A Disturbance In The Comments

When I started my internship, Nelson was finishing up his. He returned to school and when he came back after graduation he referred to me as a "sh-t disturber". Apparently, back at school he heard about my escapades on the Computing Science message boards. There were a couple times where I participated in heated arguments. I played the devil's advocate and infuriated everyone by invalidating their arguments.

Kotaku recently linked an article about a Green Gaming Summit held by Wal-Mart. The idea of enjoying gaming while making progress with the Green movement is very exciting. The post didn't provide that much in terms of information but I was shocked at all the negativity towards the article and decided it was time to reprise my role as devil's advocate.

"people need to stop picking on the video game industry, why don't you go take care of some things that really matter like actually IMPROVING cars instead of modifying very little details from the video game industry"

Epic fail. Why would you want everyone else to fix the world around you before you start doing your part? Why not lead the way rather than follow the herd? Cars are being improved. In fact, Toyota's hybrid technology has been in development for over ten years already.

"First off, I don't know of anyone that leaves their game console on 24/7/365. Because technically, it's not even possible. The game system would over heat before 2 weeks went by"

Normal fail. You are correct, most people don't leave their consoles on all day but if everyone plays for four hours a day, it would only take six days to simulate one day. (Maybe a little bit more because I think the calculations take into consideration the fans running to cool the system down.) And PS3 is always on, there's no real off mode, much like the PS2. And as another commenter noted later on, Folding@Home means the system is constantly on and calculating. Of course, that's not as bad because the energy is used towards a good cause.

"I don't throw away my cases, so they're not clogging up a landfill-- they're protecting the game/music/movie that is inside of them."

Epic fail. The life of a case do not begin and end on your bookshelf. It takes resources to create your plastic case. Where a cardboard container is made from trees that can be regrown, plastic cases are created from oil, a precious resource and is non-renewable.

"Just because those materials are "harder" doesn't make them more secure. Case in point: The Halo 3 Case and Scratched DVD Issue."

You are winnar. I bought the special edition of Halo 3 with the tin case and found the game flying around the inside of the case as well. Just because the case is harder does not mean your disc is better protected.

"Also, by substituting it for cardboard, you'd be removing more carbon-scrubbing plants from the environment."

Normal fail. Valid point but again, trees are renewable.

"Now, if you want to talk about getting rid of those blasted blister packages that controllers and such come in, let's talk. *those* are just waste"

You are winnar. OMG Yes. Whenever I buy an accessory for my console, I have to dig deep down and remember all the times I was made fun of as a kid to gather up enough strength to break through the packaging. Microsoft, stop making it incredibly difficult to get to my peripherals!

"If you really want to go green, encourage more digital distrobution. There is NO physical material traded there."

You're a normal winner. No plastics, no discs. Great idea. I don't know how much resources it would take to power the infrastructure of bandwidth and storage to make this feasible so I can't say for certain this is a better path but a hard drive holding 100 movies seems to me as more environmentally friendly than 100 DVDs. Plus, this would simply encourage the world to shift towards my Infinite Internet concept.

There is light at the end of the tunnel however. Since Microsoft saw a piece of its soul die with the victory of Blu-Ray, they shifted their efforts to digital distribution. They have been very successful with XBox Live Arcade and provide services to download TV shows and movies. iTunes has been the beacon for digital distributions. When naysayers poo-poo'd selling music online they broke all pre-conceptions and made it widely successful. And other companies are following suit, Netflix recently began providing movies online. Amazon has begun to rival iTunes by providing a wide selection of non-DRM music. Steam (and Valve) mooned the huge publishers of video games by beginning their online distribution service.

I think what I gathered from this article is that I'll take a more serious look at digital distribution before I make up my mind next time I buy media. I've had a good experiences buying City and Colour off iTunes and games off XBLA. Let's hope it continues.