"Consider adding game download card to hard copies you send to other retailers / sell at conventions while using email to distribute game codes for J-List customers."
I think they tried adding download cards to hard copies. So far it seems to be confusing people, who think they're getting a "buy one get one free" deal.
@HyugaX: No problem with the font; yet another example of interesting/odd things I wouldn’t have thought this forum software would do, though… I like your ideas, especially on the marketing and JAST USA web site side. I think they may be keeping the adult and all-ages separate more with an eye to a future growth rather than it being the most practical thing at the present. If they grow their offerings on Steam or whatnot, my guess is they may be concerned that new fans whose interest gets caught by the all-ages games might run away screaming if immediately confronted with Let’s Meow Meow and Tsuki: Possession upon visiting the site. I think the “indirect advertising through retailers and related publications” idea is great – wouldn’t require a ton of new connections or research, and would probably get their products in front of a receptive audience. The idea of a menu along the tops of all JAST sites (home site, social media, development blog, etc.) linking them to one another seems like a no-brainer smart idea, too.
Interestingly, your ideas on the gaming side have already been adopted in some cases. I’m playing Hitomi: My Stepsister (2005) right now, and it actually had a flowchart exactly like the one you suggest. Take a gander:
I rather like it and find it useful, but I have read that at the time of its release reaction was mixed. You get some people who really only care about seeing the possibilities in the plot(s) who love this option; you get others who view completing all routes as a challenge and feel this makes it too easy.
On the “game trailers,” they’re actually doing that now with their physical copies, or at least used to do that in the recent past. You just have to know where to find the trailers, which isn’t especially obvious. (On a standard PC) when you pop the game DVD-ROM in your computer, go to “Computer” and examine the contents of the disk in the DVD-ROM drive. Often, along with the files used to install and run the game, they’ll include some game trailers and previews. Again, I haven’t checked to see if this feature has been carried forward in the last year or so, but it used to be true with their games.
I love that there's so much activity from staff here, and that you are being so open about things.
I love instant download on digital purchase - I imagine it must be a relief on your end as well, to have an automated system in place for that :)
The new shop is alright, I would like to see title browsing a little more prominent than in the dropdown of the top navigation bar.
I think you should add a forumname/username field in our accounts, so we can post under those, rather than the "full name" field.
The page for individual titles are probably what i like most about the new design. I would like the preview pictures to be a little bigger though. Maybe they could scale to fill out one row, depending on the amount of pictures. With a max limit of height of course.
This new "forum", I am not a fan of though, for much the same reasons as have already been mentioned. Generally the layout here makes feel like I'm on the self-help section of a support site for one of the big game publishers :/
Thanks for all the feedback everyone!
I just wanted to write to let you know we are reading every suggestion and are trying to map out what we can do over the next few weeks, months and years.
Here's a sneak peak into the very scientific matrix we use to evaluate ideas:
"The new shop is alright, I would like to see title browsing a little more prominent than in the dropdown of the top navigation bar."
I'd like to emphasize this. Currently I can only find a title when I specifically search on it. That's kind of a problem since your shop should be a tool for discovery, not just a place to buy a title you're already looking for.
@ jacksprat1
I think they may be keeping the adult and all-ages separate more with an eye to a future growth rather than it being the most practical thing at the present. If they grow their offerings on Steam or whatnot, my guess is they may be concerned that new fans whose interest gets caught by the all-ages games might run away screaming if immediately confronted with Let's Meow Meow and Tsuki: Possession upon visiting the site.
I think that's the reasoning but Steam itself could act as their storefront for all-ages titles and JAST USA would be their adult storefront. Also the first thing any Steam customer will be greeted with upon visiting the website right now is an advertizement for Starless that leaves very little to the imagination. If their going to keep separate stores I'd say don't promote adult goods on it and maybe alter the color scheme for each page, keep blue and white for all-ages and make it maybe red and white for the adult store.
Also I really like the flowchart you posted. I think that should be included in every game and not just in a select few. Regarding the initial controversy, if you don't like it you don't have to use it (kind of like an easy mode in non-visual novel games). It just makes sense to have it in case you get stuck and its something JAST could use to distinguish itself from its competition.
On the "game trailers," they're actually doing that now with their physical copies, or at least used to do that in the recent past. You just have to know where to find the trailers, which isn't especially obvious. (On a standard PC) when you pop the game DVD-ROM in your computer, go to "Computer" and examine the contents of the disk in the DVD-ROM drive.
I didn't know about that. Maybe at the end of the game installer they could make users aware of said trailers (and free demos if they decide to include them).
@ Dark_Shiki
I think they tried adding download cards to hard copies. So far it seems to be confusing people, who think they're getting a "buy one get one free" deal.
From what I understand it varies from title to title whether or not its included in the box or if its delivered via email only to J-List customers. Also if its confusing people the instructions on the card need to be a little clearer and it wouldn't hurt if the site used to redeem the code was easy to identify and access from the main webpage.
Currently I can only find a title when I specifically search on it. That's kind of a problem since your shop should be a tool for discovery, not just a place to buy a title you're already looking for.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post but you can easily browse through all titles by selecting "View all Visual Novels in English." Of course search results are limited based on which site you've selected (all-ages or 18+).
The store needs a tag function like Mangagamer's store and VNDB. Say I was interested in games with some sort of gameplay element. Currently the only way to find such games is to look in the "action and RPG" category. But Littlewitch Romanesque isn't there, and that's a title gameplay fans would be interested in. You could even let fans make tags and vote them up or down like VNDB does. Importantly, the tags need to be listed on the store page for each game, and they need to be clickable to make it easy for people to discover games similar to ones they've played or are already interested in.
@ Dark_Shiki
Ok, now I understand what you meant. I agree with your recommendation of more category tags and having them listed on the store page for each game.
Also the grid that lets you narrow your search by category, price and studio is only visible when you select "View All Visual Novels in English" from the "Visual Novels in English" drop-down at the top of the screen. I think it should be a permanent fixture that's part of the webpage no matter where you go on the site.
Another observation is that you guys do not openly advertize the fact that all your games are DRM-free. This is a major advantage over your competition that you should advertize on both your all-ages and adult site preferably at the top left corner of the page right under the JAST USA logo itself. On the adult page you could also add that all games are uncensored, which cannot be said for all games released by your competition.
Hi, can you disable the automatic e-mail subscribe when a user creates or replies to a thread? I'm getting tired of my mailbox being spammed. Thanks.
@Dark_Shiki: I am taking a guess here but does unfollowing the thread stop automatic emaills?
It does, but I always forget to disable automatic replies in new threads (it's enabled by default), and when I check my mail a few weeks later it's filled with dozens of spam mails from these forums.
Oh, that’s easy enough to deal with. Just mark their spam as spam and you won’t have to deal with it anymore. Jast has always had a problem with respecting people’s wishes not to get their emails.
Speaking of spam, your spam filter is broken again. It just ate my post.
There's a button to stop following a thread within each thread. There is also a link in each email to turn off following to stop getting emails. Hope this helps.
We just complained that your solution doesn’t help :). It is not a solution because it involves continuous ongoing annoyance to turn off a feature that a) some people don’t want, and b) can’t be turned off.
Also, I have been active on this site since 2001. Your spam filters should know who I am.
Thanks for adding a delete post feature. It's not the edit feature requested, but it's better than nothing. And it allowed your boss to erase an ill-considered quote. Keeping your boss happy is important for staying employed.
To be honest, I'm loathe to come to the website. I can't easily follow this new forum interface and navigating the website is confusing. That being said I'm not the most technologically up-to-date poster, so maybe I'm just behind the times...
Another really dumb “feature” - topics falling off the front page after 6 topics (!!). Topics that were posted in yesterday probably drop off the face of the earth just because they’re not on the front page anymore.
Your previous forum easily solved this by having a forum list and then only showing actual topics on a real page.
@ Peter Payne & Nicholas Graham
Following up on marketing ideas, I think you guys should contact the owner or mods of Fandom Post and ask them if you could post the game covers for your upcoming releases on their forum’s DVD/BD Cover Art Discussions thread. This site is the spiritual successor to the Anime on DVD site and I’d be willing to estimate that this is the best place to reach the people who have actually purchased the Bible Black and Discipline anime DVDs.
This shouldn’t cost you anything and would be a lot more effective at reaching a potentially new audience than your paid 4chan ads.
Can we please widen the text field for posts on the forums? There are over four inches of space wasted to accomodate the “More Topics” window that could be used to widen and center our posts. It’s an eyesore trying to read the forums when everything’s off-center and relegated to a limited amount of space.
@Grgspunk: I complained about this literally in the first post in this thread. Glad to see someone else also hates it. This system absolutely was not ready to go live. But when everyone seems to hate something except the admins, guess what, the admins win.
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