Leaving Mainstream Gaming Platforms

 Finished with Mainstream Gaming Consoles

 I've been an avid handheld gamer for over 3 decades, and I've always loved being able to game on the go. Since the early 90's, I was a supporter of every major and minor company in the handheld space. I had almost every Gameboy iteration, briefly a few Sega handhelds, and of course Sony's handhelds, which is a key part of this discussion later on. When it comes to home consoles, I still own and play them, and I've seen the shift in era of updates, which I've come to accept. However, there is a line I have to draw.

  Nintendo has always been a very principled company that will go against the grain to do what they feel is morally right. And that's one of the reasons I've always stood behind them. Many of their unpopular choices have gone on to be mimicked, or gain popularity over time, such as embracing Indie games as a main focus. 

 I was online the other day and saw a very stupid comment by some idiot in a forum. He decried the notion that what gaming companies are doing right with updates is akin to the Don Mattrick doomsday scenario. He went on to normalize the practice as if it is a legitimate security measure. And he was so smug it annoyed me because he has no idea how stupid he is. When updates started heavily back in the early 2000's, needed features were presented as the software or platform matured. I'm not going to reiterate the history that I've already broken down in a past post here. However, as I stated, I was very skeptical about how updates became a forced norm in all tech industries. No one seemed to blink, like the bots most people are. However, now, at this point every company has bought in.

  I have a Nintendo Switch that has been offline for the past 5 months completely. I've played it a bit over the time, but have not really gotten into any games, so it sat for quite a while, as I was moving several times. Earlier in the morning, I go to play Ring Fit Adventure, and I'm stopped by an update notification. I am not in an active network at the time, so I elect to skip the notification and play my game. I get a message that until I update, I will not be able to play most of my games. This struck me as very odd, because my system wasn't even online at all since shortly after the last update, so how would it know that a new one was needed, with no reference to a network attached server. That's when it hit me. I realized that the update blocks that we get are actually initiated by counters that are placed inside of the last update script on your system. The counter expires at a certain point, which they plan on having a new system update out by. This is specifically applicable to system firmware updates.

  So you don't have to be online at all. If the company failed to put out an update, which would likely never happen, there would be a sea of bricked systems that popped up periodically due to this disgusting practice. That's why when you see most updates, they are empty downloads with no noticeable changes at all. This is because it is simply patching a counter onto your system to keep you on a leash. This goes back to the old argument that some conservative gamers have made about the new age concept  of not actually owning any of your games. There is a great deal of truth to that at this point. If I was not able to establish a network connection somehow, which I barely did, there was no workaround to allow me to play a game that I paid money for and supposedly own. And this is also a physical copy by the way

 The poster on the forum acted as if it was a needed security measure. The truth is that there are other ways to protect a system. If the concern is homebrew software touching the system's precious network, you can simply create a hash screener that will block online interaction without the recognized hash from the latest update patch. It is easy to isolate units to offline only. They're not trying to protect your system or their network. They are trying to play police and bully everyone to punish the few. That stupid update practice literally only serves to block you from your own content.

 Now that I have experienced this, my love for Nintendo, or any mainstream systems has faded largely. I will be transitioning to only homebrew systems in the future. I don't mind playing online, or even going online, but the fun is ripped out of gaming when I'm facing looking at a bricked system if I don't periodically check in with the principle. That is not ownership. That's borrowing. If that's the case, I should be able to get the thousands of dollars I've paid in game purchases back at any time. Can I? NO! This is why I'm happy to have modded my Sony systems. I don't collect games to simply be borrowing them in actuality.

 Like some Youtube Collectors have stated, the days where you had a Super Nintendo, Playstation, or Dreamcast were so much better simply for the fact that you had your games and they were yours to collect and use as you wish. With Systems I'll tolerate the update culture, because they are stationary for the most part. But with handhelds, I will not tolerate being in chains.