Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@Snatcher Actually as I collector and game enthusiast I am ok with that but to try and make people feel bad about emulation.

And again even with current gen emulation the industry is strong and it is not even making a dent in those companies.

Nintendo loses money if they bring the game out of the vault (they have the right to cease and resume production as they see fit) and rerelease it on a modern console (see: Metroid Prime). And piracy gives them a disincentive to make more of their old games available.

Again, if ROM sites didn’t cost them anything they would just make all of their old games available for download. They haven’t done anything like that, hence we must infer that pirating old games does in fact lose them money.

Even though I'd say it's probably one of my least favorite zelda titles due to the dozen trips to the temple of the ocean king, Phantom Hourglass( along with its sequel spirit tracks), might have the best puzzles in the entire series. I started up the game again the other night and I forgot how intuitive the puzzles are. Along with making notes on the map, using the microphone to blow out flames, etc. Maybe that's not unpopular, but I don't hear many people say these two might have the best puzzle and even dungeon design in the series.

🙄.

I've heard some bad takes, but that second hand markets are tantamount to piracy, lol. I guess we'd all be better off without the existence of Goodwill, pawn shops, & garage sales, lol.

I get that places like Game Stop might be a bit aggressive in pushing used game sales (though unlike the examples listed above they do sell new copies as well), but it's not like there aren't for profit companies that do similar for other mediums as well (I'm sure every reasonably sized town probably has that big entertainment shop that has a sizeable collection of used movies & books in addition to new stock).

I get that none of the money goes to the original developers, so sure you should buy new if that's particularly important to you, but I've never gone to a movie centric corner of the internet & heard anyone expouse the dangers of second hand DVDs or Blu-Rays, lol.

@RR529 I will go as far as saying that being against the second hand market = supporting extreme over consumerism Because if a person wants something they should buy it new.

@Zuljaras If I collected games like that I wouldn’t care less, but I don’t have that much money to drop on a game lol.

@Euler I mean that’s true, but how am I contributing to there loss of money, when they weren’t getting any in the first place through third party means?

@Link-Hero Me on the other hand do not like digital purchases only if there is no other way or the system is specifically designed for digital purchases like the Steam Deck.

Also, the devs, QA etc. are NOT paid every time the game sells in big companies like Nintendo ... they are pain with salaries the big money goes to the corporate suits so even if a game fails the dev teams are paid the same.

And if a game is NOT sold digitally anywhere you are 100% correct to pirate it

Right? Like I would give them my money, if every game I wanted I could buy digital or physical at least that isn’t from some random seller, then fine, but that’s not always the case sadly, I don’t see why your not free to pirate it if you can’t get it anywhere else, it’s fine if someone isn’t ok with doing that, but why make someone else feel bad Lmao.

Second hand market are still important for peoples, including me.
My games collection are mostly used games (especially my Wii, NDS, PS3 games) that I bought from online shopping website.
The seller sold the used games that I have never played before so I have second chance to play original games with cheaper price.
I knew the money contribution will go to the seller, not straightly to the game company but at least I bought the games legally.
We still need used items since not everyone can buy right on time after the game has been released (still fresh from oven).
Sometimes some peoples don't have a chance to buy games right on time so they really depend on used items as they can buy those items anytime or whenever the items are available on garage sale.
It still legal business.

Although second hand games sales aren't illegal in themselves, there are some rather more dubious goings on with things like shill bidding on auctions, and collusion between those valuing, selling and collecting the games to artificially inflate prices. I wouldn't touch anything that's selling above the original retail price for that reason.

On the other hand, if all your buying is cheap games that you want to play, I don't see a problem with that.

@TheBigBlue yes, it's a slippery slope.

Suppose I download a copy of Metroid Prime from a ROM site on February 7, 2023. A day later they announce and launch a remastered version of the game. Thus they lose the proceeds from the game, because I have stolen it. Multiply that through by everyone else that downloaded a Metroid Prime ROM, plus all of the other games that people pirate (most of which were still on the market more recently than Metroid Prime). I don't think this is too difficult of a concept.

And once again, if it didn't cost them anything they would make all of their ROMs available for free download.

I've been playing Metroid Prime via emulation recently but that still didn't stop me from picking up a copy of the re-make.

In my case, it's a game that I'd originally bought when it came out, and I still own the disc even, but it's not like I've still got a GameCube set up in the house that I could play it on, so it's emulation that's been keeping it fresh in my mind.

I don't doubt that there will be people out there who became fans of the game through playing it on emulators and are only finally buying it now that the re-make is out. Will there be enough of them to offset those who won't buy it because they were able to pirate it? That's a trickier question, but I'd think it ought to at least raise the question of whether the effects of piracy on purchasing habits are entirely negative.

@Euler But it’s not the original, they remastered it only recently, and let’s say I bought a GameCube copy, and they came out with the switch version the vary same day, there still not getting any money from the copy I bought, however, if I pirated the remaster, then I would be stealing a game they were making money off of, I would have gotten the game anyway since I wanted to own it then And that wouldn’t change now, I can’t guarantee everyone else will do that, that’s not my fault.

They still aren’t getting any money, wether I bought it or not, if I had bought it,I had no reason to get the switch version, if I pirate it, I still have no reason to play the switch version.

And I get that it cost money to make roms, maybe if they did was sega does, and work with the fans, they might be able to make it easier.

This is how I see it at least. And not like I don’t get what you are saying, in the long run they do lose money because people won’t buy anymore.

Sure, there are other ways for Nintendo to lose money (used sales, competition from other gaming companies, etc), but only some of them are theft (reproducing their games and distributing them without permission, or obtaining them in that way).

The Gamecube version of Metroid Prime isn't a perfect substitute for the Switch version (technically, the only perfect substitute would be another copy of the Switch version on the same format) but it's a damn close one. There are only minor, aesthetic differences between the two. Rationalizing pirating the Gamecube version of Metroid Prime would be like saying that it's okay to pirate Breath of the Wild so long as you pirate the Wii U version rather than the Switch version (as the former isn't available for purchase anymore). Or any of the other umpteen Wii U games they've ported to the Switch.

@Euler But you can still get Botw, at a reasonable price, just fine with no issue. If people saw the switch port, and still pirate the GameCube version, yes I count that as theft, as you can now buy it at a reasonable price, on a current console.

@Snatcher

I agree with this sentiment. If a title is abandonware and you want to play it, then if it's prohibitively expensive to buy a game on its original hardware second-hand, you essentially have no other choices than getting a ROM for emulation or waiting for a port/remake on a modern system.
While the latter is always a nice surprise, it is not a guaranteed thing. I've been spending the past year every month putting a decent chunk of my paycheck to buy 3DS and Wii U eShop games just so I wouldn't have to emulate them (even though Virtual Console is emulation on said platforms, but details). A few have since ended up on the NSO or have gotten remasters on the Switch. I'm holding out on the very last extra batch to see if there's gonna be a sale or if they end up on the NSO.
I've had to maintain extensive spreadsheets just to keep track of what's actually system-exclusive, what I wishlist on the eShop and what I can get cheaply on the second-hand market through game shops rather than eBay.

Also on the subject of spreadsheets and ROMs, I've been trying to keep track of pretty much everything released between 1985 and 2015 that would interest me and eliminating from that list what I already have, what I can access and what's available on a modern storefront or streaming service. Sadly, more than half remains on that list that I couldn't get any other way than hunting down hundreds if not thousands of euros worth of questionably reliable hardware and cartridges/disks. So, on my list they remain until I get an itch to try them out and then I seek them on the seven seas. If they get ported in the meantime, great, I'll wishlist and eventually buy. And if they get ported afterward, it depends on how I liked the game if I'll buy or not. Dozens of Steam titles sit idly on my account for the same reason.

The point is, if my only legal way of playing e.g. Dawn of Sorrow was to buy a 217€ boxed DS cartridge from a second-hand seller, I wouldn't buy it anyway at that price, which is assured to just increase. And Nintendo wouldn't get any money from that transaction even if I did. The money Nintendo got was when the retailer originally bought the batch of copies that one belonged in.

As for getting a PlayStation Plus Premium and PC Game Pass subscriptions to play potential retro titles on PC... I'm still considering that. The problem is that the rosters keep changing, so long-term planning is tough.

I Will say it’s a… unique opinion on the second hand market. In this economy a lot of people need places that resell things for cheaper prices (Goodwill, EBay, etc.) and I’m not willing to drop $60 dollars on a new Nintendo game that I might like and will wait to buy it used. Also, I like supporting retro and used game stores because they’ll sometimes get older games that can no longer be found and have better prices so I won’t emulate said game.

It’s a good idea too to buy used than new a good chunk of the time, especially for the environment.

I only emulate if the game is impossible to find or like $500 (Looking at you, Rule of Rose).

I don’t mind paying a lot for groceries as it’s a necessity, but not video games.

But "reasonable price" is in the eye of the beholder. According to a recent poll (albeit a non-scientific one), 35% of users here don't consider the price of the new Zelda game to be reasonable.

https://www.timeextension.com/features/upset-by-zelda-being-u...

You can rationalize any theft by starting with the axiom that you're entitled to someone else's property, then making up some arbitrary criteria to get there (it's not reasonably priced, it hasn't been available for a while, NSO/Virtual Console isn't good enough, the company has made enough profit off the game, the game is however many years old, etc). It's a difference in degree, not in kind.

@Euler when I say reasonable I mean basic asking price of 60/70, not freaking 150 dollars! If anyone else Pirates the game because they don’t like the basic asking price, they are stealing.