I understand that, given the current circumstances, there's a lot that has to happen before any o this is possible, but once there's an opportunity to look into it, I believe it could pay off very well in the long run.

Disclaimer: I'm going to be assuming a lot from this point forward, so if I'm incorrect about anything, please correct me.

From what I can tell, the site's financial problems really started to get bad when Vizzed was no longer allowed to use adsense, and I'm assuming the reason is because of the games the site hosts. It also doesn't help that there are still large amounts of people using ad blockers. On top of all that, Nintendo requesting their material be removed more or less took away one of the site's biggest sources of income. The solution: a complete redesign of the RGR. Instead of a plugin allowing in-browser emulation and hosting the files on the site, there could a Vizzed browser/client that allows you to download ROMs from any ROM hosting site to a specific directory, just like the RGR plugin, and load them from a GUI.


Potential pros of having a client/browser specially made for Vizzed:

--Nintendo games made available again, which would mean a huge recovery in site traffic
--No need to host games on the site anymore, making it where you could merge the RGR and the VGR, host only the configuration files and streamline the site, saving hundreds if not over a thousand dollars a month on hosting fees
--Ability to use Google Adsense again which will only amplify the increase in revenue from having Nintendo games available again
--Making it possible to integrate more open source emulators like DeSmuME, PPSSPP, Dolphin, PCSX2, Project 64, etc.
--Ad placement is always front and center and there would be no way to block them
--No compatibility issues between browsers

Potential cons:

--Devaluing Viz. Since everything would be sourced externally, pretty much every key item in the market would be useless, including the prized PSX Item that everyone's so motivated to get Viz for.

There's probably more ups and downs, but I tend to lose half of my thought while I'm typing.

Davideo7 :
tRIUNE :

Wondering what you guys think. Like I said, I know it would take a pretty long time before the funds were available to do this, but if no one can come up with anything really wrong with this idea, I think it should be a future goal for the site.

Well, devaluing Viz wouldn't be a problem. Just like right now we can "buy systems" and need Viz to play games for systems we don't "own", with your idea the torrents could cost a certain amount of Viz to download. It already happens like this in sites like romulation.com where you must sign in, login periodically and submit content to their site in order to gain enough points to download the big games for modern systems.

I personally would be up for it, but I'm not sure if we could include emulators like Dolphin. You see, in Dolphin some games need a few adjustments so as to run properly, and I'm not sure how are you going to deal with that specially in an emulator with so many games available. If we're leaving it to each user to make their own settings, then we would need to link to the Dolphin wikia to alert of the needed changes, or any other possible solution.

While there would be no compatibility issues between browsers, let's not forget that modern systems would need powerful computers to run smoothly. I burnt a graphics card on my old computer for trying a PS2 emulator, so there you go. Besides, continuing with the example of Dolphin, some games may run better or worse for certain users depending on their computer's specs. I've tried a game rated 4 stars in Dolphin's official website that works even better than the ones they rate as 5 stars.

So yeah, while many people would welcome modern systems, we cannot ensure they will work for everybody and thus can be a relatively wasted effort. Those of us who already struggle with certain systems and emulators, for example, could have a very hard time with some of them. While I would welcome an easier way to get access to those ROMs, I wouldn't get any farther than that and leave each user to download and configure emulators by themselves, which would also allow for the renaissance of the Tech Support staff role and probably open a new subforum within Help/Questions/Suggestions or probably refurbish the current RGR forum.

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EX Palen : I'm pretty sure dolphin lets you download config files for different games. Assuming dolphin was added to vizzed, we could have testers make config files or use the ones from the dolphin wiki.

EX Palen : I actually meant to make the newer emulator more of an afterthought for further down the road, I was thinking all over the place last night. I see your point about  configuration and specifications. One thing we could do is hire a few extra staff members to make up for it. Either have more game testers to come up with estimated system requirements and configuration files for specific games, which could be hosted on their page in the VGMR, or have a new Dolphin researcher and configurator position to do the same job. Also maybe adding a disclaimer to the game pages.

earthwarrior :

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I agree that configurations aren't the problem.

earthwarrior : Oh, is that so? I may need to run a search then, because with all the translations I'm having a hard time figuring out what exactly I need to change every time I want to play a different game.

The idea of new game testers to search specific configurations for modern systems could work, but then again there's the problem of compatibility depending on your computer's OS and performance. I wouldn't mind testing for Dolphin because I have the hang of it, but I've already encountered games which work better or worse than their official website announces, so that can be a big problem.

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EX Palen : It turns out the wiki doesn't have files for you to download. It has a section that tells you settings you could change though. iirc you can make different config files for each game in dolphin.

I'm just gonna get to the point, the entire purpose of the RGR Plugin was to to have in-browser emulation. Why reverse the thousands of dollars David spent to have it developed?

tRIUNE :   Well, this is all based on two assumptions: improving site finances in the long run and the plugin being dead in the water. If there's no way to update the plugin any further, then we could be facing compatibility problems as browsers and operating systems continue to develop and there would be a need to build something new from the ground up anyway, right? Of course, I could be missing the big picture here.

So we could be facing the RGR plugin not working as browsers update in the 'far' future?

tRIUNE : That's what I'm assuming, yeah. The thing is we never know how far in the future. For all we know, we could see a major Chrome update before long and it screws something up. It's basically just an idea for when we start looking into rebuilding the RGR somewhere down the line. Never too early to start thinking ahead.