ok i need to add some things here…there are some points that i think you don’t understand, absurdist, which need to be clarified…i want to say first and foremost that all your ideas for expanding the market are good ones, and that when i was new to the bishoujo industry and its workings, i had very similar ones…but after spending clsoe to two years getting embroiled in it and working closely with Jast, PeaPri, and now G-Collections, I havE learned quite a few things, some also learned from direct contact with people who have responded to my site and such…i hope my voice is somewhat respected on this board, being a goddess and all , so i can get away with making a somewhat preachy kumiko-ish speech but she/he did make some very good points that i think some of us have forgotten
first, yes, it would be wonderful if peapri and other english companies could get great sales and show those sales…but the main obstacle to this is the MINDSET of the north american society…we are brought up to believe that sex is an evil immoral act that should be kept behind closed doors…it is a taboo in our society rather than a natural part of it…therefore, there is more opposition to any type of game with sex in it than there would be for any violence or other type of offensive material…for example, there are numerous games out there with grotesque awful graphic-beyond-belief violence, yet these are released every day without a peep of protest from pretty much anyone…yet in a game there was a huge outcry and a huge setback while the programmers had to redesign whole levels because originally the game creators wanted to give their race of blue-skinned topless women nipples…this is just one small example of America’s sex-phobia…if you like sex and admit it, you are a pervert and there is something wrong with you…stores, retailers, and many others do not want to take the step of selling adult games because of the stereotyping and bad publicity they would receive…a game like this would probably sell very well and they may even know it, but the risk is in being black-balled by society…adult movies are slowly being accepted as ‘dirty movies lonely guys watch’, so sales of those as long as they are hidden from the eyes of the casual shopper is accepted now, but most people will hide the cover of the movie box as they head to the cash register and blush while purchasing it, because there is still such stigma
i have received email from people asking me how i can possibly have a site like i do that degrades women and shows them as objects, and about how i really shouldn’t post a picture of myself because then people will know who i am and what a pervert i am…sex has a seriously screwed-up image in the american eye…american porn has made us view porn as stupid, pointless, often comical portrayals of women being idiots and slutty whores…so most of us do not realize that porn can have a meaning, a story, and emotion that can make you cry…and even worse, most americans associate anime-inspired adult material as ‘tentacle sex’ and nothing more…i have brought up bishouj to dozens of people at conventions, personal friends and contacts, and others…half of them have dismissed it outright as stupid pornography with no point, and the others have put up blatant arguments about not being into ‘tentacle sex and that weird demon-rape shit’…only a few were even willing ot look at a game to see what it was about, and those few were very very surprised by the depth of theg ames and commented about how it’s ‘not what i expected at all’…
the main obstacle to the bishoujo gaming market in america is to break through that wall of stereotyping, misinformation, assumption, and closed-mindedness…and americans are notorious for being stubborn…it’s a battle of many years, not months…
another point that must be brought up is that you are right in that if we got better games, people would take a better look at them and judge them more fairly…but PeaPri and others have little to no say in what games they get…as mentioned above, most companies refuse to delve into the english market…it’s expensive and not worth their time…they don’t NEED american sales at all…they have their hands full keeping their japanese customers happy…so peapri and others take the games they can get their hands on and work with that…i personally don’t like X-change, i think it’s rather pointless and silly, but i know there are better games out there and we need to support what is there NOW to get those better games…we are caught in a catch 22…until there are better, deeper, longer more impressive bishoujo games, americans won’t take it seriously, but until americans show enough of an interest to generate sales that the japanese have to take notice of, we won’t get those better games…it’s a vicious cycle…
it is a very expensive and involved process to localize a game…when peapri first started up, they were paying out of THEIR OWN POCKETS because they desired to bring these games to the english market…they may still be paying out of pocket for all i know…and things are made more complicated by the fact that americans are spoiled little brats who want everything their way and have no respect…we hate sex, fear it, and shun it, but if we are GOING to have it, we want to be able to see everything damn it…no crappy mosaics! it takes months of extra work and delays to get the japanese artists to redraw all the sex scenes in games for an audience that doesn’t even want their work, as faR AS THEY KNOW…localization would be much easier if americans would respect cultural differences and accept mosaics as a part of the artform…there are games right now that have been licensed or are being offered for license where mosaics are a necessity due to loss of original art files and such (Dokusen, for example), which are wonderful games and a great boon to the genre, but PeaPri wonders if they should even bother, because their meager sales will probably be halved by people going 'ewwww, mosaics, i’m not buying that crap’
there is more i want to say and comment on, but my brain is shutting down due to tiredness, so i think i will just wait and see what the response is to all this