Video Game History Foundation: Nintendo Actions 'Actively Destructive To Video Game History'
from the ding-ding-ding! dept
I've been banging on a bit lately about the importance of video game preservation as a matter of art preservation. It's not entirely clear to me how much buy in there is out there in general on this concept, but it's a challenge in this specific industry because much of the control over what can be preserved or not sits in the hands of game publishers and platforms compared with other forms of art. Books have libraries, films have the academies and museums, and music is decently preserved all over the place. But for gaming, even organizations like the Video Game History Foundation have to rely on publishers and platforms to let them do their work, or risk art being lost entirely to the digital ether or lawsuits over copyright. We've talked in the past about how copyright law is far too often used in a way that results in a loss of our own cultural history, and digital-only video games are particularly vulnerable to that.
We just discussed Nintendo's forthcoming shutdown of the 3DS and Wii U stores, and what that meant for digital games that Nintendo indicates it is not planning on selling anywhere else. Well, the Video Game History Foundation released a statement on that action and, well, hoo-boy...
While it is unfortunate that people won’t be able to purchase digital 3DS or Wii U games anymore, we understand the business reality that went into this decision. What we don’t understand is what path Nintendo expects its fans to take, should they wish to play these games in the future. As a paying member of the Entertainment Software Association, Nintendo actively funds lobbying that prevents even libraries from being able to provide legal access to these games. Not providing commercial access is understandable, but preventing institutional work to preserve these titles on top of that is actively destructive to video game history. We encourage ESA members like Nintendo to rethink their position on this issue and work with existing institutions to find a solution.
Accusing Nintendo of being "actively destructive to video game history" is a hell of a charge, but point out where it's wrong. I'll wait.
The problem here is that video games are still seen, both by the public and producers, as something less than the kind of artistic output of literature, paintings, sculptures, or movies. Imagine a world where someone took the collective works of Monet or Bach, shutdown the venue in which you could pay to see them, and then also indicated that nobody else was allowed to display them for commercial benefit or not. Nobody would accept such a situation. That is culture and it belongs, in at least some small ways, to all of us.
Either because the history of video games is much more recent, or due to stodgy hand-waiving about how these games are not "real art", far less fur is raised over Nintendo taking these actions without any guarantee, or in some cases hostility, to preservation efforts. Yes, Nintendo has directly produced many of these games and it has rights for them due to that. But those games are also part of our shared cultural history, and no individual or company is, or should be, afforded the right to determine how we document that cultural history.
If nothing else, that certainly isn't the purpose of copyright law.
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Filed Under: culture, history, video games
Companies: nintendo, video game history foundation
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Then vs Now
How it started: To promote the progress of science and useful arts…
How it’s going: To promote the profits of megacorps and destroy cultural history.
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Copyright has always been about control. The control exerted by corporations and the wealthy these days is so obscene that it all but guarantees a cultural wasteland in the future.
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Section 108
I am curious if Section 108 of the Copyright law actually can save those classic Nintendo games? Though I'm hoping it allows the same for infringing Nintendo game copies too, just in case that's generally the only thing left when it comes to old Nintendo games itself. I partly say this because I found this strange document about revising 108: https://www.copyright.gov/policy/section108/discussion-document.pdf (look at page 2 where they talk about c.). Though I'm probably misreading it.
I also heard a case that contract law prevented some kind of public domain information from being reproduced, which is a big yikes in general. https://www.rcfp.org/license-can-prohibit-reproduction-public-domain-data/
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Re: Section 108
Disclaimer, I didn't fully read the document and just found it. It's probably not fully about revising it.
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Games connections with other forms of art
FWIW, games do have connections with other artforms. I laughed when I heard that the band name "Smashing Pumpkins" was a reference to some of DooM's monsters, the big bloated heads that spat fire. Again, DooM seems to have contributed to the opening scene in WoT novel "Lord of Chaos", where power-mad Forsaken Demandred arrives at Shoyl Ghul and the sky is full of striated clouds in strange colours ... the same sort of clouds you find looking out of any DooMed window. Those are the two just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are hundreds of other examples.
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Re: Games connections with other forms of art
That would be quite a trick considering the band formed in 1988 and Doom was released in 1993.
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And the actual joke—SPISPOPD, or “Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris”—doesn’t seem to have been a reference to the band at all (thought I grant that it could’ve been).
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Re:
The SPISPOPD, or “Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles of Putrid Debris”
Was from the old days of UseNet where some users complained that EVERYONE was talking about DooM. And it was "Taking up precious download time getting those messages."
A user stated:
" Listen up, ID Software!
Next time you have an impending release of a much anticipated
game, make sure its name is not so cool-sounding as DOOM and much
longer to eliminate all of the casual "Where can I get xxx" posts.
How about "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris" for
the next game?"
That's also why there's a cheat in Doom 1/2, SPISPOPD
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Gaming is just part of culture, it maybe a financial matter, eg the no of people buying wi u games or 3ds games is small Nintendo wants people to buy games on the switch digital store , in 10 years time how many 3ds consoles will still work . Its easier for Xbox games to be preserved as they as based on directx pc programming apps eg old Xbox games can be made to work on any new consoles in the future
Nintendo uses its own distinct programming Os tools not based on the Windows pc os
Maybe future consoles will be based on the Switch os as new Nintendo consoles are released every 5 years leaving the wi u behind s a legacy console
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Given that plenty of older NES consoles and handhelds still work decades after their release, I’d say the chances are good. And if Nintendo wanted people to buy older games on the Switch—whether the copy is physical or digital—it should release those older games for the Switch.
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Re:
Not to mention that legal reproductions of the old consoles exist. Here are some.
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Re:
Wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. The Switch seems to be quite easy both to develop for and port games to. Despite the hardware not being as graphically impressive as Nintendo's competitors, it honestly doesn't need to be. The game should be enjoyable first and foremost, and as the number of buggy AAA releases and quality indie titles has shown, powerful graphics aren't what decides that.
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Re:
In 10 years time, how likely is it that Nintendo won't have replaced the Switch with something else?
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Yeah, right.
Actively destructive to my arse.
What a load of cobblers....
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It's not just Nintendo, unfortunately. It's every walled garden system. Microsoft set the precedent of shuttering their online marketplaces and scattering their indie content well before Nintendo got in on the act when they closed the 360 marketplace with vague promises of helping preserve indie live games that never amounted to much.
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Re:
Microsoft is better at Backwards compatibility, though. And that's not even getting into the Legacy support that the PC offers.
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Re: Re:
Nintendo used to be somewhat decent at backwards compatibility. The Wii could play Gamecube games, the 3DS could play DS, the DS could play Gameboy Advance, the Gameboy Advance could play earlier Gameboy titles...
It makes their current stance with old games on the Switch more tragic, IMO.
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Re: Re: Re:
The handhelds were usually backward compatible; the consoles usually weren't. (The Wii and Wii U are the only consoles that were.)
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Re: Re:
I think you can run windows 1 programs on a win 11 system if you recompile to 32-bit.
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"Nobody would accept such a situation."
Tim, pookie, have you not met the **AA's?
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It's not entirely clear to me how much buy in there is out there in general on this concept
i don't know how much buy-in there has ever been for this concept ever, outside a handful of people and institutions. People, writ large, don't seem to care until anywhere between 20 and 3000 years in the future, when they can refer to some mysterious ancient shit and make up whatever stories they want about it.
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Meanwhile Sega is happy to give users a chance to play their games on newer hardware without much of a fuss.
Genesis Still doing what Nintendon't.
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Re:
It probably helps that Sega is no longer in the hardware business. But you're right.
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Nintendo: Video Game History Foundation can go take a flying leap. We don't give a shit about game preservation (or our fans for that matter).
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At this point...
At this point... Fairly sure it's hypocritical to declare video games as not art.
John Cage's 4′33″ was declared as art.
Literally blank canvases were put in a museum and declared as art.
A banana duck taped to a wall was declared art.
Knowing that, can we really argue a video game isn't art?
We've had games that tell a story, like What Remains of Edith Finch and To the Moon.
We've had games that give you puzzles using interesting game mechanics, like the Portal games and Superliminal.
We've had games that have commentary on a meta level, like The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide.
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Re: At this point
Of course video games are an art form, and I find it interesting that the large (money grubbing) companies completely fail to recognise the dedication of the fans of these older games.
Fortunately there will always be the so called "pirates" who will continue to make these games available after they are no longer "officially supported"
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Nintendo shutter unprofitable virtual console
When are they coming round to take away my N64?
Oh, when you say "actively destroying" you mean "no longer supporting".
Those two aren't the opposites you seem to think they are.
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Re: Nintendo shutter unprofitable virtual console
But nobody else can get them. Nobody else can see them demonstrated or study them. History is preserved better with artifacts, less so with "when Ah were a lad Ah played this game called Zelda, but nothing has been allowed to play it for 50 years..."
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Re: Nintendo shutter unprofitable virtual console
except physical parts have there own problems
Like the breaking disc drives in PS2s
or metal contacts in cartridges
or disc rot
or with some GB/GBA games... battery failure in the cartridges
With no method of getting more copies those games and a natural dwindling supply... Yea, actively destroying is an accurate description.
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