The digital download storage hijacking thread

Thrasher

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I am almost moved to my new Win 7 laptop (yes, Win 8 is off the table). I had a huge number of games to delete off my old laptop.

What do people do with all their digital game downloads? I must have had around 200GB to transfer. Very slow process.
 
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What do people do with all their digital game downloads? I must have had around 200GB to transfer. Very slow process.

Why would you transfer them? It would probably be quicker to just delete them and redownload the ones you want installed right now.
 
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It takes too long to download, plus I don't trust the distributors to stay in business forever. That said, some services don't allow you to archive your downloads (e.g. Steam and Oralgyn). A lot of potential to be screwed there...
 
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I don't see any of the major digital stores ever going out of business entirely. They tend to simply change ownership, i.e. Direct2Drive-Gamefly. If you're that paranoid though, I'd suggest buying a large-capacity external drive to back your games up rather than keeping them on your laptop.

There's no way I'd ever be able to keep my digital library stored at home, and it wouldn't make sense to do so anyways. I'd end up spending more $ on storage than on the games themselves.
 
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I am almost moved to my new Win 7 laptop (yes, Win 8 is off the table). I had a huge number of games to delete off my old laptop.

What do people do with all their digital game downloads? I must have had around 200GB to transfer. Very slow process.
You got the same problem I did a while ago…

1TB external HDDs are cheap. We have to thank to SSD mass production for that.
I bought one a year ago (when they weren't *that* cheap) and now I can backup anything in a minute or two. Or restore when I want to replay a game. Steam has a great backup/restore feature, GOG has no DRM so you can backup the installer you've downloaded - that's probably the reason I'm purchasing games on those two sites most of the time.

One thing, make sure you buy USB 3.0 external drive - it's about 10 times faster than USB2.0 ones!

The beauty of it is you can backup and restore things fast and in the case of HDD malfunction you always have a slower backup in the form of Steam/GOG download. :)
Not only that, HDD in your machine can be a "small" one or 240 Gb SSD - as you can practically keep it clean all the time.
 
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Good idea Joxer. Didn't know about Steam backup. This industry is too young to make any long term predictions, so I'd rather be safe than sorry about money wasted.
 
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Just rightclick on the game in Steam client (library) and then choose the option "backup game files".
It's a life saver I tellya, a few months ago I've replayed Deus Ex:HR, as restoring the backup was quick. If I had to redownload it… Dunno, I'd probably choose not to replay it (yet).
 
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I do this: I don't really care.

I care about the games I want to play - and my experience is that there's almost always easy access to old titles, if I somehow end up losing access to them - which is very rare. With services like Steam - which most likely won't go away - you could always rebuy whatever ancient crap you lost for less money than your time spent obsessing over how to store it would be worth.

I appreciate people who're paranoid and obsessive about losing their games, though, because they're the kind of people who make sure they're available around the net in some form or another - when years have gone by :)

In any case, if some DD went down and I lost access to some of my titles, I'd have no qualms about pirating them - as I already paid for them. Not that I have qualms about piracy in general - I just prefer to pay for what I enjoy.
 
Yes dartagnan, but odd thing you're posting it as everyone knows it already, you'd instantly give $563786578635782346 for iPad midi or maxi, but no way you'd toss a few bucks for a backup device.
 
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Yes dartagnan, but odd thing you're posting it as everyone knows it already, you'd instantly give $563786578635782346 for iPad midi or maxi, but no way you'd toss a few bucks for a backup device.

Sounds as sane as always :)

I wouldn't mind paying for a backup service if I had the need for one. Point was that I don't.
 
Good for you.
And my point was that I don't need iPad, and even if I did, I'd find a cheaper solution just as one I suggested to the person who can use a backup.
 
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Good for you.
And my point was that I don't need iPad, and even if I did, I'd find a cheaper solution just as one I suggested to the person who can use a backup.

I'm not sure why you think these comments are relevant. I wasn't speaking to you - and your interest in iPads are hardly relevant to the talk at hand. The exchange was about possible ways to deal with digital game downloads - and I offered my perspective - just as you did.

If you want to rant on about your fantasy iPad fetish - find a more appropriate thread :)

Not that I expect anything rational or reality-based from you, but still ;)
 
Sorry pal, I'm not gonna suck up to anyone just to hear that my posts are rational or reality-based.

See… You're hardly an authority, charismatic or professional, who can be always (or most of the time) right by posting critics: "this is rational and this ain't".

:D
 
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It turns out the when D2D transitioned to GameFly, some titles were not transferred over. So these purchases were effectively lost by GameFly.

Also, as mentioned by Joxer, those of us with limited bandwidth find it very inconvenient to download something again even if it is available. Hell, downloading and installing ME2 and ME3 took days. Something I'd rather not have to do again…

If one considers their games disposable, I can see why one wouldn't be worried about archiving them.
 
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Yah, I had a bunch of titles on D2D as well. Never really bothered to check if everything got transferred, though. Sometimes, I accidentally buy a game that I already own - because I've forgotten about it.

I can appreciate the limited bandwidth argument. I've just moved to a new house myself, and my new connection is shit compared to the old one.

So, for that reason - I think backing up makes sense - if you tend to replay certain games or whatever. But I find that after a few years, games start needing massive patching, dlc or mods (I like the full experience when I play something) - and you end up having to download a bunch of stuff anyway. It's not like the old days where games had a set and static footprint and you could always rely on your backup to represent the "total" experience.

I guess I've just accepted that nothing is forever - my time is limited - and I can never really find the opportunity to put much of a dent in my backlog. Worrying about old games and how to store them is just a huge waste of anxiety :)
 
Regarding patches and mods, most of those are small compared to the large main game downloads. And most DLC are relatively small too. However, the ME2/3 DLCs are outrageously large. It must be because of all the cutscenes and dialog. Most games aren't like that (thank goodness). It really depends.

Sometimes I have nostalgia for playing games again, but mostly it's about the principle of having what I paid for and not just throwing it out when I'm likely done. Should be able to resell these downloads, but that's a separate issue…
 
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Hmm sometimes I have nostalgia for playing games again, but mostly it's about the principle of having what I paid for and not just throwing it out when I'm likely done. Should be able to resell these downloads, but that's a separate issue…

Well, given my position on our current monetary system - I guess it's no surprise that I don't fret about ownership. I consider ownership meaningless when it comes to intellectual property - but I understand why most people wouldn't.

Personally, I lose interest in almost everything the second I've "consumed" what I want. Which is why I end up giving most of my stuff away to people who enjoy owning things :)
 
Honestly, I rarely replay any games. My backlog it is too big, but it has happened. And I can't forsee the future. But with new game quality sinking, it's more likely I will be replaying older games in the future.
 
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I think quality goes up and down regularly, but a classic now and again is very satisfying. Too bad BG:EE looks like a shitty job - or I'd have been very tempted to go through it again.
 
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