In Ellensburg, since there are no movie or game shops, digital downloads are often the only option for hard-to-find movies, games.

Even if there were options available, would people actually shop in person, or has the convenience of digital downloading finally beaten out the physical equivalent?

According to Joshua Henrickson, a Test Engineer for Xbox Console Development, there is still something to be said for having the physical copy of a game.

“I try to get as much physical stuff, because in the future, ten years from now, or even less, a lot of those games could be pulled from Xbox Live or Steam or [PlayStation Network],” Henrickson said. “Digital downloads are temporary, while physical discs, you know, they never die.”

Cameron Rindlisbacher, junior accounting major, agrees physical copies are useful for gaming consoles, but finds that for PC gaming it’s a different story.

“Physical copies of games, on consoles, are almost always better,” Rindlisbacher said. “On the computer, the convenience of buying through things like Steam, Good Old Games [GOG.com], Amazon, just makes it far more prevalent that I have the electronic copies of the games.”

Trevor Long, junior computer science major, agrees.

“One general consensus is, if you’re playing a single player local game, as in you do not require the internet to play, you generally want to have a hard copy,” Long said. “As anyone with a PS4 or PS3 knows, Sony gets hacked almost every month now. If you have single player games that you like to play and you own digital copies, you suddenly find yourself unable to play.”

Another concern for digital media is Internet speeds. Blockbuster, the now scarce movie and games rental chain, still has a niche market in Alaska.

According to an article on mmn.com, 13 stores, which are unaffiliated with the rest of the franchise except in name, are still open for business due to low Internet speeds in Alaskan communities.

A similar problem exists on college campuses, as Internet speeds for those that live in the dorms can be slow, at best.

Billy Kilby, junior Japanese major, said that Central’s Internet service isn’t the worst, but it could be better.

“Bottom line, if you’re going to buffer a video on Netflix or YouTube, you’re going to be fine, but if you’re going to download 20 gigs of software, don’t expect to do it in a day,” Kilby said.

Physical books are also not as prevalent on campus. With e-readers and tablets, students can have hundreds of books and not take up any space in their homes.

Henrickson, who also runs the gaming review website nextgennerds.com, said that while he does prefer the physical media for games and movies, he does use eBooks, especially when he was a student.

“I buy them on my Kindle because it’s- I don’t even want to say this, but it’s so much easier to just skim. And then what’s really great about it is you can highlight something and write a note about it, and then you can bring up all your notes,” Henrickson said.

Lewis Clark, the textbook manager at the Wildcat shop, disagrees.

“I think there’s still a preference for the hard copy,” Clark said.

According to him, even though there is an eBook equivalent available, for a class of 25 students, 24 of those students will buy the physical copies.

Kyle Burgess, sophomore law and justice major, said that it depends more on availability and that it can be harder to find what you need in a small town.

“I think your location certainly should affect it,” Burgess said.

If Burgess isn’t able to find what he needs in town, then he generally gets books digitally because “buying hard copies online can be difficult.”