Physical Is NOT Preservation

People claim that physical game releases help to preserve games for future generations, but - while there are benefits to buying physical games - preservation isn't one of them.

Join me in a discussion about day one patches, DLC, online check-ins, live service games, media rot and failing hardware, as well as the fan made solutions to gaming's preservation problems.

00:00 - Introduction
02:08 - The Problem
06:51 - Why Physical Games Are NOT Preservation
12:45 - The Actual Solution

#gamingHistory #gamesPreservation #saveTheGames

[nfan]

Video game piracy = preservation. Sad, but true.

[Okaleshock]

Emulation + multiple physical archives seems like the best way to preserve video games in the current times

[lssjvegeta]

removal of games or content from games is EXACTLY why piracy will NEVER die

[cubedmelons]

The problem isn't physical or digital. The problem is DRM. If you can buy a DRM-free game digitally, then it's just as good as physical if not better. You can make your own physical copy of those if you want.

[KingGameZ]

Welp. This is why emulation and Rom Sites Matter.

[wrathoftheflyingspaghettim]

I think the even bigger issue with this conversation IS the fact that licensing can even do this. If you agree to put something in a game then that should be it its just in the game now. Its absolutely ridiciculous that you can just pull games from stores like that cause you lost a license. The way licensing itself works needs an overhaul.

[jadenkudo]

This problem was in a South Park episode, where Cartman frozen himself, because he don't want to wait 3 weeks for Wii, but wake up 1000 years later. In that time when Cartman finally found a Wii in a museum, there was no tv to connect it to.

[AmartharDrakestone]

One thing wrong: Even back in the day where console games came on cartridges, it was still very much possible and fairly common to patch a game. They simply rereleased them with the patch implemented.

[SparkNitr]

I recently lost my copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl. The disc just barely works anymore, I had the game for a long time and spent many hours on it. I still haven't completed the game yet and to just see the game crash when I boot it up broke my heart. Made me realize that even if I protect my discs and cartridges anyway I can, They'll eventually just die off due to old age.
My Wii and DS are barely hanging on and I just hope I can be able to play them for a couple of more years.

[DijaVlogsGames]

Physical copies allow me to preserve the game myself, so it‘s still a very important component of it.

[AwakenedPhoenix]

The only real preservation is emulation. I am not going to hold onto dozens of pieces of old hardware, take care of upkeep, and buy expensive upscalers to enjoy my games. Something IS lost in going all digital - there is something special about popping a cartridge in and firing up a Super Nintendo - but at the end of the day, it's easier and less expensive to maintain recent emulation devices than it is to keep a lot of old games and systems in working condition - especially since it is a battle you are guaranteed to lose over a long enough time.

[chloboshoka]

This is why older games are better. When you get a game, it was the whole game.

[aaronmarko]

You've missed a huge point with regards to media preservation which is that preservationists are not solely relying on physical media to ensure preservation. Physical game releases are a critical aspect of preservation as - if they have the entirety of the game's data on them - they can ensure that a snapshot of that game is captured to some degree in its entirety. Yes, preservationists are absolutely well aware that disc rot happens - which is why it is so vital to ensure media is not ONLY stored on one type of media forever. Sure, discs and cartridges will break down in time, but that's why we have the digital copy of the data in addition to the physical copy.

Admittedly, modern physical releases have made this a huge problem for preservationists, but the alternative is to entirely leave preservation to video game corporations and they are are either indifferent at best or outright hostile to media preservation at worst. But that's why you are able to - under the law - to make digital backups of your media and emulate them on the device of your choosing. It's inevitable that your discs are going to break down, but you can still preserve it and ensure it remains accessible to some degree.

But saying something like "physical is not preservation" is missing the point about what preservationists look to physical media for in the first place. Physical media and the content surrounding that media is what creates the foundation of preservation and ensures we have a place to start from. In a lot of instances, it is the ONLY reason why we know certain types of media exist. And depending on the type of media, the unfortunate reality is that some of these games which only exist in the digital space are impossible to preserve because that is how they were designed. At least if you can capture that game in some kind of physical media - like PT on the PS4 or Goldeneye on the Xbox 360 - you at least have a chance at extricating that information from the device it was downloaded to and storing it some place else. For a preservationist - even that digital copy which may be incomplete - is still better than nothing.

[Carrey]

I would say Backwards Compatibility is a Preservation in some kind too and I think people underrate this!

[andipajeroking]

Physical degradation is rarely happening. From my library of 100 physical games, pc, gb, wii, ps, i dont think i had one that failed, and when it did, i was easily able to clean it, replace the battery and continue using it.
If you are careful and store them properly, usualy there aren t problems.

[wertywerrtyson]

I love it when they release a GOTY or similar with all DLC and patches on the disc but it is increasingly rare.

[seguramlk]

Digital files + physical copies + ROMs + Original consoles = Game preservation

[LuigiBlood]

To me even if there weren't any of the issues spoken about physical media, it's still not preservation to me.
For me preservation is about the context, and especially, imo, being able to free the data from the shackles of their physical media they're stuck on, because aside from PC games, all games are relying on proprietary formats, and it's where dumping is just a very important process.

The real preservation work is to make sure all of what we saved is passed on as best as we can. Currently we're cool with retro consoles that still work, but that isn't to be forever.
And oddly enough, piracy does a huge portion of it, whether companies like it or not.

[Thebitbeard]

The emulation scene is doing the real work of game preservation.

[diodora]

I can put almost every game released up to 2001 on a 1tb sd card, and then use retroarch to play as many of them as I want on almost any device I want to. Emulation is the future of preservation, not physical media on the original console. People have to face facts, games are going to be harder to play from now on. If you want to play games that were never released physically though, dumping them can be a painful process. Playing games from the past is about to get that much harder.

But really, those who will suffer the most are the companies who devalue their heritage. They only see playing old games as getting in the way of sales today, but they really love those low-effort remakes. Kind of hard to cling onto those when you treat your past games as disposable. Less and less people are going to give a shit about games that have been unplayable for so long they've forgotten what it even was. Kinda hard to profit off existing IPs when you treat them like trash. It all catches up to you in the end.