The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Mad_Jack]

Woke up this morning and wanted this for breakfast (stupid week days)
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I'll split it with you - I'll eat the three things I can identify, and you can have the rest...

ALSO? WHERE IS THE PIZZA BUTT? ASKING FOR A FRIEND.

A lot of people around here used to refer to the uneaten piece of crust left over after consuming all the sauce-covered areas as "pizza bones"...
Later, that term came to be used to refer to the breadsticks covered in sauce, cheese and occasionally toppings that a friend of mine used to make.

That's the general worry I have with live services in general. If you buy something (it doesn't even have to be physical, but just having the files that you can access without some online authentication), it's yours forever. With live services, even though you pay the full price for everything, the whole thing could disappear if the company shuts down the service. Even in most online game stores like Epic Games Store, I believe the courts ruled that you don't technically own the game separate from the services - which means if Epic Games goes down, my massive library with hundreds of dollars of games in it would go bye-bye (Steam might be an exception to this, though not of their own volition - I found a 2019 French court decision that declared that the users own the full rights to their Steam games including resale).

Since we already saw 4E's digital tools disappear into the void with the arrival of 5E, I'm worried a similar thing will inevitably happen for D&D Beyond and D&D Digital. But the entire world's going the way of live services so not much to do there...

That's my general stance on most digital media as well... Anytime I buy a game like Skyrim on Steam or a digital copy of a movie or something similar, I always try to get a physical copy of it as well.

 

[payn]

I don't know that you need to have such evidence, when we're talking about a company that has already done it. I don't know about you, but I follow the Scotty Edict: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Its true, like one of the few example (of course its D&D lol).

 

[payn]

Kind of?

I love digital! Don't get me wrong. Right now ... you can access more STUFF than ever before.

But we also don't have a great track record with digital media. There are a lot of issues- with rights holders being able to control what we access. With different storefront or companies disappearing or going out of business (so all the "stuff" you purchased is no longer accessible ... unless you buy it again). With an unproven track record of durability ... I mean, say what you will about books and the inability for everyone to get hold of what they want, but we also know that they have lasted a while.

I understand the concerns.

I really cant think of a time I lost my stuff and couldn't get it back. Not with music, movies, games, books, etc.. The 4E example is a good one, but I wasn't part of it, so I forget about it.

 

[Ondath]

I guess it would. What evidence do we have, however, that this is a regular occurrence? Does it seem like Epic and Steam are floundering and ready to close shop? Will HBO/Netflix/Prime just go out of business and stop streaming?

Well, right now HBO Max just removed tons of cartoons from its library because WarnerDiscovery thinks streaming will net them a loss, and they're not sharing that content with anyone else (including physical releases) to avoid paying the people who worked in those shows any money: I believe Close Enough is an example that you can no longer get in any way in the US (it's currently on Netflix in my country luckily, but if I were in the US I'd be very pissed because I really like that show). I became aware of this when Matt Mercer RT'd some show creators expressing their frustration at this weird decision. IIRC, they removed around 33 shows, and like I said, no legal way to watch them now.

Similarly, the Marvel TV series Netflix produced itself can no longer be watched there, even though they were literally produced by them. You have to buy Disney+ for them now.

Whereas if these shows were available as physical releases (or if we had rights to watch them outside the fleeting offerings of the streaming service), no amount of company mergers and weird decisions by CEOs would take those shows away from your collection.

 

[Cadence]

I wish there was some license or something that would let folks write and publish their own version of D&D if they know what the rules should be. That would be great.

 

[payn]

Well, right now HBO Max just removed tons of cartoons from its library because WarnerDiscovery thinks streaming will net them a loss, and they're not sharing that content with anyone else (including physical releases) to avoid paying the people who worked in those shows any money: I believe Close Enough is an example that you can no longer get in any way in the US (it's currently on Netflix in my country luckily, but if I were in the US I'd be very pissed because I really like that show). Similarly, the Marvel TV series Netflix produced itself can no longer be watched there, even though they were literally produced by them. You have to buy Disney+ for them now.

Whereas if these shows were available as physical releases (or if we had rights to watch them outside the fleeting offerings of the streaming service), no amount of company mergers and weird decisions by CEOs would take those shows away from your collection.

I thought Netflix just paid for the rights, but ABC actually produced the Marvel TV series? I mean, thats just coming home to roost. Paramount screwed the pooch on Yellowstone, but the second they can get it back they will. It sucks have to juggle subs, but honestly, this stuff is pretty affordable to dance around for what you like.

I guess im just not worried. The cartoons and 4E digital tools never landed on my radar. I am happy to be rid of all the junk clogging up my home. I say this as someone who has hundreds of vinyl records and a digital music service. Whats important to you, you get physical. Though, digital offerings are plentiful and cheap.

 

[Cadence]

Another thread discussing idyllic. I guess different folks mean different things by it, because the picture that just came across my Twitter feed is way to crowded for that descriptor!

 

[Cadence]

Well, right now HBO Max just removed tons of cartoons from its library because WarnerDiscovery thinks streaming will net them a loss, and they're not sharing that content with anyone else (including physical releases) to avoid paying the people who worked in those shows any money: I believe Close Enough is an example that you can no longer get in any way in the US (it's currently on Netflix in my country luckily, but if I were in the US I'd be very pissed because I really like that show). I became aware of this when Matt Mercer RT'd some show creators expressing their frustration at this weird decision. IIRC, they removed around 33 shows, and like I said, no legal way to watch them now.

Similarly, the Marvel TV series Netflix produced itself can no longer be watched there, even though they were literally produced by them. You have to buy Disney+ for them now.

Whereas if these shows were available as physical releases (or if we had rights to watch them outside the fleeting offerings of the streaming service), no amount of company mergers and weird decisions by CEOs would take those shows away from your collection.

Do HBOMax and the like promise certain particular content, or just a general promise that they'll have cool stuff?

 

[Ondath]

I thought Netflix just paid for the rights, but ABC actually produced the Marvel TV series? I mean, thats just coming home to roost. Paramount screwed the pooch on Yellowstone, but the second they can get it back they will. It sucks have to juggle subs, but honestly, this stuff is pretty affordable to dance around for what you like.

I guess im just not worried. The cartoons and 4E digital tools never landed on my radar. I am happy to be rid of all the junk clogging up my home. I say this as someone who has hundreds of vinyl records and a digital music service. Whats important to you, you get physical. Though, digital offerings are plentiful and cheap.

I mean, I'm not saying that digital services ruin everything either. I'm subscribed to multiple of them, and the scale of content that they provide is only something you can get with such a service. So I agree that they're plentiful and cheap.

But I also appreciate keeping the important things in a personal archive and I feel like people who grew up in the post-Netflix world don't really have that reflex. I think both personal ownership and digital services are really wonderful if they coexist, but live services seem to be supplanting personal ownership and that worries me. Right now when there's money to be made, it works, but in a few decades, we might have a digital wasteland where nothing is really available because all the major digital services were shut down and the hundreds of dollars worth of content people "had" in them are gone forever, at least for their personal access.

 

[billd91]

I thought Netflix just paid for the rights, but ABC actually produced the Marvel TV series? I mean, thats just coming home to roost. Paramount screwed the pooch on Yellowstone, but the second they can get it back they will. It sucks have to juggle subs, but honestly, this stuff is pretty affordable to dance around for what you like.

Netflix paying for those rights was a bit more than licensing an already-made show or movie for streaming. It was more like bring a substantial amount of the budget for the production of the show. They just had size that budget bid based on how well they thought they could make a return on that investment for the duration of the license.