I'd say a more accurate appraisal would be to say that we do these projects for ourselves first and foremost. With the amount of time that has to be invested in even the smallest of projects, it's nearly impossible to maintain the motivation to see them through if you're doing it for someone else. Personally, my favorite part about hacking is that feeling I get from finally solving a problem after wrestling with it for hours, days, sometimes even months. One of the best feelings in the world, especially if you're like me and things like that drive you nuts.

Thanks so much for sharing this! I'm quite surprised at the level of academic examination this whacked-out aspect of the videogames industry has already received -- the existence of the John Baldrica articles, especially, really threw me for a loop. Glad to see these topics being treated seriously.

If you're interested in continuing this line of research you might look into the situation surrounding the fan translation of Mother 3. IIRC the individual who translated it actually works as a translator, but perhaps in the anime industry and not videogames specifically; the long-standing members here know way more about it.

EDIT: Ah, thinking about getting it into a peer-reviewed academic journal? I wonder what would be suitable -- a law journal, or a pop culture one? Anyone know of journals focused on the videogames industry specifically? I wonder if this dude would be interested in your line of research, dgosma.

http://dsrh.charsisforge.org/dg_paper.pdf

~DS

lol ok