Remakes, Remasters, and the ethics of preservation (Gaming)

by ManKitten, The Stugotz is strong in me., Thursday, December 10, 2020, 11:24 (1232 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by ManKitten, Thursday, December 10, 2020, 12:24

You act like there is no such thing as ethics in art. Everything does not go I assure you.

No no sir. I shant allow this, Mr. Miller. I made a good point against your argument and now you are nitpicking my comment out of context to deflect my stance.

There's ethics in everything. What constitutes "art" is subjective, therefore, anything goes. What defines ones ethics as "good" may also be subjective. [EDIT: Just to clarify this statement, as inspired by cheaps below response. You can't get away with someone horrible by calling it art...but it can still be labeled art, as horrible as it may be.]

From your initial post, you state:
"And yet here I am, playing the Sam & Max save the World "remaster", only to find that jokes have been cut, and a voice actor has been recast. The voice actor was recast to match the race of the character, and the jokes were cut because they were "uncomfortable in a game in 2020"."

I interpret that as you not liking them changing the game because it negatively changes the original work. Subjectively, some might say it positively changes the original work. If the conversation is about ethics, then where do your* ethics lie? In this specific example, do they lie with a Sam & Max video game making a potentially inappropriate joke that could alienate the user that paid money to play it OR recognizing an err from the past and rectifying it because the opportunity arose to do so. Ethically, I think most would choose the latter. Speaking artistically, if the original still exists in its unaltered form, then it's a win-win.

[*generic you, not you specifically]

I think you are forgetting a third option, Restore. What you are discussing as a Remaster, I think in spirit you mean restoration.

From Dictionary.com (most context appropriate definitions provided)

Restore: to bring back to a former, original, or normal condition,
Remaster: to make a new master tape or record from an old master tape, usually to improve the fidelity of an old recording.
Remake: a more recent version of an older [game].

SSOOOOO....

If by definition of your argument, when Sam & Max release a "remastered" version, any changes they make to improve the game falls into the category of a Remastered game and all ethics are in tact.