Jools Watsham's Blog: 3DS Piracy!

Jools Watsham's Blog: 3DS Piracy!: According to a report from Tiny Cartridge , hackers are starting to delve into the 3DS, illegally. This may open up pathways for pirates to ...


I posted this as a comment in response to Jools' post:


From TC:
"He adds that he has no interest in allowing others to use the hack to load pirated software."

In circumventing the region locking of 3DS, I will have greater motivation to buy 3DS. My two biggest deal breaking problems with the 3DS so far are the battery life and region locking. I'm very excited to support eShop games on 3DS, as I have with WiiWare and DSiWare. I'm especially looking forward to finally playing games like Mutant Mudds, Fractured Soul, Mighty Switch Force!, and NightSky. In any 3DS discussion, I am diligent in mentioning such titles. Also, with retail stuff, I even own BIT.TRIP SAGA already.

In regards to Try-before-buy,
I have tried several DS games and later bought them. Including (but not limited to):
Etrian Odyssey, Mega Man Battle Network 5, Mega Man Zero Collection, Ghost Trick, Custom Robo, Dragon Quest/Monsters, Final Fantasy, KORG DS-10, Lufia, Monster Rancher, N+, among others.
The funny thing is that most of these remain on my SD card, while the actual game box remains unopened. Now I'm not saying everyone is like this, but with my friends I can think of more than one example who are either, in another country and have to wait, or simply have to save up money, who pirate a game first but buy it later.

Piracy is invaluable for any creative medium. Piracy, to me, carries a positive connotation rather than the common negative one.
In speaking against piracy, usually a person isn't seeing the entire scope of effects, but rather only the first few dominoes that fall. Two example scenarios with different end results:
1) Person doesn't own the game. Can't pirate it or demo it to even try it. This person does not experience the game at all, and so ignores it and then goes on to play other games instead, which are spread around instead, as in the next scenario.
2) Person does't own the game. Can pirate it, plays it a bunch. Tells all his friends, off and on line, about how he's playing this new game and how fun it is. Personal recommendation is much more influential than a commercial or a review. Out of all those friends, some may even end up trying the game out, and in turn they tell all their friends, and lo - the word of mouth free-marketing domino effect. 10 people hearing about a game is superior to 1 person ignoring a game.

Supporting small developers is important. For a long time I've done my best to be aware of the scene to help promote these great games to people who otherwise don't take the time to wade so deep into the scene. While it is unfortunate that there are some who wholly and maliciously pirate things, I think there are an equal or greater amount of good people who instead support, contribute, and promote.

Also, in response to a previous comment,

"Case in point: Bob Sabiston, developer/publisher of the successful DSiWare app Inchworm animation and head of industry-acclaimed film studio Flat Black Films, was denied a license to develop for 3DS/Wii U for no specific reason, even though he has a solid reputation, meets/exceeds all the requirements and already has a successful app on the DSi Shop Channel."

I'm very disappointed to hear about Bob Sabiston.

iTop

[12:22pm] (person): Waiter just came by and was totally impressed with my setup here
[12:22pm] (person): iPad 2 and keyboard dock. He says he'll have to go get one, now
[12:22pm] pocketroid: aka a laptop
[12:23pm] (otherperson): lol, (person)... that happens to me all the time when I'm out with my iPad 2 and keyboard

From a fantasy community IRC channel.

In 2012, there are two major screens in all homes: the computer monitor, and the television set.

Once upon a time, a large source of entertainment was the radio. A group of persons, or a single people, would sit around a radio and enjoy the programmes. Then TVs came out and served the same function, but they still kept their radio around. Stored media formats came out since radio - records, music cassettes, VHS, etc, and there were indvidual devices to play those, all of which now connected to the TV. Then computers came out and served all of these functions at once, and it all fits on a single desk, in one machine. On this machine, the computer, one may even listen to that very first thing: the radio.

Computers can do all things TVs used to do. TVs require an obtuse amount of wires and add-ons. That's why they still have 'entertainment centers' - furniture designed specifically to organize the mess of Blu-ray/DVD/VHS players, CD/cassette/radio players, cable/satellite box, and any number of video game consoles. But glance over at your computer, and it serves all of those functions in the space of about 3 breadboxes or less. At some point in the future, TVs will simply be a another monitor connected to your computer. 

Television is still popular because the population at large is used to the media consumption model which was modeled around the television - buy DVDs to watch movies/shows, pay for cable/satellite to watch varied pre-recorded programming, buy set-spec computerlike consoles to play video games. But again, all of this is now on the internet. The old radio-like television model is doomed to die, and will give way to the new era of the internet.

But it's still okay to connect a television-like monitor to your computer and have the TV function as usual. So rest assured, you can still sit on your couch and enjoy whichever moving pictures you desire while eating your processed corn products and drinking your high fructose corn syrup.

Quantality

There is this interesting dynamic of one-shot/few entry franchises, in stark contrast to yearly-game franchises. Both are obviously loved by each's fans.

Really Big Review Remix

Through my internet vagabondage, I often see people discussing game reviews for big titles. As for myself, I've never seen reviews as a personal attack on a franchise I enjoy, as everyone seems to think they are. If I happen to find myself choosing to read a review(s) (not too often), I'm doing it so I may learn what the game is like, and whether or not it's worth it for me. I extract the necessary information from the review in order to form an idea of what the game will be like. Any opinion stated in the article I will consider, but take with a grain of salt, and certainly won't take it personally. People who bicker about game reviews are missing the point of the whole thing, especially when, in a lonely bout of social desperation, they hastily blurt out "Did you hear? GaemSiteX gave PopularFranchiseX a 7.5! How dare they!". At that point they're just advertising GameSiteX for free, for GameSiteX, and thusly GameSiteX gets tons of traffic, and therefore money. The whole review numbering/rating system is also a sham - numbers don't really matter when there are so many aspects of a single game. If you want to know what a game is like, you're not going to buy a game just because it's a "10" - you'll read several reviews, research, and watch videos. Reviews themselves have now become a source of hollow entertainment rather than enlightenment.
But on the sunny side the gaming globe,

Recently I heard about this Steam game called Really Big Sky. I don't normally pay attention to Steam or PC games, but this one is exceptionally pretty, and the music is lovely - you can download the soundtrack for free here. At first it reminded me simultaneously of BIT.TRIP because of the 'retro' font, and Rez - both because of the dark background and great music. I have yet to play Child of Eden.

Some VG, Science, and Politricks links after the break.

The Almost Daily Pocketroid News

"But if modern games are pieces of art, then they’re quickly evolving into realism. If looking like a photograph is the standard for what is highly esteemed, then it’s no different from some lady praising a wall calendar from some bank."
-Shigesato Itoi

Touch Your Tamagotchi of Today

In 1997, I bought and became obsessed with Tamagotchi. They became so popular that schools were confiscating and banning them. Soon after, the Digimon virtual pet was released (only later did the anime come out, which ended up feeling a lot different). Digimon replaced my Tamagotchi and I was hooked for a few years - I even kept detailed journals of everything I did so I could understand how the monsters grew. Well at the end of this year, Sega Toys and Activision are releasing something similar for DS, titled Wappy Dog. Except you don't just take care of a virtual pet - there's a physical counterpart to the pet. It's not as exciting as a Digimon, but it's still a very unique DS accessory (other cool ones being the DS keyboard from Battle & Get! Pokémon Typing DS, or the Paddle Controller with Arkanoid DS). I think the physical/virtual pet DS game is an idea that has huge potential. I hope other companies run with the idea and release something awesome, perhaps for 3DS. You could even use the AR technology to spruce up the experience around your physical virtual pet. Perhaps changing it's form, or adding accessories to it. Maybe it could have AR card symbols as part of the hardware, or even a screen that changes the AR trigger image.