EA has already been pushing their subscription model with their sports games. They generally take the game off the servers after a few years. Some of the games required online connections to properly play and are rendered unplayable.

EA is probably the worst dev for being anti consumer rights. They can do it because they are so big. I wish somehow, some way that their big franchises could be wrestled from their grips and we could have open competition for sports games again.

This new subscription issue will only make things worse IMO but time will tell.

My problem with disposable games is that it's just not in my personality to think of them as temporary. I've seen it posted, "Who cares if activation for game x is no longer supported? It's so old anyway...time to move on."

My old movies, music, games, and even my women (lol) continue to give me much enjoyment. When I *really* like something, I never become bored with it...ever! This personality flaw keeps me from wanting to try new games with strings attached that can potentially make them unplayable in the future (if decades later). But that's been the case for years now.

No problem for me, as I saw the handwriting on the wall years ago and personally disposed of EA completely.

They have NOTHING I need or am interested in.

Same for Ubi and all others like them.

Real life offers some great diversions and, sometimes it even delivers REAL rewards...try it sometime.

I do enjoy some gaming. It's a diversion, not a life and, I do NOT enjoy being played the fool by corporate, cookie counting, space fillers.

Luckily, all this drivel affects my life not at all.

Myself and others here told you all this crap was coming many YEARS ago.

moooooooooooooooom, granpa is not taking his meds again !

LOL

I am a very happy 67 years old and am on ZERO prescription medication.

My new doctor was quite amazed, says nobody my age isn't medicated.

What's your excuse M8?

Nixer. You're inspirational, man.

I think the easiest way you can draw the distinction with "ownership" is that the consumer owns only the actual physical media that the intellectual property resides in. So you own the plastic disc known as the CD/DVD but that's it.

LOL, PM. I don't think anyone has ever had delusions that they actually own the rights to the contents of what's on those cheap plastic discs

But to say that all you own is cheap plastic discs is silly (if I understood you correctly). Someone stealing your brand new spindle of 100 blank CDs or DVDs is not going to incite the same emotional response as someone stealing 100 of your store bought CDs or DVDs, right?

The real measure of ownership to me is if a third party can, on a whim, keep me from enjoying my media. And if I can will my stuff to someone.

Ok, I get your point now and I agree!


This problem also exists for those people who rely entirely on streaming services for their movies and tv shows since the streaming service can and often does drop content from their site.

Thinking specifically of music...

Observations of my nieces and nephews, and now their children, it makes sense to me for young people to stream music, especially if they haven't invested in a comprehensive "record collection."

I'm too old (51) and set in my ways to even think about streaming music when I have almost everything I'd ever want to listen to on CDs (burned to lossless -> MP3). This is especially the case now with my hearing issues (with frequency range, not volume...as in "That sounds flat" vs. "What? what?"). I may never hear music as I once did (although hearing improved, but not much) and I think my brain sometimes fills in the missing notes from memory as I've listened to the same music for decades. No desire at all to expand my horizons with anything new (what streaming would give me) because I won't hear and enjoy it the way I should anyway.

My case may be rare, but I see now why an older person may seem inflexible sometimes and want to stick with what they're comfortable with.

People like you and me and I would also say most of us on SimHQ are in the far minority now when it comes to how music is consumed. The overwhelming majority of the mainstream consumer market now streams music exclusively because of the convenience factor (you can play it on your phone and tablet wherever you are) and also because people simply prefer to listen to the individual songs they like instead of listening to whole albums. I need to dig up the article but I recently read a report on the music industry which stated that about 70% of the revenue for the music recording industry now comes from streaming.

you dont even own the cds, they are patented and the name CD is trademarked. lol that is why its always written on labels. i dont know the legal mumbo jumbo on itunes and the like, but all my cds had a small print saying basically that only i and i alone can consume the contents of the disc....so if you put the cd on your car and someone next to you hear the song ? ILLEGAL.
good luck going after that though.

I don't know the letter of the law but I do know that your CDs are your property, at least the law sees it that way (if they're ever stolen and there's a chance of getting your property back).

For that matter, do you really own property if you're still paying a mortgage? And even if you're not, if you stop paying taxes it'll be taken away from you so do you really own it?

Some states dont have property tax.

It's a very tiny minority though. I believe it's only 5.

truth is the only thing you own is food because they can't take it back after you consume it (untill they get serious about recycling fertilizing,then your poop will belong to state). You buy a property but in reality it is only leased to you by the state, and they can claim it back, if they ever need for urban reconstruction etc. The lands the state provide you belong to federal, wich can also claim it back from states if they need it.

My father suffered a compulsory purchase order on his business as the local govt. wanted his land for putting in a new road, we lived with the threat of that for many years and finally in 1972 the local govt. dropped the hammer and we had to sell up. It put my family out of work along with another 15 employees, but with the money offered we, as a family, looked at buying a hotel and we found one in Tain:

Mansfield House Hotel (Now known as Mansfield Castle Hotel)


My father and the owner had struck a deal and agreed on a price, then the local Govt. backed down on coughing up the money they had agreed to pay my father and delayed it for over a year which meant that we could not buy that hotel. So the search went on and finally we got a hotel a bit further north in Wick which we went on to purchase.

Queens Hotel


For more than 30 years the site of where my father's garage was lay vacant and unused finally a few years ago the local Govt. sold off parcels of the land to build private houses

sorry to hear about that, but yes the governament, always quick to claim, to take it sweet time to pay you.