Opinion on ROM Hacks?

[TimeTravelAstronaut]

Now, I've seen some janky-ass hacks over the years, but I also find myself using the well-made ones more and more in my LPs. QoL additions, re-translations, or the ones re-balance gameplay make a lot of games tolerable in my opinion.

Curious what you scamps think; do ROM hacks potentially turn you off of a LP? Is it disingenuous to use them or something?

Oh, also we can chat about ROM hacks in general I suppose; I mainly cruise this site myself.

[Raab]

Romhacks have certainly come a long way from the troll hacks I've seen reviewed on i-Mockery. Used to be you just palette swapped things, MSPaint and replace sprites with some Hakenkreuz, marijuana, profanity and childishly obscene things, and edit text to do the same in a sort of meta "Expand Dong" fashion. Now you've them fixing broken things like Phantasy Star IV's translation and lvl 99 bug to making them more challenging and adding features. I personally like to have at least tried the base game before futzing around with something that differs from the original game. However, as you've pointed out, there's much to benefit from modding an old classic. I think it's great that I can go back and play something like Zombies Ate My Neighbors, beat it and have two more unofficial games to play if I'm jonesing for more. It's definitely not offputting to see in an LP, as people mod modern PC games and LP them all the time and it's fine. I know there's a stigma with console gamers and emulation and keeping things native and nostalgic, but I personally don't have a hard on for trying to preserve such memories. I like that I can replay all my old favorites on my PC and modify them to improve or change them from the efforts of individuals that loved them as much as I do or more so to have put such effort into creating rom hacks. 

[arcthelad500]

The game after Avernum is a rom hack, hopefully TTA remembers I like keeping my next game a surprise and doesn't spoil it.