Remove Image Resolution Limit

Forums > Suggestions > Remove Image Resolution Limit

RemoveResLimit on 5/24/2024 8:53 AM · Permalink · Report

Mobygames is the only website where i can find increasingly rare scans and images of promotional material and game covers for games from the 90s and 00s

Most other websites that hosted them are either long gone or redirect to other pages

It's unfair to res cap these images behind a mobypro paywall when they were previously free to download in their full size

I know that hosting websites of this size isn't cheap, but surely there's got to be another way to monetize things besides degrading image quality when full resolution images were previously free

vedder (75617) on 5/24/2024 9:14 AM · Permalink · Report

Not sure about promotional art, but in the case of game covers, they were previously not available for download at all. They are now, but indeed behind a paywall. It's already amazing how volunteers manage to bring all these images to this site for conservation, but unfortunately something has to pay the bills. The good news is that if you can also pay for MobyPro by doing volunteer work in the form of contributions which seems like a fair alternative.

RemoveResLimit on 5/24/2024 9:35 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

You could download game covers in their full size before the mobypro paywall, so that is a false claim

I've been downloading high resolution game covers and other images from this site for nearly a decade before this paywall was put up

vedder (75617) on 5/24/2024 11:16 AM · Permalink · Report

The full resolution covers were only available if you knew the exact hashed link, which was only available to administrators. So if you say you were downloading them before this meant you were extensively scraping the site brute force, or not actually downloading full size covers.

Sources:

RemoveResLimit on 5/24/2024 4:05 PM · Permalink · Report

That's a very bold and disrespectful accusation to claim I'm some kind of hacker or thief

You could easily download covers and other images before the mobypro paywall just by opening the the image in a new tab and saving it, and the downloaded cover was of a higher resolution than the one after the paywall was put up

I never had to resort to the extreme measures you're accusing me of

Using the example of the game D-Day (2004). I downloaded the cover for the UK version back in 2019 and the resolution was 800x1142. The version of the same cover is now 560x800.

Link: https://www.mobygames.com/game/16634/d-day/cover/group-22504/cover-56270/

WONDERなパン (31313) on 5/25/2024 4:21 AM · Permalink · Report

Except that literally nothing has changed in terms of available resolution to visitors/members. The quality is the same as it always was and the MobyPro offering is the first time these full-res images have been available for non-admins/approvers.

So, no, Vedder’s suggestive remarks aren’t off. Most likely though, you’re mistaken and misremembering. I mean no offense by this but your claim is straight up false. It was never that way, or at least not for a long, long time.

Is your entire account made to “advocate” for free full res images? Username seems to indicate so.

RemoveResLimit on 5/26/2024 6:32 AM · Permalink · Report

No, i literally have older covers saved and they are of a higher resolution than the ones after the mobypro paywall, even despite the mobypro version having a higher resolution than both

I have nothing else to add, so if the mods want to lock/close this thread do so

vedder (75617) on 5/26/2024 7:16 AM · Permalink · Report

Ok so it looks like the freely downloadable images are lower in resolution now, than they were in the past. That could be. I guess that's been done to, a) lower the data costs of the site, and b) increase the value of the Pro subscription.