I have stayed neutral in this argument, so what makes you think I'm buying into this marketing BS?
I just think it's silly when people say that they prefer one thing and shoot the concept down there and then.
"I prefer physical media", why? personally I prefer to have a catalogue of digital media such as the one I have built up over steam...
Joe Public hat? I'm just like everyone else because I don't buy the latest hardware, test it on the latest game, post a topic, update my signature and repeat? A little close-minded to assume that there are two groups of people (those inside your community and those 'Joe Publics' that are not)
As someone said earlier I guess this is for the console market who actually prefer to play games rather than test them... but hey that's your hobby
you've bought into the idea because you're arguing it can work, it can't.
Its really down to this, you play CS:S, your computer does all the work, it sends miniscule packets of data to a server which then sends everyones data back to your computer to tell you where they are. Your OWN computer is rendering everything in real time, when OTHER people lag you see them skipping across your screen as their ping is higher, they appear to jerk around and be crappy. But they appear jerky because your own movement is smooth, because your own computer has NO LAG AT ALL.
That is lag, a really great gaming experience in that sense will be sub 20ms ping and everyone else on the same.
THe difference here is that you aren't talking about that one person lagging across your screen you can't hit because he's not where he appears to be, the whole image will be laggy, CONSTANTLY, there will ALWAYS be lag, its unavoidable, its literally impossible to not have some lag. I think the best pings I got where with Bulldog a few years ago, i'd get as low as 8ms to some servers, thats still more lag than I get to my own computer and thats very very very bestcase scenario.
Its simply not feasable to play a game, have a picture sent to you, you want to move your mouse over to where the guy you want to shoot is, you do so, you can't do it instantly it lags, the first bit of movement you won't see for a 1/4 of a second, by which time the guys gone, so before you even SEE your cursor over the guy he's really gone.
Also you mention you would have access to ALL games. How exactly, the bandwidth, processing needs for one game alone will be astronomical, you can bet that every single new game will need an entirely new cloud server and one for each continent . Then considering you might want to play 1 of 100 games you've previously bought, you would still need a gfx card up to date to play the other games that aren't compatible.
Not only is the idea ridiculous, its impossible and it can in no way replace all gaming. The entire concept on current technology is nonsense, let alone the infrastructural problems with regards to ISP's, bandwidth, trottling and peak time traffic. ANyone with a ping over 4ms will have a disgusting experience.
THe few games you might get away with, WoW type games might, just might get away with it, but the experience will be closer to being in the busiest town and getting lag, even if in the most remote area in the game. Even then a huge number of the newer MMO's are moving to direct control attacks, aiming your bow/gun/sword, none of those would work well.
These concepts are great, thats fine I have no problem with that. But its for a LONG way in the future when the majority of a country would have something along the lines of no lag whatsoever, so a complete and utter replacement for the entire worlds internet, which ain't gonna be anytime soon.
What we almost certainly will see is home computers move away from a one per person situation, and people will have a centrally located box for the whole house with remote screens, mice/keyboards and a 32core cpu that the whole family can run their own version of windows on, with their own stuff installed, and the ability to spread the load around the cores/memory.
So instead of 4 quad core computers with 4gb mem, you'd have a single 32 core cpu with 16gb mem in one room under the stairs that no one can hear, with a screen and keyboard/mouse in every room you want to use the computer. thats about the only future we'll see for "cloud" computing.
. Even just having two people playing would need a 10Mb connection, which is way out of reach for a lot of people. This coupled with input lag (which will happen), i just cant see it working.
