Game Editors. Are we Really The Bad Guys?

[ShockHERO]

"Doing any sort of switching to anyones game, artwork, writing or videos is a resulted copywrited material. Trust me, I draw, write and do videos so I've looked deeply into the copywrite law. it's why I'm also working on getting a petition for people to be unable to mod anything, hack, or do whatever they please with something that's not theirs to play with and make adjustments. If anyone wants to do that they can just go make their own game and stop stealing other peoples."

Even though this was a personal convo with a friend of mine, I want to bring this up because, part of our community actually make Pokemon Hacks. Hell, part of the gaming community is made out of people like us. The hackers who do the incredibly bad things to games and such do kinda give us a bad name in turn but...are we really the bad guys? Or are we people who are inspired by these RPGs to make from them our own ideas?

 

[Spherical Ice]

 

[DJTiki]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That was a good laugh. ^_^ Oh wait, you're being serious?

Okay, I'll just make this quick and short. To be blunt, that's really really funny that they would say that we're the bad guys. Considering this year's E3 and past time where developers were estatic about user-created content (I mean, look at DOOM, Fallout 4, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Super Mario Maker, FUCKING MINECRAFT), Mods and hacks are simply a part of gaming. Trying to get around that is being ignorant. Thousands upon hundreds of thousands play Pokémon ROM Hacks and even more play other mods like Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 mods (probably in the millions by now).

And think about it, we make these ROM Hacks FREE. A part of it because we have to. So if that guy was really serious about the petition, then he can do it, but it will fail.... miserably. It's too embued into gaming culture by now to undo anything. Hell, even my little brother (he's 9) takes to Mods and has a full understanding what they are.

I may sound insensitive, but they (including anyone who feels Mods don't have any place in gaming) simply need to get with the times.

 

[machomuu]

"I'm also working on getting a petition for people to be unable to mod anything, hack, or do whatever they please with something that's not theirs to play with and make adjustments."

Yeah...that wouldn't do anything. Who would the petition even be to? A government somewhere? The internet? And why would you even want this? If you put something out there, you'll always run the risk of something like this happening, but making a petition to stop this is essentially the same thing as saying "Original Character, do not steal".

And as for the actual question, absolutely not. Look, I don't care if you're hacking, modding, video editing, or whatever, when someone does these things they generally don't have ill-intentions, and they are a vast part of the gaming world. PC, for example, despite how much crap I give the lack of variety, has so much love for what the main games do that it's almost sickening- it all comes from a place of love and admiration. Similarly, I see nothing wrong with someone modifying something to meet a certain goal or become more enjoyable- I find it more interesting that someone has a problem with this. 9 times out of 10 the source work gains more traction because of these edits. People spend more time and money on things that are improved by mods, and hell, often times they're likely to indulge in them or buying them more than once solely for that. Heck, some games, like Dark Souls 1 for the PC and Bethesda Softworks titles, rely on the fanworks for their games to succeed or improve to a certain extent.

And as Slash said, profit isn't an object. Donations might be, but looking at some of the stuff that comes out of the subject at hand, I don't think they're a problem. So my answer's no. If anything, we're supplementing the source.

 

[ShockHERO]

Well said friend got pissy about it and is no longer talking to me.
I did tell them to look up people like Shofu, MunchingOrange and other PokeTubers who play and support hacks.
Honestly, I wish that people like that would consider what all of you guys said. We as editors arent hurting anyone and if anything WE ARE HELPING THESE COMPANIES BY PROMOTING THIER PRODUCT

 

[Touched]

Who cares? What about what these companies are doing to us? Copy protection, DRM, Anti-Piracy ... Some would argue that we should all be able to modify and redistribute computer programs (yes, including games), and that not giving us access to the source code under a software license which allows such freedoms is a violation of our human rights.
You laugh at the whole "petition", but laws like this are passed all the time - this extends to areas far greater than just ROM Hacking. Copyright and patent law has become so ingrained in our society that we just accept smear words like "piracy" into our everyday speech without question.
Watch some videos by Richard Stallman explaining free software and then tell me who is the "bad guy".
P.S. Your friend is an idiot. I don't believe for one second they've researched copyright law - if they had, they'd at least be able to spell it correctly (and wouldn't be confusing it with "copywriting")

 

[Dr. Seuss]

"Doing any sort of switching to anyones game, artwork, writing or videos is a resulted copywrited material. Trust me, I draw, write and do videos so I've looked deeply into the copywrite law. it's why I'm also working on getting a petition for people to be unable to mod anything, hack, or do whatever they please with something that's not theirs to play with and make adjustments. If anyone wants to do that they can just go make their own game and stop stealing other peoples."

no more to say...

Really, you friend needs to read more and understand how to works the copyright and abandonware policies...

 

[xGal]

We are not really tha baddies, since we don't make money out of the hacks. If we made money, it would really be bad because it meants making money from someone else's work.

 

[Blah]

I'm glad the two of you aren't talking anymore. That is definitely for the better. If everyone in this community had his view point, we wouldn't have the resource threads and wonderful (and bug ridden) hacks we do today. It hurts me inside to see this kind of behaviour is still around.

Some time ago, this community was actually quite similar to that. We had people who made hacks and didn't share their routines/scripts. We had people who would go through the trouble of hex locking their hacks and obfuscating code. It's quite pathetic really, I like this version of the community much better. Everyone is open source except GoGo :3

Wow someone wants to make a petition, lol.

 

[Glasikino]

I've been a long time skyrim player, on April Bethesda and Valve tried to see if they could sell mods (and get profit)
Let me say it blunt: from a developer prospective. modders are not a bad thing. We can add value to the game for free and more people will want to buy the game to then try it both with and without the mod.
(if you're intrested in a more big explanation of what happened this april about mod selling, google "Mod Monetization Madness" )

 

[illumine]

Eh, whatever. If everyone who were to work on the first generation Pokémon games were to a) die, or b) make future games which are worse, Pokémon games could still continue to be made. The second generation games were essentially modified versions of the first generation's, if the only difference is supposed to be the name under which it came out then there's clearly a difference between what happens to be the law and what is good, the latter is of course more normative than the former. In claiming that something is a ROM Hack, one is obviously not claiming it to be wholly original content - in which context, it would be deceptive to think that video game makers credit everything that they derive content from or that they manufacture all of their content anew - and on here at least it might be free, although there's a certain charm in ROM hacks and such being transmitted as Pokémon games and such and they sometimes seem to suggest things more interesting than the main games. At a certain point one might as well rage against fan fics too because there's an anime and such, which is itself reasonably contrived and so on as one might take issue with a fan fic with or may not. Still, it's good that they've looked into copyright law deeply or perhaps even meaningfully (eh) in order to presumably specifically discourage fan art, fan fics and such of anything they write, saves the trouble of opening their mouths. It does nonetheless seem weird that what they take issue with is the alteration rather than other elements, perhaps the choice of the 'copywrite' spelling would follow from this then. Well, anyway then, as pointed out ROM Hacks do encourage altering the game, at the same time it might be possible to get around this and keep as many things as possible and this might be worth encouraging just for the sake of it at this point.

 

[Infinitum]

No, cause some ROM editors have improved the things that were made by Nintendo. I'm not a fan or piracy or malicious things on the web, but there are bigger problems on the internet than people who are just editing a game. People who are taking over computers of normal and innocent people should be punished, not people who edit a game or download music...

 

[Capitalist Ness]

"Doing any sort of switching to anyones game, artwork, writing or videos is a resulted copywrited material. Trust me, I draw, write and do videos so I've looked deeply into the copywrite law. it's why I'm also working on getting a petition for people to be unable to mod anything, hack, or do whatever they please with something that's not theirs to play with and make adjustments. If anyone wants to do that they can just go make their own game and stop stealing other peoples."

modifying someone's drawing, video or text can't compare with modding/hacking a game
your friend is pretending to have knowledge in something he doesn't know shit about

besides, his petition won't do shit, but I'd ruse him into thinking that internet petitions actually matter to get a few laughs

 

[sonic65101]

Actually, it is legal to create and distribute fan games (including ROM hacks) as long as it is distributed for free. Furthermore, games like Minecraft encourage players to make their own mods. Saying that game editors are bad guys is like saying the Rebel Alliance were the bad guys (Star Wars reference).