Phil doing what Don couldn't
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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You're absolutely right. All these people shouting about "back in my day we owned games!" are forgetting that games have to be manufactured. Is all that plastic and pollution worth having a plastic rectangle with a different plastic circle in it? At the end of the day once you've played the game that's it, it's yours. Your experience is unique and it can't be taken away, don't cling to manufactured waste when what you cherish are the memories.
Honestly if you're making the environmental argument then you also have to factor in all the electricity, rare earth metals, fossil fuels etc. used to serve games over the internet - data centres aren't exactly eco-friendly places, and running a worldwide network of fibre optic / copper cables takes a fair chunk of resources.
Electricity can be generated sustainably. Rare earth metals can be recycled. We are working on alternatives to fossil fuels. Environmental issues aren't a zero sum game. You don't "Lose" just because something else also pollutes. It's an issue that is worked on systematically. Could it be a lot faster? Yes of course. But we work with what we have.
Data centers are also multi-use. You don't build a data center just to house your game. You pay for the space in one that already exists. A company can choose to make software available on a platform that is open to a large portion of the world, or it can spend cash and resources shipping boxes of plastic all over the world. The pollution and waste generated by shipping something across an ocean massive. Do you really want to put all that into the air so you can have the plastic circle?