The Fans Who Never Let Shenmue Die

I've no doubt he woulda rejected the offer, but I reckon it's odd not seeing Ziming/Hellraiser on there, not even a mention. That said, there's no one more deserving of appreciation than @Let's Get Sweaty, imo.
 
Hopefully what we did for Shenmue, the same can be done for Firefly, Dredd, Agent Carter, and Streets of Rage.

You guys make me glad that I’m part of a great community and when Suzuki launched his Kickstarter, we proved our loyalty by breaking records. We did more than put our money where our mouth is. We all knew for years that money was an obstacle and if Suzuki wanted to crowdfund, we would help out.

Though it took more than a decade, our journey is about to begin. For a good percentage of us, we had to wait half our lifetimes for this and for some reasons, we all stuck by.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I was able to get over some ex-girlfriends and an ex-fiancée, but never with Shenmue lol. But I’m married now, and my wife and I have visited Yokosuka. There’s something about this game that grasps you like no other, and that’s why we are still here
 
The Shenmue fan community really is amazing. It was a long slog, and we surely had our little ups and downs over the years, but the sanguine hopefulness and determination and ingenuity of the community has been truly inspiring to behold.

So many people put so much time and effort into the campaign, and everyone contributed in all kinds of different ways, from the people who kept this forum up and running and documented all of Shenmue's intricacies and esoterica, to a enthusiastic young fan who randomly started posting on Shenmue UK (shout out to Shenmue Addict!) and made some key contributions to the idea of the tweetathon.

But I do agree with Mittens that no one is more deserving of appreciation than our very own @Let's Get Sweaty . He came at a point when this community was probably at its most despondent and managed to turn everything around with his winning combination of sagacity and indefatigable energy and hope. And I do mean indefatigable, I cannot overstate how much time and energy this man put in. He asked me to helm the monthly tweetathon once in his stead, and even that was too much for me and I completely fluffed the job. But he has been doing it for years. He also created one of the most wonderfully inventive and criminally underused forums I've even seen with the old Team Yu forum.

Team Yu was a team effort obviously, but I honestly believe that if LGS didn't walk into the Dojo one day with his nutty ideas about a 'tweetathon' then we wouldn't be here watching trailers for Shenmue flipping 3 today.
 
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RyoHazuki84 said:
Hopefully what we did for Shenmue, the same can be done for Firefly, Dredd, Agent Carter, and Streets of Rage.
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Veronica Mars did the Shenmue route before, they Kickstart, make a movie and now they are getting a mini series on Hulu. So yes, fans can achieve a lot. Also I think that fans can bring a Twin Peaks season 4.
 
Mittenz has only namechecked me because he knows almost any praise turns me into a fidgeting wreck. The swine.

Mue, you're the glorious exception, and your £5 is in the post.

There's heaps more to say about what the whole community's achieved, but luckily I've another twelve months to find the words. Right now I just want to pick lint off my trouser leg and inspect the heel of my shoe.
 
Yeah it's a really great, well-written and good intentioned quite lovely article there. Enjoyed reading it. Fascinating to learn about the synergy of the Shenmue communities and all the concerted efforts that led to Shenmue III finally being made. Only thing that was a bit incorrect was the part where it said the Shenmue III petition from 2003 that I started went unnoticed. Whilst this is partially true (Sega never acknowledged it, nor did they issue an official response) Yu Suzuki acknowledged it in two interviews, five years apart, meaning he did see it and it did have some extent of an effect on him.

That said - credit to Shenmue III's existence almost definitely came down to later efforts by the people here and those featured in this article, and I do believe it was that period between 2010 and 2015 and all those Tweetathons and constant social media efforts particularly to Sony/Adam Boyes that eventually led to Shenmue III happening. Probably a perfect storm of Yu Suzuki learning about Kickstarter during its meteoric resurgence - and Sony desperately wanting it as a fan-pleasing exclusive, in tandem with Yu Suzuki being in constant contact with Sony who were being overwhelmed with requests every month.

It still amazes me that Sony responded to "Save Shenmue" on Twitter - and yet Sega of all companies, the actual publishers of the game were dead silent until Shenmue HD. Fans targeting Sony eventually was just genius in retrospect.
 
Yu Suzuki actually got emotional and cried during the final stretch of the Kickstarter and watching YouTube videos of the fans reactions to Shenmue 3’s announcement. You can sense that the feeling was it had been such a long journey that he was overwhelmed in that moment. The only other more patient fan bases that I know of are the Berserk and Twin Peaks fanbases which both required long period of cliffhangers/waiting for the creators to return. Being a fan of all this kind of media has really brought those fanbases closer together like I feel the Shenmue community has as well. Those new fans thanks to the recent re-release just have a year to wait, for most of us it’s been almost two decades. So happy to see our patience rewarded.:D
 
I admit that I gave up on hope on the future of this series around 2013 after nothing came of Ryo appearing in Sega Sonic Racing. I thought that was the last hope to garner interest and it apparently didn't so between that, the length of time and other focuses in life I disappeared from here with occasional appearances once or twice a year at most. Now that the game has been re-released and the new one on the way I feel re-energized.
 
I was always aware of Shenmue’s obstacles, but felt they were conquerable. As long as Suzuki expressed interest, we were open to all possibilities. I’m happy that over the years, he expressed it and never gave out too many spoilers. The fact that he refrained from giving spoilers to me demonstrated that it’d comeback at some point.

While many products proved to never underestimate a dedicated fan base, Shenmue took it by ten fold. Considering how the releases of HD have made an impact, Shenmue’s future has never been brighter.
 
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