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General discussionQuestion about physical digital(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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Posted June 07, 2021
I had this question on my mind.

Yes, I understand nothing is better or can last forever, but if you have a game on gog and back it up on a disc or physical media, would you be able to classify it as a physical/hard copy of the game, since you now only need that disc/physical media and no longer need the internet?
This question / problem has been solved by Titaniumimage
Posted June 07, 2021
No.

Physical/Digital in the context of this sphere speaks of the origin of the game. All you have at that point is a hard copy of a game. I cold download a copy of Exile II: The Crystal Souls and somehow pack it into a floppy disk, and it'd still be a digital copy.
Posted June 07, 2021
Burned DVDs do not last anywhere near as long as professionally pressed ones, so it's not really the same as owning the game on an official disc. You'd likely be way better off with redundant HDD/SSD backups.
Posted June 07, 2021
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albinistic: I had this question on my mind.

Yes, I understand nothing is better or can last forever, but if you have a game on gog and back it up on a disc or physical media, would you be able to classify it as a physical/hard copy of the game, since you now only need that disc/physical media and no longer need the internet?
I would say physical. We all know that the product itself is digital, but the question is what medium you have it on that you can reliably use. Are you stuck to digital only distribution or do you have a physical copy. Some would argue that you need digital methods to get the copy to go physical in the first place, but it's clear that most of the arguments are about one's ability to play a game in 30 years. Then there's people who just really, really want to hold a case in their hands, no matter how worthless the thing inside the case really is.
Posted June 07, 2021
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StingingVelvet: Burned DVDs do not last anywhere near as long as professionally pressed ones, so it's not really the same as owning the game on an official disc. You'd likely be way better off with redundant HDD/SSD backups.
Concur, multiple redundant hdds are the way to go. Large storage for small space, can have many backups, easy read/write/manage etc. Actual dvds and such like are a dead commodity now.
Posted June 07, 2021
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albinistic: I had this question on my mind.

Yes, I understand nothing is better or can last forever, but if you have a game on gog and back it up on a disc or physical media, would you be able to classify it as a physical/hard copy of the game, since you now only need that disc/physical media and no longer need the internet?
Actually, everything is physical. Software doesn't exist in a void.
But seriously, in this context, "physical" usually means a physical release. It's about in what form software is published (data shared by a server or data on a disc/cartridge/etc.).

Code-in-a-box releases, I'd call that a hybrid form - it's both.
Post edited June 07, 2021 by teceem
Posted June 07, 2021
I consider a game digital if it is not tied to any specific physical media.

I can copy and move around GOG game installers so they are digital, as is the Wing Commander 2 game I originally installed from floppy disks, but later just zipped that installed game and have been copying it to newer PCs and hard drives etc. ever since. So even that game wasn't tied to the original installation floppies, after I had installed it.
Posted June 07, 2021
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albinistic: Yes, I understand nothing is better or can last forever, but if you have a game on gog and back it up on a disc or physical media, would you be able to classify it as a physical/hard copy of the game, since you now only need that disc/physical media and no longer need the internet?
You could call it that. It's certainly more physical than an empty cardboard box with a Steam key printed on a piece of paper that were "physical box retail releases" for a while...
Posted June 08, 2021
In the technical definition, you would actually be correct. You have essentially created a physical copy of a game, very akin to a disk version, with basically the same characteristics. Whether you have one game or 1000 on that hard disk is irrelevant, it is a compact, deployable, transferable copy of that game and cannot be changed without your input (it can't realistically be for instance updated or deleted by GOG remotely).

The issue here is semantics. A "physical" copy was for the longest time interpreted as bought a copy of a game that came on some kind of hardware that was used to then deploy the files on a machine/computer. The last such method that is still in use are compact discs, and should therefore not be confused by your method. Essentially, you have a backup on a HDD/SSD and that is that. Why you would need to define it differently I can't imagine (legal proceedings?)
Posted June 08, 2021
Thank you for all the replies! :)
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General discussionQuestion about physical digital(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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