askgaming

Someone made a physical tag to launch their digital games

actually accurate headline

Possibly an unpopular opinion here, but I actually prefer digital games for convenience of use. I like switching between games all the time, and it is much faster with digital.

Using tags would be inconvenient for my play style.

Hmm… I never really saw digital media as an issue. Problem is the lack of ownership that comes with it.

If the choice is between the GOG installer or the GOG installer on a desk, I'm taking the GOG installer every time, TBH.

I can copy it and back it up without using up much resources or space IRL, unlike physical media, so I don't see any downside to it.

The tags only launch the game? They do not contain the game? So it is not actually physical media then is it?

Not only is this cumbersome, it feels really... commercial and antithetical to the point of physical media.

Digital only media is a problem because your ownership of something you paid for is tied to a service that may or may not exist in the future, just to name one issue.

This is just adopting an aesthetic of physical media without addressing any of the problems of digital media while also making that media more tedious to access. It's not actually physical media at all. It's just digital media with extra steps and a bauble to purchase too.

It was a bit hipster+nostalgia fun some 10 years ago (my friends made a shooter game on cartridge 2-3 y ago but it felt like too late. They had fun doing it so there's that).

My drop off old physical media was when I realised a CD holds like 12-20 songs. I can put 1000 onto a tiny 20€ usb stick. It's just too much hassle, IMO ofcoure.

Edit: played around with a rpi + camera as a jukebox with small QR code paper squares, disc photo on one side, qr code on the other, show it and the music plays. Fun to do but just not practical.