You wouldn’t download a car… would you?
Posted by Lynk Former on 23 January 2010 at 5:30 PM (GMT+10)
I’m trying to get at least four entries in this month to make this place more active. It’s difficult to try to come up with topics to post up but other times you just ask yourself a simple question and then suddenly a whole entry springs from that one question.
As many of you in the community already know, I recently bought myself a Sony Vaio P netbook… so, naturally, just like everyone else I installed all of the usual programs and set it up the way I like it and have my perty wallpaper and everything all there. Along with those other things, I came to a point where I eventually put ZSNES onto it. The main reason I did this, was so I could have a portable copy of Super Metroid.
But then I stopped for a moment and suddenly asked myself. I do own a copy of Super Metroid of Wii Virtual Console, but does that make it right for me to download a ROM version of it and put it on my Vaio P?
Personally, I like to buy everything and try to stay away from piracy as much as I can. After all, these games are made by some talented people and this industry, as flawed as it may be in certain areas, is an industry I want to support… but there can be some grey areas of morality we get into when it comes to the subject of piracy.
I DON’T own a copy of the original SNES version of Super Metroid, I DO own the Wii VC version, but am I in the wrong for having the ROM version in my possession and playing it on my Vaio P? I mean, it’s not like Nintendo has lost any money from me having the ROM on my PC… and funnily enough, this line of thinking can be used to actually justify piracy for a lot of people. If I call up some guy over at Nintendo and go “I own a copy of Super Metroid on Wii VC but I have a copy of the ROM on my PC, what do I do?!” he’ll just be like “Okay… I don’t care.” and hang up.
It’s a grey area, but for me, it’s okay to have this ROM copy of Super Metroid since I already have the Wii VC version… but then I ask myself… what about that ROM copy of Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie? I don’t own a physical SNES cart of that and it’s unavailable to download from Wii VC. In fact, it’s unavailable outside of Japan altogether, but thanks to the Internet, I was able to download it and experience its awesomeness.
Just because it’s not available in my country, does that mean I have free reign to just download it and play it without paying for it? It’s not like I can do much about it… My reasoning is that it’s a very old game that you can’t get anywhere any more, so having the ROM of it is no big deal. Of course, that takes me further down the rabbit hole in terms of justifying my actions.
I’m sure I could go even further if I followed the thought, so where would I stop? I stand firm on not pirating new games, and if there is a version of an older game that’s available on Wii VC, PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade, I’d definitely go for those rather than pirating them. I’m fine with people modding their consoles as much as they want just as long as they don’t use it for the sake of piracy.
I guess it’s more of a case of personal morality than anything else… Anyway, you’ve heard my thoughts about this, so where does everyone else fall on this issue? Or is it really not that big a deal and I’m just over-thinking this? Let’s hear your thoughts.
Oh, and for those of you wondering where the whole “You wouldn’t download a car” thing came from… take a look.
That VERY annoying clip used to be at the very start of most DVDs sold down here in Australia. I was able to skip it on my DVD player back in the day, but there were some DVD players which wouldn’t let you so you either had to endure it or be smart enough to realise you could fast forward through it. Obviously it never says “You wouldn’t download a car” in the clip itself, that is just another one of the many Internet jokes out there for the lulz.
That clip in no longer added to newly released DVDs and they never appeared on BDs to begin with. Not sure what they have now but hopefully it’s not as annoying as that one.
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Comments: 18
I'm reminded of an interview, by John Riticiello (?) he's the head honcho at EA right now, and he stated that he sees piracy as an extended demo for a game. Basically he's saying that if someone is going to pirate the game in the first place, then no matter how inaccessible to pirate a game is made, you cannot force that person to buy the game. S/he'll either pirate it or ignore it. However, by the pirate playing the game for free, you at least have a chance to earn that person's money. I just think that is a very interesting perspective, personally there have been games I've pirated that have then convinced me to go out and buy the game and in the future, buy it's sequels.
On the topic of "I has cartridge/disc so therefore I has right to download ROM and warez!!11!!1". I'm pretty sure that legally it doesn't actually matter if you have the original cartridge, ROM's are still illegal. What I've been in the habit of doing lately though, at least for my PSP and DSLite is that I will download the .ISO or ROM of a game that I purchase, so that I can keep my games shrink wrapped "factory new". I was gonna type more but I forgot, so that's all.
if nintendo or whom ever wants to complain about them, then they should start reselling the snes/super famcom.
as for movies,
oh well, too bad so sad, cant really stop torrents...
as for mpfree's (hur hur):
plenty of sites on google that you can go to.
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Originally Posted by Kookee
if nintendo or whom ever wants to complain about them, then they should start reselling the snes/super famcom.
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Originally Posted by maverick187
I'm reminded of an interview, by John Riticiello (?) he's the head honcho at EA right now, and he stated that he sees piracy as an extended demo for a game. Basically he's saying that if someone is going to pirate the game in the first place, then no matter how inaccessible to pirate a game is made, you cannot force that person to buy the game. S/he'll either pirate it or ignore it. However, by the pirate playing the game for free, you at least have a chance to earn that person's money. I just think that is a very interesting perspective, personally there have been games I've pirated that have then convinced me to go out and buy the game and in the future, buy it's sequels.
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On the other hand, downloading ROMs is kind of a grey area for me. I am certainly not as strongly opposed as I am straight up new game piracy as it's clearly not lost sales especially if you already own the game on a different platform.
Going into other platforms like music for a minute, I actually think this is worse than PC game piracy. A single song costs ninety-nine cents. I won't say that I've never downloaded music, though I don't anymore, I still have some of that music on my computer from when I used to.
Also: Modern Warfare 2 Most Pirated Game of 2009 | TorrentFreak
Not that I give a fuck about Activision losing money from MW2, but no one can say those 4 million PC downloads weren't lost sales. Pretty sure the PC version of that game actually sold well under 1 million units.
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Originally Posted by Lynk Former
They are... what do you think Wii Virtual Console is all about, and the PS1 games sold on PSN?
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I dont really own consoles :P
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Originally Posted by Moelman
Sorry, this is just more garbage about trying to justify what you do. Clearly he doesn't actually support piracy, he was just looking at how they can still make money off of it. Rent a game or download a demo if you're not sure you want to buy it.
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no need to get pissed off at it D:
Evolution is a bitch sometimes.
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Originally Posted by Pho3nix
I've only pirated one game over the years.
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Originally Posted by maverick187
Who the fuck said I'm trying to justify pirating for myself? I don't need to justify it to make myself not feel guilty because, as I'm pretty sure I've already said, I don't give two shits anyway. I'm pretty sure I know that the CEO of one of the biggest publishers doesn't actually support piracy. I was simply pointing out that he has an interesting attitude towards it. Basically he's saying, "if you can't stop it, try to use it to your advantage."
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Originally Posted by Moelman
Don't you care about PC gaming? Piracy is a HUGE reason why companies either just don't bother with the PC, or only bring out shoddy ports. How can you even blame Infinity Ward for making a shit PC version of MW2 when it was pirated at least 10 times more than it was actually bought?
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As far as Modern Warfare 2 goes, I'm sure that the amount of people that pirated CoD4:MW contributed greatly to their decision to make a shotty port for MW2. That is an unfortunate decision for them to have made. I don't have the numbers, and I'm not going to look it up, but I'm pretty sure that MW2 was pirated a lot more than CoD4:MW, most likely because people didn't want to pay because of the quality of the port.
I find it funny that I'm playing devil's advocate here.
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Originally Posted by maverick187
It was this wasn't it.
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Originally Posted by maverick187
I find it funny that I'm playing devil's advocate here.
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"This is a shoddy port." "PC games are buggy." "This game sucks on PC." All these reasons don't hold any weight. At the end of the day, real people are putting a lot of time in developing games. It doesn't matter if it's "fair" to you or not, if you don't think a game will be worth your money, don't play it.
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Originally Posted by Moelman
There is nothing about the other side of this argument for me that I can stand for. It's incredibly unrealistic to say people pirate games just to try them and then buy them if they like them (even if you've done it). Read reviews if you don't know if you'll like a game, that is what they are there for.
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Also it'd be incredibly unrealistic of me to expect that I would be able to present a facet of the pirating side of the discussion that you would be able to "stand for." After all, this is the internet, and opinions never change on the internet.
As far as using reviews to judge whether or not one should buy a game, no offense, but that is a horrible idea. Reviews, as they are written by an individual, are very opinionated and if this thread has proven anything, it's that rarely do opinions ever coincide with each other perfectly. I've played games that I've loved that were reviewed very harshly, and I've played games that garnered critical acclaim across the board and I found to be bland. No doubt you may certainly get an idea if you may or may not like a game from a review. However, you could get the same from a trailer, but you wont know for sure until you get your hands on the game for yourself.
In the sliver of an off chance it isn't a port to an improved or different engine to match the new controller scheme...you may have comitted piracy.
If you wanted to get technical, the one you own is for the Wii VC, the rom you have is SNES... That's *about* where the differences end no?
The VC version: I'm just going to take a shot in the dark and guess they didn't REmake it for WiiVC (alike but with only negligible differences), but rather just ported it outright from the original to a new engine/controller scheme, etc.
So essentially, no you haven't comitted any thievery or piracy. It's extremely unlikely, anyways.
There is a real good probability you and anyone else with the VC version actually own a port of the SNES version--I mean why wouldn't nintendo port it? It's *their* game afterall.
I don't think that you did, personally. However I have no sources to back me, only probability and some business sense. If you are still having personal issues with it, I don't know what else to tell you except either buy Super Metroid on ebay (perhaps an SNES too if your conscience demands it), or just delete it off your machine.
BTW, great choice, my first laptop was a vaio. Only wish I knew where they still sold RAM chipsets for PCG-FRV 35.
I've recently just watched every Macross series and movie released so far that is considered canon... That's almost 60 hours of viewing!
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As someone who used to pirate and shoplift all the time...
You get a lot, lot more fun out of something you own. At least I do. If I already own it, it isn't much of a problem to pirate it but I now try to buy things I know I have a digital backup with. Like Steam.