Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - Que Sera CERO
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tangytangerine
 Posts: 439 |
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Justin pretty much summed it up nice, as there is no way to track it with so many sellers on different sites.
As for a cut of the sale, if they wanted a cut, you'd pretty much say goodbye to those penny VHS/DVDs volumes on amazon. But it would be nice if there was some kind of protection between publishers & retailers to keep stuff that was recalled or defective out of the second hand market(like the game industry somewhat does). As it's a pain to keep track of stuff that had problems with the discs. It's especially a pain on Ebay & Amazon for stuff like this. For those wondering about the link, it's actually a separate listing for the defective version that had DBZ on the 2nd disc(the corrected one has a different listing for it). The websites usually don't care as all they care about is actually getting their cut of the sale(seller's fees). |
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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Pretty good column this weak. I also noticed the apple thing, if I was curious about anything it was whats the deal with the octopus winers, and how did hamburger get introduced into Japan. The Japanese hamburger is actually similar to a central European dish, essentially a bun less burger, just curious where that one came from.
But I personally thought your comments on gamestop were harsh. If the company is a leech, what about the millions of patrons who visit the shops every year. I view it as a give and take. Copyright owners got exclusive rights to essentially intangible ideas for their lifetime plus x number of years, and consumers were allowed (approved by the Supreme Court in a case I believe) to sell second hand. Hell if Microsoft can get away with selling an eight hour game for 60 plus dollars, and throwing in a nice box to sell a 100 dollar limited edition, then people should have the right to resell it. Honestly without games having that intrinsic value, and being sold second hand, sales would probably be hurt as well. A good deal of gamers only buy big titles because they can resell them in a couple of weeks. So quite frankly I see those comments as a little out of line. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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For used stuff, I think it's quite right the way it is now. You are paying for physical ownership. Since there is still 1 owner of the item whether the disc changes hands or not, the rights holders should not be able to demand a cut.
WRT CERO, it's even worse than Answerman's description. Worse in fact, than ESRB. I don't know how this idiosyncratic group came to be, but it's like the embodiment of all the busybody nanny-state Japanese PTC. Live action Japanese films are not rated anywhere close, nor obviously home video or anime. All of the Z ratings can only come about by violence. Because despite such CERO-Z titles being treated like porn titles, as strictly 18+ (and a bit worse given the advertising/promotion restrictions), no title with any nudity whatsoever is allowed, let alone sexual content. This was confirmed by Senran Kagura's producer. Nevermind the difference in violence, this point alone is in stark contrast to the ESRB, ironically enough, given the culture clash. At least the ESRB, though somewhat politically motivated (response to threatened regulation), is still voluntary without the same restrictions either. |
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Fencedude5609
 Posts: 5088 |
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Japanese "Hamburger" is what most Americans would know as "Salisbury Steak" |
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DomonX2
 Posts: 232 Location: Neo Toronto, Neo Canada |
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Infamous, which is intended for 13 year olds got a CERO Z rating in Japan. This shows that Japan CAN be just as sensitive as America occasionally. Why is that? This is why I always judge the target audience by the country of origin and not by other countries standards.
I.E Infamous= Teens product, not adults Uncut Digimon is a still kids product. Marvel Comics are for teens and adults, not kids like some people foolishly believe. All Gundam series before AGE are still kids products. Dragon Ball Z and their games are kids products and not intended for teens 13+. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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I agree with you on the later statement, but the former is really due to the idiocy of CERO. Their sentiment is not reflected outside of what they control. And there will always be people in every society who wishes to control other people for a variety of reasons |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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I pretty much agree with how Japan views violence vs sexuality. Sexual stuff isn't going to hurt anyone... its a natural thing. But promoting killing people in the most violent ways possible is a far worse thing than seeing bouncing boobs or panty shots. I've always thought it was kind of weird how Americans got all up in arms about a nipple being shown during the Super Bowl yet are totally okay with games where you go around killing innocent people.
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Kakugo
Posts: 163 |
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Gamestop DOES, theoretically, take away new sales not only by offering used games for cheaper, but also by lowering the demand for new titles to the point where other retailers drop the prices dramatically to match the "GameStop Demand" for used copies. Every time an Amazon seller or Wal-Mart is blowing out a 6 month old title for $20, it's not because the game publishers are ready to eat a sack of loss; it's because GameStop has cannibalized whatever little interest the public had in the title, and retailers have to match the price tag that GameStop has created re-selling a title they got for a fraction of its wholesale price.
On the other hand, a lot of the arguments publishers use to combat this are even crappier than the thought of them not getting the sales in the first place. Online passes typically use the bullsh*t argument "we have to continue paying for server upkeep!", ignoring the fact that the person who sold their copy back to GameStop is no longer actually using their servers. Publishers also pull crap like on-disc DLC to squeeze a couple more dollars from consumers for material that's already on the disc they paid for, which I've never seen a justifiable excuse for. If additional levels are ready six months later and don't affect the game as it was made, okay sure, why not? But literally making the player pay for crap that's on the disc they've already paid for is just... gross. But the most intriguing part in all of this is that GameStop's "trade in" program is the way a lot of people buy new games. Publishers get the full wholesale price when Gerard Gamer brings in last month's FPS Du Jour and gets a $10 credit they can put it towards the new flavor of the month, whatever it might be. You remove Gamestop from the equation, and suddenly a large number of people without an endless supply of expendable income will be buying less games. $60 isn't nothing in the scheme of things, not with publishers releasing dozens of titles every month, and if you take away anything that discounts that entry price you're going to see a dip. Would it outweigh the sales lost? Nobody's really sure. But if devs wanted to see GameStop nudged out of the equation they could start by not offering half of the exclusive promotional DLC to them. While I'm willing to believe that some middle-of-the-road games without the advertising money and marquee value of "Triple A" titles take a hit and leave the devs scrambling to make a substantial profit with a cheaper, royalty free option on the same shelf as a sealed copy, the effect of the argument is undermined when the guys doing a cross-promotion with Subway Sandwiches and Mountain Dew claim they're struggling to make ends meet, too... |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2173 |
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I thought they were appropriate. Gamestop goes beyond just selling used games to actively trying to convince people not to buy new titles. I've been to a total of five stores and at all but one of them I have to reject the cashier 3 times and threaten to buy somewhere else before they'll finally stop pestering me about a used copy and give me the new one I requested. Even then, they get all pissy and give me crap service as if I've personally offended them and ruined their day just because I want to buy a game new. Having said that, it would be funny to see some anime version of Gamestop that fully lived up to what GS represents. You go in to buy a new copy of Shigofumi and someone tries to sell you a used version for $5 less and eventually says, "you can put that $5 towards of preorder of Naruto Shippuden, because I know you like that Naruto. " Elsewhere in the store is an associate trying to sell someone new to anime on the idea that MD Geist being amazing stuff that they should definitely check out as well getting a pre-order for the latest DBZ Kai with AnimeStop exclusive pre-order extras. Then at the other register someone is about to buy Lain but the cashier is like, "I don't know about that man, you should probably pick up this used copy of Eiken and put down a pre-order for that new Bleach, because I know you like that Bleach, right?" In the far off register there is a guy a 50lbs box of pre-2008 anime DVDs to trade-in, for which he's getting $10 total even though they'll all be sold for a minimum of $10 each. All's not to fret though, as the cashier tell him, "well, you can do that or get a $30 store credit, which you can put towards a pre-order of that new Sekirei, because I know you like that Sekirei. Boobies ftw." |
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1708 |
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While I agree about the latter, the former isn't quite true—there are ratings organizations for video, such as the former Nihon Ethics of Video Association, the Content Soft Association, and the Visual Software Contents Industry Coop (though the latter two are for porn). Regarding the sale of used goods and the tracking thereof, see these columns on the used book market by SF author and editor Eric Flint: "Books: The Opaque Market" and "Spillage: or, The Way Fair Use Works in Favor of Authors and Publishers". Unfortunately, the anime and manga markets seem to be exceptions to many of Mr. Flint's observations. On the subject of Japanese culture (and its differences from Western culture), I recommend: • The Anime Companion: What's Japanese in Japanese Animation? Gilles Poitras. Berkeley, Cal.: Stone Bridge Press, 1998. ISBN 1880656329. • The Anime Companion 2: More… What’s Japanese in Japanese Animation? Gilles Poitras. Berkeley, Cal.: Stone Bridge Press, 2005. ISBN 1880656329. • The Anime Companion Supplement—sources for the above, plus more than 700 new entries. • The Japan Times columns FYI and So, What the Heck Is That?. |
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DRWii
 Posts: 636 |
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I found the CERO stuff interesting, and liked the 1up article. I generally find the difference between what rating a game/movie/etc. gets in various countries to be interesting.
I have to ask though, how much does the "Z" rating matter outside of a casual/mainstream context? It seems like "Z" really only hurts a game at retail stores, and not online ones. I even looked up "God of War" sales in Japan after reading the 1up article, and found this. If those numbers are even remotely accurate, "GoW III" clearly wasn't hurt at all by getting a "Z." |
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gwern
 Posts: 67 |
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> In Gunbuster's case, it's a very old show with no dub, so Funimation is a pretty unlikely candidate for a license rescue, in any event.
And alas, probably never will have a dub: apparently the non-dub audio was lost in a fire or something, so all that's left is is a single audio track holding all the sound effects + music + Japanese dubbing in a single inextricable mix. |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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I'm personally not seeing what's so wrong about violent video games--it's not real, dude. It's a video game. Playing one isn't going to make you into a murderer. As for sexuality, blame the original Jews and Christians who brought Judaism/Christianity to Europe. European Pagan religions were drenched in sex. |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1035 |
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Used bookstores that don't sell any new items at all have been around for centuries, and yet the publishing industry has survived. That's how a free market works -- manufacturers can't stop their customers from reselling merchandise. |
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Imperial_Commander
 Posts: 44 |
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"Well, the thing to understand in regards to used anime sales is that there's no such thing as Gamestop in the anime world - a huge, omnipresent retail chain that siphons millions of dollars from publishers the way Gamestop does to video game developers. Imagine, for example, if Right Stuf - probably the biggest retailer that deals predominantly in anime and manga - pushed used merchandise as heavily as Gamestop does. Publishers would be furious, most likely. Thankfully, though, outside of Amazon marketplace, there really isn't a huge, sucking leech like Gamestop out there dealing exclusively in anime and manga. And that's completely decentralized - Amazon Marketplace is merely the mediator between the customer and the independent seller."
There's so much wrong in there for a minute I thought I was reading Chris Bores. |
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