Digital Gaming

I recently contemplated the pros and cons of digitally downloading some of my future purchases. In the past few years, I wouldn't dream of it. I like having physical copies of my games and as complete as possible, when it's affordable. There are quite a few manuals stuffed in my Phantom Hourglass lunchbox along with all my loose Pokemon cards. Manuals are really fun to look through, especially comparing the art to the (usually) worse pixels in game. And, since the booklets included how-to's on game play, the tutorials for games were a lot shorter back in the day, if there were any at all. 

However, games are now releasing with digital manuals, and 3DS/WiiU game codes are now printed on the inside of the cover art. There's nothing special, really, coming out with most standard edition games. Of course, I will always buy physical copies of console games, but handhelds are another story.

I find it hard to justify yet another empty case on a shelf, and something extra to move around. So, I decided to purchase a 32GB memory card for my 3DS and wait patiently. In these pictures you see how many games I carry around with me. Sure, I don't *need* to, but I like having options for when I game. Sadly, these aren't even half the games *** and I own combined. He has his own two cases full, and I still have about eight more games sitting in their cases, not collecting dust. I could trade some of these games for others, but I'm a collector. I'll end up buying them all again. This was actually something *** pointed out, that if I get tired of a game I will want to trade it in. However, I'm trying to quit doing that, since, again, I keep re-buying most of the things I trade in. MONEY WASTE. 

Another reason I want to begin buying digitally is because I can purchase Nintendo cards and file them away for when a game I want comes out, and I may not be able to afford it at that time (or something.) I realize I could pre-order the same game and put $10 on it every week or so, but I'd rather purchase the cards so that, if there's a surprise e-shop drop, I can purchase that, instead. I'm not extremely worried about the Club Nintendo codes, since 

1) Club Nintendo has been letting me down, so once I hit Platinum I probably won't put any more codes in until either the next year or something awesome hits

2) If a game is really super great, we'll probably end up getting another copy down the road so *** will keep his grubby hands off my 3DS. 

As shown, both my game cases are full of games I really want to play, and I don't want to carry around another case because I lose things quite often. Aside from hauling my hoard of Harvest Moons around, I think I have a pretty big variety of things to choose from. Thanks to my new SD card, I can have even MORE things to choose from without having to pick my favorite DS children and throwing the rest back in their boxes. That is, until I get Lufia, then you can kiss HM Island of Happiness goodbye. 

Pros: 

• Digital library = no need for extra carry cases
• Tax free! 
• Won't lose cartridges
• Club Nintendo codes for my account, two platinum rewards??

Cons:

• Can't trade in if hated
• SD card may corrupt in the far far future!! (Not a real fear)
• No physical games to press to my face
• Also can't share with friends. My 3DS is my precious.

I think the only real fear of mine is purchasing a game digitally and hating it. Really, though, it shouldn't be that big of a deal since I know what I like (game genres and producers) and games other people seem to hate (Hometown Story) are really entertaining to me. 

If it is cute, I will probably like it. If it's stylus heavy, I will probably hate it. 

Here is a list of 3DS games I will be buying as they release:

• Fantasy Life (Digital)
• Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (Physical - Doggie!)
• Pokemon ORAS (Physical, so I can trade between them)
• Story of Seasons (Digital)
• Monster Hunter 4 (1 Physical, 1 Digital)

And that's all I know of coming out soon. I don't think any of my digital purchases will fill me with regret like ***'s do. It's always funny when he regrets something, and it seems to happen quite often.