Mangagamer licensing survey results

[Fred the Barber]

From having worked with survey results in a professional environment:

1) Surveys usually tell you more about how the survey was written than about what people want.

2) Surveys are inherently self-selected, and thus over-represent people who believe they are under-represented.

3) Even when you get past 1) and 2), surveys still only tell you about what people think they want, rather than what they actually want.

 

Regardless, 8,000 responses is a pretty good sample size. Frankly, given the reputation MangaGamer seems to have (I have never looked at their catalog, so I have no idea what is in it, but just based on reputation...), given #2, people really think they want nukige. And so on. Had too much to drink to carry on this line of reasoning any further.

[Nosebleed]

Regarding DRM, I have never seen any visual novel with crippling forms of DRM, which probably explains the higher percentage of people who are okay with it.

You won't see an always online DRM on visual novels, for example.

At most ( rarely) you'll need online authentication, which is not really a negative or crazy thing to put on a game.

But even with these numbers, i highly doubt MG will start using restrictive forms of DRM.

[Chuee]

I really wish they'd released the rest of the games past #10 but oh well. Most of the top 10 were to be expected, too but there's only a few that don't have existing translations and actually have a chance of getting picked up by MG.

[Deep Blue]

Using really restrictive forms of DRM cost a lot of money A LOT (like Denuvo)  that some companies are willing to spend because they are idiots and don't care about their costumers AKA ubisoft, EA etc. I doubt a vn company has the money to implement such drm system even if they want.

[Satsuki]

Ranked 3rd huh....seem like at least there is still hope for Baldr series~

[Zodai]

The existence of Steam could have skewed the DRM results.  A lot of people, myself included, seem to have rated Steam as a high distribution thing.  Since Steam technically counts as DRM, wanting games on steam = being alright with light levels of DRM.  It's a trade-off, at least from what I can tell.

 

I don't really have much else to say, though. 

[Abyssal Monkey]

The existence of Steam could have skewed the DRM results.  A lot of people, myself included, seem to have rated Steam as a high distribution thing.  Since Steam technically counts as DRM, wanting games on steam = being alright with light levels of DRM.  It's a trade-off, at least from what I can tell.

 

I don't really have much else to say, though. 

[Satsuki]

I personally don't like steam.  The moment they fail (it will happen, every company dies) you lose all those games.  I don't care about the argument that by that point the systems in place will be obsolete.  This is why I support hackers 100%.  

[Abyssal Monkey]

Please don't give more reason for Japanese companies to NOT interested in Western market.

[Silvz]

I think it's kindda sad to see people asking for games that can be found in english already. I know it's not the same as having it officialy, but I'd like MG to put efforts on games that we can't read at all ;/

[Deep Blue]

This is the one I was eyeing too.  I'm like "I've heard a lot about it, and no one seems to want to do it, please by all means pick it up"

I'm sad because amaterasu picked the game for translating it and then dropped it don't get your hopes too high with MG ..

[Darklord Rooke]

The low participation rate of women isn't surprising, if the market doesn't release stuff they want to buy then they won't participate. It's part of the reason women make up the majority of the OELVN industry, and also why most OELVNs are otomes. 

 

It's also why the girls who participated in the survey tend to be younger, they age and then tend to head to OELVNs. 

[AlexZandria]

 

From having worked with survey results in a professional environment:

1) Surveys usually tell you more about how the survey was written than about what people want.

2) Surveys are inherently self-selected, and thus over-represent people who believe they are under-represented.

3) Even when you get past 1) and 2), surveys still only tell you about what people think they want, rather than what they actually want.

 

Regardless, 8,000 responses is a pretty good sample size. Frankly, given the reputation MangaGamer seems to have (I have never looked at their catalog, so I have no idea what is in it, but just based on reputation...), given #2, people really think they want nukige. And so on. Had too much to drink to carry on this line of reasoning any further.

 

Ehh yes and no. I think it really depends on what people want out of it. With a clear cut and dry survey that has a small minded purpose (how do people feel about feminism, what is your average breakfast like? What do you find are the most important traits in a lover? Do you think X was innocent?) it tells you a lot ore about the survey--with something very broad I think it depends on what the person wants out of it as to if it tells you that.

 

I was curious as to buying habits went as well as what the survey told MG about a person's value on certain aspects of a game (the question about how important art, writing, characters, eroge were to them). Both of those were answered quite nicely (assuming most people took the survey seriously). 

 

A general trend is more titles by age (along with an guestimate) was interesting to me because I fall under the 18-21 group (although I believe their group ended at 24?) and I was curious as to what my spending habits are compared to my peers. I didn't really want a M/F comparison--age more accurately represented what I was looking for.

 

As for what the survey told MG about a person's value for games it told me what MG is going to be looking for in the next games they translate. Telling me that the art was up there was one of the best things they could tell me as, no offense, if I don't enjoy the art I have trouble sticking with it and the first thing I look for before I read the bio is the art to see if I could potentially spend 30-60 hours looking at it.

 

[Soulless Watcher]

If they even did a tiny bit of research, they would realize how easy steam is to crack in the first place.  South Park SoT and Skyrim were cracked and torrented within the day, and I happened to see South Park have at least 30k peers; 10k seeds and 20k leech at the 24 hour mark.  Honestly, if they want a secure release, do it on hardware like 3ds and Vita, as anything on the computer WILL get cracked no matter how much you DRM lock it.  It would be better to just make it available and easy to purchase for a reasonable price than spend the money to try and lock it down with DRM.  When companies realize this, we will be finally moving forward.  Unfortunately, most japanese companies are stuck in the stone ages and refuse to adapt.

[Abyssal Monkey]

That's like saying "I'm leaving the USA, because it is a country and all countries collapse sooner or latter". Over 75% of digital computer game sales are through steam and not to mention the fact that they are trying to get into the console buisness. Sure all things have a end, but that dosn't mean it will be tommorow.

[AlexZandria]

The low participation rate of women isn't surprising, if the market doesn't release stuff they want to buy then they won't participate. It's part of the reason women make up the majority of the OELVN industry, and also why most OELVNs are otomes. 

 

It's also why the girls who participated in the survey tend to be younger, they age and then tend to head to OELVNs. 

[Soulless Watcher]

There is a distinct difference between a good and a service.  Steam's DRM effectively makes anything you buy from them a service, whereas if you buy something from GoG for example, and keep the installer, you have a good.  Even if GoG dies, you still have your game.  If steam dies, your game goes away along with it.  Your analogy is poor.  I don't care how long it lasts.  We can still read floppy disks, and therefor can still play games that may have been distributed on them.  Steam makes it a time limited item, I don't like buying data that has an expiration date.

[Zakamutt]

Meh you can pretty much always buy the vns directly from the companies too (and that's probably better since steam takes a large cut of the money and you'll still get steam keys anyway.) That said some of MG's stuff has random DRM which is annoying but required by jp companies for whatever reason, but their hard copies don't so yay.

 

Also, it's completely possible to buy a copy then download a cracked version or whatever, admittedly extra work on behalf of the consumer but if you wanted to support the company, it's not that much

[Darklord Rooke]

That said some of MG's stuff has random DRM which is annoying but required by jp companies for whatever reason, but their hard copies don't so yay.

 

 

JAST has DRM free versions of some of MG's games, right?

 

I know that stereotypes don't really mean anything but seriously every time someone says they play VNs I just automatically think they're a chick :/

 

It's not an unusual position. Some people displayed similar beliefs in this thread (like the guy running Winterwolves.) http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17966

[eineajern]

The existence of Steam could have skewed the DRM results.  A lot of people, myself included, seem to have rated Steam as a high distribution thing.  Since Steam technically counts as DRM, wanting games on steam = being alright with light levels of DRM.  It's a trade-off, at least from what I can tell.

 

I don't really have much else to say, though. 

Steam is the reason that I got into Visual Novels. Without steam people like me will be left on the dark.

[SilverLi]

I think it's kindda sad to see people asking for games that can be found in english already. I know it's not the same as having it officialy, but I'd like MG to put efforts on games that we can't read at all ;/

[Satsuki]

I completely agree with you. Why do you even want an English release of something they already released in English? Is it a physical copy you want in this regard? I don't see any other reason to localize F/SN for example.

[Zakamutt]

On a sidenote the link to the MG survey I posted on fuwa's facebook page got (exactly) 1200 clicks. It's quite possible people from fuwa facebook are a sizeable part of the sample, lol.

[Kurisu-Chan]

So, if i understand well, the VN community is about Nukige and Otome VNs?

 

 

Is it normal that i actually like Otome VNs the same way as i like romance VNs?

[Darklord Rooke]

Is it normal that i actually like Otome VNs the same way as i like romance VNs?