Getting Western Fans a Voice with Square Enix.

[Cat Rage Room]

Because I'm pretty sick and tired of having to watch Square Enix do what they do with absolutely no way for us fans (who also pay good money for their products just like Japanese fans do, technically making us shareholders) to get in touch with Square Enix and voice what we would like to see in the future?

If so, I propose we all get on board and organize our voices. If not, let's find a way.

 

[Max Payne]

No, because SE is far too Japan centric.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

There's gotta be a way, though. Even if there isn't an established route of connect for Western fans right now, can't we brute force one?

Communication is the most powerful skill anyone has, especially in this day and age. Can't we figure something out?

Oh, by the way, if by some will of God we manage to even get a drop of what we have to say to SE,

SE is far too Japan centric.

^ I'm quoting that. Seriously, it's about time they started giving a shit about the rest of their market.

 

[Max Payne]

The world as a collective whole has been asking for a remake of FF7 for almost the past ten years and SE still hasn't listened to fans, I don't see them taking constructive criticism any better for some reason/

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Yeah but, I'm not really asking about something specific like 'remake FFVII' or 'finish the Chrono series' (although those requests will certainly, and should come up), I'm asking if there's a way to establish a wayroad of communication to them, period. Bioware has their forums, Square Enix of Japan has their Twitter, so on and so forth.

What do we get? That's what I'm trying to achieve; getting something. Whether they actually listen to us is another matter (and I agree with you; doubt it), but we need that route of communication from us to them.

Square Enix of America has clout, perhaps we can start with them? I think if we organize something, even if its just limited to this site (with a large chunk of the fandom as a best case scenario), we can get at least the English speaking SE side to listen to us, and we can work from there.

 

[Lord Noctis]

I don't have any ideas myself on this front, but I agree completely and if you guys think of something I'll join in the effort.

 

[Tetsujin]

It'd be nice to get them to listen for once. But yeah, they are too Japan-centric. They probably think acquiring a few Western companies is enough, we're too Gaijin to get their Japanese games anyway =p

People have been wanting options to switch voice tracks for years now and it seems that only when FFXIII was released they even heard about it and were all surprised. They don't know a thing about the Western market. I wonder how much they even listen to Japanese fans tbh.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Dammit, I'm just not satisfied with the 'they won't listen to us anyway' option. We have to try. Like I said, we can start with the Western (America/Europe) divisions of Square Enix.

If nothing else, they'll at least hear our voices.

 

[Tetsujin]

But how exactly do we go about doing this? I mean, how do you approach these guys?

 

[Max Payne]

These people had a bloody conference where they said that only macho muscle men appeal to the west.

I just don't see it man.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

But how exactly do we go about doing this? I mean, how do you approach these guys?

Like I said, we can start with the Western divisions of the company as a starting point. At least those dudes speak English.

I have a good feeling that this can be done. But if we give up the possibility before we even start, that's 100% assurance of failure by way of not trying.

To repeat myself; I'm not making any assurances that they'll listen to us. But I am proposing we establish a method of communication in the first place. Your girlfriend may not listen to you, but you don't even have a phone to call her, she's not going to hear you, regardless.

 

[Ghost X]

If gunboat diplomacy worked once in 1853, it'll work again, damn it.

 

[Alex Strife]

If they're going to try and make games appealing western gamers, they better do it right. The whole making two "Nier" games, with the "western one" having a bulky main character instead of the original is beyond ridiculous. I can say that they lost at least one customer with that game.

 

[Tetsujin]

Nier wasn't developed by Square-Enix, but who knows if the two versions shenanigans wasn't something they cooked up...

 

[Ghost X]

Can't we have girlie men and muscle men in the same game, which would supposedly appease both audiences? Polygons don't do much for me, but a woman with a nice ass wouldn't hurt either. I couldn't care what the guys look like.

...Which is besides the point. What we want is decent gameplay, of course. Well-written storyline too.

 

[Shademp]

I approve of the idea to do *something*, however I'm not an idea person and knows not nearly enough about the game industry to know what course of action to take.

ARGH I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO! Umm, ask the guy on Pach-Attack? *desperate*
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/pach-attack/12619

I want the Final Mix games. I want English Ultimanias (granted, we would start complaining about the poor translations once we got them ). The option to switch between voice tracks. Come on.

But yes, better communication between Square Enix (of Japan) and Square Enix of America sounds like a good idea if we could just make it a reality.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Bombarding a customer support e-mail or something like that won't work (people tried it before with "Remake FFVII!" after the PS3 Tech Demo came along, and it didn't take a day before they set up an auto-response e-mail for that), but there may be a way. We know guys like IGN can actually get ahold of people at SE. They actually even get to talk to Nomura, Kitase, et. al. from time to time.

Heck, when EGM erroniously stated that they knew a FFVII remake was on the way (this happened back in 2005, if I remember right), within a couple of days IGN had a response about it from SE saying that it was bullshit.

So, I think starting with somebody like that would be the thing to do. Organize an effort to send tons of requests about this to somebody specific at IGN on a given day at a given time. Propose the idea not just here, but on GameFAQs, YouTube, maybe Facebook too.

Set the date far enough in advance that you can get enough people on board. Don't do the online petition bullshit. That crap never works. A shitton of e-mails, though, is bound to catch somebody's attention.

 

[Dashell]

I know a guy who's really good at contacting people who are hard to find... well I mean I don't know him personally but... he's gotten into contact with like beta testers for games and such... I even thought about asking him to contact people like Nomura before. Maybe I could see if he could help out.

 

[Tetsujin]

I I want English Ultimanias

For Ultimanias, we'd probably need to contact the publishers of Square-Enix guidebooks overseas.
...I think.

 

[Bex]

Is there a way we Western fans can have a voice?

NO.

 

[ElusiveFinalFantasy]

If gunboat diplomacy worked once in 1853, it'll work again, damn it.

Seriously made my morning!!! Yay for guns and brute force!!!

These people had a bloody conference where they said that only macho muscle men appeal to the west.

I just don't see it man.

Really? Man, then they honestly aren't listening. All I hear about it how how girlie the men are. *Laughs*


I am not going to quote them, but I do think that some girlie girls would not be a bad idea. It would be interesting. I'll admit it's fun having all the tough girls, but adding girlie girls would create a proper balance.


Just because I never had any qualms with SE or the games not being so targeted toward the western world ((Just never really thought about it.)). Might I ask what exactly are you looking for in getting SE to listen to us? In detail, not just what we would like to see in the future or a remake of FFVII. Like the Girlie girl thing idea is a detail. I was just wondering if there was anything else in mind. I mean no offense. Just asking.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Bombarding a customer support e-mail or something like that won't work (people tried it before with "Remake FFVII!" after the PS3 Tech Demo came along, and it didn't take a day before they set up an auto-response e-mail for that), but there may be a way. We know guys like IGN can actually get ahold of people at SE. They actually even get to talk to Nomura, Kitase, et. al. from time to time.

Heck, when EGM erroniously stated that they knew a FFVII remake was on the way (this happened back in 2005, if I remember right), within a couple of days IGN had a response about it from SE saying that it was bullshit.

So, I think starting with somebody like that would be the thing to do. Organize an effort to send tons of requests about this to somebody specific at IGN on a given day at a given time. Propose the idea not just here, but on GameFAQs, YouTube, maybe Facebook too.

Set the date far enough in advance that you can get enough people on board. Don't do the online petition bullshit. That crap never works. A shitton of e-mails, though, is bound to catch somebody's attention.

Alright, we're getting somewhere.

On topic people, focus. Save the girly man/manly men convo for another thread, I think this is a good vantage point right here.

So how should we go about doing this from here?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I think this is an idea whose time has come. Sure, Square may not pick up the phone, but we don't see them throwing it away, either.

The suggestion seems to be that Square believe their games are floundering in the west not because of any fundamentals flaws, but because they don't feature muscle men. I find it impossible to believe that they really think this. These are highly intelligent men (and I guess some women) we are talking about (who admittedly have made some stupid decisions). Surely they do their market research? Surely they're informed about their business on a global scale?

Then I remember Before Crisis and the fact that it's never been released in the west, and I reflect on how big the profit margin on that would be, and I just don't know....

SE admit they are in the shit. I don't know what share of their total sales is comprised by their western market(s), but I'd be surprised if their sales in the whole of the world outside Japan were not at least equal to their sales inside Japan. That just wouldn't make any sense. Possibly they are afraid that in catering to a western market they will lose their home market? That also makes no sense. What helped them succeed in the west in the first place was precisely what made them such a success in Japan. We love good JRPGs.

I think they are starting to wake up, and I think they might well be willing to listen to what western fans have to say, if we make it clear that we love their games and want to see more of what made them great in the first place.

So - a petition? Hopefully it will have more luck than the petition for Cid and Barret PlayArts figures.

 

[Glaurung]

Perhaps it's not only a matter of listening to the fans, but also working with Western developers, and not merely buying some studios.

This said, sending a good deal of ideas as well as opinions about how things had been to this point would be useful. I would tell them to please hang around the Internet and read what we, the fanbase, think about their games and what we expect and want of their products, and also:

fans (who also pay good money for their products just like Japanese fans do, technically making us shareholders)

And that we are really tired of being treated like second-rate fans.

 

[Alex Strife]

One important thing is that we don't make any petition coming from us sound like a rant. You know, we should sound highly educated, knowing what we're talking about.

And honestly, I've always loved a good JRPG more than Western RPG's, so I agree that they should stop all this "let's get western-styled games" and get back to what they used to do back in the 90's.