The hype is over paying $80 to be able to pirate a couple hundred games.
Well yeah. But.... I've bought all the games I wanted to play. I assume many folks have, too. If you haven't bought the games you'd really like to play.... 80 bucks is more than two or three of 'em used.
Don't get me wrong. I don't give a crap about piracy, either way. It's an ethical quagmire with great points on both sides, in my eyes the solution is what android's been doing, cheap apps, cheap games. Not worth piracy when stuff I want is 2 bucks, but hey. Not worth the debate.
The issue here though, this is bad. We can't argue this thing is for backups, not reasonably. This is a straight, 100% piracy device. And that could lead to a baaaaaaaaad precedent... It's a lot easier to push anti-hardware laws (like the ones we saw against R4) when we have this straight piracy device. It's not demonstrably usable for homebrew, or..... anything. We can't dump our own backups at this point. There is NOTHING this device can be used for besides piracy.
In my eyes, that's.... not good for us, not good for the scene, not good for anyone except people who don't want to pay for games, and only these people. The ones who've refused to buy games they want, not because they are too expensive, but because they don't want to pay.
And then.... they will pay 80 bucks for a device to pirate them.
C'mon. Those folks are assholes. The gateway is for assholes.
It could also be a gateway to a better device... but again, from the limitations, I'm thinking probably not.
GBAtemp.... was against piracy, once.
Oh wait, according to the terms, it still is:
http://gbatemp.net/help/terms said:
"Warez" - ROMs, WADs & ISOs
"Warez" is an internet term used to describe copyrighted software, game, film, music and data piracy.
- We DO NOT HOST or PROVIDE ROMs/WADs/ISOs; or link to websites that do contain ROMs/WADs/ISOs.
- Members may NOT ASK and MAY NOT PROVIDE INFORMATION or LINKS for and to places that provide ROM, WAD, and ISO files.
- Members may also NOT mention torrent or warez-containing sites or channels by name or otherwise.
- We do not condone piracy in any way.
- Please go elsewhere if you only wish to download or share illegal files. The GBAtemp Forums are for discussion ONLY.
This device can't do anything except piracy. That's why I have a problem, here. We have no misty veil to hide behind. We have NO FUCKING GREY AREA.
This is bad, right? I mean, is the community dissolutioned about this device, or is it more a case of not caring?