Stealing is wrong. That's one of the core lessons we learn as children, and we hold it with us for the rest of our lives. It's a very black and white morality system - if something doesn't belong to you, don't take it. But we don't all uphold it as much as we say we do. We've used our roommate's milk from the fridge, or had the fries that fell out of your friend's carton in the McDonald's bag, or installed a chip in Nintendo consoles that allows users to play pirated games, right? Maybe not that last one, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:that's exactly what Gary Bowser did, and he's 🃏going to be 🅰paying for it for the rest of his life. But hey, he deserves it... right?
Most of the conversation around Bowser's crime has come from the fact his name is Bowser. You know, like the Mario villain. It's funny at first, at least if you forget the context around it. If it were a movie the character name would be rejected on the grounds of being too cartoonish. It would be like if a guy who robbed a bank was called John꧑ny Blowupsafe. But unlike Johnny Blowupsafe, Gary Bowser is a real person, who served real jail time, and now has an almost-life-ruining fine that will float over his head like a dark cloud until the day he dies. Instead of raining down water, this cloud will inhale the cash from his pockets, because stealing i🐼s wrong.
Bower's crime, as I alluded to, concerns piracy. He was part of a group named Team Xecutor who began making aಌnd selling modchips in 2013, and continued until 2020 when Bowser was arrested. These chips allowed players to access pirated games on their Nintendo consoles, which is a fancy way of saying they could play games without buying them. As Nintendo makes both games (which need to sell in order to make money) and consoles (which need games to sell in order for more games to be made for them), it doesn't like piracy. I get that. And stealing is wrong. But the gleeful comedy in which Bowser's case is being discussed is worrying.
It highlights both an immaturity within gaming, but also our collective willingness to overlook the sins of Nintendo. Pokemon has long been churning out the same game over and over, and its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:graphics have been subpar, covered up by the fact we don't expect the Switch to compete with the PS5 graphically. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Joy-Con drift is met with a shrug, and the lack of ba🐻ckwards compatibility and slow process of games being added to NSO is way below the st♔andards not only of Game Pass, but even of PlayStation Plus.
We shouldn't let the funny name or the black and white 'don't do the crime' mentality cloud us from seeing how cruel this is. Bowser has to pay Nintendo $10 million, which he will need to repay starting in six months. Like most people, he doesn't have that money, so he will be paying between 25-30 percent of his salary for the rest of his life to Nintendo. This is not money Nintendo needs. It's ♐an entirely punitive measure designed to be so cruel and so scary that nobody ever pirates a game again. It's 'you wouldn't steal a car...' but for video games, aimed all at one person. But he has a funny name, so maybe it's kinda funny that Nintendo ruined his life for a minor crime.
To pay these fines, Bowser will need to earn around $40 million across his life to possibly pay this off. Don't worry though, he's a bit of the way there already - while he was in jail, working the menial jobs prisoners are put to, Nintendo took his measly $175 salary. Presumably it was a crucial amount of money that meant the new dungeons in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom are as perfect as they can be.
What Bowser did goes beyond just emulating an old video game. I'm firmly in favour of 'stealing' something like Pokemon Blue🀅 - it's 25 years old and Nintendo aren't selling it, and it's a classic video game that forms a core part of our history. Everyone needs to experience it. Steal This Book. What Bowser and Team Xecutor was doing was criminal, did cause actual harm, and crosses my personal line of 'this is a fine thing to do'. But I do not believe having to pay a billion dollar corporation a quarter of his salary is a fitting punishment, and I'm saddened but not surprised that so many people are taking Nintendo's side unquestioningly here.
Piracy, on this scale, is wrong. It's wrong the way stealing a car is wrong, not the way stealing a splash of milk for your coffee is wrong. But when corporations are handed huge fines, they usually manage to wriggle out of ever paying it even after they've been charged and those charges have been held up on appeal. Bowser will not be so lucky. Maybe you think Nintendo💛 is right to ruin this guy's life. Buꦆt you don't have to be so happy about it.
