Editorial

In the unlikely case anyone is still reading this forum, I'd like to mention that comments are welcome.

I think you missed one important point in your article: The people who experienced the games from the 80s and early 90s when they were new are getting older. And the older people get, the less sites they run. How many gaming sites are there that are run by people older than 30 or 40?

And even the generation that is slightly younger than we are has grown up with different games. And these (newer) games alredy belong to the category of CD-ROM games, as you said - and of corse it's a bandwith problem to provide them on the net.

Not many. However, that's just another observation. Why is it like that?

Maybe that will change though. How many 40 year olds do you know that grew up with video games their whole lives?

No need for such extremes. However, take a person who has (consciously) experienced the complete 80s. These people are over 30 by now. Although computer/console gaming wasn't that common back then, there obviously have to be people who did. Where are they?

D*mn, what a bleak article.
I don't think you're correct.
The focus of abandonware isn't necesarily on the "scene", it should be on the preserving of old games. As long as that continues to happen, then abandonware will not die!

Well, as pointed out in threads like the one about lost games from early this year, this is not happening. That will be one positive effect of the future face of the 'scene': there will be more preservation again, because the huge 'download list' websites are completely non-discriminate concerning popularity of games. For the wrong reasons (ignorance), but that's not the point.

In a few years, people will probably start trying to dig out 'lost treasures' again. It will require huge effort then, in spite of most of what will be lost then being available publically not so long ago. Because the chance to preserve things relatively close to their publishing has passed.

Yes, most likely this "fad" is like a sine wave. Whatever name its under or whatever, (Although I see that Abandonware is a group by itself in many search engines and been rather ingrained in everyone's head) it will come back. Maybe one of these times in the far future it will get some kind of finacial backing once the situation becomes desperate. Eh..

Another age-related irritation is the general question of funding. I see a few people paying the (hosting) bills of others (I used to do that, too, but not anymore), in spite of not really having the money themselves. Once they have the money, they're gone. Big problem.

I have to say, i agree with everything you have said.

Sad, really.

And, i know i no longer care enough to come back and try to do anything about it myself. I've moved on, to social action & activism about things which i feel are far more important than electronic games.

Will be a pity to see abandonware go, but, thats life

- Asher (AKA LuNaTiC)

And that's where we differ. While it is a given fact that there are more important things, I don't see the inevitable conclusion "so I'm going to stop" looming automatically.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 17:23 on May, 04th 2004

For what it's worth, you have my support on that!

This board is layed out well. Good gaming community. However, I think maybe the owners take themselves a wee bit too seriously. Just a wee bit.

I think there would be more activity with the 'scene' here if banning was replaced with LOVE.

Banning? I think only one guy ever had to be banned from here, and he showed up twice. A few others probably got banned for being silly about their game requests and demanding things from the moderators.

And also with your claim about seriousness makes me think that you've not gone through the forums reading the posts

In four years, three people were banned from this forum:

-'charakter'/'jesusfucker': Only registered to mindlessly attack any remotely religious position in one particular discussion about religion. Banned after calling everybody 'nazi-faschist-gauleiter' (sic!) and stuff like that.
-juha: Banned for openly racist and other discriminating behaviour. That guy was seriously claiming all Russians are stinking primitive half-apes, and no reason could get through to him. Banned permanently after an incident when another member was announcing he's going to become a father, and juha felt he had to explain how this must have been the evil woman 'sabotaging' condoms in order to squeeze money out of the father-to-be.
-A E I: Running around, insulting everybody on the lowest level - browse the archives, I won't go into detail...

Nobody has ever been banned for making even the most ridiculous game requests or demands.

After this little history lecture, I'd like to quote Bela Lugosi (in the role of Count Dracula): "I bid you welcome"

Edit: I just remembered a fourth case of banning: Some guy (?) whose name was an URL and who spammed every thread of the last few weeks with the incredibly useful message "visit my site". That's an average of one ban a year - come on, doesn't a hard-working guy deserve a little fun?

Edited by Mr Creosote at 16:40 on May, 06th 2004

With all due respect - the thing is - A E I was banned 3 times. I know because I'm A E I. So if you ban me again, that'll make it 4 times. But hold on for a moment and hear me out. It's been my hobby, my game if you will, to upset the delicate ecology of forums for the last 2 years. I've been banned from 8 forums and it was been pretty much worth every moment. You learn a lot about people by controlling them through their emotions. With that said, I no longer do this anymore, because I've gone through another ephiphany. This may even surprise you, but this is one of my favorite gamer forums overall (ok, I've only been to 3) even though I only spent a short time here; so I should really apologize for being so abrasive, rude and obnoxious. I just live by the 'golden rule' and that is I do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I even put myself on the other end for a few months just to show that I'm not a hypocrite, by running a forum of my own for a few months. Yes, there were spammers (one was horrendous). Yes, there were people I didn't like. But No, I did not ban them or even delete their messages because opinions don't offend me - and words don't hurt me unless I allow them to. Direspect comes when you lord power and coerce others to your will. I've not taken anything away from your life, nor have I forced you to do anything. You each choose to be offended at one point or another. However, I have a good reason not to offend people anymore en masse. Without getting into that, let's just say I've become wiser.

Anyway... does anyone care what happened to Dexterus? Well, Dexterus and I became good
friends after I was banned, but for quite awhile now he hasn't had internet because of a telco mononoply in Romania. Far as I know, he's still going to school for electrical engineering. Hopefully he'll be able to "return" one of these days.

Your point? Anyway, I can't say I'm bothered by your or anyone else's presence here. Mind you the rules of this forum are still the same.

So what?

Sorry it took me so long to respond, but I'm one of those 30-40 (even though I'm not 30 yet) who are simply too busy nowadays. You are absolutely right with the article, but I'd like to comment on a few things:

* Why older people don't run pages anymore. I don't think it's got to do as much with money than free time. These people have a job now, families, a social life. Especially in the US, jobs can take 60-80 hours per week, and families take the rest of the time.

* Technical issues. This argument hasn't been mentioned in the editorial, but you know it all too well. Put a few MS-DOS games on-line, and soon you'll have dozens of e-mails from people, wondering how to run these games. That's one of the reasons why I don't offer downloads anymore, and until DosBox is nearly idiot-proof, I don't have the patience to deal with those people.

* Lack of an audience. The same that goes for the webmasters is valid for the gamers. They are getting older, and much more busy. Everybody's talking about the gaming industry as a whole to be in a recession, and that's mainly because the gaming population ages. Abandonware is on the forefront of such a recession, thanks to having the oldest audience.

I also like to see articles that offer some kind of solution, but that's your problem

Just my two cents...

Time constraints: Strangely enough, there are people older than 30 who have jobs, a family and a social life and still run websites. Just look at all those movie websites!

Technical issues: I didn't mention that, because it's not the point. That 'problem' can be easily got around by only talking about games and not offering them for download.

Audience: The reasons why the gaming industry is in 'recession' are disputable, and I strongly disagree with your theory about it. That, however, is a whole different discussion.

Solutions: I have made several proposals for solutions over the last few years. Nobody listened, so I stopped caring.