Kickstarter Update 51: Poll Results & Shenmue.link revamp

[Spaghetti]

While I do think some people are overreacting (like equating this dumb decision with the game itself or thinking PayPal backers get nothing), it's not unfair to call bullshit on Awesome Japan going against both poll results. If they didn't want to rock the boat, they shouldn't have even proposed the idea of PayPal backers getting the tiers and rewards featured on the Kickstarter. To get skittish about this despite statistically having the majority of backers being in favour of it, is dumb.

Hopefully by next year AJ will have been largely phased out of the communications process as the promotion for the game (headed by Shibuya) starts to start moving on the road to release.

[James Brown]

AJ have just been poor in general overall, I mean, look at the images they're using to promote the game, they look like copy and paste jobs using paint, all of the images apart from the original artwork are extremely over the top and poor. I bet the font for Shenmue 3 is something they chose aswell, it seems to be littered against everything they touch and if you notice anything that Yu Suzuki does to promote the game uses the original Shenmue font. I hate the new font, and I don't think it's licensing issues, I just think it's a straight up lazy job AJ are doing that they can't spare a few minutes to change all the images that they've already "produced". That happy new year cartoon animation is a joke...what have monkey heads got to do with anything? Just looks like they've grabbed random clip art images and added 2 or 3 frames of movement to them. The new website, imo looks worse than the old one, they are covering up "Shenmue 3" in the only cool looking part of the site - the oversized video - with the new column on the right handside (atleast on my browser) and also for today atleast, it's incredible slow. They always make spelling and grammatical errors, and i'm not saying that I never make errors, but i'm not being paid to write this post.

[mjq jazz bar]

Wait, so people who paid for Slacker Backer rewards that might have been Kickstartet exclusive items will no longer receive what they paid for? That's the sort of thing I'm seeing on Facebook. I don't see how that is possible.

No. "Kickstarter exclusive" rewards were omitted from the Slacker Backer all along. The proposal was to add them in.

The usual nonsense is happening due to communication breakdown that occurs one of those expertly-crafted updates goes live. I see a few folks clutching pearls about how what they've paid for is being taken away.

[wataro]

they should really clarify what the 'kickstarter exclusives' are so there is no confusion as some others have mentioned
it can easily be interpreted as PAYPAL = NO REWARDS

when its only a fue unique items

[Spaghetti]

There needs to be a proper community manager with accounts on here, NeoGAF, Twitter, Facebook, wherever to contain issues like these and explain them correctly.

[Kiske]

AJ have just been poor in general overall, I mean, look at the images they're using to promote the game, they look like copy and paste jobs using paint, all of the images apart from the original artwork are extremely over the top and poor. I bet the font for Shenmue 3 is something they chose aswell, it seems to be littered against everything they touch and if you notice anything that Yu Suzuki does to promote the game uses the original Shenmue font. I hate the new font, and I don't think it's licensing issues, I just think it's a straight up lazy job AJ are doing that they can't spare a few minutes to change all the images that they've already "produced". That happy new year cartoon animation is a joke...what have monkey heads got to do with anything? Just looks like they've grabbed random clip art images and added 2 or 3 frames of movement to them. The new website, imo looks worse than the old one, they are covering up "Shenmue 3" in the only cool looking part of the site - the oversized video - with the new column on the right handside (atleast on my browser) and also for today atleast, it's incredible slow. They always make spelling and grammatical errors, and i'm not saying that I never make errors, but i'm not being paid to write this post.

Do we want to talk about the gallery? (Hey, the Village Hut is back )

They should have used the non mirrored picture... or at least cut it.

[alexh86]

I just have to keep telling myself that the AJ communications team is completely separate from the development team. I still truly believe that we will get a good game but it is genuinely shocking how badly project communication is being managed. I'm not even talking about not opening up the Kickstarter rewards. Obviously they were looking for an overwhelming response if they were going to open those back up (and that's fine even though I voted "yes") but the lack of polish, errors, and backtracking in these updates is unbelievable. I'm a communication professional and I would not have a job if I did work like this.

[Kintor]

So an exact amount of money came to your mind, which then accidentally happened to be one of the reward tiers? I'm sure most of us adjusted their donations according to the desired rewards. Surely a couple of people will have put an extra $50 on top without it having any effect on their rewards, but I doubt that happened too often. Did you do something like that?
What I'm saying is that the rewards totally had a huge effect on donations and that they matter, to some more than to others.

Sure, it would be great and much easier if people wouldn't feel cheated. But it's okay for them to feel like that, nobody can really tell them it's not. I don't feel like them, but I can relate. We're not all feeling the same about all of this, that's impossible with 70000 people.


Sure, AJ could have prepared at least something for Paypal, that would have been smart. But guys, come on. Most of you are overreacting to an extreme extent, always so quick to predict the world's end and get out the pitchforks and torchlights. It's just some slacker backer period, nothing really depends on it. It's not doing anything bad to Shenmue III. The main funding campaign has been over for months now. Please consider chilling the hell out for once.

I apologise if my earlier post has caused you any confusion but I assure you my pledge amount was not arbitrary. When I decided to support Shenmue 3 (this moment being the first nanosecond after the Kickstarter was announced) I resolved to give as much as I could afford. So basically, I gathered up what money I could without breaking the bank and then looked for the highest corresponding tier. Thanks to international exchange rates at the time I was not able to pledge as much as I would have liked when the campaign began. Nevertheless I did manage to pledge $830 USD, which qualified me for the $800 Shenmue Patron tier.

Of course, in revealing how much I pledged I only want to illustrate one single point – what I want is Shenmue 3 itself, the rest is just icing on the cake. This is not to diminish those who pledged less; or for me seethe enviously at those who could contribute much more. In the end the whole point of this campaign is to make Shenmue 3 a reality; as the successful funding of this game is not something that any of us could finance on our own. I mean, with Michael Jackson dead I can’t think of any high profile and eccentric Sega fans with the spare cash to make Shenmue 3 possible.

Honestly, when you get right down to it I find this whole reward tier mentality on crowdfunding to be something of a Faustian bargain. Even since a few high profile Kickstarters began offering tiered rewards everyone else is compelled to try and do the same, lest people perceive that Kickstarter as being somehow less worthy of support then those that offer complicated reward systems. Still, I do acknowledge that for a lot of people all these exclusive Shenmue rewards motivated them to pledge more. To that end, we must contend with this unexpected issue of offering more rewards to the PayPal backers.

It would be best if we could all navigate through this crisis without too much turmoil. With a bit of luck we might still be able to prevent this PR blunder from becoming a full-blown media shitstorm. Fortunately, most of the gaming media’s so called ‘journalists’ might still be on their Christmas holidays. We might just get through this yet.

[James Brown]

AJ have just been poor in general overall, I mean, look at the images they're using to promote the game, they look like copy and paste jobs using paint, all of the images apart from the original artwork are extremely over the top and poor. I bet the font for Shenmue 3 is something they chose aswell, it seems to be littered against everything they touch and if you notice anything that Yu Suzuki does to promote the game uses the original Shenmue font. I hate the new font, and I don't think it's licensing issues, I just think it's a straight up lazy job AJ are doing that they can't spare a few minutes to change all the images that they've already "produced". That happy new year cartoon animation is a joke...what have monkey heads got to do with anything? Just looks like they've grabbed random clip art images and added 2 or 3 frames of movement to them. The new website, imo looks worse than the old one, they are covering up "Shenmue 3" in the only cool looking part of the site - the oversized video - with the new column on the right handside (atleast on my browser) and also for today atleast, it's incredible slow. They always make spelling and grammatical errors, and i'm not saying that I never make errors, but i'm not being paid to write this post.

Do we want to talk about the gallery? (Hey, the Village Hut is back )

They should have used the non mirrored picture... or at least cut it.

It's a joke isn't it. Everything just feels so unprofessional and rushed, even though they're having long periods of time where they should have the time to make everything to a high standard. It's as though they're like school kids, leaving everything till the last minute then just bodging something together quickly. It's like they woke up today and realised it's actually the 4th and they missed their 3rd of the month to tie in with the Shenmue 3rd of every month fan service, so just sat down and knocked something together in 20 mins. Those stretched, mirrored, copy and paste jobs, after you actually spot what they've done to the image, it's amazing really. If it were me or any of us, we wouldn't be happy releasing something like that to a fan site, let alone the official project.

[johnvivant]

as far i can tell;

only the following are missing from paypal that actually were described as 'Kickstarter exclusive':
-International phone card (in-game item) $80
-Digital upgrade - wallpapers etc. $39
- Dreams come true - $1400 - choose a wish to be displayed in a temple in bailu village

the following (as far as i can see) were not described as KS exclusive but are still missing from paypal;

DICE DUDE CAPSULE TOY-(no limit) -your face appear on dice capsule toy in game $700
SHENMUE PATRON (no limit) - your name in choubu temple - $800
LEND SHENMUE A HAND - (no limit) - have your hand appear in a fortune teller book - $900
RYO VOICE MESSAGE BY COREY MARSHALL - (no limit) - $1000
TEMPLE OF THE BLOOMING FLOWER - (no limit) - your own Chinese character in temple of blooming flower - 1200
CHIBI YOU CAPSULE TOY - 16 left - be a chibi capsule toy in game - $1200
I AM SHENMUE 3 - 49 left - your signed picture to appear in waiting area of choubu ferry boat - $1500
BFF CAPSULE TOY 28 left - be a capsule toy appearing alongside another character - $1800
SHENMUE BAIT & TACKLE - 7 left - Get to name a fishing rod or lure $1800
BE A TECHNIQUE SCROLL LUCKY HIT GAME BOARD - 13 left - face on lucky hit board - $4000
NAME A VENDOR - 9 left - Get to name a street vendor in the Choubu area. - $4500

there was also 1 monaco dinner place left - $10,000

so all the above were left over from KS campaign but they are not using PP as another opportunity to get rid of them?

whats weird is that the capsule toys ($120 tier) were described as KS exclusives yet they have been on the paypal since it was launched. work that one out.

they should just make it all available imo.

[mjq jazz bar]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/some-p ... 0-6433479/

So it goes.

[Kintor]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/some-p ... 0-6433479/

So it goes.

Great...

All we need now its likes of IGN, Kotaku or Polygon to get a hold of this story and we'll have a real fiasco on our hands.

Now just as before we need to make sure that the reputation of the Shenmue franchise remains untarnished. These gaming websites can come up with all the slander they want but they can't prevent Shenmue 3 from being made. We've already won, we just need ride out this latest storm and every storm after this until the day that Shenmue 3 is finally released.

[shredingskin]

It's kinda hilarious how trying to not piss people off, they end up pissing people off anyway...

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

To be fair, the GameSpot article is at least factual. We may not like what it says, but the journalism isn't at fault.

We'll see if the same holds true once the others pile on.

[reptile]

If Awesome Japan are more than 50% responsible for making the decision of paypal exclusion. Then I say we should tell them to f off.