Root Double- Before Crime * After Days - Kickstarter launched!

[Maxel]

Every tier after 225$ should just evaporate. Fans shouldn't even touch them... That's how unfair they are. 1,000$ tier should be like 350$, 5,000$ one should be changed into 1000$.... and the most expensive 7000$ one should be 1,500$ instead. I'm not saying give fans "items" for free, but at least at viable prices. It is calles crowd-funding, but that's just pushing it over the edge. If they want it to succeed they should change the higher tiers + add new ones. They had over half a year to organize this kickstarter and that's what they came up with? One word: disappointement. If they think that fans are dumb enough to give them pure money for almost nothing they're wrong... (hopefully)

Even though Libra is worse game, the amount of work put in their KS by devs+localization company is outstanding, the amount of tiers is also amazing, the same with fairness of them, and they changed a lot of things according to users feedback. They deserve to be funded.

[Darklord Rooke]

Of course, you shouldn't be funding a game based on the reward tiers in the first place. 

Just saying.

[Funyarinpa]

31 minutes ago, Rooke said:

JAST sold MG's games on their website, so it's not without precedent.

You say this with such confidence.

I recall 12Riven being almost complete as well (98% editing IIRC) 

[WinterfuryZX]

25 minutes ago, Rooke said:

the reward tiers

 

I usually don't give them a shit, I just wanna get the game. The only notable exception was MUV-LUV physical coidex.

[Decay]

2 hours ago, WinterfuryZX said:

Let's not forget that without this deal we would probably already have played 12riven.

Oh no! Games get dropped by fan translators at all sorts of progress levels for a huge variety of reasons. Complaining about not getting these free fan translation patches is one of the most obnoxiously entitled things you could do. Don't do this. 

[Dark_blade64]

8 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

"manggamer"  "mang"  lol

That's a little unfair.  They definitely focus on 18+ content and nukige a lot more than they do all-ages, but they have some all-ages VNs on their store.  There would be more, but because got a few of them rated by the ESRB they cannot be displayed with any 18+ content on the same page, and MangaGamer's Weekly Ranking sidebar made that impossible.  They chose to remove the all-ages ESRB copies from their site instead of getting rid of or majorly altering their Weekly Ranking sidebar.

They just won't sell Root Double on MangaGamer's site because there is literally no reason to.  If there was, then they would have already struck a deal with them.  Steam is a better place to sell it anyway, it'll get more exposure and advertising via the New Releases section and user queues.  There's a reason MangaGamer puts their all-ages VNs on Steam.

I knew something was fishy when I wrote that. Now I know why I felt like I misspelled something. By the way I kept reading again and again your post but I can't figure it out what exactly did I say that was considered unfair from my part.

[Kawasumi]

11 hours ago, Maxel said:

Even though Libra is worse game, the amount of work put in their KS by devs+localization company is outstanding, the amount of tiers is also amazing, the same with fairness of them, and they changed a lot of things according to users feedback. They deserve to be funded.

THIS, just....This.THISTHISHTISHITSHITHISTHISTHISTHISTHITSHITS 

[Deep Blue]

5 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

Once again, what else do you expect people to do when it's used like a pre-ordering platform?  It becomes more about what the backers are getting out of it than what they're funding.  If you go to Kickstarter for no other reason than wanting to secure pre-orders, you can't really be upset when you offer shit and get meh responses.

 

well but that's just a misinterpretation or just bad using of the kickstarter platform on both sides, it is not a pre-ordering platform is a funding site, sadly some companies are using it in the wrong way.

[Darklord Rooke]

6 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

Once again, what else do you expect people to do when it's used like a pre-ordering platform?  It becomes more about what the backers are getting out of it than what they're funding.  If you go to Kickstarter for no other reason than wanting to secure pre-orders, you can't really be upset when you offer shit and get meh responses.

People say it's used like a pre-order platform, but no reasoning is given for their statements. If Sekai is using Kickstarter to cover the costs of licensing, and to pay a group for their translation, then they're covering cost and not using it to generate pre-orders. 

And then people take this theory, built on little to no reasoning, and use it to excuse their expectations and/or their behaviour. I'm not a fan of that, tbh.

[Decay]

9 minutes ago, Rooke said:

People say it's used like a pre-order platform, but no reasoning is given for their statements. If Sekai is using Kickstarter to cover the costs of licensing, and to pay a group for their translation, then they're covering cost and not using it to generate pre-orders. 

And then people take this theory, built on little to no reasoning, and use it to excuse their expectations and/or their behaviour. I'm not a fan of that, tbh.

I feel like you're taking a really idealized approached to the situation that's simply unrealistic. Maybe people shouldn't treat it like a pre-order platform, but it's a simple fact that they do and Sekai Project failed to cater to them. This is their fault more than it is anyone else's, they aren't giving people what they want through the service. It's for that reason this campaign is under-performing. 

And when you launch a campaign for a project that launches just a month or two from the end date, you aren't aiming to fund that project, you're aiming to recoup its costs. This is a very important distinction. Granted, I actually don't care at all if companies want to use Kickstarter like that. I don't give a crap about the sanctity of kickstarter or preserving its original purpose, people should be free to use it in any way that benefits them, as long as the consumers are getting a fair deal. But I look at this project and I can't help but feel that Sekai Project is just phoning it in, trying to recoup as much of the costs as possible. The customers don't like the value they're getting for the upper tiers and also sense SP's lack of sincerity, and they're responding accordingly. 

[Darklord Rooke]

Creating physical rewards can cost a fair bit of money. But true, the rewards are lacklustre and they can be more inventive then they have been. 

The argument I was disagreeing with was that Sekai is using KS as a pre-order platform. Has the deal between Sekai and Regista been done? I've constantly seen the idea put forward that if the KS fails, then the project is in peril. Or another KS will start. People can't be saying this AND that 'Sekai only uses KS to secure pre-orders.'

[solidbatman]

I just got my first look at the updated tiers. Its a joke to anyone on the fence about this game, and only a tiny bonus to anyone who loves the game or creators enough to sink a lot of money into a KS. 

[Deep Blue]

I'm sure this has been answered a lot of times but can we blame sekai for the tiers or is it a regista/yeti's problem being really stingy? it seems like sekai is always having troubles communicating with the people they work for and this always impact and backfires to them because the face of the kickstarter is Sekai, not Lemnisca nor regista/yeti...

 

EDIT: and they figured it out https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/root-double-before-crime-after-days-xtend-edition/posts/1466514

[LightBladeNova]

59 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

I'm sure this has been answered a lot of times but can we blame sekai for the tiers or is it a regista/yeti's problem being really stingy? it seems like sekai is always having troubles communicating with the people they work for and this always impact and backfires to them because the face of the kickstarter is Sekai, not Lemnisca nor regista/yeti...

 

EDIT: and they figured it out https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/root-double-before-crime-after-days-xtend-edition/posts/1466514

Those new tier rewards actually look pretty nice, imo.

And I guess someone actually listened to me when I asked for that messenger bag to be added to the tiers lol, yay. I feel useful.

[VirginSmasher]

Well, the kickstarter is nearing the halfway point and to be frank, it's far from looking good to me. Currently, they're at 50,590 and in order to meet the goal, they need to get an average of 4,700 to make it (rounded up number) and based on how much it's making daily, it seems to me that unless there's a giant surge in popularity for the Kickstarter, it looks like it's not gonna make it in my eyes. And yes, there's always the giant increase near the end, but at the pace it's going at, that won't really matter.

[XReaper]

aside from those tiers, the main hinderance lies within them having announced the games relase date prior to its campaign. pretty darn sure lots of potential backers simply think why bother funding, if its going to be released shortly after anyway. and yes, personally i cant see sekai backing out from it at all now, funded or not. to be more precise if the games future of getting published were 100% at stake, they would´ve never even dared to announce it before the campaign, risking a massive reputation loss, by canceling the release, if the latter one might not make it.

[VirginSmasher]

Just now, XReaper said:

aside from those tiers, the main hinderance lies within them having announced the games relase date prior to its campaign. pretty darn sure lots of potential backers simply think why bother funding, if its going to be released shortly after anyway. and yes, personally i cant see sekai backing out from it at all now, funded or not. to be more precise if the games future of getting published were 100% at stake, they´ve never even dared to announce it before the campaign, risking a reputation loss by canceling the release if the latter one might not make it.

The main reason I haven't contributed is mostly because I spent all my money from Christmas before this Kickstarter was announced, but I can see why people would have a problem with that. That'd also be my mindset because Sekai Project will probably release it anyways.

[Darklord Rooke]

3 hours ago, XReaper said:

to be more precise if the games future of getting published were 100% at stake, they would´ve never even dared to announce it before the campaign, risking a massive reputation loss, by canceling the release, if the latter one might not make it.

IMO you're mistaken, they risk a reputation loss if they release it more than if they held it back. Kickstarter is a funding platform, therefore any release date automatically comes with a disclaimer of 'if funded' due to the nature of the platform they are using. Therefore, if they cancelled the release due to lack of funding there'd actually be nothing wrong with this.

Releasing the game without being funded would suggest an abuse of the kickstarter system. People accuse them of that currently but the accusations have no evidence and therefore little weight behind them. 

[WinterfuryZX]

It won't come out, who pays for Regista's right?

There's a reason the kickstarter has a base goal of 135k.

The only hope would be a leak of the translation in the form of a patch.

[Chuee]

Considering they removed all the patches on their site, for games that will probably never be localized, I doubt they're going to put out a patch if it fails. Chances are if they fail they'll find some ways to cut the cost by a little (if it fails it won't be by a lot). Considering the release date is so soon, I doubt they've considered not releasing it. Most of the work is probably done on this, so not releasing it would mean those people would get no compensation. 

[WinterfuryZX]

if the kickstarter fails they won't get anything, 0 usd.  they probably won't be able to pay the rights and a fantranslation would be the only viable option.

[VirginSmasher]

1 hour ago, WinterfuryZX said:

if the kickstarter fails they won't get anything, 0 usd.  they probably won't be able to pay the rights and a fantranslation would be the only viable option.

That's unfortunate. It's highly unlikely that we'll get a fan translation mostly because of this kickstarter failing (I've accepted it at this point). Looks like I'm gonna have to read this one via hooking which is something I didn't want to have to do.

[LightBladeNova]

14 minutes ago, VirginSmasher said:

That's unfortunate. It's highly unlikely that we'll get a fan translation mostly because of this kickstarter failing (I've accepted it at this point). Looks like I'm gonna have to read this one via hooking which is something I didn't want to have to do.

So will the translators' work just all go to waste? I can't really imagine that happening... Root Double has to come eventually, but just not sure how, if the Kickstarter fails. 

How depressing that one of the most interesting visual novel localizations yet is in this kind of situation...

[WinterfuryZX]

A dual language jp edition could be a solution but very unlikely.

I'm preparing to pledge more than 1k, (ofc i'll be forced pirate everthing else for months), I hope there are more backers like me

[Clephas]

I honestly can't say they set up the Kickstarter intelligently... they should have at least done a $1 tier for those who don't have a lot of money on hand.  Backers are backers, and money is money.  Also, there has been a critical lack of community reach-out in the case of this VN, in comparison to Mikandi's efforts with Libra.  If they seriously want this backed, they are going to need to really push it, since it is an extremely niche game. 

If it gets over the ninety-thousand mark by this time next week, I'll pour some money into it, but otherwise I want to avoid locking up my cash in a project that the company involved isn't showing much enthusiasm for or intelligence in pushing. 

Edit: Also, the tiers themselves are a bit... weird.  The exponential increases in amounts required for the different tiers past the first few doesn't leave any gaps for those who are willing to put down a good amount of money but don't want to spend several thousand or several hundred dollars.  If you take a good look at the more successful game projects, you'll see a much lower gap between the lower tiers.  To me, it looks like Sekai Project didn't really think it out very well before they created the Kickstarter for this...  in other words, they didn't take the backer mentality into account very well.