There are certain difficulties Westerners face when coming to Japan. The language is a problem, of course, especially outside cities where you’re less likely to find signs in English. Those seatless Japanese toilets can be a challenge to use if you haven’t spent your life squatting over them like the Japanese. Then there are the unique challenges that tall people face, which can make it difficult to visit the country without bumping your head regularly. Of course, you don’t have to be 6’4″ for the Japanese to consider you a giant gaijin. I’m of average height, just 177 cm (5’10”), yet Japanese always apologize to me for how cramped their house or car is because the see all Westerners as being “tall” (and they’re also positive we all have blonde hair). I once went to a concert and was shocked to see that, not only was I the only foreigner in the crowd of 3000 or so, but I was the only person above 153 cm (5’2″), so I towered over everyone else during the show.
It can be interesting to look at the history of technology through its occasional “paradigm shifts,” that is, the ways the devices we use change a few times each decade. There was a time when DOS computers ruled the world, and with them a spreadsheet program called Lotus 1-2-3, but when the computer mice became an important way of interacting with computers, it opened the door for Microsoft’s Excel program to take the world crown. Similarly, there was a bad period in the early-to-mid 90s before Google existed, and everyone struggled to find information using a half-dozen mostly terrible search engines.
One area of concern J-List has as a company is that, all too often, these fundamental technology shifts end up making it harder for us to bring certain products to our customers. The rise of app stores for mobile devices is a good example: they’re a very convenient way of bringing apps to users, as long as you’re not trying to sell high-quality visual novels with mature content, which are banned. Another trend is the popularity of digital distribution through Steam. While we love having the all-ages edition of Littlewitch Romanesque available to so many fans, we’re also concerned about the future of proper 18+ releases in a world where, say, 99% of games might one day be sold through Steam (and thus, must be all-ages).
So what we’d like to ask is that fans of the unique visual novels J-List sells please consider doing the following:
- Use your “dollar votes” to buy the games you’d like to see more of, including artists and companies you like, so we know to make more of these.
- If you want us to keep making physical editions of games forever, consider choosing our Limited Edition titles, which come with artbooks, mousepads or other cool stuff, or the convenient “2-games-in-1” value sets we’ve been publishing, to keep more games in print as physical editions.
- If you prefer the convenience of our Internet download editions, that’s fine too. Remember, all our games are DRM-free (whether package or download).
- While we hope fans will support JAST USA’s Steam releases, it’d be great if customers who prefer the proper 18+ editions of our games will support those directly. We’ll always give free Steam keys for free to
customers who purchase package editions, where applicable. (Littlewitch Steam codes will be ready soon.)
Thanks!
J-List is celebrating the end of Income Tax season with a special sale through April 30th, giving you 10% off all products using code JLIST10.
That’s 10% off awesome bento boxes and accessories, Japanese “absolute zone” socks, sexy anime figures and our world-famous selection of Japanese snacks. As usual, the 10% discount doesn’t apply to items like iTunes prepaid cards or grab bags (gomen!).
