Thanks for the messages guys. Grab a cup of tea and chill, i will be explaining a few things.
Firstly i have been trying to get more dinner slots added for the better part of 2 weeks now. I missed out on the last Japan slot, which has turned out to be fine! But it did bum me out when it was taken, mostly because i have always wanted to visit Japan, and also meet Matt and also David. So after that slot went, it was logical to at least let someone know that, "hey i have $10,000 i want to give you. Please take it and throw out an extra plate of chow.... all i want to do is meet Yu Suzuki".
So with that in mind, i took to twitter, and just got in contact straight away with Cedric Biscay. To my shock, he tweeted me back with come cryptic comments, with a non confusing positive vibe off of them so things looked good.
As time went on, i was worried about being forgotten, so i decided to post pictures each day of my Shenmue collection, with hashtags mentioning i wanted another dinner and i had $10,000. Just to keep the idea public. But this morning when i woke up i was feeling very negative and was talking to Ziming on chat. I had more or less given up hope this morning, PLUS, i had sold some of my gaming treasures which seemingly had turned out for no reason. One item i sold in particular was a Halo Reach signed poster by the original Bungie team. The last game and the last time they were all together! I expected maybe $200 would be a good auction total for it, but i got a message from a guy in the UK and after a lot of questions about the condition he was happy to buy it for £100. A bit of a loss, but i didnt mind that too much. But this morning he was messaging me complaining he wanted half of his money refunded because i didnt have no caps on the sides of the poster tube and also no bubble wrap in the middle! It was common knowledge he said! I couldnt find a big enough tube for the size of the Poster, so i bought one in a graphics shop which didnt come with caps so i just taped it up well. The poster was fine when it reached him, but this was "not the correct way to send it", and it "wasnt up to his standard". I told him where to go, actually expecting me to refund him half, and have him own a Bungie signed Halo reach poster for £50! So for the first time ever in 8 years of being on ebay, he left me full negative feedback! Fucking asshole, i would punch him in the face repeatedly if i ever seen him.
So i was bumme dout about that, and to be honest not looking forward to the updates, but when it hit... man it was like Shenmue 3 all over again! When i seen Monaco and LA dinners announced i freaked the fuck out and hit it straight away. Even before making the update topics here as the news hadnt broke. I happily chose Monaco because its closer to me and will help with the cost of the trip. Plus after years of discussing Cedric and Shibuya Productions, i knew thats where they were based, and then i thought of how Yu was confirmed to appear at the Magic Monaco convention in 2016 to preview Shenmue 3! I also thought about meeting David Deville at it, and was thinking about asking him to attend with me, but he is already going to Japan with Matt, plus my friend has now shown interest in going, which he can rightfully do since he has backed me with a large amount of my pledge.
So now the dust has settled i am now buzzing and cannot wait to meet Yu. As some of you have said, for me personally it is literally life changing. It means i will now not be emigrating to Australia in November as planned, and i will be focusing my life on gaming. More so than i have ever done. Its more than just a hobby. Its a passion, and you only live once. Why should i not embrace my love for the gaming industry. Now i have no major outgoings, i can focus on buying a lot more games, and developing opinions and perhaps writing some articles and reviews etc. I would say also, since i have a lot of time, and 2 jobs, i can save up and possibly do the Shenmue pilgrimage to China and Japan sometime in 2017!
So thanks for all the love guys, it truely is felt and appreciated! :heart: :heart: :heart: