Topic: MS, Sony & Nintendo switching to cardboard boxes in 2009...

[UltimatePartyBear]

I'm sure WalMart's real motivation is to save money somehow, but I don't understand what the figures really refer to.  Are they simply claiming that the manufacture of the plastic cases generates greenhouse gases?  If that's the case, then why don't we work on the more general issue of manufacturing releasing greenhouse gases instead?  I can't think of anything else they could be claiming that makes sense, although their save game idea proves that they're far enough removed from reality that I can't rule anything out.  Are they complaining about greenhouse gases released as the plastic breaks down in landfills?  Outgassing?  Higher fuel consumption because the cases weigh more than cardboard?

There's not enough information to judge whether it's a good idea, or even sound.  It's just an emotional appeal.

[Ian Sane]

When games came in boxes it wasn't uncommon for people to throw the boxes away.  Not recycle them - THROW THEM AWAY.

Here's the thing with plastic.  I'm not throwing the case out.  It isn't going to end up in a landfill somewhere.  It is going to remain on my shelf for the rest of my life unless I decide I don't want it anymore in which case I will sell it on eBay.  We don't live in a world where you just throw potentially collectable junk away anymore because eBay is like a worldwide garage sale.  As long as the game works it will have an owner because there's always some collector that wants it.  The case and the game will unlikely be thrown away.

Now those big blister packs for controllers?  THAT is a waste of plastic.  No one likes them.  The plastic goes straight in the garbage.  Switch THOSE to boxes and everyone jumps for joy.  But there's nothing wrong with something being made out of plastic that is supposed to be a long lasting product.  No one craps on plastic tupperware because those aren't just thrown out.  Cases aren't garbage.  We aren't being wasteful by making them that way.

I'm good to the environment in that I don't waste things and I recycle.  But all that to mean seems like common sense.  Half the time it saves me money.  But so much of it is fad political bullsh!t and that takes a theoretically good cause and makes me apathetic to it because it's been taken over by controlling crazies and assh0les.

Nothing pisses me off more when someone says "we need to raise gas taxes to get cars off the road".  Uh, hello?  I don't live in downtown Vancouver.  I have to commute to work unless I want to quit my job and make minimum wage at the corner store near my house.  I CAN'T drive less.  I WOULD if I COULD and if I can walk somewhere I do.  But I don't live in the f*cking city so raising taxes will not make me drive less it will just RAISE MY COST OF LIVING.  And it isn't exactly my fault that cars use gas.  Did I invent cars?  Is there any realistic alternative?  No.  So get off my f*cking back.

That's the sort of unreasonable crap I'm tired of with enviromentalism.  Ditch the crazy sh!t and stop coming across as trying to control everyone and maybe we'll get somewhere.

[Dirk Temporo]

Sigh, who cares? Everything is insignificant on it's own.

Not 4,000 cars insignificant. That's nothing. Just in the US ALONE, there are over 125 MILLION cars on the road. To switch an entire industry over to cardboard boxes just to do the equivalent of taking 1/32,150th of the cars JUST IN THE US off the road is stupid and useless.

[redgiemental]

This is a stupid idea. Another reason to dislike Walmart then.

[Morari]

We could also go back to the more modestly sized CD cases. DVD cases are needlessly large to begin with.

[NWR_insanolord]

CD sized, maybe, but not jewel cases. Like somebody said, something a little larger but in the same style as DS game cases.

[SixthAngel]

Sigh, who cares? Everything is insignificant on it's own.

Not 4,000 cars insignificant. That's nothing. Just in the US ALONE, there are over 125 MILLION cars on the road. To switch an entire industry over to cardboard boxes just to do the equivalent of taking 1/32,150th of the cars JUST IN THE US off the road is stupid and useless.

It is even more insignificant for me to recycle or to save gas/electricity.  It is about taking all the little scraps that people and companies do and eventually it builds into an acual difference.

[NWR_Lindy]

I don't like this, but I'm not totally against it either.  NES games had all-cardboard boxes, and nobody seemed to mind.

The problem with plastic is that it doesn't biodegrade.  This sounds obvious, but think about what that means: every single piece of plastic that has ever been made since the 1950's is still in our environment.  That's pretty scary.

The less plastic the better, I say.  Digital distribution, anyone?

[ShyGuy]

Ian is the hammer of reason here. Also why is green house gases carbon offset crap the only focus of enviromentalists?

"Polluting this river will reduce CO2 levels."
"DO IT!"

"Making gamers throw away 10% more cardboard into landfills will reduce greenhouse gases."
"DOOOO ITTTT"

[KDR_11k]

The problem with plastic is that it doesn't biodegrade.  This sounds obvious, but think about what that means: every single piece of plastic that has ever been made since the 1950's is still in our environment.  That's pretty scary.

It won't degrade naturally but we do have means of recycling plastics.

[Morari]

The less plastic the better, I say.  Digital distribution, anyone?

No thanks. Being at the mercy of corporations is already far too much a way of life without them completely controlling every piece of medium of "own".

I wouldn't mind if games stopped coming in permanent cases altogether. Disc binders take up a helluva lot less room, and generally look nicer than rows and rows of mismatched case spines. It worked just fine for my Dreamcast games and it's still working out great for my films. The only thing that keeps me from doing it with my Wii games is having the smaller GameCube discs mixed in and sitting loose.

[Flames_of_chaos]

I side with Ian because most people don't get rid of DVD cases unless they only want to put the disc/game card in a DVD wallet but then again hopefully if they do throw them away they recycle them, in my town recycling is strictly enforced so I think that countries are starting to be serious about plastic recycling which is important.

But I also agree that 9000 cars is a drop in the bucket so with that I am hoping blister packaging becomes obsolete because they aren't beneficial at all.

[KDR_11k]

At least Nintendo is ahead of the competition there, they use simple cardboard boxes for hardware (unless "blister packs" doesn't refer to those welded plastic things that you practically need a plasma cutter to open that Sony and third parties love so much).

[Caliban]

Blister packages aren't that hard to open.

Ian, don't you people have a recycling bin for plastics?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

with proper gadgetry from Q-Branch?

[Caliban]

hahaha very funny Pro, but scissors and some brute force are enough for me, or if I really need to (extremely rare) I will use a sharp knife.

[nickmitch]

Didn't anyone else get there copy of Wii Sports scratched up enough to warrant getting a REAL case for it? Like hell am I still gonna pay $50-60 for my game discs to get scratched. **** that. I'm lucky enough to not have to pay the Australian prices for games.

[KDR_11k]

Scissors result in a part of the damn pack cutting my hands, a box cutter needs a LARGE amount of force to actually go through that stupid plastic.

[Chozo Ghost]

It would be fine by me if they switched to cardboard packaging. I take such good care of my stuff that I actually still have gameboy and NES cardboard packagings from those old games... so any game collector who is really protective of his games could certainly do the same.

But I think a good compromise would be to do like the old Gameboy games used to be, where they were in the cardboard box with the manual, but the game itself would have a tiny plastic case which the cartridge would fit into. No one can seriously say those tiny little gameboy cases used a lot of plastic, so I think that would be a great compromise here. DS games are quite a bit smaller than GB carts, so they could get by with even less plastic for their cases.

If you ask me, the DS plastic cases now are ridiculously huge and bloated and that's very wasteful with plastic. The carts are small, so the cases should also be small. I know they need to have big cases in order to get attention from shoppers, but there's no reason that can't be done with cardboard. I think that would be a great compromise to do things this way.

As for Wii and other Disc based games, I can see the need for big cases, because discs are huge, but why does the material necessarily have to be plastic? I'm not sure what options are out there, but we have to remember plastic and cardboard aren't the only materials that exist. Like, what about cloth pouches or something like that? What about, uh... wood or something?

[KDR_11k]

I have cardboard boxes for my cartridge games too but they're mostly space wasters since storing anything in them is impractical. The DS boxes are oversized (especially in Europe) but unless they start shipping GB-style plastic cases for the carts I'll keep using them for storage. The outer box has to be at least this size to fit a manual in there.

[Caliban]

Scissors result in a part of the damn pack cutting my hands, a box cutter needs a LARGE amount of force to actually go through that stupid plastic.

Next time I get a blister package I will record myself opening it. I'm thinking that alot of you have soft hands because either your line of work, or life does not invlove roughness on your hands.

[nickmitch]

Cardboard worked for NES and GB games because those were all on cartridges.  I honestly can't see the same level of protection for disc based games that the plastic provides (certain Xbox games excluded) from cardboard.

[ButteryPat]

Does anyone else realize how completely f**king insignificant 4,000 cars is?

Yeah...but do you realize that plastic game cases are also pretty insignificant, too? I mean, I just don't think having my games in a plastic case is that big a deal, that's all I'm saying. If it helps out the environment, and they figure out a way to keep the games from getting scratched, then there's no problem. And even if the packaging is crappy, I'll just buy one of those CD jacket thingys.

[nickmitch]

Why don't you just limit yourself to one sheet per bathroom vistit, too?

[DAaaMan64]

Does anyone else realize how completely f**king insignificant 4,000 cars is?

Yeah...but do you realize that plastic game cases are also pretty insignificant, too? I mean, I just don't think having my games in a plastic case is that big a deal, that's all I'm saying. If it helps out the environment, and they figure out a way to keep the games from getting scratched, then there's no problem. And even if the packaging is crappy, I'll just buy one of those CD jacket thingys.

CD jackets are made off..... what?  And who wants CD jackets when you can get a CD rack and CD cases?  Nearly back where we started! Except now Walmart will ship for CD cases AND waste cardboard. woop woop