i still remember those days when we used to buy games as phisicaly packaged products and arrange ’em to look great on the shelf of the room , scrupulously protecting the cd/dvd.. from any potential damage . those days are almost gone ever since a meteorological change occured in the atmosphere of IT which is the steady arrival of a huge cloud that wil completely redefine the sens of ownership for the consumer . good thing or bad ? hard to tell for now but i’ll try to give my own insights in this regard .
the centralized dematerialization aspects of the cloud is a quitte practical concept since it delivers better protection to data as well as ubiquitous access-points through Saas (Software as a Service ), it leaves hardware management completely to the cloud material ressources which is just perfect .as a living proof ,dropBox ,that surely made life easier for thousands of people .
the game industry was clearly tempted by the concept , and started offering Games as services , which technicaly allowed a better and continuous maintenance and content emprovement throughout the gaming experience which lengthened the game lifespan , Facebook Games, Xboxlive games;the new generation of gaming tha
t adopts the “ship it quick , perfect it later” rather than ” make it perfect ,ship it once and for all ” .
this major change in the technical architecture led to numerous oportunities such as selling contents of games now known as “virtual goods” and making ’em look apealing to the consumer trough well thoughts game mechanics and social gammification.
the question is how good is that for the consumer ? are companies getting too greedy in selling additional contents to the services.
how does the cloud impact the sens of ownership for the consumer , do we realy have property?
would fanatic collectors go insane for no longer being able to phisicaly cuddle their favorite games? (quitte nerdy i know :p )
open questions will remain for all of us to seek an answer .
but in my own perspective , i think we already stepped in a new era of meta-ownership where hairball-like dependency between services might possibily lead to a single point of failure where everything will cease to work . and that would be the end of technology