Really....where things 'go wrong' is the take-up selectively....responding to a 'part' of a comment while seemingly oblivious to the rest of the comment.

Entitlement is the presumption that you have a right to drive simply because you purchased a car.

The purchase [of the care] also does not entitle you to demand changes to that car simply because it's [now] yours.

You complain about Digital Distribution as if it is somehow violating your rights as a consumer.

Were that the case there would be NO 'Digital Distribution' of any kind - anywhere.

Oh...stop editing....you cannot be responded to correctly/appropriately when you alter your posts....

Your right I complain about it.. because I paid for 19 games, 16 which I cannot access. Have not been able to access, and have no promise of being able to access. Due to the legal speak in subscriber agreements that are present in every digital distribution service.

Got to make sure I'm clear, they don't change my point so much as refine it.

OK...an example of a claim of 'entitlement'.

Back around '99 or so when Windowblinds 1.0 was released I arked up at paying for the proggy BECAUSE I was "a skinner" who skinned the product and thus provided a service TO/FOR Stardock and therefore SHOULD be freely given the Program in return.

I wasn't young [just younger]...I wasn't naive...I wasn't a troll.  What I was was 'entitled'.

I also had a fuck-wit attitude.

I grew out of it...

In fear of opening up a tome - sized saga of man's inhumanity to man .... what transpired that you cannot 'access' those 16?

Gamefly bought out Direct 2 drive. Leaving direct 2 drive customers without access to 90% of their games back in January. With the Assertion they were "working hard to transfer over the games to the new client, However some older games wouldn't be ported over"

Now were in march and most Former direct 2 drive users are still missing a huge chunk of their games, and gamefly pretty much refuses to comment other than "Were working hard on it and in next few months you should see many of your old games return"

Any questions to customer support is met with a canned response.

Come on jafo I thought you kept up with the crazy stuff that happens in gaming.

Although to be fair.. all the major sites that usually talk about these types of issues have been strangely silent on this one.

Edit:Forgot  My favorite part.. they sent an Email telling people to download their games just incase prior to the transfer. But deactivated the activation servers, and the Old installers no longer work, and refuse to provide CD keys for many games anyway so even if they did it wouldn't be possible to install them.

So pretty much a large chunk of people have lost access to games they purchased, have no clue when or if they will ever get access to them and its all pretty much legal due to the subscriber agreement which states they have no obligation to provide users with access to anything.

I don't play online games...however I do 'quite a lot' of game purchases/addons via online access - digital distribution.  Yesterday it was yet another 3 gig of 'addon' for FSX {Flight Sim Ten] ... being obtained 'digitally' I have not just installed it but backed it up to a secondary drive ...as archive-installer AND 'opened', and along with purchase receipt and keys, etc.

Standard procedure...as is the case with my TechNet subscription.

If it's an online game 'server' that goes belly-up that's much like all those 'cloud' storage options.... if you ever use them you NEED to expect loss.

Direct 2 drive isn't an online game server.. it was a digital distribution service like steam or Gamers gate. It was launched in 2004.

 To put it into terms more people may understand. Assume steam was bought out in january and you lost access to 90% of your steam collection.

Assuming you knew that though. Your stating that any digital purchase should be expected to be a loss? Why in the world would I purchase a game from a digital distribution service if I can assume its going to be eventually lost? or buy a game thats tethered to a 3rd party service for that matter.

Also backing the games up would do no good since they Deactivated the Activation servers for their digital distribution service. Basically what happened was exactly what I feared when Gamestop bought out impulse. Surprisingly gamestop handled it well in comparison.

What were talking about is the fact that digital distribution companies are under no obligation to continue to provide access to your games, the activation servers, CD keys etc. In this case it was gamefly buying out direct 2 drive which caused it. But it could happen for any reason at any time, legally speaking and there is nothing we as consumers can do about it because in order to even buy the games (or in some cases in order to install the games)we have to agree to the subscriber agreement which gives them the right to do so at any time for any reason.

Eh, I normally rage against the entitled gamers.  But in this case, I agree with Fistalis.  That's a load of shit, he should have access to the games he purchased.  All the talk of "you should have backed it up" is bullshit to me.  But then again, I am probably a troll of some kind.

You so know that you would punch them, Brad.

No. Only that IF you rely on always being able to re-access or redownload a purchase 'sometime' in the future you NEED to expect you will not be able to.

Life is finite.  Things end.

You buy it online...you THEN MUST back it up YOURSELF.  That is YOUR responsibility.  The vendor has NO obligation to 'give it' to you again sometime in the future simply due to your incompetence/inability to protect your property/purchase from loss.

Heck, my purchases JUST for FSX would be in the hundreds of dollars [if not thousands].  I KNOW some of the sources are now gone...defunct.  It will not affect me, however...as I have it ALL backed up...along with secondary redundancy backups.

How is that possible when the activation is reliant on the Service. Such as with impulse or steam? If those activation servers are taken down then what? Or If your old keys are no longer valid? This is the case with direct 2 drive. I have backups of most of the games. However I cannot install them since the direct 2 drive activations are no longer valid.

Probably of the genus rakish-good-looks-with-an-eyepatch ....

But in reality...what possesses someone of the presumption that what is obtained online will ALWAYS be obtainable online?

It's utterly ridiculous.

Really it is.

Your still ignoring the fact that the installers are reliant on the service. Similar to a steamworks game. If steam went off line you couldn't install and activate steam games. As I said.. I have backups. But they cannot be installed.

Let's go back to 'the car'...

WHEN petrol runs out you won't be 'entitled' to a refund on your car....you'll just need to find a second one....

...so you have matching bookends....