Over the last three and half hours, an argument has been raging in the official Evercade Discord server over whether or not the latest firmware update "broke" a device that effectively allows you to use your own SD cards with the Evercade. There have been some extremely harsh and unpleasant words spewing forth from the people who had invested in this device, and a complete unwillingness to consider why a small company like Blaze might not want to make it easy for people to make use of such a device.
The standard go-to argument in favour of devices like the one in question is "because homebrew". But the fact is, these devices are also used for widespread piracy. And with a platform like Evercade, which is reliant on the support of the companies it manages to secure licenses with, that's a huge problem. Whether or not the device in question can be used for homebrew development is beside the point, really; the fact it indisputably also enables piracy is something that could potentially put future licensees off supporting the platform.
Mostly I've just sort of watched in bewilderment as a small number of people got really, really angry that the handheld console that has always been marketed as having fully licensed, official, curated collections of games rather than being a simple ROM machine does not, in fact, want to encourage the use of any device which might turn it into another ROM machine. We've had people yelling about "China" and "censorship" and all manner of other absolute nonsense, and it would be hilarious if it wasn't so very, very depressing.
On the one hand, I get it. A new device appears, it's cool to see what can be done with it. On the other, Evercade has been pretty clear about exactly what and who it's for from the outset, so I don't really understand the need for supposed "homebrew" developers to get their pants in a bunch over this. After all, becoming an official developer for the platform is a simple matter of emailing Blaze, or coding something for one of the emulated platforms on Evercade and then going via a group like Mega Cat Studios.
For the most part, the people yelling about this haven't been making themselves seem like the sort of "customer" anyone would be in a great hurry to support. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if, by tomorrow morning, they appear to have been quietly ejected from the Discord. I certainly wouldn't miss them.
People, eh? Why do they have to ruin everything?
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