Online game distribution (stinks)

Call me old fashioned; but if I buy a game, I want some quality for my money. I want to smell the manual, see the sheen on the case and cradle the original media. Packiging can be an important part of a game, as well as any concept art they can include (see Bit Generations on how to make cardboard desirable) The industry wants to do away with this model and go for digital distribution does it?

The problems I have with downloading games (other than the lack of something physical in my hands) is things like Xbox Live. On Live, you don't seem to own the game to do with what you will, it's locked to your profile which can't be duplicated, meaning that you cannot let someone borrow something you have downloaded. If your disk dies on your 360, are you fucked? What happens when microsoft stop supporting your games on Live, can you own downloaded shizzle forever? Also, on consoles you won't be able to burn a backup copy of what you have downloaded, or even print out nice manuals or inserts. Not that you can do this on PC's either.

The PC market is a little diferrent, although no better really, not if Steam is the way of the future. Even if you buy something like Half Life 2 from a shop, you MUST install Steam and let it arse around for ages decrypting your files.

It's getting to the stage where you are only renting your games from the distribution source.

Join me in telling "them" to stick it up their arses.