I visited Sega yesterday.

If you guys weren't actually there, then stop assuming what it was and shut up. You weren't there. Quit giving Sammybeany a hard time, too. Ken and Aaron appreciated his passion and the amount of feedback he threw out there. Those guys at SOA have great attitudes and are just likeable people in general. They understand how important these games are to some people.

It was nice to be in a public forum like that, because you could see and hear how a person reacted, instead of reading text and saying "HE DOESN'T LIKE IT HE MUST BE RAGING." Seriously, knock that shit off. It was what I expected it to be and I enjoyed being there. It was mostly Sammybeany, Moonshadow and I doing most of the talking. Ken/Aaron would ask a question and I'd let it sit in silence for a bit. If nobody said anything, we said something and kickstarted that discussion.

I'm chillin' at the Holiday Iiiiiiiin and writing up all my stuff right now. I'll post it when I land and have a not-shit Internet connection. I'll also have a video when I'm able to dump the 2.5 hours of footage and edit it down to around 7-10 minutes.

 

Kick ass, just what I wanted to hear.

Do you think you could find a way to get that 2.5 hours of footage to us somehow? You know, for archival reasons...

 

That would be great.

 

The 2.5 hours of footage is of the whole community event and the highlights are really all you need to see. I was rolling for about 20 of the 30 minutes of the Sonic 4 feedback session. I like to gesticulate a lot when I speak, so sometimes I killed the camera for when I opted to talk for a few minutes, so it's not all there. I got most of it though. Enough of it for you to get a feel of what it was, who was in there and how people were presenting their points.

On a side note, it was like reverse high-school in there. I was wearing my Blues jacket and everybody else was playing anime games on their PSPs. I'm glad Moonshadow was there (as Ben Kalough) to be a familiar face and talk to for most of the show. I did end up introducing myself and speaking to guys for the camera and most of guys there were cool, despite our taste in games (like seriously I don't give a fuck about PSO or Valkyria Chronicles, let alone PSPs).

Sammybeany and Moonshadow are officially the first community people I've met IRL and it felt like I've known them for years. It was cool to experience that, first and foremost.

 

That's great and all but I want to hear more about your allegedly getting shitfaced with Ken, that sounded like a barrel of laughs

 

Contrary to what you have heard, I did not go out with any of the SOA dudes for drinks. It's on the table in the future, though. Most definitely.

However, Ken did give me a ride back to my hotel, because I was lost as all get out and the free shuttle back had stopped its service. We continued some post-event chatter in the car and then he had to go back and close up shop. That was all around midnight, too.

 

Heh, I was actually more interested in seeing the whole community event rather than just the Sonic 4 one. :P

It's not every day a nonemployee takes a camera into Sega HQ and gets over an hour of footage.

btw, how was the food there?

 

Did it seem like they actually were going to take some of the comments and use them at all? Or did it seem like the whole thing was just to appear like they care about the fans?

 

Though Sonic 4 may not live to some of your expectations; I still have high hopes for Episode 2 and Sonic Anniversary (Sounds excellent from what I have read.) Can't wait for it.

 

Considering Sega's typical hierarchy, would it even matter if a western Sega division unanimously - not as in "some fans complained that..." but rather "almost everybody complained that... and we wholeheartedly share their sentiments" - complained about something? Not only is the game being developed by a different leg of the company (actually, it's being developed by Dimps, a different company altogteher) that may or may not care about this, but also: who knows how far Episode 2 has been developed as of now? I somewhat doubt they spend the half year Sonic 4 Ep1 was postponed just to add the little fixes they did.

But thanks for the story - I guess it was at least a pretty unique experience. I'm just kinda wondering what to make of it - if they were really interested in the fanbase's opinion, less than an hour seems like a total misschedule, and if they weren't, are they just trying to trick people into thinking "oh, but they listened! They will fix it in episode 2; so I will buy that one"?

EDIT: Professional focus group interviews are usually videotaped and analyzed later on, and they actually make an effort to hide the camera so people won't feel uncomfortable. Who knows.

 

You did at least defer to those who suffered through it for specifics, right?