Slashdot Mirror
The Abandonware Question
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Gamespot.com has an interesting article on abandonware games. They go so far as to seek out opinions of "game makers" with some interesting results. Some of them actually are flattered that their games have gone to that big abandonware site in the sky. Then there's Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry creator) who jokingly replies to the question of why gamers seek out free games, "Because they're cheap bastards, that's why! Always looking for something for free! Sucking the lifeblood out of us poor humble programmers! Now leave me alone so I can download more free pirated music!"" The first couple of pages are boring, with predictable opinions from big publishers. But it gets more interesting as you go on.
"but I believe it is morally right for me to obtain a "backup" of titles I purchased"
rofl. care to back that up w/ any type of evidence or argument? or are you just going to spout dogma that happens to coincide with everything you believe in, including stealing.
You know, I find this kind of ironic. "The greed of the publishers is definately repugnant." Well, I dunno. How about your own greed, wanting to get the game without putting out a damn cent? Isn't that just as much greed? In a day when game publishers are going under because of a lousy market, and aside from a few that blow huge amounts of money on marketing (cough...Blizzard) don't waste too much money, I'd have to say that you sound hypocritical.
You see, this is the problem with the community as a whole, and why Linux will never, ever take off. "If you won't give me something on MY terms (which usually means "for free"), I have a God-given right to take it by whatever means necessary." And you wonder why nobody bothers to publish real software for linux...
This blatant karma whoring may well cost some of these sites their existence. Thanks for fucking it all up for the rest of us.
Oh and btw mame.dk's rom downloads are down. Maybe a previous karma whore got them slashdotted...