I should be able to host my own WoW server on my LAN, play CoD split-screen on my TV, or run my own Battlefield tournament on my own LAN.
Using the internet as an option for multiplayer or other optional features of games is fine, but there is absolutely no reason why a video game should ever require an internet connection.
People deciding that it is somehow acceptable to require an internet connection to play a game is a big part of the reason why we have DLC, buggy releases, microtransaction riddled games, and shitty, invasive DRM.
If you have ever been involved in the creation of games that require an internet connection then I hope your asshole itches until the day you die.
Edit: if the game is only available through digital distribution then an internet connection is a requirement to play the game because you have to be able to obtain the game to play it.
Back in the day releasing a buggy game was costly because it meant you would have provide the option to your users to receive updates by mail or in stores. DLC (or expansion packs) would have to be meaningful, because it would mean having to press new discs or make new cartridges in order to provide that content to your users and it wasn’t worthwhile for the users to buy if it wasn’t substantial. Loot boxes and other microtransactions wouldn’t really be a thing because you would have no guarantee that anyone would be willing to buy them because they would have to be provided by mail or in stores on some sort of physical media.
DRM would consist of needing to have a disc in the drive and maybe having to verify that you had a unique activation key by verifying a cryptographic hash against a public key on the disc.
All of this made for better games because the games had to be worth the hassle of going to the store to buy them or waiting for them to be delivered in the mail.
If the internet connection isn’t required after downloading, I don’t see the issue. Nobody wants go back to CDs (or what ever games come on these days).
I absolutely want to go back to physical media. Preferably some sort of non-proprietary medium, like CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, or a USB connected flash storage device.
Blu-Ray is very proprietary and DVD-Video requires licensing. Some games also have on disc DRM which imo is still akin to making it a proprietary medium.
You can own software without needing to use dated distribution methods. Look at GOG. You can download and keep your games in any way you want forever. And you don’t have to deal with annoying formats or media that’s hard to back up.
Blu-ray is proprietary in the sense that companies have to pay a licensing fee to put the blu-ray stamp on their disc and officially claim to be a blu-ray, but is otherwise an open standard. DVD and CD are both the same way.
As for on-disc DRM, as long as it never touches the network, it doesn’t bother me that much. It’s still less than ideal, but it’s less of a problem when compared to online DRM.
As for GoG, I applaud their stance towards providing DRM free games, however they are still a digital distribution platform, and suggesting them as an alternative to physical media misses the point of the original post as an internet connection is still required to obtain the game.
It also ignores platforms other than PC.
If you want to be able to buy the game physically then sure it would be nice. But as someone who works in the games industry, I can say that you’d be alienating a gigantic chunk of the games industry especially the indie scene. Physical game distribution is really expensive, ethically dubious, and actually acts more as a marketing tool than a means to make sales.
I work for a pretty big studio where I am and we can’t afford to do conventional physical distribution. The last studio I worked at only could do it because our publisher had connections.
But that doesn’t have to be the nail in the coffin. You have access to the internet. You can make your own physical media by purchasing drm free games and storing it in something quality. if you can’t for a specific game then you should vote with your wallet. It’ll eventually come to gog or something.
Just buy a harddrive.
Why? I have more than enough storage already. That isn’t the point of wanting physical media.
When you’re able to install off of physical media you have a builtin backup, you have something you can loan to friends, something you can sell when you’re done with it, and something that can’t be taken from you just because a company went under or lost a publishing license.
Also, at least in the time prior to the prominence of digital distribution you had some assurance that the game would at least function because the company making the game knew they wouldn’t be able to just push a day-one update.
All of that can be achieved with an external HDD at a better convenience. I wouldn’t want my games to ship even on a usb flash drive, I already have enough of those.
Sure, if you exclusively game on PC and exclusively buy DRM free titles, you can achieve all of that with an external HDD. I’ll give you that.