Is your copy of [SS] Radiant Silvergun complete?

[NeoZeedeater]

It's impossible to make that many long threads and be error free.

[Recap]

That wasn't directed to you. Your threads are great, even if they don't tell me anything new.

[epmode]

1337.

[Ragnarok the Red]

Having the spine card is nice and I'd probably pony up a couple of extra bucks for one that had it over one that didn't (if that was the only difference between them). But to go out and spend a significant amount of money just for that little sliver of paper I never quite got

[Josh]

TehPope?

Sweet.

[dcharlie]

"I also can see how the Japanese gaming community is living without Western games since the last 20 years"

i disagree. Well, in part. On a company level - and potentially a survival level.

A large chunk of Segas 16bit day profit came from the west after they spluttered in the east. As early as last week, Sega reiterated that they cannot afford to ignore the western market (especially the xbox) because of the userbase outside of japan.

Japanese sales (trend wise) are going down - western sales are going up. Now more than ever, the western market IS important to the Japanese to bring back more cash. On the flip side, the Western market make little effort to make games that will flat out appeal to the japanese. Even GTA3 , the best selling game this gen, only managed 300k sales here.

Another point of note is the number of foreign workers in Japanese dev teams. There is a large demand for western talent , especially in the 3d world.

However, i don`t see the Japanese killing themselves to get hold of the latest western release. GTA3 being one notable exception. Then again, recent western sales of Zelda / Mario suggest that mr casual in the west doesn`t care as much as people think about Japanese content. They`d rather play the next Mortal Kombat, Fifa, Madden, etc.

As sad as that may or may not be, i think this points to the fact that the western industry/market (as bad as that situation is) doesn`t care as much about the japanese industry as it used to.

"This is fair enough. If I just wanted to 'play' games then I would do the clever thing and just get copies. I don't do this and never have because in a perverted way I want the people who made (for example) SFC Yossy Island or PCE Gomola Speed to have my money, with pleasure. If I was to buy Yossy Island second hand, I would want the person that didn't throw the stuff away to get my money, in a roundabout way.

For every abused used game in Japan there is a looked after example. This rule works for me for the above reasons."

well, as you know, even the abused ones come into the category of "questionaire missing" or "slight box damage" (where??? this is a great game to play - find the box damage! one game i got the only damage i could see was one of the teeth in the cd box was -slightly- bent) - so it`s not as if the spine card missing vs spine card included is -that- much of a difference in quality. As you also know, as long as you can read the japanese, places like traders list any "damage/faults" on the box - so a person can at least guage whether it`s up to their standards or not.

As you say, if you are a collector - then you will want the spine card. For me, i`m never gonna sell anything i buy, so it`s not really an issue for me. If it means i can put an extra 500-1000 yen towards playing another game, then so be it.

As you also say - a pirate can play every game, however, just so everyone is on the same page, buying a second hand game DOES NOT give the original developer any cash. Sure it keeps the second hand market alive, but it gives as much cash to the developer as a pirate copy would! Perhaps the indusrty needs a donation system, so that even if you do get a pirate copy or a second hand copy you can , say, pop 10$ into a developers account just to say "I played your game, and loved it."

Then again, most people would just not bother.

"It all boils down to principles and the way of the World in a financial/business sense. "

indeed.

[gameoverDude]

Twenty quid for a spine card. Extremely daft, I tell you.

Honestly, I don't need the spine cards to enjoy games. It's not like the Saturn knows to enhance the game if you have the obi. If I buy a game new, I'll usually take the SC and stick it inside the manual.

[MVS]

I just see that most Japanese gaming companies can't live without selling games in America.

Fixed.

[Recap]

"I also can see how the Japanese gaming community is living without Western games since the last 20 years"

i disagree. Well, in part. On a company level - and potentially a survival level.

A large chunk of Segas 16bit day profit came from the west after they spluttered in the east. As early as last week, Sega reiterated that they cannot afford to ignore the western market (especially the xbox) because of the userbase outside of japan.

Japanese sales (trend wise) are going down - western sales are going up. Now more than ever, the western market IS important to the Japanese to bring back more cash. On the flip side, the Western market make little effort to make games that will flat out appeal to the japanese. Even GTA3 , the best selling game this gen, only managed 300k sales here.

Read again my post. I'm saying that the Japanese community (refering to final users here) do ignore Western games not that the Western market is not important for Japanese companies. All what you say is corroborating this asseveration.

[gamevet]

I didn't imply anything, actually. I just said I don't have interest in non-Japanese games. Indeed, I've had most of the relevant Western systems since the Sinclair Spectrum era. An Amiga 500 with one of the biggest collections of original games I've compiled is still in my house.

I'm hoping you had a C-64 as well, because it's games were far superior to those on the Amiga 500 and most of the titles on that system(C-64), were provided by Western Developers.