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BenjaminS08's Internet Forum

A collection of thoughts, stories, notes, whatever else I put on here.

Forum is Active as of July 2026

Welcome

This is my part of the internet.

The internet is destroying itself. It really is and not just the internet but digital in general. That's why I have decided to make this forum. As I am typing this, it is the 14th July 2026 at 15:37 and the recent news from Sony about their shift away from physical game releases has made me make this because I have realised my opinions will never be heard on Twitter or YouTube or any over social media without fake bots having something to say or the platform themselves deciding i used a naughty word and deleting me. And there's zero guaratnee that those platforms will even be accessible next month nevermind in decades to come. And that line of thinking has made me scepitcal about digital preservation in general which took me down numerous rabbit holes blah blah blah blah blah.

Sony are Killing Games

14th July 2026

I created this website today. There is a big reason for this as breifly explained in the welcome section.

On the 1st July 2026, Sony published a blog post on their official website titled "Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles". As of me typing this, the post has 1,233 likes and 9,058 comments. Clearly people are not happy. Here is a link to the original post: Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles But in case the post is deleted, here is the entire post in text format:

"As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format. This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today. We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store. We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support. For important updates on PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita announced today, please click here."

What. the. Fuck?

Very recently, Sony announced that over 500 movies and tv shows are set to be removed from PlayStation users on the 1st of September 2026 due to an expiring licensing agreement with StudioCanal. Users will not be recieving refunds for any of the removed content.

The reason I bring that up is to show that content that you buy digitally is able to be taken away from you at any moment and you will not recieve any refunds or other compensation. So then why are we being forced by Sony to only buy games digitally from 2028 onwards? What happens if your PlayStation account is wrongfully banned (which happens with digital accounts much more often than people realise) and all of your purchases on that account are gone forever with no refunds? What happens if you can't log in to your account for 3 and a half years or simply don't have time in your day-to-day life? That last question sound random? Well look at this from Sony's official Terms of Service:

"21.2 If you have not used your Account for at least 36 months we may take steps to close it. In that case, we will contact you via the email address registered to your Account and give you 6 months to either log in to your Account or contact us and tell us to keep your Account open. 21.3 After your Account is closed, you will not be able to access the PlayStation Online Services or use the Digital Products purchased with that Account. Account closure is irreversible.

You might sit there and think that this is an unlikely scenario and that 3 and a half years is reasonable. I would disagree. I know from my own personal experience that I have plenty of accounts on various websites, platforms, etc that I have not accessed in years. Although most of these, I have not spent money on and have no important stuff on them, some of them I do. It's the second term I quoted that I take most issue with. If an account is closed, the owner recieves no refunds for their purchases. I mean think about that for a second. Really? And your account is unable to be reopened according to Sony themselves. If this happens, it will be as if you never existed to begin with in PlayStation's eyes.

My personal plan going forward in terms of gaming is as follows:

  1. I will not be buying any digital games on any console from this point forward.
  2. I will not be buying any new consoles post PS5 and Xbox Series X (unless they still allow physical games like the Nintendo Switch 2 still does)
  3. I will be fully moving to PC and "retro" consoles only (Every console pre-PS6 in this case unless, again, if it's only PlayStation that move to digital only)
  4. I will be predominately pirating new releases on PC because if we no longer own the games we buy, then why would I bother buying them?
  5. I will likely stop playing games in general given how awful the modern gaming industry is and how it only seems to be getting worse with every passing day but the day that I turn away from this hobby that I've enjoyed for so much of my life is hopefully still a long way away
  6. I will continue to buy indie releases on PC through GameJolt, Steam, itch.io, etc. as long as these websites continue to be consumer friendly and actually allow us to keep games we've bought forever (love you Steam)
  7. I will also begin copying my digital console games to discs on PS3 and Xbox 360 as a backup and hopefully with newer consoles too if that ever becomes easily doable. I will also be buying physical albums and movies/tv shows on disc for my favourites to ensure that I actually own them for as long as the hardware survives

That's all from me today. Hopefully my YouTube channel still exists: https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminS08.

FIFA World Cup 2026 Ends

20th July 2026

England are out of the 2026 FIFA World Cup but we just beat France 6-4 in one of the funniest games I've ever watched to earn 3rd place and our best World Cup finish since we won it in 1966. Argentina played dirty (surprise surprise) against Spain in the final but Spain won thank god.

Social Media's Effect on Mood

24th July 2026

I've noticed in the past couple days that social media has really just gone to shit. Maybe it was never any good to begin with tbf. I recently quit Twitter temporarily after Sheffield United (club I support) beat Derby County in our last game of the 25/26 season because the whole reason I'm on Twitter is because it's the best place for football news coming straight from the club's themselves but during the summer, they won't be posting much anyway so I took a step back. I really like the r/Championship subreddit on Reddit though and I now just use that subreddit to intereact with other supporters rather than the absolute pig sty that is Twitter. With pre-season underway and more transfer news being announced ahead of the 26/27 season tho, I've found myself back on Twitter again and it's just as bad as it was when I left.

It's not just Twitter either, Instagram is also really bad. Specifically Instagram Reels which I switched to instead of TikTok a couple years ago in my attempt to stop watching short form content (not that it worked at all). I find Reels to be similar to gambling actually. You can start off with a bunch of funny or interesting Reels with equally funny comment sections but the longer you scroll, the more likely you are to see something depressing about politics, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and various other disgusting shit and it just ruins your mood so quickly. Literally just wipes the smile off your face in an instant. You should quit scrolling as soon as you find a funny video and then your mood last slightly longer. That said, the happiness you find from scrolling fades so quickly once you move onto anything else. I think I might actually start heavily restricting all social media for myself except for YouTube (because I can control exactly what I watch), Sheffield United twitter account specifically, and r/Championship specifically.

Oh also every single community I've ever been part of has ended up being awful except for the Sheffield United fanbase, Far Cry, and probably Pirates of the Caribbean. But so many other fandoms of creators, games, etc that I love are just so awful to me. For example FNaF, Danganronpa, Assassin's Creed, The Boys, Markiplier (to an extent but not that bad these days tbh just can sometimes be overly parasocial), Roblox, Minecraft, alot of the bands I like, etc.

There are a couple fanbases I still love tho such as, Videogamedunkey, all 20 of Ryan George's YouTube channels, TheGamingLemon, SnapCube, Chazington, XTRATUNA. I guess the pattern there is that YouTuber's who aren't the biggest on the platform tend to have decent communities thankfully. I've started to really distance my real life from my online presence probably more than I ever have since being on the internet and it's definitely made things both irl and online more enjoyable for me personally.