Rule Change Discussion

[Doom]

Discuss this thread here.

[Arseen]

Many of our forum and cover posting rules were thrown together at different points in the site's life. They are inconsistent and frustrating to certain users. Most of them are not known unless you ask. This thread will change that.

Two weeks from now, for the duration of two weeks, all proposed rule changes will be voted on in a special forum. Only users who registered before this thread was made will be counted in the polls.

If you have an idea for a rule change that is not listed here, post it in this thread.

Proposed rule changes:

1. If a cover is for a device with a main function is illegal downloading of games, it is not allowed on the site.
2. If a cover is for an unlicensed console game, it is allowed on the site.
3. Discussion of homebrew games and applications is allowed on the site.

[Arseen]

1. Is it OK to make US cover for PAL only games?

2. If yes: How about Treasure Hunter G or Treasure of Rudras covers in US format? Or are they only accepted in Japanese format?

3. If yes: is Secret of Mana 2 and such are still no no? Or can they be justified as Englishified covers for Japanese games?

4. How about Starfox 2 and other unreleased ones?

Where is the line drawn?

Well the first two should be OK, and the third also.
The fourth kind is tricky, but hopefully would be accepted also.

[ShoothimNow]

2. If a cover is for an unlicensed console game, it is allowed on the site.

If the game has been created and distributed freely: IE "Tengen" and "Bible Tek", I see no problem as they are officially released games that are available for everyone.

If the game was an unreleased game, that is completely different.  Then that cover has been created from an illegal copy of a game, which this is what the whole site frowns upon.

Gameshark's are unlicensed but we have covers for them for most to all system...

This is a ****ing retarded **s thread for ****ing retarded **s noobs who are ****ing retarded.

Even our elite members here at TCP know not to host their covers via TCP, that is why they use Box.net or Mediashare.com

1. If a cover is for a device with a main function is illegal downloading of games, it is not allowed on the site.

This has always been understood to not be changed.  Use box.net for those who wish to pay boohoo bucks for their eeprom'd games

2. If a cover is for an unlicensed console game, it is allowed on the site.
I would love my Tengen pac-man and Namco pac-man have different cases...  Did Nintendo pull these copies of games out of Toys R' Us's? No? They did that to the original Tetris for the NES, nothing else.  Keep unlicensed RELEASED game covers on the site.

3. Discussion of homebrew games and applications is allowed on the site.
This is a site for covers.  Homebrew for consoles shouldn't exactly be condoned as talking about an emulator doesn't lead to me wanting to download the emulator and ROM's to play something that I have in my room.  Mainly because I have too many damn games.  However, because we as a community do share common interests; flaming/ranting/trolling/hijacking/converting someones thread into an Emulation/Homebrew flange should not be allowed.  Make a new damn thread and stop hijacking someone elses thread.

If I want to ask for a cover for my SNES - Donkey Kong Competition, I don't want to be afraid of whether or not its allowed to be hosted on our site... I am just asking if someone could make a cover.  If someone could make a cover to my request, ****ing awesome, if not; then that sucks.  Once the cover is created, it can easily be shared.  The internet is limitless.

These new members are starting to piss me the **** off

[Doom]

We will vote on all of these, just because I wrote it does not make it law. Since homebrew is legal, it should be allowed to be discussed.

If 1. is passed, I will remove the current offending covers from the site. I think it's the right thing to do. (The covers don't look that great anyway)

Re: ShoothimNow
That's what I meant - I want to allow Tengen's Tetris, but not allow illegal copies of "Star Fox 2". Do we allow covers for homebrew NES games that were produced on real carts through various sites? (Retrousb for example)

Gamesharks should also be allowed.

No matter what you say, our rules were thrown together, and they are inconsistent. Even if nothing changes, having them written out could save some trouble.

1 - you know what I'm talking about. The DS carts that let you play downloaded games, for example.
2 - I think we agree here.

Is your DK Competition a repro? Should TCP host covers for real games that are also really rare? (Nintendo World Championships, Campus Challenge, etc.)

Re: Arseen
Star Fox 2 was never released, you probably have an illegal copy. I don't think it should be hosted on TCP.

The others are more tricky.

[Arseen]

Do not own Starfox 2.

Just asked those things so the line would be drawn somewhere.

[Psychlonic]

Let's talk about electronically distributed indie PC games for a second. This is an area where I personally enjoy making covers, because it answers a hypothetical "what-if" nagging in my head. That is, what if this came out in a DVD case on physical medium? Kinda like the Steam cover thread that was going on for awhile here. I like to physically burn these games to CD/DVD because I don't want money going down the drain if my HDD fails and/or I lose the registry key or whatever nonsense. It's good practice, IMO. So I have all these disks laying about caseless.

So from the sounds of things, this will be allowed discussion but not on-site hosting, correct? I would want to make a thread and produce links to box.net or where ever instead of uploading?

On that note, I kind of have to agree with ShoothimNow. I've noticed that the uploading criteria can be so fickle, many aren't even bothering anymore. I'm probably going the box.net route myself. I've seen SNES covers that were superior to ones already hosted on site rejected because of some slight banding visible only when the picture is blown up to full res. Yet, it's still better than many SNES covers, or even more so other categories such as the PC ones on here which often have terrible spines, squished information on the back pulled from CD jewel case covers, etc.

[sheep2001]

if find all these threads so pointless.  whether we host artwork for an unreleased game, an imaginary game, a translated game, whatever - we are using copyright artwork, logos, etc etc.  We are not hosting roms, or disc images - so as far as legality of what we are actually hosting goes, they are all the same.  It could be said that customs for unreleased games are on less dodgy ground, as the finished article is not copyrighted (although they generally contain logos, etc which are).

I think the point should be more around the ethos of the site - and if that is to archive original artwork for posterity, then all custom covers should be in a seperate section (or hosted off site) - if however the ethos is to host covers for videogames, including custom alternatives, then what difference does it make if starfox 2 or beats of rage mods are here?

The only covers which are likely to get us noticed are those for current generation consoles - but i don't hear anyone crying about those.  As far as i am concerned, if the game exists (legitimately or otherwise) and it passes quality standards it doesn't hurt to host it.

[Doom]

No matter what the rules of the site, they should be rules, written down and always followed. The current system is half-assed, inconsistent, and biased towards users who have been here longer / gurus and admins.

[Hexxxer]

if find all these threads so pointless.  whether we host artwork for an unreleased game, an imaginary game, a translated game, whatever - we are using copyright artwork, logos, etc etc.  We are not hosting roms, or disc images - so as far as legality of what we are actually hosting goes, they are all the same.  It could be said that customs for unreleased games are on less dodgy ground, as the finished article is not copyrighted (although they generally contain logos, etc which are).

I think the point should be more around the ethos of the site - and if that is to archive original artwork for posterity, then all custom covers should be in a seperate section (or hosted off site) - if however the ethos is to host covers for videogames, including custom alternatives, then what difference does it make if starfox 2 or beats of rage mods are here?

The only covers which are likely to get us noticed are those for current generation consoles - but i don't hear anyone crying about those.  As far as i am concerned, if the game exists (legitimately or otherwise) and it passes quality standards it doesn't hurt to host it.

I agree with this 100%

[UncleBob]

I don't care much either way - but I would like to comment on a concern with allowing covers for homebrew...

Face it - most homebrew sucks.  And there's a ton of it out there.  Do we really want the server loaded with covers for every single crappy homebrew Mario game that might get downloaded two or three times?

I don't hate the idea, but I wouldn't vote for it, that's for sure.

Covers for unreleased games  -naw.  Don't need to tempt the copyright gods.
Covers for games only released in one format (PAL, etc.) in the style of another format?  Sure.  I could totally understand importing, say, a Japanese GameCube title, but disliking the way it looks on the shelf, on those shorty cases.
Unlicensed game/accessory with commercial release?  Yeah.  Just don't put the official Nintendo seal or anything on it.
Covers for devices like R4s and Flash Cards?  Naw.

[AppleQueso]

I agree with Sheep2001 pretty much on all this, but I want to respond to UncleBob real fast: do you really think that someone is going to take the time to make a high quality cover that meets the site's standards for a "Satanic Freak Bros"? Nobody's making covers for third rate hacks now. Let's face it, if we allow homebrew covers, it'll likely end up being mostly for things like Beats of Rage or Sonic Megamix.

Anyhow, as for things like circumvention devices, boot discs, flash carts, etc... it might seem tacky, but keep in mind that we really aren't stepping on as many toes as you might think. Remember, we're just providing window dressing for someone's collection, we're not providing these boot discs and flash carts ourselves. I would draw the line at making rom collection discs. Those are just tacky.

Discussion of emulation and homebrew should be allowed. The general rule of thumb on every gaming-related forum I've ever visited is that you can discuss emulation and homebrew all you want, as long as you aren't providing links to rom sites and whatnot. No warez links, no problem, that's my view.

[Doom]

If you have a better rule proposal, make it. (Or if you have the power, edit my post with 4. and so on)

[AppleQueso]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a rule proposal, but here's a small idea: can we try and encourage uploading more jewel case manuals and inserts? Like perhaps as an "etiquette" thing regarding psx/dc/etc customs, if you're working with raw scans, try to clean and upload those as well as your custom DVD case version. Jewel Case inserts are something that TCP is really deficient in, and it'd be nice to change that. Same thing with genesis games.

[tiktektak]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it a rule proposal, but here's a small idea: can we try and encourage uploading more jewel case manuals and inserts? Like perhaps as an "etiquette" thing regarding psx/dc/etc customs, if you're working with raw scans, try to clean and upload those as well as your custom DVD case version. Jewel Case inserts are something that TCP is really deficient in, and it'd be nice to change that. Same thing with genesis games.

I agree with you on the cd case covers! We should have more!

For Genesis on the other hand I'd rather stick to UGC as a standard (or better said I WANT UGC to stay as the standard)! Face it even those "sturdy" Genesis/Mega Drive cases look like shit often nowadays.