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I bought a Dreamcast on eBay while I was at uni, along with Shenmue, Sonic Adventure, and The Nomad Soul (Omikron). Completed them all and sold them back on eBay.

I repeat, I was at uni. That £35 went a long way...

Still got Shenmue II for Xbox though.

Very practical advice Pat. If I still had a Dreamcast I'd be giving that a go myself.

I was pleased with the turnout too. Definitely the most activity so far, though I'm not yet sure to what degree.

What I found most encouraging is that very few tweets consisted of just the keywords - nearly everyone expressed themselves in a structured sentence, which suggests to me a greater strength of feeling...

Tweetathon tomorrow!

Got a good feeling about this one.

Oh sorry, I didn't realise it wouldn't let you see the page. Here's a copy. I'd use quote tags but they make the text TINY:

-------------------------------

I was just reading an interview (www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/897683-sonic-all-stars-racing-transformed-preview-and-interview-sega-kart) with one of the developers at Sumo Digital, who are making a sequel to All-Stars Racing for Sega, and a particular line made me pause.

For context, the developer was asked about striking a difficult balance between tickling the nostalgia glands of old school Sega fans with tracks based on classic IPs, and not putting off younger fans with characters and references that they won't recognize. The developer began explaining that they only included tracks that they could make exciting and interesting for everyone, whether they knew the IP or not. He then went on:

"So a couple of tracks we've got in the game, we've got a couple of niche ones which maybe wouldn't have made it in if we were just picking IPs. Because they're so niche Sega would've been, 'No, nobody's going to know what they are apart from 10,000 fans that are probably chatting about it online.'"

That last part's the bit that struck me. It's obviously not a direct quote from Sega, but the dismissive turn of phrase implies that the industry in general doesn't care what an online group of 10,000 fans of a niche franchise want.

Now obviously, Sumo (this guy wasn't working for them at the time) thought enough of Shenmue to ask Sega if they could use Ryo in the first All-Stars Racing, and that was okayed. So I'm not talking specifically about Shenmue here, but more the industry's perception of online groups like the one I'm posting in right now, the one we're all members of.

I get the impression from this guy's attitude, as I doubt it's his alone, that even if we doubled or tripled our membership, those within the industry still wouldn't take us seriously. We're just a few thousand geeks clinging to a niche product, probably outnumbered by those longing for a new series of Babylon 5.

That's why I believe, as recently posted on the Team Yu page (

), that we have to take this cause beyond Shenmue itself to really make any kind of impact. We have to convince other gamers who aren't necessarily fans of Shenmue, that ours is the pivotal fight in the growing struggle between gamers and publishers. A good versus evil battle that everyone can get their teeth into, and identify their own vested interest in the outcome.

Few could argue that Shenmue fans are the most downtrodden of all gamers - that's not a persecution complex, it's an objective fact. No other videogame series has left so many passionate fans suspended on an actual cliffhanger for this long. That our fate hasn't befallen other gamers makes them nothing but lucky - "there but for the grace of God," and all that. It could have been them, and it may yet be them in the future. So do they want to be left powerless and insignificant, as we have been treated for the past decade? Or do they want to stand with us today, and set the biggest precedent in gaming history? When consumers across the board unite, companies start listening. That's an economic truth in all sectors. Gamers can establish that power right now, and leave an indelible mark on the corporate egos that have taken our industry away from us to turn it into something we barely recognize.

Sega's indifference towards Shenmue has made the IP a running joke - it's widely accepted that they don't CARE about the audience who want closure to the series. Their derision of the fanbase is taken for granted. It's considered a safe enough bet by most to assume Shenmue 3 will NEVER be made, despite the obvious injustice of holding onto the license when the game's creator wants to put it to use. That's how firmly ingrained the company's stance has become, at least in how they've allowed themselves to be perceived.

Simply put, there is no more famous, or infamous, example of a publisher putting its customers LAST than Sega's termination of Shenmue. That makes it the perfect issue for players of ALL kinds to rally around, to focus on, to fight for, in a symbolic effort to regain the ground being lost in the challenge we ALL face in this changing industry. A victory for the Shenmue campaign, forcing Sega to do the right thing by its fans, would be a victory for all gamers - a monumental result in re-establishing the natural balance between customer and merchant: We determine what they sell, they don't determine what we buy.

So in summary, we need to break out of the confines of our pigeonholed niche, and represent more than just the 10,000/20,000/30,000 fans who are chatting about Shenmue online. To be taken seriously, to make a game changing impact, we need to make this a movement that ripples throughout the entire gaming community. We need to make people aware that Shenmue matters more to them than they realize. "First they came for Shenmue, and I said nothing, for I didn't play Shenmue..." They need to speak up for what's right, or who will be left to speak for them when publishers are allowed to keep treating us all with such scorn? Who will govern this industry if not the consumer? We all share that responsibility, whether we enjoy Shenmue, World of Warcraft, or Call of Duty.

It's time to step it up.

It's time to think outside the Shenmue bubble.

It's time to make this campaign finally matter.

Well I suppose the contents of in-game medikits are open to interpretation. Master Chief and 007 could be healing themselves with green tea and ginseng for all those forum posters know.

He's one of the admins of the Shenmue 500K group on Facebook, and already participates in the monthly Tweetathon. A very helpful part of the cause, and yes I agree about his blog!

Been posting on some forums:

TGForums
Retro Gamer
Metro GameCentral
GameSpot
(Can't link directly to the post on GameSpot, but it's dated April 29th)

Still got a list of others to try, and in some cases I'm PM'ing admins for their blessing to start a thread so as not to break advertising rules. Gamesforum.com already deleted my post, which I only made because the site doesn't let new members send a PM so I couldn't run it by them...

But that's nothing compared to the ridiculousness of NeoGAF, which won't even let you register if you have a free email address like Hotmail or Gmail. In this day and age, how many people's personal email account is ISP-based? It's a shame because I got the impression from elsewhere that NeoGAF was a pretty pro-Shenmue forum, so I had high hopes of getting their members involved, but I can't even register!

I can imagine Pat walking out of the cinema past the queue of people waiting to see Return of the Jedi, saying "Ah cannae believe Darth Vader's 'is dad, man!"

(Replace with appropriate accent... eg, "'Ere, wotcha - oi corn't bloomin' believe Dorf Voider's is forva, geez!")