First, before anyone jumps down my throat, I want to say that emulators are fine. This is not a post about emulation development. Emulation is, frankly, incredible. This is also not about backing up your own collection, regardless of its legality of circumventing DRM. This is purely a post about illegal ROM distribution sites.
Lately I've been reading on Reset Era that video game ROM sites serve an important purpose of preserving games. The claim I've read here is that without such sites, video games would fade away and become unavailable and unplayable. But it's not a legitimate form of preservation. Other mediums are not preserved in this way.
Paintings, buildings, film, books, and other works of art are not preserved through illegal distribution. For example, we don't create forgeries of paintings and then distribute them in order to ensure that the original is preserved. That would not make sense and would only dilute the value of the original work.
Rather, legitimate organizations are formed to preserve such works. Examples of such organizations include libraries, museums, architectural landmark preservation foundations, public domain databases, and film preservation foundations.
I don't understand how any person, with a straight face, could say that a video game library, video game museum, or video game preservation foundation would not be a more legitimate form of video game preservation than illegal distribution through ROM sites.
If you really cared about video game preservation, you'd get involved in one of the organizations dedicated to preserving the medium or start one yourself. See the following:
https://gamehistory.org
http://www.museumofplay.org/about/icheg
https://www.gamepres.org/en/
I'm tired of reading about how ROM sites are the only way to ensure that future generations can learn about video games. It's simply untrue. If you really care, inquire as to how you can involved. Do something legitimate about it rather than visit a piracy site. Doing so clearly stealing. And using "video game preservation" as an excuse to download games you don't own is intellectually lazy and unconvincing.
Lately I've been reading on Reset Era that video game ROM sites serve an important purpose of preserving games. The claim I've read here is that without such sites, video games would fade away and become unavailable and unplayable. But it's not a legitimate form of preservation. Other mediums are not preserved in this way.
Paintings, buildings, film, books, and other works of art are not preserved through illegal distribution. For example, we don't create forgeries of paintings and then distribute them in order to ensure that the original is preserved. That would not make sense and would only dilute the value of the original work.
Rather, legitimate organizations are formed to preserve such works. Examples of such organizations include libraries, museums, architectural landmark preservation foundations, public domain databases, and film preservation foundations.
I don't understand how any person, with a straight face, could say that a video game library, video game museum, or video game preservation foundation would not be a more legitimate form of video game preservation than illegal distribution through ROM sites.
If you really cared about video game preservation, you'd get involved in one of the organizations dedicated to preserving the medium or start one yourself. See the following:
https://gamehistory.org
http://www.museumofplay.org/about/icheg
https://www.gamepres.org/en/
I'm tired of reading about how ROM sites are the only way to ensure that future generations can learn about video games. It's simply untrue. If you really care, inquire as to how you can involved. Do something legitimate about it rather than visit a piracy site. Doing so clearly stealing. And using "video game preservation" as an excuse to download games you don't own is intellectually lazy and unconvincing.