I love SEGA fans, they’re my favorite type of video game fan. However there are things that some of them do that make me want to smack my skull against a wall. Consider these to be the five things that grind my gears, five things that SEGA fans could easily stop doing and should stop doing. Just what are those five things? Read on.
Asking SEGA to rerelease games that they do not own
During SEGA’s console years, there were many fantastic games released: Sonic the Hedgehog 2, NiGHTS, Power Stone 2, Shenmue. While all of these games released on SEGA consoles, not all of them were developed by SEGA. Can you guess which one? Of course, Power Stone 2 is not owned or developed by SEGA, the company behind that game would be Capcom.
Despite this simple fact, there are a number of fans out there who believe that if a game was released on a SEGA console, then SEGA must have the ability to rerelease the game. This is not true, and really it boggles my mind that there are people out there who think this way. Thanks to the upcoming Dreamcast Collection on the XBOX 360, more fans who believe this have been coming out of the woodwork and it really has been doing my head in. Take a few of these quotes from Amazon.com as an example:
“There are dozens of games that I would have expected to be included on this release and they picked these ones? What about Mortal Kombat Gold??”
“No seaman? No shenmue? no Mvc2? no power stone? no skis or arcaidia? no outtriggers? no ANYTHING GOOD?”
Clearly they enjoy their SEGA games, but they don’t know jack about developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers. My advice to these folks: think before you type. My advice to fans who know their stuff: be a geek and correct them. It’s the only way this nonsense will stop.
Asking SEGA for Shenmue III
I want Shenmue III, you want Shenmue III, SEGA knows we want Shenmue III, and we should not stop asking for Shenmue III. However, I think SEGA fans need to realize that there is a time and a place for leaving those “SHENMUE 3 PLEASE!!1” comments. SEGA Blog posts regarding the Dreamcast Collection would be an apt place, as would a Facebook reveal of Ryo being in All-Stars Racing. However, let’s say SEGA announces Bayonetta 2. Would this be a good place to ask for Shenmue III? Of course not. In that setting it is nothing more than spam.
I’m certain SEGA’s community team hears our cries, however I doubt they take them to heart when they’re trying to talk to us about something completely unrelated. Better yet, if one must mention Shenmue III in a comment, perhaps put some thought into it. Tie it into the topic at hand or turn that comment into an email direct to SEGA.
Console fighting
I have to facepalm every time SEGA fans start bickering about which console is better. Remember what brought us all together in the first place? SEGA games on SEGA consoles. SEGA now makes games for all the consoles, and it is the games that should be our primary focus. Not the hardware that they play on. Leave those debates for the 360, Wii and PS3 fans.
Another thing that really grinds my gears is when a SEGA game becomes a console exclusive, and owners of that console thumb their noses at the other console owners. What does a gamer gain from a console exclusive except for bragging rights? Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the ones who benefit, not the gamers. When Virtua Tennis 4 was announced to be available on all platforms, it was far better news than it being a PS3 exclusive. The more people able to play a SEGA game, the better.
Asking SEGA to do the impossible
SEGA fans just love asking SEGA to do insane and often impossible things. Here are just a few of the many requests I’ve seen lobbed at SEGA, followed by the reason why it would be impossible, or just plain stupid, for them to do it:
Have 50 Dreamcast games on the Dreamcast Collection disc like you did with the Ultimate Genesis Collection
Impossible because: Dreamcast games take up much more space than a Genesis game does. Sonic Adventure, for example, is 1.5 GB in size. Crazy Taxi takes up 209 MB. Let’s say 25 of those games are more lengthy like Sonic Adventure, and the other 25 games are smaller like Crazy Taxi. Fifty Dreamcast games could take up as much as 40 GB or more. RPG’s like Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia would take up even more. The 360 is easily out, Wii doesn’t have a chance and the PS3 would require a dual layer disc.
Even then, would one really think that SEGA would pour all the time and money into upgrading fifty games only to slap them all on one disc and sell them for $30 to $60? Why not stagger the releases and development and release one title at a time over PSN and XBLA at $10 a piece, occasionally releasing a handful of them to disc? Oh wait, that’s what they are doing because it makes sense.
Make a Dreamcast 2!!!
Impossible because: SEGA left the hardware business ten years ago. In that time they’ve undergone a lot of restructuring, including cutting anything having to do with console manufacturing. Not only that, but were SEGA to return to the hardware business, they would be going up against some major competition. Ever see the first Rocky? It would be something like that, except Adrian wouldn’t be running into the ring.
Promising 5 things when they could only think of 4
That was my bad. Sorry about that.
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Nice article…and so true. :/
Pretty much exactly this.
I have an idea for a 5th thing, "Asking for a Sonic Adventure 3". :>
@ezodagrom: Yes. Asking for SA3 is quite annoying. It's like the opposite of asking for a third Shenmue. While Shenmue needs a third game, Sonic does not need a third adventure. Why? Because we have already had Heroes, Shadow, '06, Unleashed and Colors. That's five additional games and counting! Would a title make the game different somehow? How are all of those games not successors to Sonic Adventure 2? '06 and Unleashed had quite a bit of what defined the adventure games. At this point, Sonic Adventure 3 would be about as necessary as a "Super Mario 64: II".
Ha, yeah. Although, it should be "being Sonic fanboys".
How about "SEGA makes crap games now!!11!!11!!!"
Lots of SEGA fans like to ignore stuff like Bayonetta and Vanquish in favor of Alpha Protocol and Iron Man. 😉
I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to say I'm the biggest Shenmue fan here in fact there are lots of people who could take that title, not least some staff.
BUT I'm a huge fan of the series and even I almost find myself saying 'I hope you fuckers never get Shenmue 3' when I see these off topic posts on the Sega blog or Facebook page when Sega is trying to show off a new Total War or Yakuza trailer.
It is pretty evident that the PR teams that run this ‘company to fan‘communicating sites are so sick of seeing it they are probably flat out ignoring it now. I know I would.
Asking for Shenmue 3 multiple times on posts about other games doesn’t so much show how big of a Shenmue fan you are as much as how big of a dickhead you are.
Has to stop.
This also goes for talking about ANYTHING Sonic related on a post about a non Sonic game. Shut your whore mouth and try other Sega games.
@nuckles87: I guess related to that, I would say stop claiming that games by other developers that Sega publishes are not "really" Sega games. The industry has changed, and Sega has been, for the most part, extremely smart in selecting the independent developers it has brought on board in the past several years. Games like the Total War series and Platinum's titles uphold the standards of being technical marvels and having excellent gameplay that Sega has always tried to bring forward. And furthermore, Sega has always published games by other developers in addition to in-house titles, going all the way back to the early 80s coin-op titles. And lastly, Sega's had some excellent in-house titles in the past few years too.
FUCK YOU BARRY, WE WANT POWER STONE, SHENMUE III and 50 DC GAMES ON ONE DISC!
I agree. With everything. I know there is a time and place to demand something, but its annoying seeing news of Yakuza and like… the first comment " FUCK YOU SEGA, GIVE ME SHENMUE III"
Its just annoying. I'm all up for Shenmue III, but let us enjoy discussion about other games without turning it into a Shenmue 3 debate.
great artical Barry.
SEGA PLEASE MAKE SHENMUE III
…jk.
Good article.
I love this editorial….though I will say that I find myself agreeing with people who say that the Dreamcast Collection sucks. People waiting years for SEGA to do a DC collection deserved better, imo.
Not 50 games, though, haha. But better.
Fantastic article Barry. I agree with you on everything.
This article is great and I couldn't agree more.
I am going to disagree, if they just made shenmue 3 in the first place Sega would not be getting such enthusiastic fans demanding the game… left, right and center, maybe if the fans had some closer on shenmue 3 they would not be behaving or asking for it. Shenmue was more than just a game to the fans, I feel sorry that Some Sega fans cannot understand this, If we had some close and some feed back from Sega we probably not be asking and demanding like we are, the fan base for Shenmue is very strong we are talking about a game that 13 years old.
“However, let’s say SEGA announces Bayonetta 2. Would this be a good place to ask for Shenmue III? Of course not. In that setting it is nothing more than spam.”
Of course not? Of course why not? The more we show Sega that we are pissed the hell off with their constant stream of crap, the more chance they’ll get the message, just like Xbox recently got the message about the One, when people were spamming the shit out of them.
Sega need to make Shenmue or get out of the industry. They’ve produced possibly 3 good franchises, ever, and out of those, only Shenmue is worth mentioning. I’m absolutely serious. You don’t leave a game like that unfinished, and if you do, you get spam.
#GiveYuTheShenmueLicense
Let’s say there was only one guy saying something about Shenmue 3 in another game’s comments. No big deal, right? But when a bunch of like minded people all do it at the same time, you look down upon it. These people aren’t doing it as some sort of plot to get on the Facebook girl’s nerves, or even really doing it in conjunction with each other. Most of the time it’s just random people that just so happen to be on the same page. That’s it.
So the proper thing to do is email them? They’re tired of their emails being ignored, that’s why they make these comments in the first place. God forbid that the precious Sega employees get SLIGHTLY annoyed with disgruntled fans. It comes with the territory, suck it up or get a better job. By telling people to keep writing email that only gets all too easily ignored, you’re basically telling them to just sit quietly and keep taking it up the proverbial butt. No thanks.
You might think that this article says for Sega fans to use their heads when they speak, but really, you’re ostensibly telling everyone to shut their moufs. Let’s face it, most people aren’t the brightest bulbs in the bunch, and all the begging and talking about this stuff is about the only outlet for them to speak their minds.
They don’t have fancy shmancy websites in which to publish their critiques or industry contacts to help give them a heads up on their favorite games. All they have is their belligerent comments. Take those away and they’d just stop making comments. Possibly even stop supporting Sega altogether.
And if that happened, there’d be even less and less interest in Sega with each passing day, until suddenly they cease to exist. Thus forcing the perturbed Sega employees to finally go and get a job that doesn’t aggravate their indelible pet peeves. They’d rightly have something to whine about after that, wouldn’t they?
Likewise with Segabits. If Sega just went away, what then? This gonna be the place for old fogeys to sit around reminiscing about the beeps and boops of yesteryear? Ha, if it aint already.
If anything you should be telling everyone to talk about Sega as much as, and in whichever way they can or want to. There aint no such thing as bad press, as they say, and there most certainly aint anything bad when passionate Sega fans speak their minds whether it’s obnoxious or otherwise!
We don’t even ask SEGA to make Shenmue 3. Just give licencing rights to Yu Suzuki instead.
please shenmue sega!