So now it seems that Windows is one step closer to forcing a subscription fee and have locked newer rigs to be only capable of Running their OS. Sure you might be able to get your own SSD now without an OS. But I see that changing soon. So I am curious with this robust community, how do you feel towards it? would you still game if you had to "Rent" your computer from Microsoft? Or would you simply stop gaming?

For me it is truly limiting my gaming environment but like everyone else I just keep plugging away at the norm and let Giant corporations dictate to me what products I can and cannot use. I am in no way trying to flame, argue, or dismiss any ones opinion on the subject, quite the opposite I am hoping for a deep discussion on what people plan to do with there extra time? But something tells me that may or may not happing regarding the topic at hand.

I guess in the end it is what it is, this thread will probably get buried as a dead post. but in the case you all are wondering what's around the corner towards gaming and you think they are gouging us now. Heh just hold on for the next 5 year roller coaster my friends.

[citation needed]

But in general, there are things to do outside of gaming. More to the point, there are things I probably should be doing that aren't gaming. That guitar over there is getting lonely, and so is the harmonica behind it.

https://www.howtogeek.com/360938/no-microsoft-isnt-turning-windows-10-into-a-paid-subscription-service/

All The Best

This is just typical internet fear-mongering with no basis in fact, don't worry about it.

For that matter, I find it rather amusing how many people freak out about windows becoming hardware locked, considering Apple has been doing this for decades and people seem perfectly fine with that.

For that matter, with WSL all evidence is Windows 10 is becoming less platform bound, not more. They know the money comes from the enterprise products and service plans (of which there are many), not OS licenses (typically only 1 or 2 per person).

https://www.howtogeek.com/360938/no-microsoft-isnt-turning-windows-10-into-a-paid-subscription-service/

 

All The Best

Interesting read. Sounds like a terrible idea for a business. I mean, for Microsoft, it sounds great. They cut out the middleman and get more profits. From the standpoint of a business, I don't see how it'd be helpful to put all your eggs in one basket and trust Microsoft support to maintain your PCs, rather than having a "big IT department." Seems like a one-sided deal to me. The only way I can see it making sense for a business is if it saves money on the hardware / maintenance of it and you keep your IT department.

As for the author's speculation here:

One day, Microsoft might roll out a subscription service that lets you lease a PC with Windows 10 from Microsoft for a monthly fee, just like how businesses can. As with the Microsoft Managed Desktop service, this would be an option rather than the only way to do things. Some people might prefer it.

 

Or, Microsoft could announce an Office 365-style subscription to Windows 10. Imagine paying $100 a year for a family subscription with five Windows licenses that you could move between PCs and bonus features like extra OneDrive storage. This would be especially useful if you’re building your own PCs, as Microsoft charges $120 for a single Windows 10 Home license.

 

After all, that’s how Office 365 works today—you can pay $100 a year for Office 365 Home, which lets five people install the Office suite and even move between PC and Mac (and includes the mobile versions), and each of those people gets a full 1 TB of OneDrive storage. And there’s also a personal version for just one person that’s $70 per year.

 

Or, if you don’t like that, you can continue buying a boxed copy of the latest version of Office. But the subscription is a good deal if you need Office, as five Office 2016 Home & Student licenses would cost you $150 each for a total of $750.

Sounds like a terrible deal and I disagree completely. I can't imagine any scenario where it would make sense for a personal PC's OS to be rented. If you're already building your own PCs, it isn't that expensive on top of the managed cost to throw in the cost of a single OS license. And if you're building your own PCs, you know you can build them to last, for as long as humanly (machinely?) possible.

Furthermore, people keep all kinds of long-term data on their computers that they want to hang onto and what happens when your subscription lapses? Do you just lose access until you pay up, like some kind of corporate-sanctioned ransomware? The whole idea is absurd for personal use.

That factor only mildly makes sense from a business standpoint because if the business can't afford to renew the subscription, they probably have bigger problems anyway and they can probably go through a planned/organized process of transferring data they really care about, as needed.

Overall, anything that sells the idea of people not owning the software they pay for is ground I'm vehemently against. And yes, that includes games like these - I just make an exception for them because they've already been built in a way that makes them dependent on expensive server infrastructure that bioware pays for. If they were built in a way that would allow them to run in a single-player mode without a server, or with a personal server, I would be saying there's no excuse for them not being able to be run in perpetuity offline / in private, once you've paid. As it is, with the lack of a limit in money someone can spend on a game like this, I think it's borderline criminal that there is no guarantee of access past bioware's arbitrary choice of expiration date at the moment of their whims.

Partly because most of the "restrictions" in software are arbitrary in the first place. Greedy moves in software are increasingly attempting to make certain restrictions seem like they are a matter of the offering company paying for them and thus there is no argument for the customer having continued access after the offering company arbitrarily decides to end the service. But this is folly on levels that don't just have to do with money. It has to do with the life of software as well and thereby the life of technical code and creative works. Work that can very easily be lost to the ages, to arbitrary lines drawn about copyright and access, purely because some people want more stacks of paper (or, more precisely, more numbers in a virtual system built on lines of code that lists the amount of money they have). Even though in many cases, preserving said works may be a simple matter of some gigabytes worth of hard drive space on a single computer in the world!

The people who work on such works should be appalled at the idea of what they work on being arbitrarily ended (and thus destroyed) at a company's whims. It's one thing for that to happen in mid-development. It's a whole other thing for it to happen to shipped works that have made a mark in history and pop culture. It's a dark path to go down.

But in general, there are things to do outside of gaming.

When I stop playing SWTOR (on my breaks), I actually don't game because nothing holds my attention.

The last few times I stepped away from SWTOR really made me realize how time-consuming and black-holish this game is in reality!

I started to find a lot of time for hobbies and things I always put to the side while my gaming took the forefront. I also found more time for people and pets!

No kidding, I found myself much more involved at home. I even started playing with the pets a lot more and just enjoying them more than when I was sucked into my monitor pretending I was a Mercenary in a Star Wars universe.

The funny thing is at first when I stopped gaming hardcore, I really felt kind of sad and morose really similar to withdrawals tbh. It took some time for my brain to really start working around doing something else besides gaming!

Once I began the new routine of doing past forgotten hobbies and newfound hobbies I quickly fell into those interests, though. Within two weeks, I was functioning quite happily doing many other things with my gaming no longer the main hobby of mine.

I actually like doing this, I mean taking complete breaks off all gaming for periods of time. I think it's sort of like a water fast for the brain, flushing out all the cyber garbage the brain absorbs after being connected online for long periods of time. I find 3-4 weeks at the very least is needed to really feel my brain refreshed.

I should also note that I really don't monkey with social media, games tend to be my main online social platform. Games, and their corresponding forums. I don't use Facebook, or any other social media platform either. So, when I shut down my gaming I really crimp my online activity. Point is, if someone is heavily involved with all forms of social media, well, just stopping their gaming probably wouldn't do much as far as cleansing their brain of cyber garbage.

Anyway, that's my story of gaming and the actual withdrawals it causes etc. when I stopped it cold turkey in the past.