This is more of a general rant, but it needs to be said. My friends and I have discussed this a lot over the past year or so, and so now, loyal readers, it’s time to bring the discussion to you.
For a long time, I’ve been buying everything digitally. Movies and music are very convenient to own in a digital format.
However, several things have come up recently that have changed my mind, and I now believe that physical media is the way to go. Myself and Lady Skkra have begun buying everything possible in physical formats.
The first concern is, of course, that the company from which you are buying all of these digital items could potentially go away. Now, if you at least download a copy of the thing for yourself, that’s better. Having the MP3s in a DRM-free format on your computer is a solid purchase. But when I buy a movie from Comcast or Amazon, and I do NOT have a digital download for myself… well, what happens if one day Comcast goes away?
A second concern is censorship. Because a small but vocal group of emotionally fragile humans are pieces of shit, their lives full of too much unfulfilling free time, their only source of joy to indulge in recreational outrage – things get removed sometimes. For instance, I’ve been watching classic Simpsons on Disney Plus (fuck Disney by the way) since Disney Plus comes free with my cellphone plan. Well, I realized that they removed the classic Michael Jackson episode. Fuck you, you fucking fucks. You can’t just erase history. Well, if ALL I had was Disney Plus, then yeah, they can.
Luckily, I have the physical DVD versions of all of the good Simpsons seasons. This version DOES contain the Michael Jackson episode, and no one can simply decide to take it away. Multiple TV shows that are only available online have removed episodes or made stupid edits to the originals, and I cannot stand that shit. Buying physical eliminates this problem.
This has also happened with gaming. Mortal Kombat 2011 was and is an absolutely incredible fighting game, and Freddy Kreuger happened to be a DLC character. Well, the licensing agreement with the studio that owns Freddy has run out now, so guess what? If I haven’t already purchased Freddy at this point, I CANNOT buy him anymore. So one of the best characters in the game can no longer be played if you don’t already own him. The solution? Buy the Komplete Edition on physical disc, and they can never remove my ability to play him.
This ends my rant, but over the next few days, we’ll discuss some physical media and the joy of owning it.