Nah, this is a very very bad idea. You would give crackers a really easy time. All they would have to do is buy the game and they would be able to download it and put it on their own servers for everyone to download for free.
Think about this for a moment and you'll realise that online distribution is no different to store distribution in this aspect. Right now, if I buy the game at a store, I can do exactly the same thing. It's not any kind of argument against the concept.
Also, what if I download the game, and I have to reformat my harddrive, do I have to buy the game again? You might say that the company could give me an account name and password so that I can download the game any time, but what is to keep pirates from spreading around that name and password?
Yes, IMO, that's the problem with how TryMedia (
www.trymedia.com) implements their downloads (
Temple of Elemental Evil used their system) at present. A setup executable is downloaded, and needs to be activated. I'd like to see disk images available, in order that you could store the game like any other game you've purchased. On a CD. In terms of copy protection, it's successfully maintained in a disk image. That's the reason the pirates offer cracked executables within their images. Because without them, the copy protection is
still in place.
Also, I like many people I know, prefer to have a nice box and manual, simply because it looks nice. Suppose a game would be download only, it would mean I wouldn't be able to get a nice box!
No, I don't really want this to ever happen.
It's wonderful that you prefer to have a nice box and manual (I'd like to see PDF manuals included in the download though), and it's certainly a matter of preference - some people will prefer to have the box etc and there's nothing wrong with this. They can purchase the game at a store as they desire. But why would you deprive somebody that's willing to go without the box just because YOU'D prefer to have a box? That seems selfish and irrational to me.
