Ok, I've been a lurker for the longest time, but this post is ostensibly what finally made me make an account, to make what might very well be both my first *and last* post on here.
I'll say right now that most fanboys will probably jump on a hate-train just halfway through reading this, so let me say now; try to keep a level head, yeah? (And props to all of those of you who can remain rational).
The fanboyism here really does reach ridiculous levels.
While my time of lurking has lead me to understand that most (or at the very least "a lot") of people on here are fanboys, this thread, and the quoted post in particular, really starts to reach astronomical proportions, so just for the sake of getting a second/nuanced opinion in, or at the very, very least a counterpoint to all of the blatantly biased fanboyism running rampant on here, I'll post my attempt at an actual, somewhat neutral, non-fanboy view here.
Firstly, let's get one thing out of the way; I seriously doubt that you, or even most users on here (though to be fair most users don't claim to), in any way "support" the scene.
The people supporting the scene are the devs; those of us who actually do work and contribute (whether that be by developing homebrews and CFWs or just searching for and creating new exploits), not just sit around and use flashcarts so that they can download and play ROMs instead of buying games and supporting actual developers. By merely owning a flashcart and pirating ROMs, you are in no conceivable way supporting the scene, you are merely leeching off of it (and there's nothing wrong with that, in and of itself/nothing inherently wrong with that; if no-one used the homebrew and whatnot, a lot of devs wouldn't feel motivated to do their work in the first place, however, credit where credit is due, and you are not "supporting" anything besides your own enjoyment of other people's work (which, again, there is nothing inherently wrong with. Just don't try and take credit for other peoples work, or claim that you're doing work/putting effort in when you're actually not.)).
Now then, onto the meat of the matter, the rampant fanboyism:
It seems to me that most people forget that the Gateway Team is a public company.
They are not doing this for the "love of the scene".
They are not doing this because they like you.
They are not doing this because they want to give you something special.
They are doing this because they want money. Specifically, our money.
Gateway is a company, not a hacker-group; just like the Sky team, and even the R5 and all the other clones, they're trying to make money.
For example, anyone consider why they weren't so hot on the butter when it came to supporting devmenu? Maybe, just maybe, that was because once they did (as they now do), people with a bunch of 3DS's/2DS's only need to buy one single cart since they can install most games to the regular SD-card of their other consoles once they've run the exploit and have all the necessities installed, as opposed to buying one separate card for each and every one of their units (or their families collective units, or whichever is applicable). When did they fix full and official devmenu support? Basically the instant that it was out that the first (albeit highly unstable)CFWwas out amongst devs, and that it could be installed on a 4.5 system without a GW red card(without any of GWs products. They only gave their official support once they were forced to by the competition.
They are a company. They want to sell their product. They are not a hacker-group. They do not do this for the sheer love of the scene/for the pride and bragging-rights. They do it to make money.
Now then, as to what we can "demand" from them.
We can actually, as customers, demand that they live up to their promises. Saying that we "don't have rights" isn't true and it typical fanboy-talk, because the fact of the matter is that we have paid money for a product. If they were just a team/a person, like e.g. Smealum (the main guy behind ninjhax for those who don't know) doing all of this for free during their spare time, you would have a point (but even then, he got some well-deserved flak for bragging and telling everyone about his amazing work bloody months before delivering anything, and if you talk big, you should be able to back it up; if you can't, wait with your big announcements until you've actually got something to show for it). However, GW aren't doing this for free; particularly not in this case.
I would even say that they've been outright shady (which might arguably be expected from a company that literally makes it's money off of enabling others to commit illegal activities, but something being "expected" doesn't mean that it's morally acceptable). See, the thing is, they didn't announce their fancy new exploit as early as they did for no reason; they did it because they wanted to push more units. They wanted to sell.
They wanted to make more money.
They understandably wanted in on the holiday buck, as the yuletide buck is one of the, if not plain the biggest buck of the year. Parents, SOs, friends etcetera buy for eachother and for themselves; everyone buys a shitload more stuff than any other time of the year, particularly entertainment devices/toys, which is after all what consoles (and their peripherals) are.
But, they couldn't sell it based on it's current feature-set, as that serves only a minority group (those who have in their possession, or have access to, one or several 3DS/3DS's with the 4.5 firmware(s)) and most people in that minority group who are interested in a product of this kind already have one (or more, even), so what do they do?
They make promises.
They sold/sell their product not primarily on current features, but on the promise of future features. Now, as is expected, they have been very vague and constantly avoiding giving any specific time-indicators (and it, in a very bitter way, amuses me to see how quickly the fanboys forget the debacle from just a year back); however, one fact rings true; they have used words which they (and we all) very well know how people will react to and interpret.
It's not feasible to say that "Well "soon" and "just around the corner" and "any day now" can mean in a years time", because in practice, it can't. GW knows how people will interpret that sort of wording; if they didn't, they wouldn't use it so consistently. It's based around giving people hope and making them think that something is going to happen soon - and as such, making them buy their product - but at the same time being able to back out and say "hey, we didn't promise any dates, we didn't set any specific time". They don't say "soon" because they think it will be "soon", they say "soon" because they know that that will make people hopeful, and, as such, buy their product.
It's often very hard to set a time-frame for this kind of work (most people who have ever worked with anything like this - professionally or otherwise - would already know this), but that's why you do not use words like "soon". Instead, you say things like "We don't know yet" or just plain the honest "We have no idea when it'll be done, we're just at the point where we finally know for a fact that it is at all doable, so it will be done at some point in the future". Saying things like "soon" and "just around the corner" has no point other than to entice people to buy their stuff - and as such, as consumers, we do actually have some right to demand that they live up to their promises. It doesn't matter that they haven't given an exact date, when they have - knowingly and deliberately - used phrasing specifically to make people buy their stuff/create hype and hope. People (usually with due right) throw a shitfit whenever stuff like this happens in any other area - From Software didn't live up to their implicit promises regarding the graphics in Dark Souls 2 (even though they never explicitly promised that the trailer graphics were the final graphics), what happens? Shitfit. Ubisoft provably doesn't deliver the graphics for Watch Dogs that they originally showed to people in their first trailer (even though they never explicitly promised that those were the final graphics), but it can be unlocked through conf-editing; what happens? Shitfit. The list goes on.
When a creator of a product makes statements that might not be super-specific in nature, but are very obviously worded so as to create hope and hype while at the same time creating enough crawlspace for the creator to back out and say "Hey, I didn't make any explicit promises!" you should not defend it, you should call it out.
Again, people need to realize that;
Gateway are not your friends, they are a company. They don't want to do nice things for you just for the sake of being nice; they want your money. If they wanted to just be nice/if money wasn't their primary concern, they'd release all of their stuff into the wild, open up their source-code, let other devs get a look at it and tweak, modify and improve upon it; maybe sell a few flashcarts on the side for those who are truly not interested in anything but playing ROMs and just want a "plug-and-play"-type solution; but they're not doing that (and what's worse, they knowingly and with intent insert code to brick peoples hardware, or did we all forget about that little event?).
Why not?
Because they're not your friends, they're not my friends, and they're certainly not the scenes friends. They are a company, and to them, you are just a wallet that walks like a man. They continue to give support because that means continued revenue, i.e., continued cashflow, i.e., more money in their pockets. They don't do it out of the good of their hearts, and no (semi-)adult person should be believing that.
We have a right to be demanding, because we are their customers and give our money to them, and they are a company that sells a product. Even more so, as of late, they sell their product based on a promise, and knowingly and deliberately word their communications to their customers in such a way as to keep hopes up and hype high.
Saying that we have no right to be demanding is the same thing as saying that I can't be demanding ofToyotawhen they've promised me that my car will use up such and such many litres of fuel per kilometre; we are customers, and they're a company making promises. We are not risk-capital investors or silent partners, those two groups might not be able to make any demands, but customers that pay money for a product can and should be demanding (in moderation though, of course). We shouldn't just "let GW take their time", if they're pulling BS or acting in a shady manner. If they're pulling BS or acting in a shady manner, they should be called out on it, not defended. They're a company. They don't care about you, they care about your money (and making it their money). They don't need your defending; that's like the abused spouse defending his/her/it's assailant.
So, that's my two cents, and an attempt to be a bit more neutral and bring at least one non-fanboy view to the table.
Cheers, fellas, and stay civil.
The Real Jdbye
*is birb*
BigOnYa
@
Sicklyboy:
I feel like school, back when I was actually in school, was more entertaining though, because of how much I get to interact with people, hang out with friends, and other stuff like that. All I get to talk to at work is my boring coworkers lol
