What a crackerjack group of f***ers, huh? I swear, they do it just because they freaking can. And I thought it was bad when a ROM of Metroid Zero Mission was online a week before it's official release, not to mention all the people who didn't bother waiting for NOA to move their ass with The Minish Cap and downloaded the European version two months early. Although, Nintendo was kinda asking for it, giving us all this info on how cool it'd be, then waiting until early 2005 to give it to us while giving it to someone else first. Then again, on the other hand, how much of a problem is that in Europe? Ouch. But I digress...
ROMs. There's always at least two sides on the subject of them, one about how "the games belong to the world, no one should pay for them, and we're so f---ing great because we're smart enough to decode them," and the other side, "you shouldn't do that, the programmers put a lot of work into them, plus we're too scared to say anything bad about the companies, lest they put our names on a list or something."
God I hate ROMs. The only time I ever used one for more than ten minutes was when I downloaded Pokemon Red almost six years ago, and by then, Nintendo had sold so many copies of Red & Blue I really didn't think they'd miss one more. I don't fall into either of the above groups, I fall into the "I'd use ROMs if I could, except THEY SUCK" category. Seriously, they do. So let me get this straight. ROM programmers? I have to have a great system to run your lousy emulator programs, not to mention your games are hard to find and can only run as well as on the actual system they're intended for if my specs are even greater? Gee, that sounds great, but I think I'll just spend the $30 on the actual game and save myself one massive and unneccesary headache!!
If you play ROMs because you need to feel rebellious, good, keep going, delude yourself that you're "sticking it" to someone. If you don't because you're afraid some company will catch you, snap out of it, I'm not sure Cold War politics wa that paranoid. If you're like me, and realize ROMs are stupid and pointless, welcome to the minority of regular-minded people. We're a strange and thinning breed, it would seem. We actually pay for games, or if we can't afford them, WE WAIT UNTIL WE CAN.
The moral of this story: Don't use ROMS not because they're illegal, but because they're dumb. End of question.