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1 of 2 files concerned

2010 July 13

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First of all, it is incredibly ludicrous to compare the NDS scene with the PC Games scene, let alone XBOX360, PS2 and the DC. They are each their own independent and unique scene, each with their own restrictions and goals. The simple fact is, the NDS scene is not the PC Games scene, no matter how much you may want it to be. Protected PC games may need to be cracked, solely to get them working on a computer. Computer's have no external medium as to which homebrew, loaders, hacks, etc. are required to make a game work whereas the NDS does. The NDS requires a flashcart in order to play homebrew, load ROM's and do many other things. As you said "These Chinese manufacturers have only one model, to have the most compatibility as they ARE RUNNING A BUSINESS." - this is indeed true and they provide the end-user with a great service. As part of the role for a flashcart manufacturer, it is their duty to enable compatibility on ROM's, by doing so, they compete within their business model and this only benefits the end-user as they are able to play any ROM they desire. Sure, the reliance of a flashcard manufacturer to create compatibility is not what the scene may want in an ideal world. Twenty years ago, it was all about release groups making that compatibility via cracks (and by extension cracktros), but back then, it was still all about running things on computers, which is what the PC scene evolved from. The console scene, along with the handheld scene eventually grew apart and became its own entities, its own scene. Cracking will always remain a part of the scene, there is no denying the history of the scene, however, everything has to evolve eventually. With over 5 years of the NDS scene already, the paradigm has been rigidly established. Cracking has become a thing of the past and has not become necessary as most flashcarts can play protected games without having to do anything, and if there is a game that is unplayable, it is quickly rectified by the flashcart manufacturers so that they put to good use their own business model. Unlike the PC scene, the NDS end-user still has to rely on these flashcarts, as without them, they would not have a viable way of playing ROM's (excluding emulators). The PC scene is self-sufficient, therefore it requires its own cracks in order to remove any protection and maintain compatibility across a multitude of computer formats. The NDS Scene's paradigm has come to accept that flashcarts are a necessary facet of the scene and by extension the work behind each flashcart to bring the best compatibility for the end-user. Releasing pre-cracked games is great for the short-term, it may allow a game to work on many different flashcarts, but in the long-term, the flashcarts will have been updated and compatibility will have to be changed in order to suite every cracked game, rather than just suite the general repetitive protection methods that have been used over and over. An example of this is the DSTWO flashcart, it detects protection methods and bypasses them if it is recognised, thus the game will not need a crack or even a firmware update to create compatibility. This all goes without mentioning the compatibility problems that have been caused by intros and cracks themselves eg. saving issues, unplayability, blank screens, etc. The bickering of late has arisen from a single group, of whom had disappeared for a few years, only to return trying to enforce a way that once was. The simple fact is, things have changed since you were gone, they have all improved for the better. Just because you prefer your old methods and traditions, does not mean you are entitled to force the paradigm to revert back 10 years. As we said, the NDS Scene has firmly established itself and has moved on without you. Charles Darwin once said "Survival is ultimately dependent on the ability to change and evolve", simply put "Adapt or die". There is a reason why one ruleset won over the other, one is simply reinforcing the established paradigm of today's NDS scene, and the other wants to turn back time and pretend the NDS is equivalent to the PC. The.Official.NintendoDS.Ruleset.2010.NDS-CONSOLE even allowed the bickering group a chance at adapting to survive and here is how: * By allowing you to continue releasing hacked/cracked/introed releases * Allowing cracks to be made for game releases, however only as patches (which only benefits the end-user and brings the best of both worlds) Although, in order to fully adhere to the rules, all you had to do was make two simple changes: 1. Include the region in the dirname (more on this later) 2. Use RAR format for packing games (more on this later also) You argue that "Considering NDS alone is 5 years old and has been doing .zip from GBA days, how can you nuke for .rar overnight as well as region tagging?", by the end of the GBA's lifespan, it was beginning to show its age on the scene. The entire .zip and .diz format was becoming defunct, the scene itself had evolved and the .rar and .sfv format took reign solely for the reason that it provided greater compatibility, ease of use, more information and provided a method of file integrity verification. The GBA was still influenced by its predecessor when it came around, the .zip format was prominent and everybody was happy enough to use it. However, .zip itself is also a relic of a time gone by; its use originating from the BBS days. The RAR format simply has many more benefits for the scene, and by enforcing it as a rule, it will ensure releases are packed in a manner that strives for quality. Also the simple fact of the potential size of NDS games further makes the .zip format look vastly outdated. A 500MB .zip file would be prone to more errors and would not be as highly regarded by sites when compared to its equivalent RAR size (at least with RAR it can be raced much faster and have on the fly integrity checks). Lastly, the RAR format has not been introduced to the NDS scene overnight, it took one brave group (XPA) to see the benefits it provides and help positively evolve the scene. It took several months for groups to acknowledge the RAR format, accept it and use it. It has since proven to be a great format for packing releases and has shown itself to be vastly superior to the defunct .zip format. "On a region free system, region tagging is NOT required for the first english release. This has been done on XBOX360: Final.Fantasy.XIII.X360-Allstars, PS2: Black.PS2DVD-Allstars, DC: Sonic_Adventure_DC-KALISTO, etc." The NDS is marketed as a region free system, which it is. However, the games still have regions despite that advertisement. It is important to note the region within the dirname as this clears any and all confusion on the matter. Your rule "region tagging is NOT required for the first english release" derives from the history of the scene again and has been in common practice for at least 20 years (although never stated anywhere, it was implied). Once again, the NDS scene has established itself to require region tagging, this form of tagging has been used for decades and for a system such as the NDS, and to an extent the GBA and GBC, tagging is crucial. It is not like the PC scene where one version of a game will suffice, NDS games are developed and published with specific regions, although the regions have no importance on the functionality of a game (excluding the DSi), it does exist and would be foolish to not acknowledge it. By not including a region tag, you cause confusion and show your ignorance to the rest of the world (English speaking or not). The scene is global, and region tagging shows the rest of the world from where a game is from, therefore it provides more information on a release. So in an abstract way, it shows the scene some respect. Those games from other systems you mentioned, they all vary in their form of being free of region locking. The XBOX360 has what could be classed as "REAL" region-free games, Final.Fantasy.XIII.X360-Allstars being one of them. It is the same game, same disc, same version as you would buy in any English speaking country around the world, therefore it is not region locked. Black.PS2DVD-Allstars: Allstars always were living in their own world, they never used a region tag and it caused lots of problems for other groups at the time. Not to mention the PS2 does have region issues, therefore it is important to note whether a game is PAL or NTSC. This allows the end-user to know whether they can play it fine on their television sets or not or whether they would need to play with settings on their televisions to get a decent picture. At the time, televisions weren't as advanced as they are today, and if something couldn't play in its correct region, you would get cropping and frame rates issues. Sonic_Adventure_DC-KALISTO: The Dreamcast is far too old of a system to be bringing in comparisons for a modern system. The DC scene also has a world of difference to what the scene is today, whether you want to accept it or not. Back to the point, the Dreamcast had similar issues as the PS2 (ignoring the chronology here), PAL/NTSC, frame rates, cropping, it was all here. KALISTO did a great job at removing region protections and other things. Slightly digressing, in today's modern scene, a release like this one would not be tolerated; where the game has been hacked to a point where it loses quality (stero to mono sound and lowered bitrates primarily). Now to the fun part, as you picked apart the groups of The.Official.NintendoDS.Ruleset.2010.NDS-CONSOLE. Here we present you an analysis of the groups that signed The.NintendoDS.Release.Standards.2010-NDS: DFG, PYRiDiA, SQUiRE, SUXXORS, SweeTnDs, VENOM, XPA DFG: Inactive PYRiDiA: Did not sign (we asked him and a log of this has been saved)* SQUiRE: Inactive* XPA: Known p2p group (we have proof, or just take a look at the numerous scene-notices regarding this group already.) *Both of these groups had long since died, however, in one way or another (how, we will not go into detail here) they had merged with VENOM, who are also known as SUXXORS. So that makes FOUR groups being one in the same, out of a possible SEVEN groups. If you plan on re-releasing some ruleset with all of the recent joke groups you have created, you're not fooling anybody either. So how can four groups, two of which are groups who are incredibly minor groups that are relatively inactive (DFG and SweeTnDs) effectively create a ruleset that represents the NDS Scene? Simply put, they can't. Especially not when they choose to abandon the rest of the scene and pretend like the scene is in the year 2000 all over again. You also accuse a lot of the groups that signed The.Official.NintendoDS.Ruleset.2010.NDS-CONSOLE as being known p2p groups. However your accusations fall on deaf ears without any proof. And we know how good you are at being unable to find proof, even when it is given to you (see the recent Bokujou_Monogatari_Futago_no_Mura fiasco). Just because a group is inactive in releasing, does not mean they are not around (this applies to your groups as well, although we all know SQUiRE has long left being active on the scene). We have logs of every group that signed agreeing to the rules, even TRM and WetNWild who you accuse had never signed it, why don't you try asking the group leaders instead of relying on long departed former members to act on their behalf? As both rulesets were rushed to release in order to counter one another, The.Official.NintendoDS.Ruleset.2010.NDS-CONSOLE was distributed and signed by many more groups, therefore a larger cross-section and variety of the scene. Thus, it actually represents the NDS scene. BAHAMUT stated in Spongebob_Truth_Or_Square_USA_NDS-BAHAMUT that they DID sign it, however at the time were not aware of what other groups signed. This is not entirely true as the final version of the ruleset was distributed to everybody and they were given 24 hours to voice any concerns. Everybody was ecstatic to see so many groups named, but no issue had arisen regarding the background of said groups. EXiMiUS did agree, although their concerns were lost in translation (but we still love you!). The example you gave of unworking games is rather ironic. If you had bothered to read the nfo for Digimon_Story_Lost_Evolution_JPN_NDS-BAHAMUT, you would clearly see that it states "It works fine on DSTWO." The DSTWO has already been discussed earlier. The release in question may not work on other, inferior carts, but that is no fault of the scene. If it were released pre-cracked, how are flashcart manufacturers meant to update the compatibility and workability of their product in regards to game protection? How is anybody supposed to take The.NintendoDS.Release.Standards.2010-NDS seriously when the group that created it, don't adhere to their own rules? Examples: * "The release must work." This is subjective to individual flashcarts and firmware versions. It is ridiculous to enforce such a rule. For examples of this, just read any gaming forum relating to the ROM's (which we know you enjoy trolling) and you'll see a huge mixed bag of people who have it working and those who don't. * "The .NFO must include which cart(s) and relevant firmware the patch was tested on." and "Cracks should be tested, and it should be stated within the .NFO which cart(s) the crack was tested on." Many of your releases do not adhere to this rule, it is also a rule in the other ruleset, yet when nuked on it, you still refuse to accept it. We will not bother going into detail on the ruleset, as it is invalid and void anyway (meaning it is treated as if it had never existed or happened). This is for all the reasons stated above as well as a multitude of other reasons including: * Bad layout (multiple rules within one rule number) * Contradicting rules (details related to working releases) * No date and time of enactment * Insufficient amount of groups signed (see earlier paragraph for discussion) * Does not represent paradigm of NDS scene. "The first working release wins the race, that's how it is for 0day, PC and other sections, so I beg of you, NDS Scene, please evolve just as PC has with clone and cracked releases can co-exist." Once again, the NDS scene is not the PC games scene or any other scene. It is its own scene and follows its own evolutionary path. The branch that the other ruleset tries to enforce is a branch that has already grown long ago and has since died, it is no longer part of the tree of life. The branch that the The.Official.NintendoDS.Ruleset.2010.NDS-CONSOLE grows on flourishes and allows for both diverging factions to co-exist and live upon a branch of peace. It accepts everything the previous branch built (clean releases/cracks/etc.), and only denies the evolutionary dead ends (.zip format/misleading tagging/ universal compatibility issues/unnecessary removal of game data/etc.). There is no reason why ONE group can't make two simple changes so that they can finally live in peace in today's scene which has evolved towards prosperity and success. Without accepting the rules, their battle will only continue on a downward spiral leading only to further ridicule. Act wisely, adapt and live peacefully. Thank you.
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