Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@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.

They're about 90 dollars in Australia.

Mind you, when you look at what the exchange rates are, it all works out about the same.

I'm assuming this is unpopular considering the amount of adoration I've seen this game get recently, Metroid Fusion is an OK Metroid game. For context, when Metroid Dread was announced I'd only played the Prime series so I played through consecutively (in preparation for Dread) Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Samus Returns (all 3 on the 3DS) and Zero Mission (Wii U VC). Any 'rose-tinted nostalgia' (which is a piss poor excuse to dismiss or diminish an alternative POV by pseudo-intellectuals, hey, an unpopular opinion within an unpopular opinion) claims can be put to rest. At the end of that 4 game playthrough, Fusion was the weakest link imho. I didn't like the linearity, the communication with the AI removed the sense of isolation and the SA-X moments felt underwhelming, as I can only remember one encounter, yet those encounters were hyped up by some people.
Not a bad game, far from it, just the weakest of the 4 I played.

@Taceus I'd say dread is superior, then zero mission, Fusion, and lastly super. All are really good, but none are close to dread.

Uh oh, pitchforks incoming for saying super is my least favorite!

This might be equally divisive... but I would much much prefer to see a 2D-sequel to Dread, developed by MercurySteam, vs getting Prime 4.
I must confess I've only played several hours of the Prime remaster (never played previously) and so far it is just failing to grab me. I appreciate that it is 'objectively' a great game, and can see why it gets the praise it does, but ultimately I just can't click with it.... whereas Dread grabbed me immediately.

I'd love MS to play around with the formula a bit also, maybe try a few new mechanics.... build diversity perhaps? Co-Op play / summons? I'm a sucker for Souls-esque tropes, would love to see a combination between Dread and Salt&Sacntuary!

Prime 3 added mechanics of cooperating with other characters and utilizing the gunship for powerups and level-altering utility, though these were heavily scripted. I'd honestly love to see some free-form use of the gunship's abilities and direct assistance from NPCs/co-op companions. But we've all seen so many botched additions of such in other games in other franchises that this'd likely not be added successfully even in Metroid. And the core theme of Metroid is isolation, so there's that. Samus is a Hunter, not a soldier.

@Tounushi Yeh, and I can appreciate that online co-op would be a bit of a 'fantasy wishlist' - albeit cool if they could pull it off successfully. At a minimum though, I'd be very happy with Dread 2.0 .... with MS building on what made the first game so great, and going all in on being even bigger/better/harder ha