That TSL campaign sounds amazing :D

Agreed.

You're right though, only just saw your suggestion to let the thread die.

In conclusion: Steam is not a literal monopoly. Steam is arguably a monopoly for purposes of legal argument. That's my position.

Have a good night.

And under the FTC's rules that found Microsoft to be a monopoly there's a very good case that Valve would be considered one too.

It's the same as arguing that Microsoft aren't a monopoly when people talk about their anti-competitive behavior. Strictly speaking they don't have a pure monopoloy by the most strict definition of the word but the existence of linux won't help people avoid Windows' baked-in bloatware.

You're arguing semantics but colloquial usage of language is valid usage. Steam can get away with behavior that others can't because of having an effective and in some places legal monopolistic position. If you think that doesn't factor in to discussion of their actions I don't know what to tell you

What's Steam's market share? I believe I've seen it estimated at around 70%. That meets the legal definition of monopoly in some jurisdictions.

Pretty much, yes. With a touch of white saviour “civilising the savages” justification. We brought them railways and cricket don’t you know?

You had me at coven, Greg

And I'm definitely playing devil's advocate here, given my own views on Emulation (those being that it's a good fun time that should be had by all) but I can see how those would be considered revenue threats. Thomas the Tank Engine in Morrowind isn't even vaguely competing with any real product.

Fair points but debatable. I won't touch the SSBM tournaments as I don't have the knowledge but romhacks are games in direct competition with the original properties, so could be argued as a revenue impact. Like any 'knock off' merchandise could be. Emulation directly competes with 'virtual console'

It is but to counter balance that Nintendo were going after hardware 'mods' which could directly impact revenue by allowing piracy. The Morrowind 'mod' won't impact Bethesda or Mattel's bottom line so the financial incentive isn't there to make an example out of it.

I agree wholeheartedly. I'm all in on right to repair, right to back up and breaking DRM wherever possible.

Who's gone to prison for making a Romhack out of interest?

To be clear what was done to Bowser was HUGELY excessive and egregious, hell what happened to Fumihiro was too much too and it was far less, but hacking hardware to bypass copy protection and modding an asset into Morrowind are wildly different crimes, especially when it comes to IP holders' revenue

Well when the topic is Nintendo getting people imprisoned I'm referring to the one occasion on which that has happened, Gary Bowser (Fumihiro Otobe's sentence was suspended). I'd say that's pretty specific.

I'm certainly not defending Nintendo, just pointing out that what Bowser did was different.

The difference here is that the Nintendo 'mod' was a modification of the hardware itself to bypass copy protection and allow pirate software to run. The Thomas the Tank Engine mod is putting a picture of a train with a face in a video game.

Not needing to attack the build plate, the surroundings and potentially myself with a scraper to get a print off does sound like a huge upgrade