For this week's Chalk Talk assignment we discussed digital distribution and its effects on the gaming community, be it how digital distribution has increased or decreased your personal interest in a game, the impact that it has in regard to the indie community, or DLC's additional gaming content and its effects on the organic gaming experience.

　　Legolas_Katarn: One of the main reasons why I like having physical copies of games is because I know that I own it. As long as the cartridge or CD survives I can put the game into its system and play it. With services like Steam if something were to happen to my account, though unlikely, I could lose the games that I paid. …. read more..

　　angelbless: Looking at it this way, we could conclude that the digital distribution of games is an unavoidable reality to which all of us are attached and that it is a product of the market trend. But is it really so? Could we say without fear of contradiction, that this is the most convenient and preferred choice of for everyone? …. read more..

　　Bozanimal: Used games are on their deathbed, and most gamers are not happy. Everywhere you can hear the death knell of used games, from whispers of used game restrictions on the next Xbox AND Playstation, to the increased success of digital media distribution via services like XBox Live, Steam, and Amazon. …. read more..

　　lim_ak: The proliferation of the internet did a huge thing for small independent developers and that was giving them a way to sell their game that didn't involve boxed retail. Back then if you were an indie trying to get your game to be even taken and put on a store shelf was an enormous undertaking and that wasn't even considering the supply chain things of actually making disks. …. read more..

　　Gelugon_baat: At first glance, the convenience of being able to download packages for games around the clock would have been quite irresistible. Unfortunately, the reality is that the convenience that could have been granted to the consumer has been curtailed by many restrictions, many of which are quite understandable but are ultimately to the detriment of consumer freedom and, ironically, convenience. …. read more..

Extra Credit

　　- Nintendo Power 1988-2012 By: kbaily kbaily

　　- My memories with Nintendo Power magazine By: nintendoboy16

　　- Guild Wars 2 … Who is Gonna Make History? By: ErkiB

　　A very special thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's Chalk Talk! To read all of the entrants, you can check out this link here.

Next Week's Assignment - Professional Play for Pay

　　In this week's Chalk Talk Topic we're going to touch on eSports and professional gaming. Despite being a part of gaming culture since the '80s, the concept of playing professionally has since swelled to a place in gaming culture that is hard to ignore, with tournaments like MLG, EVO, and other leagues continuing to rise in popularity. How have the recent trends of eSports and professional play impacted the gaming community? Are you a fan of eSports who harbors a deep and passionate desire to compete? Do you feel that professional play is a joke of a "sport" and insulting to "real athletes"? Once you've created your Chalk Talk blog, be sure to mark it as editorial, then sound off in this roll-call topic.

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