New study reveals most classic video games are completely unavailable
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I think most media made in the 1990s and later have fallen into this capitalist black hole of culture.
Our governments have given corporations total control over who is allowed to access what media, and these companies have 100% incentive profit from artificial scarcity over that tiny span of time when people have interest in buying it, while having 0% incentive to preserve that media in archives meant to survive centuries or even mere decades. Most TV shows, film, music, even photos, and especially video games, that were created during our lifetimes will also disappear forever during our lifetimes. It is kind of an unprecedented situation. Never in history has such a large and productive society left behind so little of our culture for future historians to discover about us. Basically we are leaving behind our garbage and pollution, and no sign of our art or culture.
Every so often I hear a news story about some guy discovering a box of old records in his basement for music that had previously been thought lost to history. Every time I hear about that, I have to wonder what, if anything, will the future humans discover about us now that it is all digital and streaming on demand?
I didn’t see where the article indicated which tyles of games are missing. Is it age or genera or platform or what? Because every time I think of some obscure game I played in the 80s and 90s, someone ported it to Android or it’s playable in a browser.
deleted by creator
1000%.
Way back when fbxl was powerusrs gaming in the late 1990s, one of the few articles I wrote on there was saying basically the same thing even back then. It isn’t good for society to be chasing down $300 boxed copies of games just to see a slice of history.
It should be like trademark: use it or lose it.
I’m ok with old games being sold, btw. There was a time I owned every game on gog on principle. (Today there’s too much to possibly lol)
Yup, abandonware is one of the consequence of insane copyright laws.
One could argue that current copyright terms are practically “perpetual” beyond most human lifespan.
