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Concerning Piracy, Imports, and Mothers
As you may have read already, today a full English translation patch for Mother 3, the follow up to the cult classic Earthbound, was released. Now, to use this patch, you must download a Mother 3 ROM, which, if you don’t own Mother 3, is technically illegal. Now here’s where it gets kooky. So you’re supposed to own a Japanese copy of Mother 3 in order to play an English version of Mother 3, which no one at Nintendo put any effort whatsoever into. I have talked to a lot of people, and a surprising amount of them have said that yes, they have or are in the process of importing Mother 3 so that they are not technically pirating anything.
Now before I say this next statement, let me say that Media Whore Network does not condone piracy. Several of us own huge collections of games, and we feel that when you pirate games, or movies, or whatever, you are killing the industry that you enjoy. With that out of the way, do not import Mother 3. Please don’t.
Let me tell you the message you are sending out when you import Mother 3. You are telling Nintendo that this is good enough. That playing a ROM hack is good enough, and they’ve done their job. When you import Mother 3, you are giving Nintendo your money for something that you can’t use. They have no reason to make an official English version, because they already have your money.
I am a video game collector, and I want to pay for Mother 3. I want to own it, I want to put it in my DS or Game Boy Advance, but I will not pay for a copy that will just sit in my closet while I play a ROM hack on my computer. If Nintendo just doesn’t want to release an English copy of Mother 3, they won’t, but importing the game is not going to change their minds.
Preach on brother. Nothing irritates me more than people who import games for the sake of just lording it over those who don’t have the import. It’s as if having a copy of Seiken Densetsu 2 is somehow better than my copy of Secret of Mana.
This is one main reason that all of my love for Nintendo has fallen by the wayside. I used to love them more than I love puppies and rainbows but they’ve become a shadow of the magnificent company they used to be…sure they’re making money hand over fist, but they don’t take any risks anymore.
I could not agree more
Amen. Maybe if it was a third-party game that the case would be a little different but Nintendo have no excuse to not translate a game they know that their oldest fans want so badly.
Sorry coon, but I disagree. It’s Nintendo of America who decide whether they translate the game or not. By importing the game, we are giving money to the Japanese developers, the ones who deserve the money. We are not paying NOA for their complete lack of respect for Mother fans.
Yes, it’s all one big company, but giving money to Nintendo of Japan isn’t sending the message to Nintendo of America that we’re all completely happy with their actions.
But then, it’s all a moot point anyway, because you can’t even buy the game new any more. It’s out of stock, OUT OF PRINT, so anybody importing it is giving money to a reseller, not Nintendo anyway.
The fact remains that I would rather have a copy of the game to legitimize my playing through it. Yes, I would rather own a legitimate English copy that I could play in my own GBA, but it’s not going to happen, so I’ll take the next best thing.
That is a valid argument Dexter. Point taken.