Valmore

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Hopefully, but we'll need to see how it fares over the next few weeks. Initial release usually sees the biggest sales total for most things. If it doesn't dip dramatically but only has a slow decline over the weeks, that would be considered successful (or if it sees in increase, of course). If it dramatically dives after the initial offering, we'll probably have seen the big sales as those who already knew and were waiting for it.

Sounds like you just need a bigger umbrella Further confession: Believe it or not, the morning of that day, I struggled for a few seconds over whether to bring my large umbrella or my small one. I really should have brought the larger one, even though it's much more unwieldy... but I didn't really think it'd rain, at the time, or that we'd be walking for so long in the rain given that I was driving. Poor decisions: I make them. Now I have both "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" and "Bus Stop" stuck in my head.

To be fair, while you're right, it's still a pretty crappy way of doing business. Considering how many DVD and Blu-Ray discs come with included digital copies these days, it's kind of a nod to those who still value a physical product over just a digital download. The earliest tier I see that is for pledging $125 which seems pretty ridiculous and I can't even tell if that's real, because all the tiers after it don't include physical copies, either. The $40 physical tier was a pretty unusual thing (that's a low price for such a limited physical release - I seriously doubt they're doing much better than breaking even on those), so they had a lot of restrictions on it. They talked about it at the time, in the emails to backers. I think you're correct that it was the $125 tier, which included some other random stuff, to get both a physical and digital copy. The whole rewards thing was pretty complicated, honestly, from what I recall, but they sent a ton of emails while the campaign was going on, fixed a lot of things to be more clear, and eventually had the BackerKit setup so you could effectively set up things to get what you wanted (if you were willing to pay enough). I remember some 5 emails from them about rewards, and how to optimally choose to get what you wanted, and what it should cost you. It was, by the end, ridiculously clear. If you're here now complaining about it, either you have forgotten that whole debacle and the choices you made at the time, or perhaps you were just ludicrously inattentive. Either way, it's wrong to fault either Sekai Project or Key on this one - it was abundantly clear what you were supposed to get. Nah, I'm not faulting anyone, as I haven't bought anything as of yet. If the physical copy has extras that the digital people don't get than that evens it out to me anyway, but I don't know.

To be fair, while you're right, it's still a pretty crappy way of doing business. Considering how many DVD and Blu-Ray discs come with included digital copies these days, it's kind of a nod to those who still value a physical product over just a digital download. The earliest tier I see that is for pledging $125 which seems pretty ridiculous and I can't even tell if that's real, because all the tiers after it don't include physical copies, either.

TFW you have to Google Madoka to understand the last few posts.

You could always privateer (ha, love it) a copy with an English fan translation. The Engrish alone adds humor.

Laugh it up Walky Walkerson.

While Clannad may or may not be the best way to introduce non-VN readers to visual novels (it has both its merits and demerits) the main thing you have to keep in mind is this - there's no point in localizing a Japanese visual novel to English if you aren't trying to break into the English speaking market. So the reality is a project like this is meant to win over people to the format. With that in mind, you have to think about the market you're attempting to break into. You can hype up the quality of writing and art all you want, but when you're introducing something new, the biggest factor in making the decision to try or let it fly is usually price versus what you're getting.

False Next person has discovered the meaning of life

But that's precisely the problem with Japanese visual novels in the West: the market is super niche. If you can't appeal to a wider audience, you're bound to not sell very well, and this could potentially make developers like Key back off from localizations if they can't turn in a good profit margin. The problem with the price point being this high is that it'll heavily restrict the amount of people who will actually want to buy it to simply anime/visual novel fans, and probably only the hardcore ones that are willing to pay $50 for it knowing it's going to be that good. The Western market expects a game's price point to be related to the amount, or at least quality, of gameplay, not just the story itself, so you'll find it very hard to convince people to pay $50 for literally no gameplay over here. Japan understands the value of things like good art and good voice acting and the target audience over there is way bigger, that's why price points like this are something much more acceptable there, but over here that type of stuff won't fly very well, that's just the reality of it. I'd love it if people bought Clannad en masse, but I'm very skeptical it will happen like this. Exactly. I love visual novels, don't get me wrong, but the market for them here in America is a word probably even lower than niche (need a thesaurus here). You can get away with selling Fallout 4 at $50-$60 because of the promise of tons of gameplay and of potential downloadable content, etc. Due to a visual novel's inherent lack of gameplay, you're going to have a hard time selling a visual novel at a premium price to anyone except those who are already interested. And with Clannad already being out over a decade with a fan translation readily available, I can see why many would be turned off at a $50 price tag. The concern here is growing the market. At $50 a pop, I can't see Clannad selling overly well, and that's a problem because it'll turn off Japanese marketers from attempting to create this sort of thing for Western audiences. To hook someone in on something they're not familiar with, you need to be as inviting as possible. A $20 price tag has a better chance of getting the non-VN reader to say, "Well, it does seem kinda cool. $20 isn't that much, I can at least give it a try." A low sales amount likely discourages Japanese companies from localizing or concurrent development - can't win, why try?

I'm working into Michuru's route currently. Am I getting my hopes up? Because, logically, thus far it sort of makes sense (but it's still early) and I kind of feel it's a bit more realistic than the route I first read, which was Amane's, which I found thoroughly unbelievable. At the time of reading it feels gripping at times, but then I go back and think logically and the whole route is a complete farce, considering the circumstances and the fact the story takes place in 2005, not 1975. It has all the same problems I had with The Blair Witch Project, which is why I laugh at anyone who thinks that's a great movie.

Honestly, here's your problem with it, and why visual novels just aren't ported as much. Taking the technical aspects into account with localization and everything else, $50 seems to be a pretty fair price. It's comparable to typical costs for PS4 and X-Box games out there, so it's not like gamers don't drop that kind of cash on something. The problem lies in that it's not really a game. As a visual novel, you're asking people to drop $50 for a digital Choose Your Own Adventure novel that likely consists of repeating backgrounds and character images and mostly reading text with a few choices here and there to set a path to an ending. It has some replay value in choosing a few different paths, but in the end, it's a digital book, which makes it hard to justify asking someone to drop $50 on it. Considering most typical books run $10 to $30, depending on what it is and who the author is, etc. $50 is steep even for cool sprites and voices. Your typical gamer is not going drop that sort of cash on that sort of thing unless they're already into the format. Concurrent development of Japanese and English versions of a visual novel would be a better method, but without any guarantee it'll sell in the West (or should we say East, I mean, technically the USA is more East of Japan than West) it would be hard to convince a company it's worth their time.

Confession: I don't really care about Thanksgiving. If there's one time of year that actually gets me down, it's Thanksgiving. I guess my loneliness hits around this time. Growing up, my family always went to Maine for the holiday. It was kind of a compromise thing, as dad was from Maine and mom was from South Carolina, and we ended up living in New Jersey near dad's Navy buddies. In summer we went to SC (because, you know, let's visit a hot-and-humid as hell place in the summer) and for Thanksgiving we went to Maine. And my entire family on dad's side would be there. Living in Florida the past 12 years, I haven't been to Maine since and frankly, I haven't seen my family much at all due to distance problems. And it just kind of hits home this week. I'd rather bake a pizza and stay home then go to whichever place my wife is dragging me (and it's not even a place with her family, which actually would be worse).

And I'm currently working on getting all teh feelz in Grisaia. Why do I read things that make me bawl like an unmanly man? because it feels good obviously : 3. dont deny it. I dont know though, grisaia didnt rek me as much as I had hoped tbh. And actually I would like to say that "Grisaia no Kajitsu is a 7/10 game. It has great moments, yes, but overall it isn't all that impressive. IMHO it does not deserve very high a place in the hallmark of VN's." I've only made my way through one of females thus far, working on the second. While it isn't quite as loaded on teh feelz thus far, it still does catch me, in maybe a way it's supposed to. Hidden Content Well. Depends on who you went through actually. Hidden Content Well, that would be Amane's route that I've finished. To be honest, it didn't do that much for me. The feels are there, but it feels hollow as well.

And I'm currently working on getting all teh feelz in Grisaia. Why do I read things that make me bawl like an unmanly man? because it feels good obviously : 3. dont deny it. I dont know though, grisaia didnt rek me as much as I had hoped tbh. And actually I would like to say that "Grisaia no Kajitsu is a 7/10 game. It has great moments, yes, but overall it isn't all that impressive. IMHO it does not deserve very high a place in the hallmark of VN's." I've only made my way through one of females thus far, working on the second. While it isn't quite as loaded on teh feelz thus far, it still does catch me, in maybe a way it's supposed to.

And I'm currently working on getting all teh feelz in Grisaia. Why do I read things that make me bawl like an unmanly man?

We should not be warring over our beloved waifus. Each one or multiple of them holds a special place in our hearts. And because you're all wrong anyway.

...Am I missing context with this? I don't understand >.< Not sure if sarcasm... or you own the same things... It's not sarcasm nor do I own the same things o_O It would appear that the O-Ren owns a couple mousepads of anime-themed females where the arm cushioning fills out a pair of breasts and a set of buttocks. My guess is he (likely rightly) feels his female friends are disappointed in him for owning such crude and blatantly lewd objects.

...Am I missing context with this? I don't understand >.< Not sure if sarcasm... or you own the same things...

Confession: I'm saddened that my loving attempt at humor received such little love. Even got a FUH in there. Truly this is a tough audience.

I think I've had the same problem - it pops up in a window over the game. Seems to happen whenever Hat is supposed to have a scene where he's in the box.

What would you do for a Klondike bar?