- Aug 27, 2014
- 149
- 1,885
I would also love to influence the scene groups' choice of games, but the sad reality is there's nothing we can do about itEven the clearly anticipated games like OVER REQUIEMZ or 9RIP took weeks to be dumped. Sites like ziperto, nxbrew all upload from scene releases, they don't pay for games themselves. If there's no scene release for a game, it will never get uploaded on the internet unless some benevolent person in a niche community (like ours) does it.
It's not just Switch games, even PC otome games are ignored. There's been so many games out yet the only scene release I'm aware of recently is Demonheart: The Cursed Trial.
The only one "scene" we can influence, I suppose, is Hoodie's Switch releases that are marked as "KTHNX". Even then, their releases (and budget) are spread out between other genres of games too. And in my opinion, making request posts create a cycle of attracting more users from search results > they ask how to join > Hoodie advertises the sub and donation form > people be like "why do I have to pay for piracy?!" > might or might not create more arguments. We can donate to help them, but at that point might as well donate to AS instead.
It is worrisome because iirc Nintendo has taken a moderator of another Switch piracy sub to court. I don't know what exactly happened in that sub, but putting direct links to Switch game downloads probably won't make Nintendo happy... Most of the subreddits and discords I'm in - even ones about piracy - avoid doing that.
Anyway this is just my humble thought. I'm also sleepy so maybe I'm not thinking thoroughlyOf course, everyone's free to request what they want, personally I don't feel it's a good idea to do it in a public space. But Hoodie doesn't accept requests in the private sub for some reason, yet responds to requests in the public sub? Idk, not that I've personally talked to them so I'm not really sure about the rules.
You're correct, the "big sites" just take from one another - that's why you see a game nowhere, and then suddenly on all of them at the same time. When you make a request and they respond as if they're working on it I laugh. They're just waiting on someone else to do it.
It's sad that literal shovelware seems to get priority over otome titles, but that's moreso why we need to be more careful with anyone that does take the time to rip and share them. Whether it's the group here or Hoodie. The only other option that is quick to upload (otomedream) has been a shiny, locked gate for years, for most of us. I'm sure their community has taken from ours, so it's a shame theirs is so locked down.
Only so much can be controlled. Links that have already been shared or cached by Google are trickier to take down, but there's at least a small degree of control Hoodie can have this way. The reasoning is because of the sub being linked to too much, and things may open up again if things cool off, who knows. As it stands now, you can still regain access via the discord. I'd recommend staying in there for updates anyway, since as you said - Reddit and Nintendo both are very uppity about these groups nowadays. The moderator you mentioned was taken to court because he ran the biggest tinfoil shop for years, and donations were mandatory past a certain point. That meant they weren't actually donations, and it gave Nintendo leeway to do their thing.
Concerning AS, I suggested a Block feature or anything similar quite a while ago to help uploaders feel more safe and was essentially told that wouldn't happen. You're right, it's not the best idea to do it in a public space, especially when there's no protection protocols in place. The only alternative though, is something more closed off, and making a bigger migration. I love the idea, but it would require quite a bit of coordination. I've been working on a Baidu mega-cloud drive of otome titles that I would love to share in a safer space.
Anyway, I didn't mean to derail this thread by saying what I did so I apologize for that. I just believe it's important to be more careful going forward, given the current landscape. The gist is: Download links are easier to replace, please just share those instead.
You jest but since you mentioned F95, I want to say 
