Scientist Supreme!
Banned
Where's the "glee"?It's not their job to spread misinformation, and yet they seem to do so with glee in this case.
Where's the "glee"?It's not their job to spread misinformation, and yet they seem to do so with glee in this case.
The point is, really, is that (again, completely ignoring the poll results) certain aspects of the media ran away with a story that takes less than a minute to discover isn't true. That's not okay at all.
Weirdly enough the hack-job version of the story broke on a number of small po-dunk sites first, and I honestly believed it wouldn't rise up to weightier sites in that way, but it did. So what's the difference between these lazy hole-in-the-wall games sites and the big players like Polygon, Eurogamer, and Engadget if they all botch the story in pretty much exactly the same way?
Rewards labeled as Kickstarter Exclusive have not been offered on the PayPal site because we felt it was unfair to offer them after the Kickstarter had ended.
Considering the strong response from those of you who felt that the Exclusive Rewards should remain exclusive for the Kickstarter, those Exclusive Rewards will not be made available on the PayPal page as originally promised.
"Shenmue 3 PayPal backers denied Kickstarter-exclusive reward options "as originally promised""Okay, I read the Polygon article and are they wrong? the kickstarter says:
but i'm looking at it now and none of them say "Kickstarter Exclusive," at least none that I see but they do call it the "Shenmue 3 PS4 Kickstarter Backers Edition" on there.
and on the kickstarter, it says:
so isn't Eurogamer's title correct? what was the original promise, that the ks rewards would stay on ks?
the writing for it all is weird, imo.
The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign offers backers a plethora of exclusive rewards for contributing, from physical copies of the game in unique cases to specially engraved plaques. None of these gifts, however, will be available to those who donated via PayPal, according to the campaign's latest update.
"Shenmue 3 PayPal backers denied Kickstarter-exclusive reward options "as originally promised""
The implication of this title is that PayPal backers were promised Kickstarter-exclusive rewards in the first place when they were not. It instantly makes the reader start thinking that something is being taken away, and then the train of thought goes to the idea that PayPal backers are getting nothing for their money. They then bury the information that states there will be no change to the way the PayPal campaign has been operating since September at the bottom of the page, and the comments section is clearly full of people who either read the title or just the first paragraph, and thus we have the continued confusion from people who think PayPal backers are getting nothing for their money.
And no, Polygon's article is not correct because:
There is a clear statement that physical copies, and engraved items (both of which are available to PayPal backers) will now no longer be accessible to those who bought via PayPal. It's a clear manipulation to form an incorrect narrative amongst the readership. It is at best sloppy writing, and at worst directly malicious attempts at misinforming the public.
Considering the strong response from those of you who felt that the Exclusive Rewards should remain exclusive for the Kickstarter, those Exclusive Rewards will not be made available on the PayPal page as originally promised.
There are no physically engraved plaques being offered to backers at all, as the key point on that $1400 tier is "Your name and birthdate will be written on a traditional wishing plaque to be displayed at a temple in Bailu Village."the kickstarter itself says
what does that mean?
It seems the physical copy thing is confusing because in the updates, it says it's a kickstarter backer edition and none of the rewards on the kickstarter are labeled kickstarter exclusive as one of the updates says, unless I couldn't see it. I could see why one might get confused. also, there are no plaques available to paypal backers like there are on kickstarter ($1400 reward)
KICKSTARTER REWARDS ON PAYPAL
Rewards labeled as Kickstarter Exclusive have not been offered on the PayPal site because we felt it was unfair to offer them after the Kickstarter had ended. There have been many requests, however, for certain rewards like the S3 World Telecom to be offered on the PayPal site. We would like everyone to weigh in and tell us what you think. If there is a strong consensus either way, the rewards will either remain as Kickstarter Exclusive, or will be offered on the PayPal site. Keeping our promise to you is very important to us; but at the same time, the PayPal site was set up precisely because fans could not back the Kickstarter and they feel they should not be penalized for that.
There are no physically engraved plaques being offered to backers at all, as the key point on that $1400 tier is "Your name and birthdate will be written on a traditional wishing plaque to be displayed at a temple in Bailu Village."
Bailu Village is the fictional village Shenmue III starts in. There are engraved crystal sculptures on offer however, and they are available to both PayPal and Kickstarter backers. It's just a case of the Polygon reporter not even getting the rewards tiers right.
Anybody who has followed the campaign, or even read back a little to when talk about the poll first appeared on the Kickstarter would see in that update:
I can understand some confusion about the wording in the later update, but the fact nearly nobody in the games media read back a little to find the above quote is frustrating.
Nobody is really arguing the idea that communication could be better, and as I've said over and over, if you go into any Shenmue thread or even a dedicated fan forum like the Shenmue Dojo, you will know that we all pretty much agree that Awesome Japan are not very good. You would be very hard pressed to find someone who cares enough about Shenmue III to know who Awesome Japan are that would defend them.I am not defending misreporting.
However, given that it is well known that large portions of games media aren't particularly good at reading comprehension, many developers and publishers go out of their way to communicate clearly and plainly.
For whatever reason, the Shenmue 3 team are not doing this.
Going back to when the Kickstarter launched, people were obviously going to ask for detail about what exactly Sony's involvement was, this information should have been plainly shared from the start, rather than speaking ambiguously, leaving an information vacuum in which doubt could flourish.
This poll and the outcome were badly managed. They shouldn't have really used a poll for this kind of decision, they certainly shouldn't have entirely ignored the results of the poll when deciding a strategy, and they should have used clearer language to describe the specifics of their final decision.
A great number of other studios and publishers do not experience the issues the Shenmue 3 team are having in these areas, because they hire competent staff to fill the role of marketing/PR.
I'd love to live in a world where games media were more consistently competent, but that is not the world that we live in, and the rational response for publishers and developers is to take this into account with their communication.
Edit: It is a big problem that many sites shy away from doing their own reporting, instead opting to parrot whatever some other site has published, without taking time to verify the facts, or often even understand the story. That is not going to change, given that clearly this is a profitable model for the sites doing it.
Engraved is the operative word in the sentence, and it's clear the Polygon reporter confused two rewards (on purpose, or not), so this is a matter of semantics at the moment.it doesn't mention physical plaques. it just says specially engraved plaques, meaning the one you just mentioned and none of the rewards on kickstarter say "kickstarter exclusive." unless i'm just not seeing it.
Engraved is the operative word in the sentence, and it's clear the Polygon reporter confused two rewards (on purpose, or not), so this is a matter of semantics at the moment.
It doesn't negate the fact the reporter mentioned two items (even if one was mentioned incorrectly) that are available to PayPal backers, then casually said that these will not be available to PayPal backers directly after.
There is some word play involved here, so stay with me. Polygon could fall back on the mistake with the plaque and the talk of physical copies as referring to the backer case as a "get out of jail free" card for trying to say they were not implying these items will be taken away from PayPal backers, and ergo not being lazy fucking journalists.
However, given that the sentence is constructed to imply items that are available to PayPal backers will no longer be so, and judging how their comments section seems to believe that is the case, there is significant reason to believe the sentence was constructed in such a way to put forward the narrative of "paypal backers won't get their items". Knowingly or unknowingly, the Polygon reporter created an inaccurate narrative, and didn't provide the proper clarification provided by the Kickstarter post I have brought up over, and over, and over, and over-
*opens Shenmue III Kickstarter page*They didn't state that reward wrong, those plaques are engraved in the game. I don't think fault lies only at the feet of them. Everything I've read about this is confusing. Their wording is on the updates are especially and like I mentioned earlier, one of the updates even mention breaking a promise. Polygon could have contacted them or their writing wasn't completely on par, but I think both parties are heavily at fault
It seems less like an issue of the press not giving a fuck and more like some Shenmue fans giving far too much of a fuck, really.
C'mon.It seems less like an issue of the press not giving a fuck and more like some Shenmue fans giving far too much of a fuck, really.
I am not defending misreporting.
However, given that it is well known that large portions of games media aren't particularly good at reading comprehension, many developers and publishers go out of their way to communicate clearly and plainly.
For whatever reason, the Shenmue 3 team are not doing this.
Going back to when the Kickstarter launched, people were obviously going to ask for detail about what exactly Sony's involvement was, this information should have been plainly shared from the start, rather than speaking ambiguously, leaving an information vacuum in which doubt could flourish.
It seems less like an issue of the press not giving a fuck and more like some Shenmue fans giving far too much of a fuck, really.
meaning the one you just mentioned and none of the rewards on kickstarter say "kickstarter exclusive." unless i'm just not seeing it.
*A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Ys Net would not ship PlayStation 4 physical copies for PayPal backers. It has since been updated to address that.
the PayPal backers were initially promised access to this stuff.
Some 'Shenmue III' backers won't get their rewards after all
It seems less like an issue of the press not giving a fuck and more like some Shenmue fans giving far too much of a fuck, really.
What is the video pertaining to? I'd go look myself but I've had enough of poor reporting for one lifetime.Looks like The Know just released another Shenmue-bashing video to add fuel to the fire. Those Rooster Teeth folks really don't like Shenmue for some reason.
That said, I think Awesome Japan and Ys Net need to step back a little bit and re-evaluate their PR efforts. They're both doing a miserable job and doing nothing to correct the misinformation that's out there. They're relying too much on the fans, if they even care at all.
The journalists are jerks, but is anyone from the actual campaign doing anything to fight these stupid rumors?
SonyToo!™;191487620 said:Eurogamer really has gone to the dogs, which is a shame since it's just about the only site that focuses on UK / PAL gaming in the English language.
Mitigation or not, a key point of this thread is that journalists didn't bother to read back slightly to find:Although I agree that reporters are being lazy, this could have been mitigated somewhat by the campaign runners actually being able to write a simple, non-ambiguous statement.
"Considering the strong response from those of you who felt that the Exclusive Rewards should remain exclusive for the Kickstarter, those Exclusive Rewards will not be made available on the PayPal page as originally promised."
What was the original promise? That the Kickstarter exclusives would remain just that, or that Paypal backers would get them too? Wording that loose is asking for trouble.
KICKSTARTER REWARDS ON PAYPAL
Rewards labeled as Kickstarter Exclusive have not been offered on the PayPal site because we felt it was unfair to offer them after the Kickstarter had ended. There have been many requests, however, for certain rewards like the S3 World Telecom to be offered on the PayPal site. We would like everyone to weigh in and tell us what you think. If there is a strong consensus either way, the rewards will either remain as Kickstarter Exclusive, or will be offered on the PayPal site. Keeping our promise to you is very important to us; but at the same time, the PayPal site was set up precisely because fans could not back the Kickstarter and they feel they should not be penalized for that.
But really, imagine being Yu Suzuki right now. You spend years in a broom closet at SEGA, then languish in Japanese indie dev hell of mobile and browser games. You sell all your cars and motorcycles and pretty much accept the glory days are over.
Then you find some French dude who helps you negotiate the rights to your great unfinished work from your former employer, and then you manage to get a major player like Sony to help you promote it in return for console exclusivity. You try getting 8-4 or Ryan Payton to run your upcoming Kickstarter campaign, but they can't do it, so you turn to some promising young upstarts called Awesome Japan.
Then you got to E3 and unveil your Kickstarter to a screaming crowd, get funded in less than a day, break two world records, and basically make a crazy amount of fucking money. Things couldn't be better.
Flash forward six months. The game is going great, you had an amazing research trip in China, and fans seem to be reacting positively to the prototype materials you've shown. You're working with a lot of old friends again who are employees of Neilo or are external contractors working on the game. You've also hired a fan you met in a restaurant who happens to be appropriately qualified, and some Korean kid who remade areas from your old game in the same engine you happen to be using to make the new game.
You've had a few bumps in the press recently by selectively quoting you, and you don't really have time for any hobbies anymore, but you're enjoying yourself because you're doing what you love for the people who appreciate you. Then you get a Twitter notification. And another, and another. It's a bunch of angry English speaking people saying something about PayPal rewards.
It turns out Awesome Japan bungled something as simple as a poll, and people got the wrong end of the stick about what the poll actually meant, and now news sites are reporting on it incorrectly and there's calls of fraud despite there not being any-
- but you're happy, because you're doing what you love, with people you like, for those who want what you're creating.
But you're middle aged so your dick doesn't work and it's hurting to pee, so fuck everything.
Shenmue III cancelled.