The Ethics of Emulation

[noiseredux]

for the most part, one of the main reasons I'm "against" emulation is because I truly enjoy the hobby of collecting games. Not downloading roms. That's not fun. I like waiting to play a game until I've actually found a copy of the cart. And then seeing that cart on my shelf as part of the collection.

[J T]

When a game isn't available to me to buy with the exception of maybe craigslist, ebay, or some 2nd hand store, it's hard for me to care about the ethics of piracy. Emulation is also the only way I'll ever be able to play games like Policenauts or Shin Megami Tensei without having to take a few years of Japanese language courses.

[Pulsar_t]

Emulation is so feasible even the big companies themselves have jumped on the bandwagon. Thanks to today's crappy hardware (PS3 and 360 being cases-in-point) I wouldn't call it a bad idea if they made interpreters for x86/x64 platforms so that we can actually play our games when their crappy hardware eventually fails on us. But knowing their greedy business antics too well their current games will probably be re-released as digital downloads on proprietary networks that become utterly useless the instant a new platform is announced.

[CRTGAMER]

Emulation is so feasible even the big companies themselves have jumped on the bandwagon. Thanks to today's crappy hardware (PS3 and 360 being cases-in-point) I wouldn't call it a bad idea if they made interpreters for x86/x64 platforms so that we can actually play our games when their crappy hardware eventually fails on us. But knowing their greedy business antics too well their current games will probably be re-released as digital downloads on proprietary networks that become utterly useless the instant a new platform is announced.

The worst case is when Amazon remotely deleted books off individual Kindles, that customers had already downloaded and purchased. The irony was it was George Orwell's 1984, hey its "Big Brother Watching." Customers did get a refund, still imagine having to read halfway and bye bye. RROD Kindle or was that PSP GO?

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09 ... dle.books/

[Pulsar_t]

Stupid, stupid DRM At least with the Kindle if one is savvy enough a backup copy can be made. The 360/PS3 however aren't future-proof nor easily crackable (if at all). And you can't backup the hardware nor it is foreseeably emulatable.

[17daysolderthannes2]

I have long stood fast in the opinion that pirating=/=stealing, period. Stealing is taking an actual product without paying for it, which hurts the store selling that good. On the other hand, piracy can only hurt a company if "lost profits" are involved. This, however, is subjective. I said for years I would never buy a PSP unless I could bootleg the games because they were too expensive for what they were and none really appealed to me. When I finally got a PSP with a broken UMD and custom firmware, I started using it. I wouldn't have bought PSP games even if custom firmware didn't exist, so they are not losing money from me, it's as if I never existed in the first place. Furthermore, most of the games I download for PSP are ports of PS2 games I already own legitimate copies of, and while the porters work goes unpaid, the majority of development was paid for when I bought the PS2 game.

I look at the whole situation like this:

If you like a game and it's still sold new (within 5 years old I'd say), buy it. You'll be supporting the team and ensuring more games to follow as well as reimbursing them for their hard work. I will gladly buy the new Battle Kid for NES because it's a cool game and I know the developer worked hard on it and will directly receive the profits.

On the other hand, once games are old, like say Sonic 2 or Super Mario World, the original developers are long gone and likely won't see a penny even on services like Wii VC. Why should some executive get to leech money off of classics? The only good that can come from VC services is possibly a realization of popularity leading to a new game in a series, but this rarely happens. In this case, I would only call emulation unethical if you're, say, using Sonic's Ultimate Collection for XBOX 360 rather than a homebrew emulator b/c someone worked on that emulator recently (but it sucks compared to Kega Fusion anyway, so why waste your time?).

The last scenario is straight up abandonware. Games with no current marketplace presence nor any prospects as DLC should be treated like an online flash game. There's no way for anyone to profit from these games that deserves the money, so I say download away.

In my opinion, preserving and understanding video game history is important and shouldn't be stunted by profiteering assholes like the Wii VC that overcharge for games relative to the actual cost (come on, it uses what, 3 cents of bandwidth? give me a break Nintendo, I can get 16 Neo Geo games on PS2 for the price you charge for 1, and that's on a physical disc with case and booklet).

So, in short, if it's older than 5 (especially 10) years old, I say it's fair game, and I feel the same way about music and movies too. I don't know who the hell thought copyright laws should ensure Metallica can buy another gold toilet seat even if they don't work another day in their lives. Did you know copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years? ridiculous. Futhermore, 99.9% of the time the people responsible don't get shit for royalties, it's all some dick in a suit that got the author to sign a contract. Adam Carolla doesn't make a cent off of Man Show or The Hammer DVD sales, the only benefit he might get is a noticed raise in popularity leading to more movie roles.

Oh, and just to be clear, it is ALWAYS wrong to sell pirated games/movies/music to others, no matter how old. You didn't make it, you don't deserve money for it. The one exception is if you try to tell your friend how to burn DC games and he just keeps bugging you to do it for him and you charge him a "lazy ass" tax, that's Ok in my book because it's not my job to burn games for people all day (though I will usually copy them to a flash drive/hard drive for free if they ask). If a man wants a fish rather than having the patience to be taught to fish, he can pay me to fish for him.

I'm always late to the party, but I just gotta add:

The practice of reselling current-gen games by stores like Gamestop would seem to affect the game developers' wallets more adversely than emulation, generally speaking.

Well, there is the defense that traded-in games are usually towards the purchase of new games, which the developers DO profit from. Still, like I said before, if it's older than 5 years, screw it. You shouldn't feel obligated to shell out money (sometimes ridiculous amounts) for a game that might be scratched and not play right when the development team has long moved on to bigger and better things (or nowadays, crappier and shittier things).

[CRTGAMER]

Oh, and just to be clear, it is ALWAYS wrong to sell pirated games/movies/music to others, no matter how old. You didn't make it, you don't deserve money for it. The one exception is if you try to tell your friend how to burn DC games and he just keeps bugging you to do it for him and you charge him a "lazy ass" tax, that's Ok in my book because it's not my job to burn games for people all day (though I will usually copy them to a flash drive/hard drive for free if they ask). If a man wants a fish rather than having the patience to be taught to fish, he can pay me to fish for him.

Well this does sound fishy. Isn't this paragraph contradictory? You are still profiting from selling a Pirated game no matter what the reason. You did provide a link to DCISOZone earlier.

[gtmtnbiker]

On the other hand, once games are old, like say Sonic 2 or Super Mario World, the original developers are long gone and likely won't see a penny even on services like Wii VC. Why should some executive get to leech money off of classics? The only good that can come from VC services is possibly a realization of popularity leading to a new game in a series, but this rarely happens.

Keep in mind that Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft are all publicly traded companies. You're not really taking money from executives but rather the companies' shareholders.

To put a game on virtual console still costs money. Someone needs to code up the emulator or make sure the existing one works. QA/Tests need to test the game out. Documentation needs to write the built-in help. Translators need to translate the game to other languages. All of the above cost money.

[KillemallCFH]

Ethically, I have no qualms with downloading games. Personally, however, I just hate playing games on emulators. The experience just isn't the same when you're not holding a genuine controller, and it's a lot harder to get immersed in a game when it's on a computer, at least for me.

[17DaysOlderThanNES]

On the other hand, once games are old, like say Sonic 2 or Super Mario World, the original developers are long gone and likely won't see a penny even on services like Wii VC. Why should some executive get to leech money off of classics? The only good that can come from VC services is possibly a realization of popularity leading to a new game in a series, but this rarely happens.

Keep in mind that Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft are all publicly traded companies. You're not really taking money from executives but rather the companies' shareholders.

That's not true at all. Not buying Wii VC games doesn't mean Nintendo's stock will drop. All it would hurt (potentially) is Nintendo's profits, but since when am I obligated to buy a product that is overpriced or I don't want? The Shamwow exists, you know why I don't buy it? I have a towel. Offering a product doesn't guarantee a purchase. Furthermore, a large portion of VC games can be bought in cartridge form for less than VC prices, and that's just lame.

To put a game on virtual console still costs money. Someone needs to code up the emulator or make sure the existing one works. QA/Tests need to test the game out. Documentation needs to write the built-in help. Translators need to translate the game to other languages. All of the above cost money.

Yes, putting a game on VC costs money, but if I download a ROM dumped from the original cartridge by someone for free, that's not Nintendo's (modern) work. I guess maybe you're referring to my price comment, but that's still no excuse. Like I said, SNK offers 16 games on a physical DVD with case and manual that can be had for under $10 sealed. You can only get one Neo Geo game on Wii VC for $9. There's something wrong with that. The per-unit price could easily be 99¢ and still net tremendous profits as the variable cost is practically negligible. Look at the iPhone, the top grossing games tend to be 99¢-$1.99. The only reason I can think for Nintendo charging so much is A) they expect their loyal fanboys to pay any price for everything they make, which is sadly somewhat true B) they realize their console is heavily inadequate to cope with massive amounts of VC downloads and the lacking memory would piss off consumers C) they don't want cheap VC games to steer people away from WiiWare or regular Wii games. If people can buy 20 awesome classics for $20, suddenly that $20 shovelware title doesn't look so good D) licensers intentionally rape them on licensing fees to keep Nintendo from outshining compilation discs or online services released straight from the respective company (like Play Sega, for instance).

Ethically, I have no qualms with downloading games. Personally, however, I just hate playing games on emulators. The experience just isn't the same when you're not holding a genuine controller, and it's a lot harder to get immersed in a game when it's on a computer, at least for me.

um, hi, there's like 23234234 controller adapters. You can get USB adapters for NES, SNES, Genesis, PS2, N64, etc. etc.

Also, 99% of computers can manage composite/s-video (or if you're hi-def VGA/DVI/HDMI) output, allowing you to play it on your TV. That's what I've been doing lately and it's been great. Playing Genesis games with a PS2 full microswitch joystick? more of that please . The only time I use real hardware nowadays is if it's Dreamcast or newer since emulation isn't that good yet (and it just makes sense to burn a DC game since they need no modifications to play CD-Rs). Having a computer->TV setup just makes sense, especially for MAME games that can't be played unless a company releases an arcade compilation.