The Importance of Physical Media with Karl Smallwood

[@storyrant]

Karl's Links: WikiWeekends: www.youtube.com/@wikiweekends FactFiend: www.youtube.com/@FactFiend Twitter: twitter.com/KarlSmallwood

[@deathninja16]

i miss the days where youd get off school on a friday and go out to eat dinner with the family and then go to the video store to rent a movie or a video game for the weekend. man those were the days.

[@storyrant]

Agreed. But if you live near a 2nd and Charles, or a CEX (if you're in Europe like Karl is), then you can have something approximating this experience. I wonder if enough of us bitched, we could get them to let us rent videos and games from them?

[@ShinKyuubi]

I was born in the mid 80s and grew up in the 90s...physical media is KING to me when it comes to media like movies, video games, comics, novels, and ttrpgs or other tabletop games. There used to be a little mom and pop kind of place in either direction from my house, one also did VCR repairs...I'm old enough to remember the days of having a dedicated device for rewinding VHS tapes so you could watch another one in the VCR right away...my family had two cause my mom had a TV in her room and we had one in the living room as well. Blockbusters was all the way in town, we lived, and I still live, in a more rural area so going into town for a movie rental from the big chain and getting Pizza Hut was a big thing. I prefer to actually own my media rather than have someone be able to yank it away with no refunds or anything like Sony has been seen to do lately with the Discovery thing and the current Funimation and Crunchyroll disaster. Also the fact that not everywhere has high speed internet with high or no data caps is still a thing...I'm rocking DSL and I'm in a low priority area to lay down physical fiberwire service. When you grow up in an age and time where physical media was the only choice and you could see the possible pitfalls of 'all digital'...it puts a spin on things that makes me desire physical even more. Hell look at Disney+, they put a LOT of things exclusively on there and if you didn't have it? No Wandavision, Loki, or Mandalorian for you....until now when they have been forced to put those kinds of series on physical release as Disney+ isn't raking in the money they thought it was....they were banking on it pulling in enough money and customers to near completely get rid of their physical media sells going forward.

[@storyrant]

Right, something we neglected to mention, though it is something often mentioned in connection to Sony and Microsoft's desires to go all digital with their next generation consoles. It's not only shitty to neglect more rural areas, but also super short sighted, because physical media has been such a massive driver for revenue in the past for most media formats.

[@ShinKyuubi]

@@storyrant There's also the fact they still charge you the same for a fully digital purchase as a physical purchase...in a future where AAA games are $70+ for STANDARD EDITION, that's a really cruddy move if they want to go all digital.

[@storyrant]

Yeah, that's absolute crap. You don't even get special features or commentary stuff with digital movies. For games, I always wait until GoG has it discounted, since I hate DRM.

[@ShinKyuubi]

@@storyrant Yep, and to me, stuff like that is why physical is king to me, I only get digital only games on my Switch and only if there's no other choice, since the ones I get usually have a smaller data size I can work around unlike a PS4 game. I can't even DO streaming at all thanks to my data cap.

[@hand13932]

karl smallwood? like, the dude who wrote those really snarky books? i remember reading his work years and years ago. good time

[@hand13932]

7 legged spider and all that

[@storyrant]

He wrote for TopTenz and Today I Found out for years, and was the channel owner of Fact Fiend for the last 7 or so. He now hosts TopTenz, Geographics, Biographics, and Wikiweekends. :)

[@storyrant]

I don't know if he's published any books, but I do know that he is working on one.

[@shockwave75]

Physical media is important. I realize how dumb what I'm about to write will seem, but binging my huge box set of The Walking Dead last summer got me thinking, that after "the zombies come", large physical media collections, like mine, and many others would be integral to rebuilding society. Not just movies and TV shows, but actual books, comics, magazines, and even video games would be huge in getting back some of what was lost. I heard someone once say, we're not just collectors, we're archivists. Like you guys touched on, there are things in my collection that don't, and will never exist on any streaming platform, for various reasons. But I have them, so they will continue to exist. Also, these companies are being very short sighted in either getting rid of phyiscak media, or just putting out basically bare bones editions, because sales are down. What theyre failing to realize and capitalize on, is that the people who are still invested in physical media will PAY for disks packed with bloopers, cut scenes, commentaries, and even premium packaging.

[@Footlong-zf4tg]

Where i live the "fastest internet speed" available is 2mbps, now days you would think most 3rd world countries have at least 6 mbps from satalight resources. I live in the USA, it takes me on average a week to download a game, physical media is a must. And that isn't even including access.

[@storyrant]

That's a great fucken point! I think eventually, companies will have to realize they're leaving money on the table by ignoring the demand for physical copies of games. But for movies, it's like shooting yourself in the foot, since streaming (unless ad supported tiers somehow miraculously make up for the lost revenue that DVD and Blueray sales took up) isn't profitable at all.

[@BigGahmBoss]

This is such a great conversation. Very close to my heart. I have a huge physical collection

[@storyrant]

Right? What's your pride and joy?

[@BigGahmBoss]

@storyrant I have a few. This would include my copy of Secret of Evermore for the SNES. That's a game that's near and dear to my heart. As is my original vhs copy of Mac & Me. Both of those I've had since childhood. For a more recent thing is my bluray copy of Dogma. I bought it before the me 2 movement when it was still regularly available. Harvey Weinstein retained the rights to the movie and is holding it hostage from Kevin Smith, so now is a collector's item

[@storyrant]

Secret of Evermore, I must confess, I've never beaten it. lol I have played it on emulator though.

[@BigGahmBoss]

@storyrant I genuinely like it more than the Mana games. Sure, nostalgia plays a part. But also the main character is a fan of bad B movies and quotes them all the time. It speaks to me on such a personal level lol

[@storyrant]

I'll have to try to do a full playthrough sometime. I think I have it on my modded Wii.

[@DblBarrelShogun]

To this day I still occasionally get Suikoden out and play it on my old PS2 so i definitely relate to the desire for old media

[@storyrant]

Someday I'm gonna build an insulated shed in my backyard so I can put in a classic gaming hub or something, complete with a CRT TV and my SNES, Genesis, and Gamecube.

[@halcyonways1476]

@48:18 😆😅🤣😂 Exactly

[@dogbert32]

Needs more cat cam!

[@storyrant]

Will have to add one whenever we end up getting the house properly sorted (just moved).

[@BigGahmBoss]

Mega Man 7 has one of the worst Wiley fights lol

[@storyrant]

You spelled best wrong. :P It is hard though. I was sweating bullets when I first beat him.

[@BigGahmBoss]

@storyrant I'm fairly certain that it's 7 I'm thinking of, not 8. Willey moved way too fast and even knowing the powers he was weak to didn't make it any easier

[@storyrant]

I remember using the Rush armor to dodge his attacks. They're not easy to dodge by any stretch, but it's not impossible. I find Wily Capsule 7 to be one of the most memorable final bosses, up there with Sigma from X1, and that ending animation and banger chip tune in the credits for 7 will always live rent free in my braincase.

[@BigGahmBoss]

@storyrant I'll have to replay it. There are a lot of MM games I only beat once, 7 & 8 among them. 3 & 6 are my favorites in the og series. 1 & 8 my favorites in the X series

[@storyrant]

You should replay X2 and X3 (with the Zero Project patch that fixes so many issues with it) and X4. Those are the best ones in that series. X8 is getting the demake treatment and there's a demo. Just search for Megaman X8 demake. It's awesome so far.