Shenmue Dojo

I've bitten down on my criticism of this Twitch stream thus far, as negativity and losing of focus are not the things you really want in the middle of a campaign. But suffice to say, the communications and Kickstarter management through Awesome Japan, from things like the delay and confusion on the Reddit posting and timing and right the way through to this stream have been completely lackluster. YS Net themselves are a Japanese team, presumably working hard right now on development, who need a bridge between themselves and the global community. That bridge, when you're talking about millions of dollars and thousands of backers, needs to be airtight. It seems like Awesome Japan are comprised of about three people and one, now infamous, native speaker. The Kickstarter page has about 21,000 comments, largely in English. They couldn't even get through any follow up questions on the stream and cut it short.

But I don't think now is the time for a postmortem of what went wrong. We need momentum and to move forward. Hiring a new PR team at this stage is out of the question, if not for the matter of fees alone.

I've noticed that Cedric Biscay, as co-producer, has been pretty solid and professional in following up when asked. He insisted on direct answers and clarity to the fans. As soon as someone said to him, move the stretch goals to the top of the page, it happened almost immediately. They seem to on point and they've just got their Japanese office. Biscay is the CO-PRODUCER of the game. I think they need to absorb AJ's operation into their own and co-ordinate it themselves, or at least TAKE CHARGE of it. It's the most economical option I can think of.

Biscay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay

Shibuya Productions: https://twitter.com/ShibuyaProd

Anything is better than leaving them alone handling the kickstarter at this point...

Heck, officially announcing that either the Joel drug guy or the whole Awesome Crappan have been removed from the project would be a huge PR boost.

Chances are it's not gonna happen tho, i think money is too tight...

Anything, man. Anything is better than letting Awesome Japan continue. Tweet Cedric (https://twitter.com/cedricbiscay) and make it known that we are not at all pleased with AJ's running of the kickstarter, and hope that Shibuya can step in.

We all know not awesome Japan, is not competent for the job in hand, but we cant get rid of them right now,
It's too late, the damage is done, now we have to damage control.
WE as a community need to list and provide ideas on HOW and WHAT needs to be changed, what new rewards, the layout of the page, how we can promote better what went wrong before and move forward with this, or else this thread will just turn into another bash joey thread, and thats fine, but not productive.

We need to work with what we got and make it the best we can.

Cedric is already aware, implied by his tweet this morning.
lets try and be positive and constructive in this terrible place right now.

IDEAS GO

wataro wrote:
WE as a community need to list and provide ideas on HOW and WHAT needs to be changed, what new rewards, the layout of the page, how we can promote better what went wrong before and move forward with this

...

lets try and be positive and constructive in this terrible place right now.

IDEAS GO

I have sent 2 messages to Awesome Japan via the kickstarter. The first was on June 19th, politely asking them to move the stretch goals to the top of the page, and elaborate on them a little bit. The seconds was on the 25th (stretch goals were still at the bottom of the page, btw,) and I told them exactly what I think of them, and what they're doing wrong, and provided a comprehensive list on what they can do to improve things.

They've not responded, or done a fucking thing about the many, many, many things wrong with their campaign - other than bring the stretch goals up to the top of the page, which they did 11 days after they had received probably hundreds of messages requesting it, and on top of that, if you scroll to the bottom of the page you can still see the fucking old stretch goals image!

They are so utterly incompetent it is beyond words. Anyone that is saying we need to stick with them or that it "is too late" to fire them is a detriment to the Shenmue III campaign.

ElephantStone wrote: I have sent 2 messages to Awesome Japan via the kickstarter. The first was on June 19th, politely asking them to move the stretch goals to the top of the page, and elaborate on them a little bit. The seconds was on the 25th (stretch goals were still at the bottom of the page, btw,) and I told them exactly what I think of them, and what they're doing wrong, and provided a comprehensive list on what they can do to improve things.

They've not responded, or done a fucking thing about the many, many, many things wrong with their campaign - other than bring the stretch goals up to the top of the page, which they did 11 days after they had received probably hundreds of messages requesting it, and on top of that, if you scroll to the bottom of the page you can still see the fucking old stretch goals image!

Yes, after Biscay had a meeting with Suzuki, it seemed to follow up very quickly. At the very least, he needs to take charge.

https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status ... 0369732612

"Sorry, I cannot reply all people concerning #Shenmue3 , but be sure I read everything and we take care of your comments as much as we can."

Cedric has certainly heard our cries. Let's hope something is done to save the KS now. Plenty of time left to introduce the physical PS4 reward, Paypal option, higher tier rewards, and someone new to spread the word on social media.

You guys are being unrealistic if you think Awesome japan is going to be replaced.

elmatto wrote: You guys are being unrealistic if you think Awesome japan is going to be replaced.

We can hope the hire someone competent to direct them on the project though.

Cedric Biscay so far has proved to be rather awesome but let's not forget his team has a job already, they can't just take the KS organization load on, it's not even their specialty to begin with.

Doom_Infinite wrote: Cedric Biscay so far has proved to be rather awesome but let's not forget his team has a job already, they can't just take the KS organization load on, it's not even their specialty to begin with.

And yet he's already done more social interaction than AJ

James Brown wrote:

Doom_Infinite wrote: Cedric Biscay so far has proved to be rather awesome but let's not forget his team has a job already, they can't just take the KS organization load on, it's not even their specialty to begin with.

And yet he's already done more social interaction than AJ

Hard to disagree with that.

Anyone seen this?

Cedric Biscay
@mjqmjqmjq @morning_haze @yu_suzuki_jp 14 years have not destroyed faith in this project. I will not let any companies or people do it.

https://twitter.com/cedricbiscay/status ... 7436211200

Looks like he might do something about it?

He is part of the entire decision making process and has a lot invested in this project, so if he shares the feeling of Awesome Japans criticisms then he very well may step in and make some decisions. I don't think he will flat out fire them, but he will certainly hold them accountable for any damage done that the community reports as a whole. They need to have a chance to at least defend themselves in a professional manner, that much is a given.

I thought David Deville has a brilliant idea on Twitter, by offering to go to Japan to help them out, as a community manager. I honestly believe there needs to be community representatives involved in this process. It was a fantastic idea and I would also offer my services but I couldn't afford the finances involved with that.

But a fantastic idea none the less, and one I would hope be considered.

What can he realistically do? I guess it depends on what sort of contract Awesome Japan has signed with YsNet.