Random Shenmue III Thoughts

Hammer Ys Net, Deep Silver, Awesome Japan, etc. hard on the fan-led marketing initiative. Why would ANY company worth their salt turn down free marketing? This is the most successfully funded Kickstarter of ALL TIME due to fans.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Hammer Ys Net, Deep Silver, Awesome Japan, etc. hard on the fan-led marketing initiative. Why would ANY company worth their salt turn down free marketing? This is the most successfully funded Kickstarter of ALL TIME due to fans.
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I think it's a great that fans want be involved in spreading the word about this series. That being said, there are many reasons why companies turn down this idea of "free marketing" from fans all the time.

Marketing campaigns are carefully planned to manage expectations and build hype. People are well-paid to design these campaigns and have ownership over them. It's their career and they have chosen their own team members to execute their plans. A well-meaning fan can unintentionally disrupt the pacing of a campaign, use unapproved materials, associate with unapproved sites... there are lots of things that can go wrong, and that's with well-meaning fans.

Now think of borderline cases such as a so-called "influencer" who becomes a high-profile fan promoter of an IP, then something short-circuits in their mind and they wander into a public bathroom during a livestream, or behave as a disgusting foreigner in Japan, or some other crazy shit. Then Shenmue is associated in peoples' minds with some unfortunate, potentially illegal stunt.

Now think of a troll who plays a long game of pretending to be a fan and then at some point changes into actively attempting to damage an IP.

The company does not want to get involved with amateur marketers whose actions are unapproved and who are unaccountable if something goes wrong.

Shenmue does have a unique history of fan support, so one would think that it would make sense to reach out to fans and involve them in promotions in some way. But obviously there are also downsides to this sort of thing. I've seen a lot of salty comments directed at Adam Koralik because he was perceived to have gotten special treatment that other fans felt like they deserved.

It's just a really messy situation to go wading into with a lot of potential downsides and a very narrow potential path of success, so it makes sense that companies generally do not want to involve a bunch of extremely passionate (i.e, volatile) fans in carefully planned, extremely expensive marketing campaigns.

Edit: impenetrable wall of text organized into paragraphs at Xatruio's encouragement!
 
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Zoyous said:
I think it's a great that fans want be involved in spreading the word about this series. That being said, there are many reasons why companies turn down this idea of "free marketing" from fans all the time. Marketing campaigns are carefully planned to manage expectations and build hype. People are well-paid to design these campaigns and have ownership over them. It's their career and they have chosen their own team members to execute their plans. A well-meaning fan can unintentionally disrupt the pacing of a campaign, use unapproved materials, associate with unapproved sites... there are lots of things that can go wrong, and that's with well-meaning fans. Now think of borderline cases such as a so-called "influencer" who becomes a high-profile fan promoter of an IP, then something short-circuits in their mind and they wander into a public bathroom during a livestream, or behave as a disgusting foreigner in Japan, or some other crazy shit. Then Shenmue is associated in peoples' minds with some unfortunate, potentially illegal stunt. Now think of a troll who plays a long game of pretending to be a fan and then at some point changes into actively attempting to damage an IP. The company does not want to get involved with amateur marketers whose actions are unapproved and who are unaccountable if something goes wrong. Shenmue does have a unique history of fan support, so one would think that it would make sense to reach out to fans and involve them in promotions in some way. But obviously there are also downsides to this sort of thing. I've seen a lot of salty comments directed at Adam Koralik because he was perceived to have gotten special treatment that other fans felt like they deserved. It's just a really messy situation to go wading into with a lot of potential downsides and a very narrow potential path of success, so it makes sense that companies generally do not want to involve a bunch of extremely passionate (i.e, volatile) fans in carefully planned, extremely expensive marketing campaigns.
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First: hence why I feel @tomboz thread is great--short and concise from anonymous fans. No volatility of a streamer doing something inadvertently asinine. Simple pure hype and passionate promotion all focused upon the game and creators themselves.

There's no ego or personas, looking for clicks, encroaching upon the integrity. Sure DS will choose their youtube/twitch gamers careful for their own in-house marketing.

Second:
Paragraphs, please? :p
 
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When it comes to fan marketing, a viral Video is what really hits and influences the masses.
If we could find some Brave souls to make some videos like this it would get the masses going. If it could catch on.

frame it as the "Shenmue Challenge"

Am being serious too.
 
www.kickstarter.com

Update 17: Shipping schedule · Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works

I'm happy to announce that our final page files are now with the printer and the physical production of Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works is, at long last, underway! We have spent the past few weeks with our repro specialist Eric, carefully working out best practices for screen-to-print colour...
www.kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com

November is gearing up to be a pretty huge month. The Dreamcast Collected Works book will ship in the first week.
 
Influencer are the wrong crowd to promote Shenmue. That are just chatterboxes that getting paid for talking about the game. These guys are way to unreliable to considered as a serious Marketing Partner. They could change their color any time.

We need some youtubers that are willing to put more afford into the Marketing than just talking and talking.

Some People that are willing to work made to make some decent documentations about the history of shenmue, with Interviews of the developers and so one.

Some really pro stuff is needed. Some random guy just talking infront of the camera is just boring.
 
xatruio said:
Most definitely Huber, Linneman and Koralik.
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Mega64 are also huge fans and did a skit recently to promote Judgement.

They also had a reaction video when S3 was announced back in 2015 that Yu saw and was worried they might have a traffic accident over the filming of it.

Maybe they can work something out with DS? They do have quite the sizable following/viewership on U-tube.
 
So come November 18th...launch night.

Will you be playing at Midnight? (if you have the digital version pre loaded that is to say)

Anyone planning on streaming the first night?

Will you even come to the dojo or will you avoid it like a plague?

What will you do launch night?

I plan to be conveniently sick from work on launch day and will be up playing from Midnight. As soon as it hits midnight, I will launch that pre loaded digital version for all it is worth and will play through the entire night/morning.
 
danielmann861 said:
So come November 18th...launch night.

Will you be playing at Midnight? (if you have the digital version pre loaded that is to say)

Anyone planning on streaming the first night?

Will you even come to the dojo or will you avoid it like a plague?

What will you do launch night?

I plan to be conveniently sick from work on launch day and will be up playing from Midnight. As soon as it hits midnight, I will launch that pre loaded digital version for all it is worth and will play through the entire night/morning.
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I'm buying the Shenmue 3 deluxe edition on PSN to play it at midnight. My job is pretty laid back I'm putting in 2 days of leave and then they're gonna give me the rest of the week off till Monday. November 1st I'll start playing Shenmue 1&2 leading up Shenmue 3. I'm going to wait till 10:00 pm on November 18th and finish the last chapter in Shenmue 2 where Ryo meets Shenhua (I believe that chapter is 2hrs long). When I get that famous to be continued screen that's where Shenmue 3 begins for me. On Nov 19th only four things matter: Shenmue, sex, food, sleep (IN THAT ORDER).?????
 
danielmann861 said:
So come November 18th...launch night.

Will you be playing at Midnight? (if you have the digital version pre loaded that is to say)

Anyone planning on streaming the first night?

Will you even come to the dojo or will you avoid it like a plague?

What will you do launch night?

I plan to be conveniently sick from work on launch day and will be up playing from Midnight. As soon as it hits midnight, I will launch that pre loaded digital version for all it is worth and will play through the entire night/morning.
Click to expand...

I had it all planned for August, but the release change messed that all up. So my new plan is to have Wednesday the 20th (the day after release) and the rest of the week off. On Wednesday, my wife is working and she has arranged for our son to go to her parents for the day so that I have all day to myself to play Shenmue (I sometimes forget how awesome my wife can be).

On Tuesday I will unfortunately be working, but I will play when I get home in the evening.
 
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