I meant to be transparent with what I said, but the stream happened right after I got off work before I left the office, and rushed into my Friday night activities after, so I have to post the discussion summery now.
I initially said that it was depressing that out of the extensive excellent library of PCE games they are playing pirated bootlegs. A harsh and undiplomatic approach, but I did not think it through and the whole subject bothers me somewhat, so that's what I posted amidst the blur of fan posts about majora's mask and "what is a PCE."
They were cool and mentioned me bringing up the question-ability of these discs.
They then talked about
how they received these games [i.e. promotion to a prolific youtube content producer, surprise!] and wanted to stream these games rather than create a recorded video because of the controversy.
I told them that what's done is done, and that their stream is a good opportunity for discussion due to the shady background of these games they are playing.
I told them about the caution and fear that the developers behind fan translations (and generally homebrew developers) have due to the business practices shown by Tobias. I didn't want to mention anyone specifically without talking to them first, but I mentioned how there were discussions by fan translation teams about measures to prevent [Tobias] from profiting off of their spare time passion projects.
They seemed surprised, and were open to the idea that these projects are being threatened by poachers. People who lurk for niche fan releases, then promote and SELL these projects without the original CONTRIBUTORS consent. I mentioned that regardless of reparations that may have been met, future projects will be more and more cautious due to the wild west mentality of "retro repros."
Nothing major to report from the conversation, but these two guys seemed very sympathetic. One said "I don't know how I would feel if someone sold DVD's of our videos without consent" and the other guy quickly responded (almost interrupting) with something along the lines of he knowing how he would feel and that he would not be happy.
I think the contemplation of their project of love being disenfranchised helped them relate to what I was trying to explain about the injustice done to not only the original developers but the fans who contributed countless hours to make these products available at all. I normally like to avoid getting into heated discussions, but not only is Tobias profiteering by overpricing his reproductions and is presumably making an unreasonable profit per unit, but many of his offerings are using the work done by community members within a recent time frame without the consent of the content creator, which is just immoral generally regardless of grey areas. They seemed open to my opinion, and were very cool about talking with me. I am glad I went in, and hopefully they champion the ideals of developers before profiteers.
I feel like a video game hippy. lol. Honestly though, I have more issue with Tobias, and his kin and what they represents than any government, conglomerate, or religious group. Stop f*cking with the OG devs, Tobias. Please?
That being said, I recently got a Terranigma repro, for my Shitty Narcissistic Egotistical System ... so I am probably the last person that should be championing the anti-jacking-hard-work-guy ever