Quarantine, the digital game, and don't do what Doug-Don't does.

"Man, I bet this quarantine will result in so many shitty podcasts and blogs coming out that it'll become the next pandemic".

Jokes on you, me from a few weeks ago, I had a shitty podcast and blog before this, so HA.

But almost entirely the joke's on me.


HEY. YOU STUCK AT HOME? BEING BORED? TRYING NOT TO VIRUS? Yeah, me too. LUCKILY!!! It's only been like a few years since I've last posted. HOWEVER. In that time, I ran a website too, and it went horribly. Not by any fault of my own. I was told I was being too negative in my posts by some shitasses that didn't know their ass from their face. I'm not negative. I'm a ray of fucking sunshine. 2REAL. But since that website is now gone, I have a few dozen posts (intelligently saved by me in this blog) that I can repost. SO DON'T WORRY KIDS, YOU'LL HAVE READING MATERIAL.

Looking back on my old posts, I literally post once a year. LIKE A DRUNKEN TEXT FROM YOUR EX I HAVE RETURNED. And I'm bringing critical truths that I plan to yell at you while crying. Just like Brian used to do. (Please insert your applicable Ex's name to make that joke work, thanks for the assist)

There I was kid, hiding in my house from the old Bat flu. I decided one rainy and fateful night to re-do my entire inventory. I'm not trying to brag, but the collection is in the 4 digits world. That's not even a weird flex, that's a desperate plea for help to contain this collecting addition. HAHAHA JUST KIDDING. Totally kidding, this life is great. Hah... I apparently own three versions of L.A. Noire. HOW FUN IS THAT. (OH! I'll have a post about collecting, it originated on the previously mentioned website ruined by previously mentioned shitasses. me? negative???)

So there I was thinking to myself "do I include my digital games?". But digital games can be removed at any time, the publisher can remove them, the parent company, the developers even. Hell, a copyright claim can have the game be removed. Even then, do you technically even own the game? Between free games, Games With Gold, and PSN games, how do you differentiate between "yours" and "yours but really theirs". Here's how I look at it.

1. Games I purchased with money or credits
2. Games I received from subscriptions or annual shit
3. Game Pass or PS Now games
4. Steam Sale bundles

What's technically mine? 

#1- At rough glance, I'd say #1 is a yes. And that I could add those to my inventory. Even though they could be taken away at any time, that's rare. I paid for them, and even though it's digital, some games are only available that way. 

(remind me to tell you the story about the guy who came into my Gamestop and demanded to get a physical copy of WoW. He said he didn't trust a download only game. Even though he's playing WoW. Good job kid. When you get home, don't be surprised when that disc just has some of the install files, but still requires a patch. You get nothing sir!)

#2- Sort of, but no. Even though technically I paid for a service for those, eeehhhhh. You might have a Netflix subscription, but you don't own the Tiger King (YOU HEAR ME CAROL FUCKING BASKINS). I feel like these are a flash in the pan style gaming. Sure you own them, but you didn't directly buy them. Like you didn't get an XBLA or PSN subscription specifically for that one shitty game they gave out. You got it to play COD or Destiny or... what do the kids play nowadays? Newgrounds Games. Yeah, that's why you have that subscription. Alien Hominids.

#3- This one is a hard no from me. Game Pass and PS Now both regularly remove games from their services, but like it's a known thing. And in all actuality, it's a solid move. Xbox said they were removing Just Cause 4 from Game Pass. I immediately panicked because I played it for 10 minutes and hadn't beaten the game yet. But sir, you can buy the game for 20% off before we remove it from Game Pass. DEAL! So I bought it for about $15 more than it cost before it went on Game Pass (insert capitalism joke here, or not). But even then, I didn't own the game until I bought it, I just was borrowing it from Game Pass.

#4- Steam sales? ABSOLUTELY NO. I own Torchlight on the PC like 5 times over, and don't even have a gaming PC. Steam just giving shit away. But also it's PC gaming, so I assume everyone has stolen everything. To hell with you PC Master Race. If you're using an XBox 360 controller to play your PC Steam games on the couch, you have a fancy console. Jokes on you jokers.

(Also, didn't care for the Joker movie. Absolutely no Damien Wayne, no Miles Morales, and no mention of Year Zero. I don't even understand comic movies anymore. How's that an origin story?? But for real, it was meh.)

Number 1 it is! Except.... there's no real physical existence of those games. Hypothetically if friends were over and wanted to see my game collection then.... well no that's stupid. Ok, hypothetically if I had friends and they came over and wanted to see my game collection, they'd review my lists and ask where my copy of Just Cause 4 for the Xbox One is. And I would explain to them that it's a digital only copy. They'd make a face like "cheap bastard can't even afford a physical copy" and I'd tell them to fuck off and get out of my house. I NEVER NEEDED YOU GUYS ANYWAY.

Damn hypothetical friends. Ruining my good mood. (can you believe it, a website shut down over negativity, my negativity? shitasses....).

I think for now, I'll leave my digital copies separate. Besides, when the networks finally go down, it's not like I'll be able to play those digital game anyway. Unless they're already downloaded onto my hard drive. So do I do backup hard drives filled with my digital games? No of course not, that's ridiculous. Much smarter to just buy the physical versions of all my digital games and avoid the whole thing altogether.

All kidding aside, at least I'm not one of those losers who buys cases for their digital games. YOU'RE SITTING ON A THRONE OF LIES BRIAN.