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Topic: Pre-patched games? (Read 503 times)
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I.S.T.
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« on: November 29, 2007, 12:31:45 am » |
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I figured I;d start a new topic instead of continuing it in Screenshots as it's an interesting subject. If this is the wrong section, I apologize. Tell you what. If I were to do a translation of an ISO, I would certainly NOT release a pre-patched ISO. I don't want the type of people who need a pre-patched ISO to use my work.  Sorry if any of you here fall under that category. That's how I feel. There's a variety of reasons Gemini wouldn't want to do this. I can certainly understand why. Sometimes, getting the widest audience possible is not desirable if you have to compromise on matters you disagree with.  I agree. To be honest, I do not like pre-patched games at all simply because the people who make the patches don't. I do wonder why people use the "It'll go into illegal territory" argument though... There's plenty of good arguments against pre-patching, but that's not one of them. Fan-translations are all illegal given the copywrite violations on both the code and the text. Now, if it's because you don't want it to be more illegal and easier to prosecute, then yeah, that makes sense. |
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Ryusui
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« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2007, 01:40:43 am » |
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I don't think game developers really mind in the end if fan translation patches for their games are floating around the Internet; in fact, from what I gather, there are some who actually find it flattering that there are people overseas interested enough in their work to hammer out a translation given nothing but the original game ROM.
...Of course, it's how people get the game ROMs that gets them calling their lawyers. Fan translation doesn't necessarily involve piracy: it's possible, albeit not trivial, for people to legally import the games they're interested in and dump the ROMs/rip the ISOs from the actual media. However, the fact remains that people tend to get up in arms when they get cheated out of their royalties by those willing to plumb the depths of the Internet for free software. Even though many of the games that get fan translated are pretty much abandonware (in that the original manufacturer no longer makes money off of them), the fact remains that the methods involved can be used to obtain software that is supposed to be making money for its creators, and with Virtual Console, XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, GameTap and other services selling retrogaming to the masses, many IPs that were once abandonware are worth defending once again.
In brief: ROMs are in most cases ethically fudgy and virtually all cases legally indefensible. Bad enough that translation patches are associated with piracy without physically marrying the two concepts.
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I.S.T.
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« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2007, 01:49:26 am » |
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I believe it's 90% of game devs actually like that their games are downloaded and still played. I read a figure like that once.
Regardless of how you get the rom/ISO, however, the copywrite issue still remains. You're altering a copywrited work and releasing the alterations publically. That's still illegal.
Of course, laws, morals and ethics are all separate matters...
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UglyJoe
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« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2007, 10:04:52 am » |
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Well, while rom translations may technically be illegal, it's not really seen to the masses as something that is illegal. A law isn't really a law unless it gets enforced. Until someone gets seriously and publicly fined for a rom translation, then it might as well be legal.
Roms, however, are illegal and are known to be illegal. This is obvious because rom sites are constantly shut down.
If you release a pre-patched rom, you're taking something from the "might as well be legal" area and placing it into the "obviously illegal" area. That's a bad thing. Rom translations (and fan translations in general) may one day fall into the obviously illegal area, but there's no need for those making the translations to speed up that process.
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Aerdan
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« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2007, 01:05:56 pm » |
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Just a minor nitpick here, but the term is 'copyright', not 'copyywrite'.
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I.S.T.
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« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2007, 02:43:11 pm » |
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I used two ys? >.<
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Ryusui
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« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2007, 03:01:42 pm » |
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You used one "y". That's a misspelling on Kiyoshi's part.
You did, however, use the wrong kind of "right".
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frantik
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« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2007, 06:07:28 pm » |
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I don't want the type of people who need a pre-patched ISO to use my work. i guess i dont really get that.. why does it matter if someone knows how to patch a game for them to be able to play it? I guess if you specifically made the hack for the rom-hacking community then that would make sense, but otherwise I don't get it. |
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I.S.T.
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« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2007, 06:09:48 pm » |
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It's usually because of the fact that it puts the author of the hack in extra legal danger. A completely reasonable view.
Some, i've noticed(Nobody on here, mostly idiots complaining in some hack readmes), take an elitist view of it and equate those who use such pre-patched hacks as complete idiots who aren't worthy of their work.
Which is insane.
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SonofMog
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« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2007, 07:34:11 pm » |
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Another reason that I've seen is the fact that most pre-patched media doesn't come with the read-mes that the patch does, yet still has the hacker's name attached to it. This leads to uneducated people downloading the media and complaining about bugs that were listed in the read-me.
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Aerdan
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« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2007, 07:38:04 pm » |
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It also leads to people downloading prepatched ROMs where the patch was applied to a bad version of the ROM and then complaining about the resultant bugs.
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