need shifting, which I've agreed to do but I'm dragging my heels as the idea makes me a bit sad. Gonna keep the world cinema for twattish display purposes. It was an obsession for years, but I haven't bought any since 2013. I wanted a library and a sliding ladder for them if I won the Lotto, but the move to digital/HD has fucked the dream. It's also coincided with me watching roughly 90% less films per year.

No idea how many cds I've got, more than dvds anyway. I've certainly got no particular system for stacking them on top of each other upstairs. I probably still buy 3-6 a month.

With big release games I'll buy physical and sell, either immediately or eventually, and only download if it's had a whopping discount (TMNT for £12.99 on PSN, for example). I don't mind having indie titles digitally as the sales on those tend to be regular and healthy, and some games appeal enough for a day one download (Shovel Knight, Steamworld Heist, Thumper on Switch).

The only console I've got a collection for is the GBA. 76 games in a shoebox in hardcases, boxes in the loft. If I win the Lotto I plan to eventually buy enough to Scrooge McDuck dive into.

regmcfly

Book Off - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_Off

Japan's largest trade in bookstore chain. Essentially Japanese people buy all physical, then trade in. stuff you get at book off is basically mint. They have a good healthy culture of buying physical then reselling for good trade in as long as it's in good condition .

Dark Soldier

I've no interest in physical anymore. Have only ever owned and watched about three blu rays, about 8 years since I watched a DVD, House of Leaves is only being read in book form as the Kindle version is a ball ache, and have been mp3s only since I stopped buying rave tapepacks, of which I have about 30 still, gathering dust.

I still buy physical games but that's more the cost issue compared to digital, once the prices even out, they'll be fucked off too.

The Daddy

With Switch I'm going digital as much as possible. Maybe a few physical releases (such as Zelda and mario), but a major (well, minor but significant) barrier to getting games played on 3DS was the physical cartridge logistics. When I hacked it and ripped my carts to digital I played loads more. For that reason I don't mind paying a little bit more, although the extra cost does annoy me on principal.

Brooks

I'm mostly digital, have been for yonks. I make exceptions for tools and clobber, that's it.

mistercrayon

Physical stuff detracts from where the true effort in creative works. The focus on the box, the binding and the disc holder has meant people are cheesed off when spending similar amounts on digital goods even though the actual cost to make things has increased but the cost to buy them has real terms dropped (consider the price of a cd now and in 1992 and the price of a snes cart)

tigersgogrrr

I like digital for games but the price thing puts me off. I'd be solely digital by now if it was cheaper.

For books I vary. Generally pick up hardbacks and quality editions or stuff I'm sure I'll like, spend good money on decent 'coffee book browsers' and burn through other stuff on Kindle.

I've never really had a music or film collection. Recently purged the last of my DVDs & CDs.

Yossarian

I'm not sure that the cost to make a CD has gone up TBH. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it would have gone down.

JonB

The cost to make the games, not the CDs.

mistercrayon

Well the budgets for most movies and games have gone up. Music possibly less so but the cost to a person to exchange their time (if only to stay alive) to make the music will have gone up over time.

JonB

Regardless though, digital also has to find a way to offset the sell-on value of physical at least a bit.

I don't care about keeping 90% of games once I've played through them, and can get decent money back in most cases, so digital needs to be that bit cheaper in general.

Yossarian

I presumed he was talking about music, I may be mistaken.

Blocks100

Having just moved into a new flat I find myself with space that needs to be filled. I toyed briefly with the idea of buying a gramophone and starting an impromptu vinyl collection. But then I thought, 'why bother?'. I love streaming stuff, the convenience of it all and instant access. Playing it out of various devices with a swipe of a finger. I sort of get why people like the tactile nature of vinyl record collections, but for me I could never abandon digital. It's the future. Just like garlic bread.

I left a shed load (literally) of old CD's behind in my old gaff. I never shed a tear for it.

mistercrayon

Yossarian wrote:

I presumed he was talking about music, I may be mistaken.

A cd cost ten pounds in 1992 and in 2002 but the amount of money a person needed to stay alive and pay for equipment (and so on) in those periods would have increased several times, thus the cost to make the cd has increased (i.e. The important bit) even if the physical item has not.

Yossarian

I'm willing to bet studio time is far cheaper now than it was in the 90s, and home recording tech is now so good that many bands will be able to skip that part altogether. Plus, no superstar producer is going to be able to charge a million quid up front for their services these days when sales have cratered. I reckon that even taking into account increases in cost of living, it's cheaper to produce an album these days.

mistercrayon

Okay.

superflyninja

I'm now almost exclusively digital. A couple of years back I sold all DVDs bar a few keepers(final cut of Blade Runner boxset and the like). I've not bought physical music in probably at least a decade. I think the last cd I bought was a fairly obscure Irish band called Royseven (Fucking brilliant live).
I went through a phase of being stony broke so obtaining content from the high seas was a necessity
but its so damn convenient now. I use Spotify for music and listen to many podcasts. All the books I read are digital. A lot of my PS4 games are now digital either because they were slightly cheaper or I couldnt get a physical copy easily(ie walking into a BM store).
In saying that I still have quite the book library. Mainly special edition books or books that just dont work on a phone or tablet like photography and art books etc.
I dont miss having a massive movie or book collection really. It just means I keep the items that mean something to me.

My tv/movie.gaming setup is lovely and almost minimal. A tv, a Pi3 connected to two 2TB harddrives and a PS4. Thats about it. Its great. No getting up to switch discs or go hunting for the dvd that is in the wrong box. Its all just damn handy.

Facewon

Cds and DVDs gone.

Streaming and dl just about everything now. Books and vinyl still around, but getting curated.

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