Digital vs physical media which do you prefer?

[Randomthoughts]

Physical game media is really the way to go. It still chaps my butt to this day that Wizards' claim that 4e online resources would be available to purchasers 'forever' only lasted until the next version was released. I was one of the suckers that bought into that.

I was talking about pdfs mainly, not cloud services. I expect those to be secure.

I didn’t expect the 4e tools to last forever tbh. Once you subbed, you had access to everything; didn’t think that would be in perpetuity. I paid it mainly for the tools themselves (used chargen and monster builder extensively) and convenience.

 

[trappedslider]

But having them broken up by functionality like "portable document" vs. "app" could be useful.

Then we get into "how portable?" The complete C&H collection (hardback) is technically portable.... while saying digital vs non-digital gets the point across quickly and suffices for this poll.

 

[Osgood]

I picked Mix, because I'm all over the place.

When it comes to D&D, anymore I go digital only adventures, but physical and digital for rulebooks (and to be honest, I rarely refer to the physical books, i just find D&D Beyond to be very convenient to use at the table and for prep). I'm about 50/50 on other books, I like reading a hardback, but reading from my iPad is very convenient--we have so many bookshelves full to the brim that my wife gets pissed if I show up with a stack of books without donating a similar amount.

I've been pretty much all digital with music for probably 15-20 years (but I actually buy the music rather than rely on a subscription), but I've only stopped buying blue rays in the past 4 or 5 years (and even then I'll sometimes pick one up). I don't play a ton of video games, but I've got a PS5 and a Switch, all but a handful of PS5 games I get digitally, but for the Switch I do everything physical (the cartridges are so tiny and I have a little case for them).

 

[Thomas Shey]

I should also note that other than Kindle books (where it can be done but is a nuisance), I also have offline backups for everything I buy digitally. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader how I do this in some cases.

 

[schneeland]

I selected digital because most of my purchases are PDFs these days. I do occasionally get physical books, too. However, that's more for collecting than reading or actual play.
Also, as others have already mentioned, the fact that these digital books are something I own, and that they come in a standardized format which can be viewed by multiple applications and on multiple platforms, is a major factor in my choice. I am rather reluctant to buy something that's locked into a specific platform and more license than ownership.

 

[Rabulias]

I voted for mix. I do still get a few books in physical format, but I am far more digital today for many reasons -- space, searchability, and zooming in to help aging eyes, etc. As I now play almost 100% online, digital also makes it easier for me to copy and paste stuff over into a virtual tabletop.

And to clarify about digital, I don't want a dedicated app required for anything. I much prefer PDFs -- my brain still thinks of RPG supplements as books, and I grok them better when they are organized as such. D&D Beyond kind of gets there with the linked Table of Contents, but I would still rather have PDFs.

 

[Blue]

Then we get into "how portable?" The complete C&H collection (hardback) is technically portable.... while saying digital vs non-digital gets the point across quickly and suffices for this poll.

Hmm, let's see:

First, set up a strawman since the point as "portable" had never been applied to the physical media. Or at very least obfuscate the point.

Second, handwave the entire point that digital vs. non-digital suffices by just... stating it does without supporting evidence and in the face that it does not for at least one poster. EDIT: Reading others comments, multiple posters are making similar distinctions in what they want digitally.

I don't feel like going any further here will be productive.

 

[delericho]

Mostly digital.

For movies, music, and like, I'm now almost exclusively digital. I don't personally have an issue with subscribing to a library of materials (Netflix, Disney+, etc), and if things come in and out of the library then that's fine - as long as the library itself is worth the money, I'll pay.

But if I'm buying a specific item (film, song, whatever), then I expect to own it. So I own exactly one digital film from Amazon, and that was a mistake.

For gaming materials, my preference is PDF, specifically. Other digital formats may arguably be better, and obviously a subscription to a library (as 4e offered) is certainly attractive... except that the nature of my current gaming means I can't use them. Also, following what happened with the classic TSR PDFs back in the day, these days I don't trust DM's Guild or its equivalents to store them for me - I download on purchase, and keep them multiply backed up alongside all my other files.

 

[bloodtide]

Physical. Digital just does not cut it for real life.

Sure if I'm at home, near home, on the grid, have internet access and electricity access....digital is ok. But that is a lot to make digital just ok.

Once you leave home, your devices start to run out of power....even more so when you use them. And even when your on the urban grid you can't always find a place to plug in. The same is true of internet access.

Books I can toss around and not care much about. I can go to a public place like the pool and just toss it by my chair. Even if someone steals that book I'm only out like the $10 it cost (or more like $2 at Half Priced Books). And the same is true for travel, I don't worry at all about a book I take. But devices have to be kept close and worried about.

And there are times that the internet is lost or unavailable.

And so so so many things are not even available digitally.

And depending where you store it...."They" can always change digital content to make it more politically correct or worse. And you don't get a choice..."your" content gets changed. Just look at software.....

And it's already bad enough Goggle hides things they don't like, things the Overlords tell them to hide or most of all things they are paid to hide. And tons of other sites do this too. So store some digital content somewhere....then go to access it and just get a blank screen of "not available". Because they say so.

Oh, and them using and selling all that data. Watch one Civil War Documentary....and "suddenly" your adds across the 'net are filled with Civil War Ads. Wow, amazing, how did they know I had an interest in the Civil War....hummm.

 

[jdrakeh]

If you think that your offline music is safe, you might want to consult with all of the people who had rare tracks overwritten by Apple. I have friends who lost rare digital tracks when iTunes decided, in its infinite digital wisdom, to swap them out for the standard broadcast versions of the same songs, a few years back. This was done without warning and once gone, the originals were irretrievable.

That's their fault for using iTunes, frankly. This is an iTunes problem, not a digital media problem. It has been, almost since its inception, an inferior way to buy and catalog music. I buy actual MP3 or FLAC files from artists, store them wholly offline, and play them using a firewalled media player. My music's not going anywhere.