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Shenmue 3 Confounds Again As PayPal Backers Won’t Get Some Kickstarter Rewards
The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter has been a confounding and confusing thing to watch evolve. The latest bit of news has divided the game’s community, though.
Developer Ys Net asked backers if it should extend the Kickstarter rewards to those who back via PayPal. The results are compelling.
Of the 68,533 eligible backers, more than 15,000 responded, bringing survey sample to more than 20 percent of the population. This is how they responded:
- 30.9 percent - Yes, please make the Kickstarter exclusive rewards available on Paypal.
- 26.5 percent - No, Kickstarter exclusive rewards are for Kickstarter only.
- 42.6 percent - Either is fine with me.
Given that the majority of fans either want those rewards extended or are fine with either option, you might expect that Ys net would do itself a favor and further incentivize more backers to give. After all, series creator Yu Suzuki says he needs more money. Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.
”Considering the strong response from those of you who felt that the Exclusive Rewards should remain exclusive for the Kickstarter, those Exclusive Rewards will not be made available on the PayPal page as originally promised,” the developer writes. And, as you might expect, this has caused some frustration among backers.
A number of backers point out that those voting “no” are only inhibiting the growth of the project. “By voting NO you prevent more funds to go into the development of Shenmue III,” writes a backer calling him or herself “Big Dipper InterArt”. “Therefore, you LOSE. Think about that. Think that you would WIN a better game, if you chose to vote YES.”
Others are suggesting that the poll should be re-run without the option for an equivocating response. “The poll shouldn't have included the ‘either is fine’ choice, kind of a useless vote if it doesn't do anything,” writes a backer named “Winson.”
A number of backers in the update’s comments point out that the polling mechanism wasn’t secure. Those who were not backers could vote if they had the link and, since it is unclear who voted, many are calling for a re-vote with a protected system.
Of course, not everyone is upset with Ys Net’s decision. “We simply want a difference between the awards offered here vs the ones on PayPal,” writes a backer named “Phill.” “I myself missed out on such things in the past, like the Divinity OS KS CE. But it makes those more exclusive and rare. I had to buy the regular CE instead. Too bad for me. Too bad for these people. They should have backed it when it was up. It's not as if they still can't get the game.”
The PayPal “slacker backer” campaign does offer some physical rewards at different tiers. Not included as options are the physical PC version, a souvenir telecom card, a “Dice Dude” capsule toy, and in-game rewards like backers’ names on tags at one of the locations.
Unfortunately for Ys Net, given the manner in which it conducted the poll, it’s offended part of its typically loyal community. We’ll update should anything change with the situation.
[Source: Kickstarter via MCV]
Our Take
Ys Net has either been getting bad advice or no advice at all. This campaign has been filled with confusion and lack of clarity. Creating a poll with a noncommittal answer doesn’t help reach a conclusion. In this case, it also directly caused a rift in the community.
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