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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: May 28th, 2024

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  • But, they could, anything could happen, and then you don’t have that library anymore. Physical is the only way to truly own.

    That’s exactly my point. Steam has allowed me to OWN Half Life longer than I would have been able to with physical media. Those CDs don’t last that long. I’m not that careful.

    So the balance is “own my own stuff and all the problems that come with keeping it pristine so that it continues to work, taking up space in my house” - or the infinitesimally small chance that STEAM goes belly up. Steam has allowed me to own my games for a lot longer than I could have kept them myself. So the argument of “oh they could go away!” doesn’t really hold any water for me. Especially for games with an online component (which is all of them now) – What’s the use of physical media when the game requires some servers that vanished long ago anyways?

















      • Learning. If you ever found yourself tired of learning new things, your life is basically done.
      • Cost. You already have an internet connection at home. It’s practically a necessity these days. The connection is likely fast enough for most things. Renting even the most piddly of VPS is wildly expensive. Just throw a spare machine at it and go wild.
      • Freedom. Your own data is constantly being collected, regurgitated, and sold back to you. More people need to care about this incessant invasion of our lives.
      • Backups. 3 copies, on different forms of storage, in multiple PHYSICALLY distinct locations. Just when you have that teeny little imp in the back of your mind say “hmm, I should probably back up soon” – stop everything you’re doing and run a backup.
      • Test your recovery! Backups are only good if you can recover from them. Many have lost data because they failed to ever fail-test their backups.
      • Google. Legitimately the best skill you can ever attain is simply being able to search effectively and be able to learn jargon quickly. Once you have the lingo down, searches become clearer, quicker, more precise.