Princess Waltz: THE THREAD

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#121

Of course they’re losing something. You would have a downloaded copy and a physical copy, which you could turn around and give to someone else. So they lose half their sales. Never mind that “cheap” isn’t “free”, and thousands of people downloading a game does add up to a considerable cost.

Besides, the “license” thing is in fact not true. You buy a copy of the item, not a license to the information. Software has questionably-legal contracts embedded with it, and questionably-legal control mechanisms put in, which makes this more complicated; but I’ve looked it up, and the license-to-the-content bit is not actually true.

Personally, I think the idea that you buy a license to content, not a copy of it, is the way copyright law will have to be reformed in the future (the old model doesn’t work well with the new technology). But currently copyright law is just that: the right to make copies of the original work.

#122

That actually depends on what type of DRM you have, things can be setup that both digital and disc are registered to the same owner.

The license to the content thing you’re talking about is true, otherwise Apple or Microsoft wouldn’t be winning all these cases in court regarding their operating systems license/EULA. You’re buying a license to use the product, you’re not buying a license to the content, if that was the case, anything found on the disc/download would be yours to do whatever you want, which you can’t because that would be illegal.

#123

Depends on the system. If you want to see it done really well, look at Stardock. You buy a game from them, you are really just buying the activiation code (your license). You buy from a store or a retailer and you can still go to their online site, put in your license, and download that product from them, years later. It’s all the same to them. You pre-order a game from them, you can download it and activate it at midnight on its release date. And they’ll still send you a copy of the game, if that is what you ordered.

The trick is that once you are doing digital distrubution, you (usually) have the infrastructure you can then leverage to provide whatever other mechanisms you need to manage, and allow the customers to manage, their licenses. It makes for an excellent copy protection— as each game needs an activiation code. If you worry about piracy, you require one time online activation— which no digital purchaser can argue with. They had to be online to get their product— and for the PeaPri customer base, you let them deactivate a code so they can then “sell” their license to others.

With that sort of system in place, there is no reason not to allow people that pre-order a game to download at release. Send them their code in email, let them hit the servers. In fact, as pre-orders, you might let them hit the servers early (up to a week or so), and so all they have to do is start their product at midnight, and activate it. Some people would still pre-order the game with a physical (hard) copy. The amount would go down for the hard copy, but pre-order amounts would stay stable overall.

It’s up to Peach Princess. They are doing the digital sales right now so they can take advantage of the “long tail” on their older products, while minimizing the overhead cost associated with their older products (no need to order 1000 units printed, as they have a very cheap “print on demand” due to digital copying— no need to for those older units to be taking up space in a warehouse, as they can just take a bit of space on a server instead, etc etc etc). PeaPri is just currently fighting against the pull to go further in that direction. They want us to pre-order hard copy games— even though they aren’t large suppliers (or at least, don’t seem to be) of such to their “retailers”. Having a physical presence does help spread the games (and therefore grow the business), but I wonder if it is worth the aggravation to its more far flung customers? Won’t online ads do as much to grow their customer base as having the games on hand for a few merchants to take to anime/SF/gaming conventions and having a few other merchants online offer their products? Do they need physical copies so that Amazon can sell them? I don’t know— maybe they do. Maybe those physical copies, being sold through those other sources, help them grow their customer base. I certainly hope so, but I haven’t even a wild guess about where their new customers come from. I found them through the internet almost two decades ago.

#124

hopefully it won’t be much longer till the games gets sent out

#125

I noticed you saying similar things recently, lol :lol:

#126

We are beginning to process pre-orders now, and the game will be in stock this week (likely Wednesday is what we’re being told by the San Diego office). We’ll try to begin shipping before Thanksgiving; if that’s not possible, the real shipping thrust will begin next Monday.

#127

That’s fantastic news, Shingo! AWESOME!

#128

I’ll be looking forward to receiving it in the not to distant future then. In the mean time, a question regarding the story has come to mind. That being, what time of year does the story take place? (For instance, in Snow Sakura you can tell through certain events that the game mainly spans from mid or late fall to around very early spring.)

#129

yeah i am ready for it too

#130

Finally got the shipping e-mail! =D
does a lil dance

Now for the long agonising 1-3 week wait of shipping an item halfway around the world xD

#131

i hope it ships today or weds if it ships after thanks giving it might take long with the Christmas influx of mail and shipping of ups, fedex

#132

I think not all games have a linear timeline. They often have a linear timeline at first, but after you go for a certain route, time doesn’t really matter ( Clannad )
But since PW has the “transfer sudent” stuff , i guess it not diff from other games.

#133

Got my shipping notice today too, however, I’m not expected it until Saturday I guess or monday. I don’t think the post office will be open on Thursday or Friday this week because of the Holiday. Of Course that’s assuming my copy is actually shipped out by tomorrow.

#134

I just got my shipping notice today as well. :smiley: I’ve been really looking forward to this game. Now I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for it to get here in Canada.

Also may take a little longer with the Christmas holidays only a month away and the influx of mail around this time too.

#135

It is known that there is only one ending.

Other than that, do you really think they’ll tell you spoilers like that? You’ll just have to buy the game and find out :smiley:

#136

As far as I know, there’s only one ending. I don’t want to say too much and spoil it. If you really want to know, you can read Shingo’s post back on page 4.

#137

I didn’t read Shingo’s post completely (at least not the spoiler part), but if it has just one ending, hopefully there is still some incentive to play the “routes” – even though technically there aren’t any – of the other girls. But I’ll have to wait for my copy to arrive and find out.

#138

i have a question
is a walk through really needed for the game
like do your choices effect how the game ends

#139

Princess Waltz isn’t a game that would fall into any of the classic “season game” archetypes (like Snow Sakura is a ??? (fuyugee, or “winter game”, while Terios’s Natsuiro Communication is a ??? or “summer game”). The season is never specifically addressed, but based on the condition of the foliage and what the characters are wearing it probably takes place in the late spring or early fall.

Arata does get to pick one girl, but not in a “stay with and get married” kind of way.

There are a several incentives to play the other routes:

  1. You get to learn more (sometimes a lot more) about each of the girls’ pasts and secrets.
  2. You get to experience their individual combat strengths in the card battle game, which adds fun replayability.
  3. After clearing all of the “routes” you are able to view a short postscript to the game that occurs after the final credits.
  4. Oh, and there are ero scenes with each of the girls as well. Can’t forget that. ^^

A traditional choice point walkthrough isn’t really needed, though there is a part of the game that could be explained in that way. The walkthrough we’ll be providing upon request will focus more on the card battle system (elaborating on the information in the manual and in the in-game help interface).

#140

Ah, I see. I was less interested in if it fell in to an archetype than I was interested in if the weather and such I’m surrounded by puts me in the right mood. As Unicorn said in a private conversation I had with him earlier this year:

Given how much it sounds like the game obfuscates what time of year the story takes place in, the mood my surroundings put me in may be a moot point.