P2P - Beyond ‘Emulating’ Loss, Now

Sharing new favorite songs, watching movie trailers, finding and trying new and obscure artists - such are the innocent uses of peer-to-peer (P2P) file share services. Napster, Kazaa and Morpheus are (or were, as the case may be) a few of the better known. A few of the better known uses for such services? Downloading music, entire movies and even books in .pdf format. We all know the music industry still sings of the evils of P2P file share services (and gains media, both positive and negative, for these songs) and the movie industry now has a pre-show commercial geared towards prospective users of these services (practically begging movie-goers not to download their films) - but what of other entertainment industries often subjected to this form of abuse? What of the video game industry?

Avid video game fans have almost undoubtedly heard of the new(er) phenomena that are video game console emulators and video game ROMs. I daresay that most, even the most honest, have at least played a game using an emulator and its ROM even if out of sheer curiosity. Of course, these are the ‘offenders’ the video game industry should be the least worried about.

The worries come to light when the emulators and ROMs are being abused.

Their availability is astounding - all one needs is a reliable P2P service or to stumble upon one of many sites that offer such wares free to download. Failing those, it is easy enough to transfer a file from a friends PC to another. This availability also applies to rare and imported games - ROMs of all of the ‘Final Fantasy’ series are easy enough to find, even in their original Japanese form. I’ve been asked why that should matter, as it is rare to find an American completely fluent in Japanese and thus able to play ROMs in the mother tongue. I say it is not a case of practicality for most, but a case of ‘fanboy integrity’ (not meant as an offensive term, as I am subject to such myself, often with Tori Amos memorabilia). Owning the Japanese version of a game is just much cooler than owning the American version. Own both? You win.

ROMs are free to download. This is cheap. Very, very cheap - much cheaper than the $49.99 price tag new releases don. It is just common sense, then, that one should download a full game ROM and only spend hard drive space rather than cash (and this way you get to eat for the week, too), right? Wrong.

Wrong? Isn’t a game company charging $50 for a single game wrong? I hear the same argument when it applies to the music industry (and I can actually understand the basis for that argument, given the seemingly low talent it takes to make it in that industry) and I easily contest it when used in the video game category. You create a video game. Write the story, dialogue, battle system and magic items. Illustrate every character, every scene, the action menu and apply color to said illustrations. Program (yes, program) this. Work out all the bugs. Create the packaging, choose music for the score ... you get the idea.

It takes a team - a very large, very talented team - to make even the worst video game. These individuals that make up this team need to get paid. They just spent a large chunk of their life that could have been used to wait tables or become lawyers to create this RPG and not be a slave to the wages (in the conventional sense). Let them eat. Video game creators need to eat, too. This means that the company needs to profit on the video game. This may mean charging $50 when it is first released. The neat thing being that, if the game does well and the company makes money from its sales, it could be released later at a lower cost (‘Greatest Hits’ for the PS2 now include ‘Devil May Cry' at a mere $20). Inexpensive and legitimate.

Yet this does not even touch on the problem of obtaining import games at a decent cost. Besides EBay and Yahoo! Japan, both a great asset and a great liability to avid gamers, finding these games is difficult enough (granted one is not fluent in the target foreign language), and affording them, including shipping costs, is not easy. There is no easy answer to this problem, yet, without the use of emulators and ROMs.

But isn’t the use of emulators and ROMs detrimental to the video game industry? Perhaps - but perhaps not. If proper care and discrimination are applied when choosing ROMs and honesty at the forefront of one’s intentions, one can legitimately use emulators and ROMs. Examples of honest use include downloading a game to try out and deleting it within 24 hours, downloading a game one already owns for ease of playing on the computer (perhaps when ‘doing’ homework ... ?), or even downloading a foreign language version of a game one does not own (and cannot feasibly purchase at the time) but promising to purchase it when it is practical to do so. Just make sure to actually purchase it when you have the time and chance to do so. Procrastination does not justify abuse.

Feel justified in downloading the Japanese ‘Love Hina’ dating sim ROM for GameBoy Advance? Go for it, but scout out EBay every once in a while and bid! After all, isn’t Ms. Narusegawa worth it? (And knowing that the colorists did not starve during and after production is a plus, too.)

I see what you are saying. But i dont think downloading roms of dead systems is wrong. And some games are terribly hard to find statewise like the ild final fantasy series before anthology. I have to admit i beat ff4-5-6 on emulatores on zsnes.
But i do think if you are downloading new games that you can pick up at the local game store it is wrong.


I have toargue with my self on the last sentence, I am in college and i know alot of people in college are dead broke,beyond broke, they owe 1000 of dollers to school, They just dont havee 50 bucks to buy new games. dont do it though

It's free... Why would I pay for it when it is free? That's always been my mentality and if the artists creating their crap have a problem with it... Create some new way to fight piracy.

I buy the good crap, and DL themediocre things that I'd never bother to purchase, but still sort of enjoy.

I could say more on the subject... But at half typing capability ( fractured wrist) I dont much feel like it.

Hey, I've downloaded ROMS and music, why would I stoop that low?

Simple, I want to play my KOF, and like I said when I first discoverd it, I will play them anyway I can, and unfortunatly living in the UK meant that I couldn't because ater KOF97 it seems the game was no longer released over here, and there is no way that I'm paying £500 for a NeoGeo system and ten additional £200 for the carts INDIVIDUALLY >.<, hahaha.

I also downloaded

It's the same with game music, I download game music only simply because you can't find the Sound Tracks down here, and if you do, you are very lucky (remebers the time he saw bof3 soundtrack but didn't have the cash to buy it >.<) Hey I was like 14. lol

I do buy regular music from the stores though, because I obviously respect the talent that went ito that, and I disagree when you said it doesn't take alot of talent, because it's not only about the voices or instruments you here, the will power of having to constantly repeat big performances and tours is a major struggle in itself, of course, rewards are big.

Still I see what you're saying and it was a very impressive article indeed, but I don't emulate to hurt the companies, anywya, they are lossing nothing from me as they didn't release the stuff in the UK anyway, hehe of course I don't emulate games or music that I can buy, there is no good feeling like having the official product.

*looks at Kyos reply*
Well, there goes my post.
I first came into contact with emulators because I wanted to play the KOF series. I'm a huge fan of SNK and spending more then half of my life living in Sweden, me and Kyo basically had the same video game market so I can understand his frustrations when they stopped releasing KOF games over here. (Actually I don't even remember them releasing KOF'97 over there, 96 was the last one I saw. ) However I could still find the games in the arcades and I did spend a small fortune on playing KOF'94 - KOF'98 with my friends over the years.
But I still wanted to have the old games once the old ones were replaced with the new ones. And some of the games are still hard to find even today.
And the ones for Playstation had horrible loading times and like Kyo said, there is no way that I'm paying £500 for a NeoGeo system and ten additional £200 for the carts individuality.

I also download game music and the reason for it is simple.
I have never found a video game Original Sound Track that I have wanted.
It's seems very hard to come by, and I usually download songs from games I already own. I also have a Mini Disc player so I can just record the song right out of the TV while the game is still running. (And I have several times)

As for other music, sure I have downloaded a few songs, but I still buy music from artists I support. Some times I have found one song that I liked from an album I normally wouldn't look twice on, but then found them to be great and bought the whole album. (Evanescense was the most recent case)


Both game creators and musical artists deserve to earn money on their products but you mentioned that the high price was justified.
In some cases its actually not. It's the high price that harms the game creators. A few months back it was discovered that Nintendo charges about 50% (or something similar) of the prise just for the little Nintendo license logo on the side of the box.
Do you think that's fair?
For us or the game development team?
No it's not so they are forced to set those high prices and I bet there is something similar going on with Sony and Microsoft.
If they didn't charge so much for the license, the games would be cheaper and the game developers would earn more money because more people would buy their games and more consoles would be sold as well.

I don't emulate to hurt the companies either because frankly, they don't lose any money on me. I always buy the games I want, and emulate some that I would never buy because I don't have the console or it's just impossible to find.
I don't say it is right, but at least they don't lose any money on me, that's for sure.

Emule is the best P2P to get roms. www.sharereactor.com - tons of stuff, every movie, every playstation rom is aviable there(on forums at least). P2P is the future, i get all the playstation roms, all the newest movies and all the porn off the P2P, without P2P THERe woULD BE NO LIFE ON EARTH.

hahaha... That kid ruled, now I have another source for roms and the " adult " stuff.

Haw.

Heh heh. Ditto, TED. I should check that out, and see what it's all about.

I can't download game music, now, with the disclaimer that I can't find it anywhere near me. Seems anime and video games are being scooped up by larger companies (*coughSuncoastcough*) ... though they do jack up the prices FAR beyond what they need to be to profit. There are some smaller shops nearby that do not, however, and I believe in supporting local businesses. So I do - when I can. Otherwise, I live without.

Overall, I do feel that downloading can hurt major companies. And I can also totally see not wanting to pay the money for a mediocre game. Perhaps companies need to go the extra mile, then fans will pay that extra $20.

Ugh. College students aren't the only ones in debt/starving. *sigh* I can totally understand that feeling.

And I think it is more fun to track down a dead system and buy it and its games than dling the ROM and Emu. That's just me, though.

I would like that but really don't have the cash for it.
People are always saying why I never buys games orginal good reason that Faery gave. Prices prices prices In the store a game cost € 40 and i can get it for € 4 what would you choose the € 4 of course. And music new napster pay for hearing just like a cd but a way cheaper. We people will always pick the cheapest prices it is in our nature.

I have a ton of roms for many systems. they are sometimes the only way to get them. But now theres the ISDA protection law which makes most copyrighted games non downladable.

I mean yea the RIAA dosent like us downloading music from the net and have gone as far as to attain isp's and take people to court over it but thats going a little too far. what you do in your house is your business not the RIAA's. I have downloaded a ton of mp3's and a good number of roms . So dose that mean that everyone whos samled a song from the net got a rom because they were intrested in it should go to jail i think not

If its a game thats on a CD, then I'm not gonna try to download it and burn it. I don't have much money so I'll go and rent it. But if its a cartridge, I'll probaly download it. The only thing that'd be much of a problem is GBA. Unfortunently I can't rent them, so I'm stuck with downloading some roms when there is a game I want to play. I don't feel bad about it, as I'll probaly never have a chance to play these games if I don't.

I download SNES ROMS, mostly cause SNES' are obsolete.

I don't download music.
Most of these are at no loss, and most artist get money from promotional crap, not albums. If they care that much about a status, let it be, otherwise let the record companies lose out on the money like they are supposed to.

I want lie about this, I do use roms. Very few however. I don't think the use of roms is wrong in some sercomstansis (sp!!) Games I have beaten that were roms consisted of games that are very hard to get...in fact very very hard to get. "Chrono trigger" is perhaps one of the hardest games to find anymore, and then searching for a Snes? What a waiste of time when you can just download them...

However, I will agree that they should only be used the correct way!

P2P Has just been declared legal in Holland. KaZaa won the case that was against them. Something to do with the users. That we share all of it that gave them the final push. Somone of the high council was against it and said we needed too pay for music just like in the USA.

The "24 hour rule" was hinted at in the article, but I'd just like to point out that it DOESN'T EXIST. There is nothing saying that it is legal to have it as long as you delete it before 24 hours. That's like saying it's ok to steal a car, as long as you get it back in 24 hours.

It's legal to steal a car as long as you don't bang it up and get it back before anybody notices.

Yea Reiz is right. You can steal a bike and ride with it hoping the owner has not noticed and you put it back.
After the 24 hours it is very illigal if they find it you must pay a fine. Same with music delete it after 24 hours.
And they will discover it when they check you PC there is always something left behind that is record what you been doing the last months and so.

Thankl God that someone has the balls to step up and preach the good word to the world. I, with absolute honesty, agree with the article and simply hope that more people stop using ROMs and start using CASH. No matter how you look at it, this problem affects us all. No money for the creators, no good games from the creators. And for all of you who think that there will always be people who will pay for the games so I don't have to - YOUR WRONG! Continue to steal the games and then more people will find out about it and .... soon it will actually be called FINAL Fantasy...

this topic is a good one to discuss. there is good points for sharing or not sharing, personally i download the occasional song or anime but i dont get games or movies really

Excellent Article, thank you for this! There are many people who put hard work into games and they deserve to be payed for bring the experience to our lives. I used to use ROMS but no more, i realized a few years ago what kind of time and effort it take to program in the different aspects of a game, and as a fledgling programmer making calculator programs that make me tear my hair out i want to pay my respects to the Game makers. My hats of to the author of this article and the Game producers of the world!!!

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you are completely right about the P2P applications i mean when they realize there titles are not selling as well they will cost more and it will becom harder and harder to get them as ROMs i myself own many legit titles and some roms but i try my best to buy peoples should understand that the people who make these games go days and nights without sleeping so they should try to get some of these games through buying and Hey some of the roms dont contain the full potential of the original game. Jus want to add that i own all the FF games except Final Fantasy XI to all yall who disagree with me try to understand and put yourself in there shoes i know you wouldnt want to lose money for something that took blood sweat and tears to make.


Have a good day all!!!!!!!!:)

The big fat problem of this is that ones who sell the game are selling for a too high price. I am very cheap, I don't have a bank with lots and lots of money in it. So I will buy what is cheaper than the rest. A rom is free no charge. Just how you look at it. I want to save money on games so roms/copies of the games are more for me. Yea its nice if you can buy all those games but some people need too pay the bills and food.

ive only ever used roms twice- a snes game, and a gba game that i actually own anyway. I dont think roms r bad if you already own the game you're downloading- ive seen rom sites where they say you are only allowed to download the games if u already have them. I downloaded Golden Sun once, only 'cos i had no save slots left on the game cart. my brothers downloaded FF6, but i wasn't old enough at the time to know anything about roms and the such, so....meh. But also, there are games that might get a american release, but not a UK one. I live in the UK, and from what i've seen, importing games costs a good few pounds more. I once bought an import game for £34.99, and when it actually came out in england several months later, it was only £29.99. So, importing kinda sucks. But if there are games that aren't gonna come out in uk, i think that that is a time when roms would be a good idea. Saves the pounds for other games.

Hmm, loaded question. First, MP3s... Do I download MP3s? Yes. Do I use MP3s exclusively? No. Allow me to explain. Say I hear a song on the radio that I like. An unfortunate rarity, nowadays, but hey, it happens. The first thing I do is find the artist's name and the name of the album it belongs to, and check out some of the *other* songs on the album. If I have no interest in any of the other songs, which happens quite frequently, I will download the one song I like, and leave it at that. Otherwise, I go out and get the album. Is it right? Wrong? I don't know, and I'm not even going to try arguing it either way. I feel it's justified, and really don't care what other people think . Let's face it, I'm not spending fifteen bucks for a CD that only has one song on it that I'm interested in - and yes, P2P programs have actually increased business for a select few artists from yours truly. There are several albums I own which I wouldn't if I hadn't heard a few of their other songs

ROMs, hmm, another difficult question. Of course, there is the argument that it doesn't hurt anyone, because they're no longer making a profit on it. For the most part, that's an accurate statement... however, look at games like Final Fantasy 1/2 (the 8-bit ones, not 1 and 4). Both of those were relatively recently re-released on the PSX, and while I admit that they were graced with enhanced graphics, you have to admit, that it puts a bit of a hole in the entire 'it doesnt hurt anyone' argument.

One thing I noticed absent from your take on using ROMs was the current availability of translations for ROMs which were never released in a specific language (generally, english). For example, I don't own any Japanese ROMs, and I would have no interest in owning a Japanese cartridge. I cannot speak or read Japanese, and I generally play games for the storyline first, gameplay second. However, I do own several ROMs which people were diligent enough to hack and translate, and kind enough to release said translations to the general public. Again, is it right or wrong? I'm not qualified to make that decision, but black and white, it is not.

Someone else mentioned that the 24 hour rule doesn't exist. He/she is absolutely correct. There is no such thing, and never has been. I loved your example

As far as more recent ROMs, N64, PSX, etc... these are the ones that are hurting gaming companies. If you can't afford it, don't steal it. You have no inherent right to own the game, and downloading it for free simply drives up the prices for others.

There is one more point I'd like to make: Downloading so-called 'warez' versions (aka pirated) of (generally speaking) PC games. This is probably the single biggest hit to the gaming industry. Not only are they ready to play on the target platform (no emulation needed), but often there are pirated versions out a week after the release, sometimes sooner - often even a beta (pre-release) version is leaked to the public, BEFORE the game is available in stores. Don't download these files. Doing so does an inordinate amount of damage to the industry which you are obviously - if you are taking the time to download these games - so fond of. If you are uncertain about whether or not you want to purchase the game, first look for a demo, and second, check out player reviews, they can be immensly helpful.

P.S. I am quite aware that some games, even some companies that release games, are not worth spending your money on. Either they're cheap knock-offs of other games, they barely work, DONT work, or are so full of bugs that the game is a joke. Don't support these companies by buying their products, but this doesn't justify stealing their game. Sticking to an earlier analogy, it's not ok to steal someone's car because you don't like them.

-KenjiMoogle

I only use ROMs of dead or dying systems. The newest ROMs I have are from the 16-bit era. The cartridges are virtually impossible to find nowadays, so I have to resort to use of ROMs. However, I will agree that downloading ROMs for next- or even last-gen systems is wrong. If you want to try it so bad, rent it or something. Just don't rob the game creators of food for their families because you're a stingy, selfish jerk.

I would just like to say that I'll never, EVER buy a game that was not released in Europe where I live, you know, the remote place where Suikoden 3, Xenosaga, BoF 5, chrono trigger, chrono cross, legend of mana, valkyrie profile, Final fantasy 1...6, tactics, and hundreds of others I never even heard of were never released, at least not until 8 years late.
The editor doesn't want me to buy his game? Fine, I won't buy it, you see, I'm on his side.
Since he didn't expect me to buy it (and even forbid it) then it's meaningless to say my pirating the game costs any money to anyone. If they think that's a problem they just have to produce them in Europe.
Even if I could get a hold on an imported version of a PS2 game, I couldn't read it unless I modded the PS2 (which I won't do since I know of many people whose PS2 crashed after one year because of it) or unless I bought an imported PS2 (do they seriously think I'm Bill gates or something? One cost me enough, thank you).
I have bought all my PSX games that were released here.
If they want me to buy their products they'll have to stop treating me like an under-crap.

Sol Badguy, you had said you use SNES emulators. Yes, I know emulators are bad. However could you tell me where you got your emulator. Like you said SNES is obsolette.

First of all, The editor is a women, you should call her "She" from now on. But maybe you're not here anymore. So, I'll leave it as that.

Piracy sucks. However, this ROMs is free and nobody gets hurt. I never see that they ( The game maker ) are against this ROMs. If they are, I'll support them. But again, leave it as that.

Some people must think that every other country is rich or somthing....Do you know that the U.S. only gets a third of what SQUARE produces, and thats only the tip of the ice burg. One magazine article posted that the "great" people of SQUARE laughed when we asked if the next "Kingdom Hearts" was going to be released over in the U.S., not to mention if it'll even be released in Europe.

About the mp3 thing, there are certain bands that are willing to admit that the only thing that actually worked on is their single and just put a whole bunch of crap on the rest of their album. If you watch that stupid show on MTV "making the album" with blink182 the specifically said that "Now that we have our single done, all we have to do is put a bunch of crap on there and we're done".....Now would you really want to promote such laziness.

Honestly none of these people who dont intend to release anything over in other countries than their own...or dont even try to work period SHOULD get money for things they didnt even intend to do, such as just giving their single or releasing their game in another country that they wouldn't get money from anyway. Just because we happen to stumble on a rom file to a game only in Japan or the only good song a band produces nobody should get punished for it, and if they do thats just a load of crap.

Now dont get me wrong, I buy all the music to bands I like, and I buy all of the good games that are released here. If the Japanese companies try to press charges for somthing that we didn't even get over here. That just means one of two things either they're greedy, or they think evey other country is lower than the crap on their shoes

Seto Out

What if they made the CDs cheaper? Say probably $20 a CD. Wouldn't more people buy them if they were cheaper? Some people sell pirated copies of games at a lower price, so why not the original producers too? Sure, lastibility of the CD may suffer but since the price has been lowered, you could buy another CD easilly.

Just my two cents...

Your 2 cents worth a million for others.

Plain and simple I totally agree, To all you collectors ebay is a gamers paradise. I want to say this in defense to downloading p2p. I only download music for albums i owned and lost throwing a party, or when my car was stollen, and nine times out of ten i purchase it again

ahh....Chrono Trigger! the reason I started downloading ROMs.
I olny download ROMs for older games (NES, GEN, SNES). Although I do own one GBA ROM. FFTAdvance....I just couldn't help myself.
I buy PS/PS2 games whenever I can.

elric_mo@hotmail.com

I'd just like to say that without my trust SNES emulator, i never would have been able to play such brilliant japanese games as Live a Live, Treasure hunter G, Bahamaut Lagoon, or Seiken Densetsu. Luckily, there are people who make translation patches so that I, the unlucky american, can play some of the greatest games in history that just weren't released here. If I hadn't played Seiken Densetsu, I wouldn't have understodd where some of the Sword of Mana system and come from and therefore not like it as much, but I see where they got the special move bar form, and undersatnd it, so therefore playing SD was a good idea. I tink as long as the games arn't readily available to you then you shouldn't bother. I love playing SNES at my friends house, Illusion of Gaia is the bomb, but it kinda blows on PC because the controller is gone, and you're not on a TV, and also the musci is messed up (Interpolation makes the graphics look just like on a TV, no problems with that). Just in case you havn't heard, MIPI (that's Music Internet Piracy Investigation or something like that) just raided kazaa. If you've got it, I'd uninstall it, they'll have your number soon. I know I got rid of it (didn't use it anymore anyways)

Yeah, that happened in Sydney, Australia... So there's nothing for the americans to worry about quite yet since Kazaa is still able legally to operate here.

This is easy for u to say , u live in a country with a good economy (did u know that in some parts of Est Europe 20$ is months pay???????? with does u need to buy food , pay taxes , and other stuff ). In some countrys as Italy a months pay is 1000 euro...........BIG difference..............and downloading ain`t that bad. They could sometimes give some games for a cheaper price (in Romania some game magazine are selling FULL games , like Cultures , Gothic 1 ,Unreal Tournament for a price .............4$, and u buy a game and a magazine , u can read and play ). I agree with u guys but........... the producers need to sell there games cheaper.

modern gaming may need to be protected, but the dead stuff doesn't. Square is hording it's old games from us, for example. What right does it have to say that american's can't have the real ff III. even if it is downloaded, square isn't loosing any royalties over it. Roms are also more reliable and convenient than other games. I just downloaaded the roms for every cartridge that I own in the last few weeks because the snes is just so slow! who is this ISDA that it can tell me I can't have my OWN game! It's impossible, IMPOSSIBLE, to find almost all the good classics except the few that have been ported. Show me a Lufia sitting on a shelf somewhere. Show me Dragon warrior. Show me Super mario RPG. If a company stops producing, and they have no plans to port, they forfeit their rights to the game.

From what I think downloading music should be ok but for the rest , I am unsure about it. Thinking of downloading music should not be wrong.(For example, a student who likes to listen to music but dont have money should get the music.
In my option, music is things that should be free. what if I say no one should download music ,what will happen to those who cant afford it?

this is just my feeling

so when looking at my message , no hard feelings ok