Rant 571 / Do People Still Buy Game Discs These Days?

Now I've finished all 3 books (or 5, since the first two books were both really 2-in-1) by Gene Wolfe that I have, The Book of the New Sun and The Urth of the New Sun, I'm pretty confused and slightly annoyed.

So I checked the Wiki article on this guy and found the reasons why.

"He frequently relies on the first-person perspectives of unreliable narrators...The cause aside, this can make Wolfe confusing or disconcerting for the new reader."

Wolfe's language can also be a subject of confusion for the new reader. In the appendix to The Shadow of the Torturer, he says:

In rendering this book—originally composed in a tongue that has not achieved existence—into English, I might easily have saved myself a great deal of labor by having recourse to invented terms; in no case have I done so. Thus in many instances I have been forced to replace yet undiscovered concepts by their closest twentieth-century equivalents. Such words as peltast, androgyn, and exultant are substitutions of this kind, and are intended to be suggestive rather than definitive.

Yep, so true. Even now I only have a vague idea of what I read. Many details in the Wiki article on the protagonist, Severian, were new to me.












It was only when I came across this Yahoo News article that I realized it is possible that I may be pretty much out of touch with the rest of Singapore. The following point copied from it is the main reason:

3. Video Games: Kids get tired of video games rather quickly. You can easily find used video games from online sellers at sites like Amazon and eBay a few months after the release date. Most video game store outlets will feature a used game shelf, as well. And if you're not the patient type, you can rent or borrow from a friend first to see if it's worth the purchase.

The first thing that came to my mind was," Do people still buy discs for games?"

I have not bought a single disc in years! Even if I were to buy any games, I would have visited the online Steam store instead. Not only do I not have to worry about faulty discs but it's also more environmentally friendly. Games on CDs and DVDs are old school because a lot of gamers have broadband internet access which allows them to download full games in a single day.

Another important point is that Steam has been around since 2003 and it's getting ever bigger due to Valve's constant successes (eg L4D, L4D2, TF2) so there's little chance for it to disappear within this decade or the next.

In fact, they're having a sale right now. I'm tempted to buy ME2 at the discounted price of 30USD , usual price 50USD and discount available only for today (Mass Effect is also available for US$20, the usual price), but I'm not ready to waste my money at the moment. Fallout 3 was also on sale yesterday or the day before but it's back to costing US$30 again (GOTY edition going for US$50).

Oh and Mount&Blade: Warband is on sale for US$15, which is half price.

I don't check game prices in Singapore so I took the first result when I googled "game shop in singapore" and found this website to compare with those prices.

In GameShop, Fallout 3 is priced at S$57 while the GOTY edition goes for S$90. The PC version of Mass Effect isn't available there but the PC's ME2 costs S$57. M&B:Warband goes for S$48. Therefore, even when I include the exchange surcharge of 3%, it is still cheaper to buy from Steam.

So, do people seriously still buy discs other than the poor Singaporeans who can't afford broadband access at home?













You know what I just realized after proofreading the above? I've been playing only on PC for so long I have completely ignored the consoles. I guess people still buy game discs for consoles.














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