It’s the end of January, and a lot has happened since the beginning of the year. We have quite a few projects in the works that we hope to be able to tell you about soon, but we’d like to mention one that has come together very well over the last few weeks The server that manages logins and player interactions has been rebuilt from scratch after going offline during our issues back in October. This brings us back up to the level we were at before everything went wrong. With this server working again, we are able to complete the rebuild of our Alpha test server, and start combining game functions. Thanks once again go out to Jamie “GeeksGoneBad” Cunningham for his stellar work on this and for somehow finding the time to coordinate the addition of dozens of additional costuming elements to the Character Creator.
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
A [url=https://cityoftitans.com/comment/166034#comment-166034]few days ago[/url] I mentioned that getting what amounted to quick "status update tweets" every week or two from MWM would be great and most importantly (for everyone concerned) probably shouldn't require/waste too much additional time and effort to produce. This post is pretty much the type of thing I was talking about. Thanks for the good news! :)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Glad to hear it. Can't wait to get my hands on this madness, even though that's likely to be a while.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
Well...
actually, no. No teases. Things are starting to move along very well but we aren't ready to start making hard promises yet. There are still a lot of elements that have to come together first.
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
Every progress is a good progress. So I am happy to see that everything is going to work out one time :)
Glad to hear that you communicated now in "small" and "quick" notes.
Love you guys! You're doing a great job and we are all as excited as you are!
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Yes, good to hear at least a little bit about whats been going on. Thanks much!
"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle
Thanks very much for the info/note/mini-update.
Glad to hear everything is back on track!
Spurn all ye kindle.
I can make an educated guess, though. You guys were looking to launch by the end of Fall 2018, and since your timetable got pushed back 3 months, that'd set you as likely in mid February to late March.
I was actually commenting on the fact that the character creator will be released to people in waves. I don't expect to be anywhere close to the first wave of players to get it, so I'm liable to only get access to it in a month or three.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
I know they said 3 months but I wouldn't hold them to that, especially after these last few months. Hopefully it's safe to hope, if you arent a KS backer, to get access at any point in 2019.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
Still, it would seem that Soon[sup]tm[/sup] is getting that much closer. And one day Soon[sup]tm[/sup], my roommate will ask, "So, do they have a game yet?" and I'll be able to say, "Yup. Want me to give them your email so you can help test it?"
(One presumes that, at some point in the Alpha-Beta-Base testing cycle, they'll be welcoming in the second persons of the Dynamic Duos.)
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
.
Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Thanks for the update.
Agreed, this update is in line with what I pictured at this stage of the project. It is informative and frames the expectations for the project.
"Just, well, update your kickstarter email addresses, okay? Make sure they're current?" - warcabbit
I tend to read the room as "no news is bad news", so any little "hey guys, we're still moving forward" is extremely welcome :)
[hr]
[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
Much better than that last video you guys posted, it actually tells me about whats going on with our specific project. Thank you.
Puny Heroes.
Is it time to stoke the fires of the hype train again yet?
Thank you for sharing some news with us. It appears that this sort of brief update focused on development status is highly valued by the community at this stage of the project - I like it.
Please continue these "status notes" as a key feature of communicating with us, whether on a regular schedule or as notable events occur.
When communication like this happens, we can do a better job of encouraging / donating / building interest.
+1
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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+11
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Good to hear! I like the status reports too. Helps keep up hope and patience in the community.
I have no choice but to wait patiently--MWM is the only successor making a game I want to play :).
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Thank you. More of this please.
This is reassuring.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Thanks for the update. Like others have said this mall little update is very reassuring and informational.
Hey JW, how long did this take you to make? How many departments had to okay this before you posted? Theres been a lot of discussion around updates exactly like this one and I keep hearing a post like this takes hours away from the devs. Is that true?
Btw, this is a perfect mini-update.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
+1
I don't need and am not asking for tons of progress-report data but some minimal level of feedback would be both greatly appreciated and hopefully low-impact to the Devs.
Thanks for reaching out, this supporter appreciates it!
Yeah! Deadline hell commenceth! Compiling and Debugging and insanity checks abound.
Seriously, glad to hear you back on track.
I'm gonna echo the other statements that small "tweet" style updates are exceedingly welcome.
An infinite number of tries doesn't mean that any one of those tries will succeed. I could flip an infinite number of pennies an infinite number of times and, barring genuine randomness, they will never come up "Waffles".
+1
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
This says exactly what I was thinking. Thank you for saying it exactly right.
I'm happy to hear about the successes that you've achieved! Congratulations and best of luck moving forward.
Having things back on track, even with a delay of months, is very encouraging. Any progress is good.
Perfect post.
[color=red]PR Team, Forum Moderator, Live Response Team[/color]
Thanks for the News it shows that you guys are listening to everyone, Glad to see things Moving alone good now.
Thank you very much for this quick update!
Yeah I am sad every time i look into the forums that i missed the KS. But I'm too curious and excited for the game to stop visiting.
Well, I think a big portion of the community, which didn't get the chance or just plainly missed the opportunity to back the project, are unhappy about this fact, me as well.
The fact, that MWM is learning about communication and/or improving, means they care about all of us.
And that's why I love them.
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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I’m glad I backed it but wish I had more available funds at the time or I’d have done something like Mogul. That would have been great. I’m pretty sure I had paid for the right to make my own NPC civilian that you could encounter in the city, as an add-on, but I’m not 100% sure because there’s nothing recorded where I can check. (It wasn’t part of a Kickstarter package so it’s not on that site.)
I’m eager to see what I can possibly do during the second fundraiser. I don’t expect the same options (and there shouldn’t be, many of the old rewards were Kickstarter exclusives) but there may be cool new ones they didn’t offer before.
To be honest I was simply lucky enough to stumble over the original CoT Kickstarter near the end of its run. I was unaware of it until maybe 8 or 10 days before it ended - that's why my "backer number" is like around 3,500 or so. I just ended up in the right place at the right time I guess. *shrugs*
As far as the Second Chance goes we already know they've said they will -not- be offering anything like the customized version of Mogul that they've been working on so far. Basically I wouldn't expect any new perks/options that involve huge amounts of extra Dev development time to produce so that means they likely won't offer other "customized" weapons/costumes as well. Let's put it this way: I doubt they will offer any new items in the Second Chance that would require huge amounts of additional Dev effort to produce because the goal now should be to have something deliverable as soon as reasonably possible. Things like new Moguls or Fashionistas would just make the game take [i]that much longer[/i] to finish at this point.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I also think that there will not be such time intensiv stuff, thats reasonable. I'm more interested in early access to alpha chargen or the beta anyways.
Launching will be done in waves. So even if we got the second chance, we would still need to wait for some time until we get to play.
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Does anyone know if they will announce the start and just start inviting the starting waves or will they try to keep it a secret? I am figuring that I will be farther in the middle towards the end, but was curious how long you could keeps something like this secret.
I cant think of any reason they'd want to keep it a secret. They had been hyping "Fall 2018" for two years and now, especially after missing the deadline the way they did, I can only imagine they'd want everyone to know that they have at least released [i]something[/i].
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
Oh I'm quite sure when they are ready to support an "open beta" or the actual "launch day release" that they'll make that news as public as possible. ;)
But for any initial alpha testing it's very likely they would keep that private/secret. For all we know they've already secretly invited 5 or 10 very trusted people to start testing the game under a super-strict NDA that forbids them from even publicly admitting they are part of such testing. It's only -after- such testing would they ever start announcing the "wave-based Kickstarter beta" testing.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I really cant see them doing it any other way. That way they have confidence that it will go fairly smooth, not blow up in their faces.
Then why were they so open about the Fall 2018 pre-alpha release? They have said that the chargen/chat area is pre-alpha and one of the reasons for it is to build hype for 2nd chance, so by necessity it cant be secret.
Compulsively clicking the refresh button until the next update.
They could very well have expected to do a "secret alpha" say back in the roughly August thru October 2018 timeframe before their server blew up. Could have set their whole schedule back to the point where they are only able to do such an Alpha around now-ish. *shrugs*
Also the fact that an "open beta" is happening doesn't preclude that a core group of trusted (but otherwise secret) top level Alpha testers could still be at work simultaneously.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Has there been any mention of how (or when) the Character Creator will be exposed to the KS backers? This update touches on the 'what' that has been going on, but I am also curious to learn about the how & when for the CC. If that information is only being communicated to the KS backers, that's fine, I can live with that.
"Just, well, update your kickstarter email addresses, okay? Make sure they're current?" - warcabbit
I figure it will be next week, while I am on my cruise. They are just the kind of guys that would do that. Its a conspiracy I tell you.
But really, I havent heard anything and I am KS. I try and tell myself it will happen when it happens but I am not that much of a zen kinda guy.
As much as they worked to get it out on time, they eventually admitted it was a 3 month set back. So in my mind the goalpost is end of March but there's been no official word which I think is the correct call. Last thing they need PR wise is another deadline missed due to outside circumstances. If the server code is now completed, it could be sooner, but I try not to let myself be an optimist. Better to be a confidently prepared pessimist.
I just got back a week ago from a 3 month stint on one the ships we do radar O&M work for. Effectively (for many reasons) there's no way I can play online games out there. If there was an actual "conspiracy" like this going on then MWM would have dropped their release back around the first of November and I would have been agonizingly unable to do anything with it for pretty much that entire time.
Now that I'm home for a bit they're free to deploy whenever they want... at least as far as [i]I'm[/i] concerned. ;)
P.S. All kidding aside they are going to end up screwing someone like that regardless of when it's released. For your sake maybe they'll hold off until you're back home as well.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Its ok, being on a cruise in the first place is quite a consolation prize lol. I will have to find something to do while I'm at Jamaica.
Couple cruise tips:
1.) Buy or bring a lanyard with you for your cruise ID. It is a pain in the butt to have to remember to carry it around with you.
2.) The cruise ship makes a good chunk of their money off of drinks. If you do drink, get a drink package and tip your servers (they basically make their money on tips sadly).
3.) If possible, make sure you go on an excursion off of the ship.
4.) First day when you board the ship, consider ordering room service when you get to your room. It gives you some time to decompress. Plus you don't have to fight the crowds (either getting in or out) and can eat at your own pace.
Hope you have fun
"Just, well, update your kickstarter email addresses, okay? Make sure they're current?" - warcabbit
Also, bring plenty of sanitizer and your own water purification.
[color=red]PR Team, Forum Moderator, Live Response Team[/color]
A few simple answers for the last few posts.
1. Yes, when we do have something that we are ready to release, we intend to make some noise about it. Exactly when and in what form that will be, we haven't decided yet.
2. No, it's probably not going to be during your cruise, Ivan. Have fun.
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
Yeah not getting norovirus is probably one of the best "pro-tips" I could think of. ;)
It's funny but ever since I've been living a few miles from Port Canaveral for a few decades now and see the ships often I've never once had a hankering to take an actual cruise. I'm guessing the fact that I average being out at sea 4+ months each year for my job makes me equate "being at sea" with work not pleasure. I already go to places and see things that no average cruise-goer will ever see regardless.
Maybe I'll finally give a "pleasure cruise" a try when I retire or some-such. Personally I'd probably be more interested in a European river cruise myself, but of course YMMV.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
So at least we've narrowed the definition of Soon™ from being a time period between right now and the heat-death of the universe down to a period that's roughly between two weeks from now and the heat-death of the universe. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Maybe they didn't mean after... But before? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Or humanity dies before because of the big bad filter....
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Yeah that'd be our luck to have the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter]Great Filter[/url] kick in for us a few days before CoT was to be released. Makes you wonder if JWBullfrog's "Have fun" phrase is his version of "So long and thanks for all the fish"...
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
That would be funny and sad... Greek comedy drama like. Maybe someone will come from the future and give us a look into the game. Or at least says what exactly happened, if there's none.
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Well, I do know where my towel is so...
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
I always have peanuts on hand too. You need the salt and protein.
But too much salt isn't good. Will increase your cholesterol levels way too much.
And getting salty is also toxic for the environment.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Which is why I get my peanuts unsalted. I usually get plenty of salt elsewhere in my so-called diet. ^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
it will raise your blood pressure too, after a heart attack and 6 bypasses, thats important.
I played COH from the cardiac care unit.....Thats how much I loved that game.
Sorry to hear that.
My father had the same problem, well he still has.
The most important thing is, that you feel better and getting healthier. My father changed a lot, but the pills only nurture his hunger, and he eats more, puts more weigh on and increasing his blood pressure even more. So yeah, I understand how hard that is. I wish you best health and safety.
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of peanuts; though they may be small brown and salty, the humble peanut can provide a carbon based life form with the vitality needed to go through a matter transference beam.
Peanuts are widely available in most pubs and bars throughout the galaxy, and most cost very little. With the exception of the Pan Galactic Peanuts, salted with salt from the seas of Santraginus V, the perfect accompaniment its marketing corporations say, to the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. A packet of these will set you back several million Altarian dollars.
Sadly my peanuts are not Pan Galactic.
Patrician nonsense :p
[hr]
[color=red]PR, Forum Moderator[/color]
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/desvipers-creative-impulsivity]My Non-Canon Backstories[/url]
Avatar by MikeNovember
Given asynchronous time travel, 'Soon' might mean Thursday Next. Meanwhile, I'm stuck in synchronous time travel of one second per second. At least, I think I am...
Be Well!
Fireheart
Time travel is a myth. There is only Now. Can't change the past, it's locked in; can't go to the future, there are too many probables involved.
Just focus on the Now.
[youtube=500x300]TWmVlgIR2HA[/youtube]
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
ROFLOL
I totally forgot about that scene and conversation. Timey wimey stuff all there to make you head go . . . .
. .
Good scene, even though I wasn't a fan of the whole movie. ????
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Eh, overall Spaceballs is probably a little dated at this point. Take this YouTube vid I posted here - do kids today even know what a VHS tape is? But ironically I almost consider it a better "Star Wars" movie than a few of the actual Star Wars movies that have been made so far. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Well, I still do, even if they were already dated in my time. (Though I preferred betamax)
True, that some of the movies sucked... Well... That's it, I can't add anything further to that statement, lol
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Betamax was the superior format quality-wise. Unfortunately the two things that killed it was that A) it was more expensive than VHS and B) because it was more expensive the porn industry collectively chose VHS. I know that sounds like I'm making a joke but it's objectively true - the porn industry sold so many tapes that they swayed the entire market to standardize behind VHS and away from Betamax.
Since everything is now Internet/stream based I wonder if there will ever be a case of another "format war" like VHS vs Betamax again. *shrugs*
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Yeah I know, sadly.
I think there was iPod vs Zune, hmm ????
Then the whole browser wars, and maybe we will see a "steam vs epic store" battle.
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Chrome vs firefox, Apple vs Android, Sony vs Nintendo vs Microsoft, EA vs... everybody. The format wars never end, they just shift to a new battleground.
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
Me vs life
Skill vs luck
Guardian vs Enforcer
[font=courier][color=#FF0000]Tech[/color][/font]
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Eh none of those things you listed are really quite in the same league. The ones you've listed are certainly competing entities and many of them have been butting heads for decades now (e.g. Apple vs Microsoft).
But when it came to something like "VHS vs Betamax" it was a truly world-changing zero-sum game. The entire home movie industry ended up making one of things the ONLY option available - VHS ended up with effectively 100% market share when all was said and done.
So sure people can quibble over whether for example Chrome or Firefox is the better web browser. But until one of those things utterly defeats the other out of existence you're never going to have anything that compares to the VHS vs Betamax format war.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Blu-ray vs HD DVD is a closer match.
Blu-ray won obviously.
Yeah this was probably closer to the "VHS vs Betamax" war than anything else that's happened recently in the last few decades. At least Betamax lasted for a few years - I don't recall HD DVD even barely getting out of the proverbial gate. I vaguely remember a few titles that sold in the format but it didn't seem like it lasted on the market more than 6 months maybe.
Basically my semi-narrow view of a "format war" involves two competing media formats trying to fill the same niche. Given like I said earlier that everything has pretty much gone to the Internet/streaming paradigm now there really doesn't seem like there will be an opportunity for there to be any new competing physical media formats to go head-to-head again. I guess time will tell.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
This is the truth. the porn industry drove the price of vhs down to the point that it was feasible to sell them to the mass market. The modern video industry can thank the porn industry for its very existence.
I still have a stack of laser disc movies in my garage.
I have a handful of HD DVD disks. At the time it wasn’t certain whether it was going to become the standard or Blu-ray. It was around for a couple of years; it came out in 2006 and was supported until 2008. Also, HD DVD came out before Blu-ray, so at first it was more common and seemed like it was going to become the successor to the DVD format.
The Xbox 360 had an HD DVD attachment, while the PS3 could play Blu-ray. I had an Xbox so it made sense to get HD DVDs, but then never I never got around to buying the attachment. Of course my Xbox One came with a Blu-ray player so now I have lots of BDs.
It always amazes me that someone will manage to pull out "the exception that proves the rule" no matter the subject being discussed. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
My only "experience" with HD DVD was when I think Amazon offered the format for something like a season box set of ST:TNG. I very briefly considered it but I think even by that time it seemed BD was winning the fight so I didn't bother. Never really thought about that format again until you brought it up today. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Is LaserDisc the exception? It couldn't be used by consumers to record TV (well, the technology wasn't marketed to the general public), so it wasn't really competition for the tape formats for that market. For the recorded video market, it had some disadvantages but only one advantage: Multiple viewings didn't distort the recording. And it probably wouldn't have hung around for six years after DVDs were developed if it hadn't already built up a number of enthusiasts in the previous seventeen years.
I recall an online petition for a translated LD release of the [i]Ranma Nibun No Ichi[/i] TV series about twenty years ago. The author of the petition had specifically not wanted DVDs, it was the first time I had heard of them. When I purchased the collected series a few years later, it was on DVD, and I'd pretty much stopped buying LDs except when seriously discounted.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
.
Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Yeah I guess LDs had their own slow-moving competition/replacement battle going on with DVDs. I was more having fun with the idea that as soon as someone starts talking about X and Y there's always someone who'll try to mention Z just because it's vaguely related. :)
I don't really see the LD vs DVD thing as a "format war" as much as it was a semi-gentle evolution of one relatively expensive niche format in favor of another more affordable, widely accepted format. If LDs and DVDs had been introduced at more or less the same time then they might have fought more directly "head-to-head" format war-wise.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Ah, I think the current format war is a bit more nuanced. DVD blew VHS out of the water, and then there was the brief BD vs HDDVD (red ray anyone?) This battle went on a lot longer than most consumers realized because when BRD and HDDVD first started both standards were immensely expensive $600 for a player easily. HDDVD was the cheaper of the two but I think BRDs improved faster. They cost more for the disc but the quality was better and I think it was more secure. The porn industry, IIRC, actually favored HDDVD because the discs were cheaper. But that played a smaller role as porn was moving away from physical media entirely. When both next generation consoles came out with blue ray drives that was the end. I remember for a short time as the industry went to clear their inventories you could get a bucket of HDDVDs and the player for less than 50 bucks. Which some news agencies actually suggested.
Skipping ahead there is a new format war, thus far it's been a cold war neither side really firing any shots. Digital media, vs physical media. Digital media has more or less been winning the cold war. By being more convenient and cheaper. However, the first shots are being fired. Ultraviolet is shutting down. So all the people who purchased media through their store have to transfer their library, which may not transfer in entirety, to a new service. This is because of licensing. Licensing is also slowly picking away at the other major digital distributors. Netflix will lose all their Disney content by the end of the year as Disney launches their new digital content store. This will be a major blow to Netflix. It will also drive the cost of digital media up, just a little higher as you'll now be required to subscribe to yet another service to get digital media. I think there are strong odds that Disney will also start getting live sports. Disney is a very trustworthy brand and generally is a safe family friendly partner in most any endeavor. The point is that digital is fracturing under it's own weight. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and because digital is so easy and has such a huge ROI everyone is getting into the streaming digital market. But for the average consumer this means that they end up paying 100 bucks for cable and another 45 bucks for 3 different streaming services. Some ditch cable true but the overall monthly cost is slowly rising as each and every service needs a little bit more money from the consumer. The other downside to digital is something I hinted at before with the fall of ultraviolet and the rise of Disney's service. At a certain point in time all the money you spent could be lost, because the license gets transferred to another service. So your favorite movie moves to a different service or worse no service at all.
This fight is going to be a long war. Physical media wont "win" but digital media could fail. But if someone figures out how to do digital properly so that costs are contained and users can "keep" their favorites then digital could win. I don't think that is a likely scenario.
/rant
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Licensing and services shutting down and what will happen to digital libraries of purchased content should be getting far more attention than it does.
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That's why I still occasionally buy physical media like movies - at least ones I really enjoy watching.
I like the convenience of digital media but, like interdictor said, I will buy a physical copy of something (books, films, music) of something I particularly like. That way I know I have it when I want it
Wait until you see the... nope, that would ruin the surprise.
As far as storage media go, I do like the argument of a geneticist friend that machine readable artificial DNA (currently a bit of a bleeding edge technology) is the only logical choice to develop as a technology for digital data storage. Leaving apart advantages like being extremely robust compared to anything that relies on magnetism, and having a huge storage capacity; technology to read and analyse DNA is always going to be relevant to humanity until we stop being human. This means DNA is one of the only formats with a built in safeguard against the medium becoming unreadable due to technology becoming obsolete.
It's just occurred to me that storing artistic works in DNA format is pretty ripe for a backstory concept or two.
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