Literacy
I’ve been thinking about piracy and emulation some more, and I may have figured out why my position on it is so muddled.
If you want to become well-versed in most forms of art — painting, literature, film — you can get everything you need for free at libraries and museums (or, if you prefer, for cheap on Amazon and eBay). You can even find the old classics for free online. The barrier to entry is low, and availability is high — anyone with enough commitment can become a connoisseur.
If you want to become well-versed in video games, though, you’ll need to shell out. New games are notoriously expensive; old ones can be just as bad, and rare to boot. If you can’t get a hard copy, your (legal) options are to pay for a subscription service like GameTap or GameFly, or pay by the download on Steam or the Wii Virtual Console. Both options offer limited selections, and while they can be cheaper than eBay the charges still add up quickly.
In the past, most gamers had lived through much of the industry’s history, so gaming literacy came with the territory; now, that’s starting to change. Today on Kotaku some gamers admitted they had never heard of or played the original Golden Axe. I was amazed. For a moment I even felt old, which is an odd sensation for me in the context of video games. But can we really expect a young gamer to have played Golden Axe, the way that we might expect a literature student to have read The Old Man and the Sea?
If the answer is yes, then we owe that expectation to emulation.
I have a hard time morally supporting piracy, but there’s no question that it’s filling a niche. It’s increasingly difficult to achieve gaming literacy through legal means — accessibility is poor, and the cost is prohibitive. If we hope to perpetuate video games as an art form, we’re going to need a way to expose people to them, and until Gabe Newell gets “every game that’s ever been available” on Steam there aren’t many good options.
Interesting read Dan, I recently subscribed to the blog and I think that I’ll stick around. ^_^
I agree, I think for a historical or referential purpose emulation is quite useful. A good example can be seen on a retro gaming blog which I sometimes contribute articles for. The lead blogger there has recently started a sort of “book club” set around retro games (they play and discuss old games together), in such a context emulation is the ideal means of play.
On the other hand the digitial distribution services like the Virtual Console and Steam are also quite useful in that regard.
Hey, thanks for coming by, Daniel!
Services like VC and Steam can only get better, but I wonder if that’ll be enough. If you’re just starting to get into video games twenty years from now, and you want to get up to speed on the history of the medium, what could you do? It’ll be unfeasible to purchase a large swath of gaming history, and if the current DRM climate persists you won’t be able to visit a games library. Rental and subscription services might help, but they generally don’t carry a lot of older games. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but it seems to me that without emulation a lot of video game history will fall through the cracks.
I’m coming a little late to the party, having just found this site. I share your concerns, Dan, and wonder about that, too. I have recently started keeping a gaming journal, and it’s amazing how often I reference a game I played 20 years ago when playing new ones. People who lived through the early gaming era (I’m in my 30s now) play today’s games with an entirely different reference point than the posters on Kotaku you talk about.
I have high hopes for the Virtual Console. I’ve owned the Wii a year and spent about $300 US on the VC, but I do that as an enthusiast for those games already. Will it introduce my era of gaming to this era’s gamer, and promote that gaming literacy we both seem to want? As I said, I have high hopes.
“History of Gaming” museums, with interactive exhibits and the chances to play through the classics? RPG’s wouldn’t get the playtime they deserved, though.
Emulation has a place there, but what is it? I’m a strong believer in and supporter of free and open source software (despite using Safari on a Mac OSX laptop, what can I say?), but I don’t know how this model would coexist with business models like Nintendo’s.
Very interesting question, though. I’m glad I came across your blog and will definitely be back!
Thanks for your comment, laughingman. It’s good to hear that people are optimistic about the historical potential of services like the Virtual Console. I suppose it can only get better from here, and maybe things like Michael Abbott’s RPG class will help bring less accessible genres like classic RPGs to a new generation of gamers. The next few years should be interesting.