MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Dumping question

> I do the same thing if it isn't Starbucks.

Okay, so you are saying that you are writing a "thesis" on the impact of emulation with regards to arcade industry, correct?

You also understand that in order to do any type of research you need to be able to report out on both sides of your argument, and provide irrefutable evidence that the argument you favor is statistically significant with regards to the data you have collected. E.G. the statistical p-value of your results must show that your argument is correct.

With regards to arcade games, you will need to be able to show that the overall decline in the industry was caused purely by the emulation of the games and not by other factors. Factors such as changes in society's view of arcades, prevalence of powerful home consoles and their networking ability, etc. Remember that at the peak of the arcade industry, the home consoles at the time were nowhere close to the power of the arcade machines out there. In addition, FPS games (which are one of the most popular genres in gaming today) did not yet exist and would not work in an arcade format anyway. People did not have widespread, broadband capabilities which are basically needed for today's gaming clientele.

People were attracted to arcade games because it offered an experience that was simply not possible on the consoles and setups people had at home. Arcades offered a social experience for gamers, and graphically impressive games that blew the home consoles out of the water. Today, the general public are able to get an incredibly intense experience on their 360/PS3/Wii, and can get the social interactions through their friend-lists on their consoles. Instead of just being able to play against/with the local people who also frequented the same brick and mortar building, they can play with people from any place on this Earth without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.

In addition, the attention span of the modern adolescent is quite short. They want something right now, and in five minutes they will have moved on and wanted something else. The idea of going out someplace and waiting in line to throw dollar bills (as most machines I have seen in the last few years don't run on quarters any more. They run on dollar bills or have credit card slots) into a machine that is less graphically/aurally superior than the consoles in their own home is laughable. The kids don't want to do that. They want to sit at home and play on their 42" HDTV with 7.1 surround sound speakers in the latest FPS game of that month.

Arcade games in the past had the attraction of direct competition and getting your name on the top-scores list of the machine. Today, people don't want to have their score stored on some machine in some random location. They'd rather spend their time getting their trophies/achievements and having their scores available for everybody on earth to see. Again, the consoles can provide this for them while an arcade cabinet can not. It's a simple fact that technology has taken the "arcade experience" and brought it into the homes where people would much rather be. Society is not the same as it used to be. The mindset of the common man is different than what it used to be. Hell, I'm about to get hit by a fairly substantial hurricane and the threat of losing power, and thus all internet connection, is fairly scary to me. The past few hurricanes I've gone through, the reliance on the internet and electricity wasn't even remotely close to how it is now, so it wasn't nearly as worrisome. (I also didn't own a house or car in the past couple ones, so didn't have those worries either).

To be able to write a good thesis on this topic, you need to take into account all these other influences on the arcade industry. If you're going to ask people for their opinions on this, you need to really think hard about what population you are going to ask this to. Asking about it on an emulation forum, or an arcade enthusiast's forum is going to inherently bias your results and make them worthless. If you come up with a poll to ask random people, you'll need to run a separate research study on that poll to prove that it's not inherently biased. (The way you ask the question, and the order in which responses are listed can bias the results even if you did not intend it to). This separate study will validate your instrument. I work in the pharmaceutical industry. On any type of opinion based compound, ONLY properly validated instruments can be used. (And by opinion based compound, I'm referring to study drugs where a positive result can't be determined by lab tests or physical measurements, and relies on the "opinion" of the subjects. E.G. any pain-related medication).

Thus far, I have yet to read a statistically proven argument from you. It's been conjecture and personal opinion which hold no value in an attempt to prove something. You "believe" that the emulation of newer games is hurting the sales of those games, but you have yet to actually prove that through statistical analysis or opinion based validated instruments.

Personally, I think what the MAMEDevs have done is amazing. So many games that would have been lost forever have been preserved and the documentation of how they work is now available for all to see. In addition, with where we stand now technology wise, 3 years, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, are all the same. The systems that the recent arcade games have run on are so incredibly powerful that even if the ROMs were dumped, they will never be playable in any regard for quite a long while. And with regards to the "pirates" out there, they want playable games. Not games that run at 2 fps. (And by the way, "pirates" existed long before MAME came into existence. Look at all the hacks out there of the SFII games. Those "pirates" didn't need emulation to achieve what they wanted).

The whole "piracy" debate will always exist. No side has really been able to statistically prove that they are right. Although, the side that is arguing against DRM has the more logical and sound argument in that those who do pirate never would have purchased the item in the first place, so technically no sale was lost. Still, that isn't a fully sound argument and it does have holes in it. However, getting into that would be moving off-topic.

So to sum it up, you have an admirable idea for a thesis, but have yet to really provide any type of solid method to back up your argument.