Open Letter to SIA re:SIA's Yumi Letter to Takaki & Marvelou
Jan 17, 2017 18:05:17 GMT -5
[Vitz!], leanmeanlovinmachine, and 4 more like this
Post by Seventh on Jan 17, 2017 18:05:17 GMT -5
Hello there, people of SIA! Some of you may 'member me from when I used to post around these parts, but I would be willing to bet that most of you probably don't.
For various reasons, I had to take a hiatus from this series, and in turn, these forums. Long story, not important or particularly interesting. Point is that I recently picked it up again, and so I figured, what the hey, I'd see how the old boards were doing.
Well, imagine my surprise when I saw you guys were writing a letter to Takaki! That's really cool, innit?
Or at least... it looked cool at first, right up until I saw the amount of comments focusing on a certain someone. I have to say, it was a bit troubling to see that even after something like a year, the community seems to still be beating the same horse it was when I jumped ship. If anything, I would've banned that topic from such a thread myself, but I suppose I can't talk, what with having been gone and likely to vanish again and all.
I realize people are trying to word it nicely and all and act like it totally isn't about "the Yumi situation" (despite some posts having that exact phrase in big, bold letters), but I'm sorry to say that from the perspective of someone who has not been here for months and left in at least some part because they weren't a huge fan of this attitude being all over the site to discuss the series (more or less an outsider, at this point), all I'm seeing is the same old stuff. Not so much a letter about the series, but mostly just a big group letter complaining about Yumi.
Honestly, under normal circumstances, I'd just close out of the page and not look back. Who wants to seek out that negativity on purpose, you know?
However, I do think you guys have good intentions with what you're doing, and more importantly, I think y'all are generally pretty cool folks, or at least that's how I remember things being here, so rather than just seeing the thread and disappearing again, on the offchance your letter goes somewhere, I thought I might offer some thoughts that you could take into account before sending it on.
This in mind, without further delay, I've got two major topics to cover, and it's all about a certain girl and her "popularity." Here we go!
New Wave
Before people go complaining about how New Wave is handled, I think something needs to be understood. It needs to be understood, and then I think the English speaking part of this fanbase needs to collectively just stop complaining about what characters get new cards forever, or at least to the extent they do about Yumi. Okay?
People. Please remember. Please please please remeber. New Wave is a Japanese-only game for Japanese-cell phones intended for Japanese audiences. This may sound harsh if you've been following it forever, but this is just how it is.
If you just look at the pictures, you don't matter. Hell, if you play it through a translator or an app or an add on, you don't matter either. The people who matter here are the paying Japanese customers and the people in Japan with Japanese cell phones who can tell their Japanese friends about it (the game provides bonuses for getting friends to play, you see, as it's hooked up to a social service), and that's pretty much it.
Looking at the pictures, which is where the majority of people in this forum who seem to be invested fall (I would gather), really doesn't give you the right to go complaining to Takaki and Marvelous about it. You can not like it, but for all intents and purposes, you're probably not even supposed to be aware of the game's existence, let alone have access to all of these images from it. It's not marketed towards us, it's not been released where we can play it - as of now, the fact is, it's not for us and they're not getting anything from us over it.
In other words, here is my first point: There is no reason for them to listen to anything anyone outside of Japan has to say about New Wave, and if anything, making an issue over New Wave might make people less inclined to listen to other points if anyone actually does bother to listen.
Which leads to the second part of this. Before people go in complaining about how the characters are handled in New Wave, you guys need to remember that New Wave is actually a game. It's not just a weekly app that updates with new images, it is indeed actually a game that people play, and those special cards are rewards you get for playing that game. In some cases, they might play it way, way, way too much. In others, they might play a little, but spend way, way, way too much.
With this in mind, you need to understand how the cards in this game actually work.
Even though thousands of people can be playing, the cards that are prizes are only distributed to the top hundred players. The really special ones at that might only go to the top five. Out of potentially thousands of people.
People who don't play the game see a lot of Yumi cards and get mad, but that's because you're looking at it from the perspective of "there are a lot of different Yumi pictures." The reality of this is that there is actually a very limited number of these super special rare cards for all of the players to fight over in each event. The actual quantity of these cards is generally not that high, save for during special occasions when they redistribute them. However, in the context of the game, cards from old events are not as effective as the ones relevant to the current, so even then, they become sort of irrelevant fairly quickly.
Basically, what's actually happening here is that they put in a limited number of these special cards as a carrot, but the vast majority of the actual people playing the game will not get this card. The card itself is bait - the cards most of the players will get, in fact, usually rotate between the other characters, or at least they did when I played. This is why the most popular characters get a lot of cards: because those cards are being put out in limited quantities in order to get people to pay and play more.
For an example, I'm going to just make up what a month's prize cards might be.
Week 1
LR Yumi
UR Asuka
SR Karasu
Week 2
LR Murasaki
UR Yumi
SR Haruka
Week 3
LR Leo
UR Ibuki
SR Mirai
Week 4
LR Yumi
UR Ikaruga
SR Tachibana
If we go off of the general idea that most LRs change pictures, then to your casual observer following the New Wave image thread for those saucy, oh so scandalous new pictures, this means that out of this batch, we would have gotten:
Yumi: 7~ new pictures
Murasaki: 3 new pictures
Leo: 3 new pictures
Asuka: 1 new picture
Ibuki: 1 new picture
Ikaruga: 1 new picture
Karasu: 1 new picture
Haruka: 1 new picture
Mirai: 1 new picture
Tachibana: 1 new picture
Shoot! Yumi got hot many?! BURN THE WITCH!
On a more serious note, keep in mind now that this is only the prize cards and is missing a number of the other ways to get cards during an event (the rare ones you pay for, for example), but it gives you at least an idea of how it might play out, right? From this perspective, it looks pretty bullshit.
However, if we put this same information into the actual game-relevant numbers (and mind that while I'm pulling this out of my ass right now it's not that far from how the game actually plays out), this is what that actually translates to:
Week 1
1: LR Yumi x3, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
2-3: LR Yumi x2, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
4-5: LR Yumi x1, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
6-10: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
11-25: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x3, SR Karasu x4
26-50: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x2, SR Karasu x4
51-100: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x1, SR Karasu x3
100-200: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x0, SR Karasu x2
200-400: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x0, SR Karasu x1
400+: No special cards
Week 2
1: LR Murasaki x3, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
2-3: LR Murasaki x2, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
4-5: LR Murasaki x1, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
6-10: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
11-25: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x3, SR Haruka x4
26-50: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x2, SR Haruka x4
51-100: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x1, SR Haruka x3
100-200: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x0, SR Haruka x2
200-400: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x0, SR Haruka x1
400+: No special cards
Week 3
1: LR Leo x3, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
2-3: LR Leo x2, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
4-5: LR Leo x1, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
6-10: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
11-25: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x3, SR Mirai x4
26-50: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x2, SR Mirai x4
51-100: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x1, SR Mirai x3
100-200: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x0, SR Mirai x2
200-400: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x0, SR Mirai x1
400+: No special cards
Week 4
1: LR Yumi x3, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
2-3: LR Yumi x2, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
4-5: LR Yumi x1, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
6-10: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
11-25: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x3, SR Tachibana x4
26-50: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x2, SR Tachibana x4
51-100: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x1, SR Tachibana x3
100-200: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x0, SR Tachibana x2
200-400: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x0, SR Tachibana x1
400+: No special cards
... or, in other words...
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Tachibana Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Mirai Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Haruka Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Karasu Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Ibuki Card: 100
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Ikaruga Card: 100
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Asuka Card: 100
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Murasaki Card: 5
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Leo Card: 5
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Prize Yumi Card (in the entire month): 100 - 110
This may not seem important, but again, as I said earlier, when the goal of a mobile game like this is to get people to pay money, the carrots that they are going to be using are going to be the ones people want the most. Out of hundreds, maybe even thousands of players, only 5 will get that first LR Yumi. Only 100 will get that UR Yumi. And only 5 will get that other LR Yumi.
Depending on how much you're paying/playing, depending on how much others are doing the same, you could be spending an obscene amount of time tapping away on your phone, all in the hopes of getting that prized Yumi... and you might walk away with nothing.
This is why the popular characters get repeated. They know which characters are the ones people are willing to pay and play for the most. That is the entire point. You have to understand that before you go to complain about some pictures. The only thing this game sets out to do is put a carrot in front of players and get them to chase it, using their time and money as fuel. When only a few people can get the best, tastiest carrots, people keep coming back. Yumi just happens to be one of the flavors of carrot that players prefer the most.
If you are not one of the paying members of their primary audience, then they have no reason to consider your input. I would wager almost everyone on this board falls into this category. They care about the people who will spend time and, more importantly, money in order to be one of those very select few who gets to have the cards for themselves.
They do not care about people in other countries looking at these pictures for free.
That's really all there is to it.
If you want to enjoy playing New Wave, or enjoy looking at the cards, you are free to do so, but you are only kidding yourself if you think you are allowed any input into it. The only thing that will shape New Wave's future is how many people are willing to pay for their favorite girls.
Merchandise
If you've been paying attention, you can probably surmise where this is going to go.
Just because goods from a foreign country can be imported does not mean those goods are going to be made with the countries they can be imported to in mind. Just because there is a fanbase of something in a foreign country doesn't mean content will be made with them in mind, no matter how large it is. This is especially true for Japanese stuff, and especially true for content like Senran Kagura that raises eyebrows and has trouble getting on store shelves in Western countries.
That doesn't mean these things don't happen, and with Steam and Kickstarter's increasing influence in certain parts of the industry, these things may yet continue to change for the better in the future. Right now, however, a lot of these things are simply made with the Japanese audience in mind first and foremost.
More to the point, when it comes to preorder goods and merchandise specifically made in Japan, generally speaking, you have to expect that these things are being made with the Japanese audience in mind first and foremost. It isn't even a matter of whether or not there's a foreign audience here. No matter how popular things are in the West, now that this series has established itself as something that does get localized, the people who import these products are no doubt a minority compared to the people in Japan who do.
What I'm saying here is that you really can't expect Marvelous to not make their goods that they're selling in Japan primarily for their Japanese consumers based on things the Japanese fanbase likes more.
As of now, Yumi is not getting any particular special treatment in the actual games. Not really. She's getting a lot of merchandise, but this is because it's the same situation as with New Wave: They plaster her all of Estival Versus, but then give people a game that's more about the drama surrounding characters like Ryoubi and Ryouna.
This is marketing. If you want the series to thrive, the actual series of games and not just the merchandise line, you can't fault them for making smart business decisions. If there comes a time when Yumi really does start getting blatantly preferential treatment in the main games (and I'm sorry to say, no, this has not happened yet), then we have cause for concern.
Right now, however, this has not happened.
All they are doing is doing what they can (slapping Yumi on things and giving away stuff with Yumi on it) to sell the games (which generally have not had an abnormal focus on Yumi over anyone else in comparable position) to the audience that they are selling to (the Japanese fans who like Yumi).
tl;dr: The things you are complaining about are not for you in the first place. If you go up to Marvelous and complain about them, it is essentially the equivalent of going up to the chef at a restaurant and complaining about the food that the people at the table across the building got.
Does This Mean We Say Nothing?
Of course not!
I completely understand that people don't like Yumi, that they want their favorite characters to get a turn getting fancy weekly stuffeven if New Wave's art is so far gone from Yaegashi Nan's now it's honestly pointless at this point, that they want the New Wave characters to be able to get new content in their own dang game. I get it!
Personally, I think the hate is misplaced (because, again, people are getting mad at her over things that they're not really supposed to be seeing/getting in the first place), that the Versus games are written just as well/badly as the other games in the series are with equal fanservice/drama/comedy, but I honestly don't care to argue about it, because I am instead here to offer some advice on how to approach this exact same topic in such a way that the results you want can still be achieved.
If you guys really want to write your letter to Taka, rather than complaining about Yumi and character popularity, approach it from a different angle. The fact is that virtually all of your complaints regarding Yumi stem from products and parts of Senran Kagura that the Western fanbase either shouldn't have access to or don't have relevant input on right now. Complaining about Yumi or popularity won't send the message you actually want sent.
What you want to do is talk about what you want more of. Leave out what you want less of. They have the numbers, they know what they're selling where, if they actually care enough, they can infer what needs to be inferred. What you want less of is something that, from their perspective, we basically already have 0 of. It doesn't make sense for you to want less of it, and telling them they should stop providing for the paying fans is not going to earn you points.
The real issue here is that other countries don't allow this kind of stuff to be sold and promoted in the same way. That's what you should be mad at. Not them for doing business and not at a character that really isn't all that bad. It's because people think like this that we never actually see any changes. Your anger is, in essence, 100% misplaced. You should be going after the folks that make it a problem to sell and promote this stuff, to make it an issue to cater to fans of this kind of stuff outside of Japan, not the Japanese companies daring to cater to the Japanese fanbase.
Rather than complaining about Yumi (which is something that seems to dominate the majority of the thread, despite the character herself not actually being a problem), if you guys want to see more Katsuragi, or Haruka, or whoever else? Don't just explain that the Western fandom enjoys this character or that character, but make it a point to explain that there are parts of the Western fanbase who would like a way to more reliably obtain merchandise. By being able to buy merchandise, by being recognized as part of the market they are making products for, you will have power. If they start producing products for the West, the numbers will speak for themselves.
If you guys want to be able to influence New Wave? Explain that many Senran Kagura fans are aware of the existence of the mobile game, some even play it (subtly hint they would even pay for it if they were able, oh, if only they were able!), and would like to be able to play it in English. Ask if a localization would be possible. Should that happen, English speaking fans would naturally be able to influence it in the same way Japanese fans do.
Complaining about Yumi is not the way to go. It will just make you look, well, whiny. Don't focus on what you don't want, especially when what you don't want is what makes them money. Focus on what you do want and explain how it would be beneficial to Marvelous and Takaki. That's how you get the things you want.
Well, that's all she wrote.
I'd like to think someday people will eventually let New Wave's cards, preorder bonuses, and merchandise not be the be all end all for judging characters and accept the Versus games as the fine additions they are, as after a year I feel this says a lot more about the fanbase than a thousand essays explaining the series' appeal beyond fanservice ever will, buuuuuuut... I digress.
I realize this has been extremely lengthy, so even if you think I'm dead wrong and Yumi is the spawn of satan and the series has been shit since it left the glorious Nintendo master race, thanks for at least taking the time to read this. I probably disagree with you, but chances are we both just want the best for the series, so it's all good.
For various reasons, I had to take a hiatus from this series, and in turn, these forums. Long story, not important or particularly interesting. Point is that I recently picked it up again, and so I figured, what the hey, I'd see how the old boards were doing.
Well, imagine my surprise when I saw you guys were writing a letter to Takaki! That's really cool, innit?
Or at least... it looked cool at first, right up until I saw the amount of comments focusing on a certain someone. I have to say, it was a bit troubling to see that even after something like a year, the community seems to still be beating the same horse it was when I jumped ship. If anything, I would've banned that topic from such a thread myself, but I suppose I can't talk, what with having been gone and likely to vanish again and all.
I realize people are trying to word it nicely and all and act like it totally isn't about "the Yumi situation" (despite some posts having that exact phrase in big, bold letters), but I'm sorry to say that from the perspective of someone who has not been here for months and left in at least some part because they weren't a huge fan of this attitude being all over the site to discuss the series (more or less an outsider, at this point), all I'm seeing is the same old stuff. Not so much a letter about the series, but mostly just a big group letter complaining about Yumi.
Honestly, under normal circumstances, I'd just close out of the page and not look back. Who wants to seek out that negativity on purpose, you know?
However, I do think you guys have good intentions with what you're doing, and more importantly, I think y'all are generally pretty cool folks, or at least that's how I remember things being here, so rather than just seeing the thread and disappearing again, on the offchance your letter goes somewhere, I thought I might offer some thoughts that you could take into account before sending it on.
This in mind, without further delay, I've got two major topics to cover, and it's all about a certain girl and her "popularity." Here we go!
New Wave
Before people go complaining about how New Wave is handled, I think something needs to be understood. It needs to be understood, and then I think the English speaking part of this fanbase needs to collectively just stop complaining about what characters get new cards forever, or at least to the extent they do about Yumi. Okay?
People. Please remember. Please please please remeber. New Wave is a Japanese-only game for Japanese-cell phones intended for Japanese audiences. This may sound harsh if you've been following it forever, but this is just how it is.
If you just look at the pictures, you don't matter. Hell, if you play it through a translator or an app or an add on, you don't matter either. The people who matter here are the paying Japanese customers and the people in Japan with Japanese cell phones who can tell their Japanese friends about it (the game provides bonuses for getting friends to play, you see, as it's hooked up to a social service), and that's pretty much it.
Looking at the pictures, which is where the majority of people in this forum who seem to be invested fall (I would gather), really doesn't give you the right to go complaining to Takaki and Marvelous about it. You can not like it, but for all intents and purposes, you're probably not even supposed to be aware of the game's existence, let alone have access to all of these images from it. It's not marketed towards us, it's not been released where we can play it - as of now, the fact is, it's not for us and they're not getting anything from us over it.
In other words, here is my first point: There is no reason for them to listen to anything anyone outside of Japan has to say about New Wave, and if anything, making an issue over New Wave might make people less inclined to listen to other points if anyone actually does bother to listen.
Which leads to the second part of this. Before people go in complaining about how the characters are handled in New Wave, you guys need to remember that New Wave is actually a game. It's not just a weekly app that updates with new images, it is indeed actually a game that people play, and those special cards are rewards you get for playing that game. In some cases, they might play it way, way, way too much. In others, they might play a little, but spend way, way, way too much.
With this in mind, you need to understand how the cards in this game actually work.
Even though thousands of people can be playing, the cards that are prizes are only distributed to the top hundred players. The really special ones at that might only go to the top five. Out of potentially thousands of people.
People who don't play the game see a lot of Yumi cards and get mad, but that's because you're looking at it from the perspective of "there are a lot of different Yumi pictures." The reality of this is that there is actually a very limited number of these super special rare cards for all of the players to fight over in each event. The actual quantity of these cards is generally not that high, save for during special occasions when they redistribute them. However, in the context of the game, cards from old events are not as effective as the ones relevant to the current, so even then, they become sort of irrelevant fairly quickly.
Basically, what's actually happening here is that they put in a limited number of these special cards as a carrot, but the vast majority of the actual people playing the game will not get this card. The card itself is bait - the cards most of the players will get, in fact, usually rotate between the other characters, or at least they did when I played. This is why the most popular characters get a lot of cards: because those cards are being put out in limited quantities in order to get people to pay and play more.
For an example, I'm going to just make up what a month's prize cards might be.
Week 1
LR Yumi
UR Asuka
SR Karasu
Week 2
LR Murasaki
UR Yumi
SR Haruka
Week 3
LR Leo
UR Ibuki
SR Mirai
Week 4
LR Yumi
UR Ikaruga
SR Tachibana
If we go off of the general idea that most LRs change pictures, then to your casual observer following the New Wave image thread for those saucy, oh so scandalous new pictures, this means that out of this batch, we would have gotten:
Yumi: 7~ new pictures
Murasaki: 3 new pictures
Leo: 3 new pictures
Asuka: 1 new picture
Ibuki: 1 new picture
Ikaruga: 1 new picture
Karasu: 1 new picture
Haruka: 1 new picture
Mirai: 1 new picture
Tachibana: 1 new picture
Shoot! Yumi got hot many?! BURN THE WITCH!
On a more serious note, keep in mind now that this is only the prize cards and is missing a number of the other ways to get cards during an event (the rare ones you pay for, for example), but it gives you at least an idea of how it might play out, right? From this perspective, it looks pretty bullshit.
However, if we put this same information into the actual game-relevant numbers (and mind that while I'm pulling this out of my ass right now it's not that far from how the game actually plays out), this is what that actually translates to:
Week 1
1: LR Yumi x3, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
2-3: LR Yumi x2, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
4-5: LR Yumi x1, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
6-10: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x4, SR Karasu x4
11-25: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x3, SR Karasu x4
26-50: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x2, SR Karasu x4
51-100: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x1, SR Karasu x3
100-200: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x0, SR Karasu x2
200-400: LR Yumi x0, UR Asuka x0, SR Karasu x1
400+: No special cards
Week 2
1: LR Murasaki x3, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
2-3: LR Murasaki x2, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
4-5: LR Murasaki x1, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
6-10: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x4, SR Haruka x4
11-25: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x3, SR Haruka x4
26-50: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x2, SR Haruka x4
51-100: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x1, SR Haruka x3
100-200: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x0, SR Haruka x2
200-400: LR Murasaki x0, UR Yumi x0, SR Haruka x1
400+: No special cards
Week 3
1: LR Leo x3, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
2-3: LR Leo x2, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
4-5: LR Leo x1, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
6-10: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x4, SR Mirai x4
11-25: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x3, SR Mirai x4
26-50: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x2, SR Mirai x4
51-100: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x1, SR Mirai x3
100-200: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x0, SR Mirai x2
200-400: LR Leo x0, UR Ibuki x0, SR Mirai x1
400+: No special cards
Week 4
1: LR Yumi x3, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
2-3: LR Yumi x2, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
4-5: LR Yumi x1, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
6-10: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x4, SR Tachibana x4
11-25: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x3, SR Tachibana x4
26-50: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x2, SR Tachibana x4
51-100: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x1, SR Tachibana x3
100-200: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x0, SR Tachibana x2
200-400: LR Yumi x0, UR Ikaruga x0, SR Tachibana x1
400+: No special cards
... or, in other words...
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Tachibana Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Mirai Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Haruka Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Karasu Card: 400
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Ibuki Card: 100
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Ikaruga Card: 100
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Asuka Card: 100
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Murasaki Card: 5
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Leo Card: 5
Number of Potential Players to Obtain a New Prize Yumi Card (in the entire month): 100 - 110
This may not seem important, but again, as I said earlier, when the goal of a mobile game like this is to get people to pay money, the carrots that they are going to be using are going to be the ones people want the most. Out of hundreds, maybe even thousands of players, only 5 will get that first LR Yumi. Only 100 will get that UR Yumi. And only 5 will get that other LR Yumi.
Depending on how much you're paying/playing, depending on how much others are doing the same, you could be spending an obscene amount of time tapping away on your phone, all in the hopes of getting that prized Yumi... and you might walk away with nothing.
This is why the popular characters get repeated. They know which characters are the ones people are willing to pay and play for the most. That is the entire point. You have to understand that before you go to complain about some pictures. The only thing this game sets out to do is put a carrot in front of players and get them to chase it, using their time and money as fuel. When only a few people can get the best, tastiest carrots, people keep coming back. Yumi just happens to be one of the flavors of carrot that players prefer the most.
If you are not one of the paying members of their primary audience, then they have no reason to consider your input. I would wager almost everyone on this board falls into this category. They care about the people who will spend time and, more importantly, money in order to be one of those very select few who gets to have the cards for themselves.
They do not care about people in other countries looking at these pictures for free.
That's really all there is to it.
If you want to enjoy playing New Wave, or enjoy looking at the cards, you are free to do so, but you are only kidding yourself if you think you are allowed any input into it. The only thing that will shape New Wave's future is how many people are willing to pay for their favorite girls.
Merchandise
If you've been paying attention, you can probably surmise where this is going to go.
Just because goods from a foreign country can be imported does not mean those goods are going to be made with the countries they can be imported to in mind. Just because there is a fanbase of something in a foreign country doesn't mean content will be made with them in mind, no matter how large it is. This is especially true for Japanese stuff, and especially true for content like Senran Kagura that raises eyebrows and has trouble getting on store shelves in Western countries.
That doesn't mean these things don't happen, and with Steam and Kickstarter's increasing influence in certain parts of the industry, these things may yet continue to change for the better in the future. Right now, however, a lot of these things are simply made with the Japanese audience in mind first and foremost.
More to the point, when it comes to preorder goods and merchandise specifically made in Japan, generally speaking, you have to expect that these things are being made with the Japanese audience in mind first and foremost. It isn't even a matter of whether or not there's a foreign audience here. No matter how popular things are in the West, now that this series has established itself as something that does get localized, the people who import these products are no doubt a minority compared to the people in Japan who do.
What I'm saying here is that you really can't expect Marvelous to not make their goods that they're selling in Japan primarily for their Japanese consumers based on things the Japanese fanbase likes more.
As of now, Yumi is not getting any particular special treatment in the actual games. Not really. She's getting a lot of merchandise, but this is because it's the same situation as with New Wave: They plaster her all of Estival Versus, but then give people a game that's more about the drama surrounding characters like Ryoubi and Ryouna.
This is marketing. If you want the series to thrive, the actual series of games and not just the merchandise line, you can't fault them for making smart business decisions. If there comes a time when Yumi really does start getting blatantly preferential treatment in the main games (and I'm sorry to say, no, this has not happened yet), then we have cause for concern.
Right now, however, this has not happened.
All they are doing is doing what they can (slapping Yumi on things and giving away stuff with Yumi on it) to sell the games (which generally have not had an abnormal focus on Yumi over anyone else in comparable position) to the audience that they are selling to (the Japanese fans who like Yumi).
tl;dr: The things you are complaining about are not for you in the first place. If you go up to Marvelous and complain about them, it is essentially the equivalent of going up to the chef at a restaurant and complaining about the food that the people at the table across the building got.
Does This Mean We Say Nothing?
Of course not!
I completely understand that people don't like Yumi, that they want their favorite characters to get a turn getting fancy weekly stuff
Personally, I think the hate is misplaced (because, again, people are getting mad at her over things that they're not really supposed to be seeing/getting in the first place), that the Versus games are written just as well/badly as the other games in the series are with equal fanservice/drama/comedy, but I honestly don't care to argue about it, because I am instead here to offer some advice on how to approach this exact same topic in such a way that the results you want can still be achieved.
If you guys really want to write your letter to Taka, rather than complaining about Yumi and character popularity, approach it from a different angle. The fact is that virtually all of your complaints regarding Yumi stem from products and parts of Senran Kagura that the Western fanbase either shouldn't have access to or don't have relevant input on right now. Complaining about Yumi or popularity won't send the message you actually want sent.
What you want to do is talk about what you want more of. Leave out what you want less of. They have the numbers, they know what they're selling where, if they actually care enough, they can infer what needs to be inferred. What you want less of is something that, from their perspective, we basically already have 0 of. It doesn't make sense for you to want less of it, and telling them they should stop providing for the paying fans is not going to earn you points.
The real issue here is that other countries don't allow this kind of stuff to be sold and promoted in the same way. That's what you should be mad at. Not them for doing business and not at a character that really isn't all that bad. It's because people think like this that we never actually see any changes. Your anger is, in essence, 100% misplaced. You should be going after the folks that make it a problem to sell and promote this stuff, to make it an issue to cater to fans of this kind of stuff outside of Japan, not the Japanese companies daring to cater to the Japanese fanbase.
Rather than complaining about Yumi (which is something that seems to dominate the majority of the thread, despite the character herself not actually being a problem), if you guys want to see more Katsuragi, or Haruka, or whoever else? Don't just explain that the Western fandom enjoys this character or that character, but make it a point to explain that there are parts of the Western fanbase who would like a way to more reliably obtain merchandise. By being able to buy merchandise, by being recognized as part of the market they are making products for, you will have power. If they start producing products for the West, the numbers will speak for themselves.
If you guys want to be able to influence New Wave? Explain that many Senran Kagura fans are aware of the existence of the mobile game, some even play it (subtly hint they would even pay for it if they were able, oh, if only they were able!), and would like to be able to play it in English. Ask if a localization would be possible. Should that happen, English speaking fans would naturally be able to influence it in the same way Japanese fans do.
Complaining about Yumi is not the way to go. It will just make you look, well, whiny. Don't focus on what you don't want, especially when what you don't want is what makes them money. Focus on what you do want and explain how it would be beneficial to Marvelous and Takaki. That's how you get the things you want.
Well, that's all she wrote.
I'd like to think someday people will eventually let New Wave's cards, preorder bonuses, and merchandise not be the be all end all for judging characters and accept the Versus games as the fine additions they are, as after a year I feel this says a lot more about the fanbase than a thousand essays explaining the series' appeal beyond fanservice ever will, buuuuuuut... I digress.
I realize this has been extremely lengthy, so even if you think I'm dead wrong and Yumi is the spawn of satan and the series has been shit since it left the glorious Nintendo master race, thanks for at least taking the time to read this. I probably disagree with you, but chances are we both just want the best for the series, so it's all good.
