Kumiko, you’ve raised the point again and again that you simply cannot afford to get such low sales and have the products be this cheap. Thinking about this for awhile, I realized something.
I’d be willing to pay more than you’re charging.
Not for all the titles you’ve put out (I thought the brutish elements in X-Change were foul, myself), but for Snow Drop and Tokimeki Checkin, I’d’ve paid $20 more each…you don’t really have any way to let people voluntarily pay more, do you?
Then again, this would essentially amount to collecting donations, which might not be the image that a company which is attempting to demonstrate a demand wants to project.
Will since I can speak Japanese and English, and also I like to play bishojo games. Maybe you should hire me. I know about the compurters and also, I am ITT student. Also, I can translate the bishojo games. Also, I like to work with you guys but I live in San Diego. If you hire me I like to work with you guys.
Kumiko: You probably don’t because it here in Hong Kong. The ruling is mainly to allow the Custom and Excerise Department authority to make arrest without requiring involving the police first. Also it allows Customs to use “lethal” force. Since they aren’t police they can’t carry guns. We armed with metal sticks and train in wingchung. (This is after a successful raid where two custom officers got injured.) I just love the way how Hong Kong solve their problems.
There is noticable success in these few months. Shops selling legal software have increases. Cinerma takings have increased dramatically while the prices of tickets have dropped.
It’s amazing what can happen when the government set thier minds on it.
The last major raid was a ship with 223,500 CD bound for the US from China in August. Not a month go by without a siezure.
It amazes me that some people pay up 25USD for a pirated VCD in China Town. As I said before these are less than 2USD. I really hate to know what kind of people get all that profit and what they do with it.
Yes, you are right, even if one buys a piece of intellectual property the content still belongs to the creator.
I remember seeing some RCY’s products on the market. They got shutdown, but it seems there is interest on these products. I tell you if I see any of your products on the market since only the owner can execute a siezure. Also you can shut a site down in Hong Kong easily since there is a division of the police that just does that, but this hard since as soon as one sites is down another pops.
Nandemonai: I don’t think donations work. At least not in the long term. Increasing prices reduce exposure since “new” customers will think twice before buying something “different”.
For the long term we must tell shops that we wants these titles and are will to pay. After all companies understand money more than words.
Well some things we can do to help is to keep our eyes open for pirate sites and inform PeaPri or Jast about them. Also browse BBS’ and look for potential customers. I have noticed that on some boards potential customers ask about a game and where they can “buy” it. Then someone responds with a pirate site… So a customer who was originally going to buy the game, now goes and downloads it. One thing that I do is watch BBS posts and if possible set customers in the right direction. If everyone spends a little time and does this it could seriously help sales.
In fact I recieved around 30-40 e-mails last month from people asking if I could send them games or provide a place for them to download them… Excuses ranging from money problems, to lack of credit card and more. I am fairly sure that at least 11 of those 40+ people, after I explained to them ways they can buy games and sent them in the right direction bought the games legally. They e-mailed me back later to thank me for my help and we discussed some game tips. So just taking the time to post on some pirate boards and getting people to e-mail you can help the market in the long run, since you can take the time and explain to people just how much damage they are doing to the market. From my experience around 25% of the people that hit pirate sites don’t know where they can buy the games and around 50% don’t realise how much their legal purchase can help the market.
So if nothing else, you don’t have to donate or spend money just spend a little time each day, pick say 3-4 anime BBS’ and watch for game posts and provide the people with helpful information. You can even watch pirate boards and try and set people straight but get ready for alot of flames… Bigdog
Know I’m going to get a lot of flak from Kumiko over the following comments, and as much as I don’t condone software pirary, I still feel I need to highlight this:
Bishoujo gaming’s still not that big in South-East Asia (some people don’t even know what bishoujo means, and they claim to be die-hard anime/manga/gaming fans), and for those who are aware or even play these games, it’s b’cos of the piracy market that introduced this genre to them.
It’s easy to pin-point pirates and say they’re damaging the market–especially when the originals are readily available–but it’s another story when pirated copies are the only available copies out there. Take Dreamcast bishoujo games in Singapore, for instance. There are no official distributors of the Sega Dreamcast in this region–they’re parallel imports. Likewise, all Dreamcast games are brought in by the local retailers themselves. A normal Dreamcast game sell as high as S$140 (compare that to the original PC games here that sold here at aournd S$50), and there are hardly any bishoujo titles–no Close To, no Happy Lesson, no Konohana True Report, no Kanon etc. I have to mail-order mine all the way from Japan–and that’s costly, VERY costly; imagine someone trying to buy them without a credit card then. what some shops did was bring a copy of the original bishoujo title back, but sell their pirated equivalent as well. Collectors may buy the original, but the average gamer can play the game too by buying the pirated copy. Ethically this isn’t right, but is there really an alternative when companies don’t even give a look at regions like this?
As for the adult-bishoujo games, you all know the laws here–they’re banned. sale of origianl titles–even acclaimed ones like Air–is forbidden. It used to be that they’re only available via the software pirates. Even the non-adult PC bishoujo games (translated into Chinese) are hardly sold here (shops told me they don’t sell, so they’re not bringing them in from Taiwan). Digi Charat Fantasy (Chinese version) is just out in Taiwan. I don’t see the shops here bringing it in (and don’t expect them to). Almost every title they sell are those pugilist RPGs, and if you want a copy of that, you’ve got to get someone in Taiwan to send it over.
And mind you, I’ve got cases where the game doesn’t even get here–probably got lost at customs, I guess.
To put it frankly, as illegal and unethical software piracy is, there wouldn’t even be a bishoujo following this part of the world if it weren’t for the pirated copies.
The same goes for the game consoles–even the PlayStation would’ve died without the pirated copies–especially when each game cost over a hundred, and only a limited number of imports get here, almost none of them being a bihoujo title. I’m still waiting for my copy of Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories 3 to arrive from Japan–if they’re selling them here, it would’ve saved me a lot more trouble and money.
We’ve had rampant piracy problems with PC games before, and the number of raids didn’t eradicate the problem. It war turned the publishers’ way only after they began distributing them locally at more affordable prices; games that used to cost about S$90++ were now going at an average S$50++. people began switching to originals because they’re more afforadable and available.
The same won’t happen for bishoujo games b’cos it’s not mainstream; and for it to become more mainstream, gamers must be exposed to them–and that’s close to impossible when i) they’re unavailable, ii) they’re avialable, but you’ll need a credit-card and LOTs of cash to get them shipped over, iii) they’re banned altogether.
people will respect the copyrights once they come to appreciate the bishoujo games they play and the industry behind them–but no one’s going to splash out cash on something they don’t even know much about.
The govt’s taken a very serious stand against piracy these days. I can hear some of you cheering that, but my feelings over this is mixed. I know friends who are DC bishoujo game fans lamenting over the difficulty of getting games they want these days, and many of them are even quitting bishoujo games altogether for more mainstream ones. Even the local Japanese bookstore’s cutting back on bishoujo gaming magazines now. I run a local/regional bishoujo gaming site–will see how long it remains running before it becomes obsolete too.
The way I see it? The support a market shows towards software publishers is reflected by the latter’s own support for the market. Software piracy may hurt companies in a mature market–in an immature one, it can help it grow sometimes. It’s up to the companies to decide when that market is mature enough for them to come in and wrestle it away from the pirates.
okay, VERY long post. and expecting a lot of flames.
You know what is truely ironic. I saw a pirate site today that was complaining about people stealing their game descriptions and pictures and using them on their own site. LOL, Everytime I think about this it becomes more and more funny… A pirate bitching about having his “pirated stuff” pirated!
You are entitled to your opinion, and granted there will ALWAYS be pirates. But that does not make it legal. Did you know that even having un-licensed software on your machine is breaking the law. If you are running a microsoft product for business uses that is not licensed it is a $150,000 fine PER INCIDENT. Look it up if you don’t believe me. Not sure what the personal fine is but I bet its >5,000. Now you say, its my machine, not your business. Well its not anyones business if no one ever finds out. Well companies are trying more and more to get info on customers machines, cough Blizzard Battlenet cough. So I would be careful what you install you never know what might be getting reported back to companies.
------------------------------------------- Distributing pirated games are not easy: no free hosts want to keep them, you need to reupload them often, all these legal isues, it is not much easer than making them. Posted by Pirate ------------------------------------------- Okay this sentence truly amazes me. Also I cannot believe you argued how much work goes into pirating… Firstly I can assure you, that you don’t spend 1/100th the time pirating software than the company does producing it. Also if you are spending so much time doing this MAKE YOUR OWN GAME. If its good you will reap more profit from your product than stealing others, and it LEGAL!! I also love how you say “all these legal issues”, click doesn’t that make you think that it is actually illegal. Maybe thats why free hosts won’t support you!
Also if its takes so much work to get the game free then just spend the $35.00 and BUY it. My time is too valuable to waste attempting to get something illegal, that puts me at risk anyway. Another thing to realize is a FREE market is impossible. You cannot get artists, programmers, translators to spend their time for free. Sure a select few are willing to take the time a translated or design games. But if the companies, artists, etc. do not get support they will stop producing games. Do you really want a market that releases 2 games a year? I don’t everytime you argue piracy, every time you offer it for download, and EVERY time you download it you hurt the market. Once again you are entitled to your own opinion, but if you were the one who spent 12 months of your time developing and designing a game, I bet your attitude would be different.
I have been away from this discussion, but, well, I guess I will throw my $0.02…
Pirate: I am pretty sure that being in Lithuania, it can be somewhat difficult to get these games, however, keep in mind that you can still buy your copy via snail mail. Sure, it will take a while, however, it will reach you, eventually (it takes between 7 to 10 days, as I don’t live in the US, either. Besides, not everybody can download 500MB+, as not everybody has broadband connection). A pirated game, means a lost sale. Even if you say you won’t buy the game if you can’t download it, then suit yourself. However, if you do get it by illegal means, and play it, then, you are not giving the proper appreciation to the company (read: give them $$$), so that it encourages further game developing/translating. Why I would want a manual? Well, because I like them. It tells that the company cares about the customers. Hell, I even used to collect the game boxes of the game I bought (but it took way too much space and they all ended up in the trash). If you say running a pirate site is quite expensive, why run a site, then? They aren’t making any money, don’t they? And, why don’t you ask yourself about the costs of translating/making a game. It is not just a matter of typing the code, I have done that myself. Games aren’t just lines of code. There is also a storyline, as well as art. Even if the programmers don’t mind not getting paid (a la FSF or GNU), artist does, as they still have bills to pay.
XICO2KX: There is a reason why these games will not be placed online (legally, that is) so that you can download it: there is copyright holder of the game, and PeaPri is NOT that copyright holder. I doubt the holder (Will or Crowd, depending on the game) will be willing to do that. And, as I mentioned above, not everybody can download 500MB+.
Kumiko-san: Can you, please, stop posting this type of messages. IMNSHO, this topic is beyond the major interest of the members who have been here from quite some time (read: those who buy games and check/read/post from time to time). We all know about the support stuff, but (a) We have lives of our own (like chasing REAL cute girls), (b) We have jobs, and (c) There are other things we have to do. This is getting quite annoying, already…
[This message has been edited by fxho (edited 09-15-2001).]
quote:Originally posted by Kumiko Kamiyama: If you have specific suggestions as to how we are supposed to accomplish this "wrestling away" with no profit, please let us know
Software piracy--esp for games--was rampant here a year or two ago. what companies like EA and Eidos do these days is release 'Asia/Pacific' copies which--however inferior to the U.S. versions--are nevertheless far more affordable. It's almost the norm here--even for Chinese/Japanese games. If I'm right TGL has a factory in Malaysia, so their games can go for as cheap as S$26 (that's how much I paid for an original Chinese copy of Farland Odessey-Limited Edition). There'll still be the pirates--you can't beat them, but more people are now buying originals. The game companies themselves also actively engage the game media to promote their games.
The same hasn't quite happened for console games, but news has it that M$ may be pressing their Xbox games in this region, so that might transform the market scene.
Well I’m trying to spread the word amongst the friends I have that I know may be interested in these types of games, and buying as many as I can afford.
I will continue to do my part. As a person who buys tons of games, pirate copies just will not do because I’m a collector as well as a gamer.
I hope Peach Princess continues to exist, or else I fear this genre of games will be forever out of reach for english speaking gamers such as myself.
:\
[This message has been edited by Picky (edited 09-16-2001).]
I’m really tired, but i have to comment about the demos.
First thing is what i consider a demo is a playable portion of a game not a movie-like preview. I first heard the word used in PCgamer. They have about ten to fifteen playable games in the cd that comes with the mag. Then on i’ve seen it in similar use. About a year ago i saw playstation games call movies demos like in gran turismo games. I’m pretty sure “Demo” is considered differently between the US and Japan. So whenever someone says demo i’m thinking a playable demo so please specify if otherwise.
About people wanting a demo of a game is pointless because PeaPri’s games are text-based (except Brave Soul) so only thing we need to understand the game better is pictures (already given) and an introduction of the story (also already given). The point of a demo in games on the PS and PC is try out how the action plays and graphics. I know they have preview in books, but most people buy a book because of a recommendation or the brief introduction on the back. And text-based Bishoujo games are more closely related to books than video games except the option to choose how the player wants to advance the story. The main reason i play bishoujo games is the story it isn’t like an rpg when the battle system really sucks than the whole game. From what i’ve played the games are just the story no battle system or fighting or looking for stuff in the games.
