Hello from Edward@SEGA

[EdwardAges]

Hello Edward

As we all know its not your fault that the game lacks support from SOJ but what's up with all the new weapons being reskins of old weapons? Many players like myself were looking forward to distant memory being that many new weapons dropped there.. now were getting short changed again from SOJ/SOA... will we get a title update to fix these problems or is PSU doomed to be this way forever?

I know this is one of the biggest questions right now. It's also something best addressed on our official forums, when they return. Let me say what I can though.

1) First, when you say "lacks support" ... you're entitled to your opinion, of course. I would say if you would like to engage in actual discussion with me here -- where I'm just a lowly user but still a representative of SEGA -- please let's not get into the "they hate us / they don't care" mode. It isn't true and it isn't productive That doesn't mean things can't be done better or that there have been no mistakes -- quite the contrary -- but there's a lot of people who are working very hard to deliver the best game possible. You may not like everything, but this is an MMO which has done well for 4+ years with regular updates, events, and missions. Let's have some perspective

2) Officially, the XB360 version is a different version of the game. It is not meant as a duplicate of the JP version. You can disagree with that but that is the official stance, and so whatever communication you're going to hear from me or us, that's the ultimate message. That means that saying "it was like X there but it's like Y here and therefore it is broken" isn't something we can respond to, officially. They are different versions for a reason, and supplying new artwork to the XB360 is not the same as providing new artwork to the PC version. I know there's a fuzzy line there, some things, yes, it's worth raising the issue for sure. I said this on our forums before they went down and if you are unsure of what is "okay" to bring up ... you can always ask!

3) That said -- while I have to respect and discuss our official SEGA stance, I won't pretend you aren't all familiar with the JP version of the game. Of course you are. And of course our updates generally have followed what theirs were. I know that's the case, and so do you. So as far as that goes, I'm sorry that right now we aren't seeing the artwork you were expecting.

4) The truth is, it was a matter of getting these items or nothing at all. There are not unlimited resources to work on this, and again, XB360 is a unique platform to provide new content to an existing game. I promise we are doing the best we can with what we have, and this is something I did my best to help work out -- rather than cutting content entirely, we tried to find a way to supply us with something comparable. For those of you about to protest "it isn't comparable!", please keep reading Otherwise -- please keep in mind that we have only so many people at SEGA, and time is always precious. Some of these people must work on other games; particularly games that are sequels to previous much-loved games for which certain websites are named, if you get my very subtle hint. The point is, we can't always make everything just how you want it but we will do our best to respond to what the game & players need.

5) What I can say is I think there can be some changes made to the items we are seeing. That's not a promise about what will happen but it's my gut feeling and I think it's quite reasonable. If we accept that ours is a distinct version -- and honestly, for this discussion to progress, we have to, or it will be forever stuck at 'yes it is / no it isn't / I hate you I hate you!" -- then we can also discuss ways to improve *our* version. I'm open to that and encourage us to discuss that once we return to our official forums. Just so we are on the same page -- I mean that we can look at how the weapons are balanced, the elements (instead of the surplus of neutral weapons...), the et cetera.

There we are. I hope this works as something of an update from me -- please let's wait to discuss more until we return (honestly I hope it is not much longer, I know they are hurrying to bring us back now).

And, if you doubted it was me, hopefully the length of this post convinced you

Edward I miss the JP section and the official forum drama !!!!

We *all* miss the drama. I've been issuing bans to people on public transit here, but it just isn't the same.

[HyperShot-X-]

..why not just leave the official forum down permanently while at it and I'm not even kidding about this, it'd do more good to the game as it's been for over a month now without all the ugly forum dramas, trolls, flaming each others, and accounts getting banned. Over 90% of all forum activities are trash and nothing good ever comes out of it overwhelmed by useless, pointless, nonconstructive negative posts by those posters who only cares about their post number counts.

There is no official forum for JP players to begin with as I heard, why do we even deserve it?

Unless there are some dramatic changes coming such as restricting forum posters to game subscribers only, just leave it dead as is for Fakis' sake.

[Powder Keg]

2) Officially, the XB360 version is a different version of the game. It is not meant as a duplicate of the JP version. You can disagree with that but that is the official stance, and so whatever communication you're going to hear from me or us, that's the ultimate message. That means that saying "it was like X there but it's like Y here and therefore it is broken" isn't something we can respond to, officially. They are different versions for a reason, and supplying new artwork to the XB360 is not the same as providing new artwork to the PC version. I know there's a fuzzy line there, some things, yes, it's worth raising the issue for sure. I said this on our forums before they went down and if you are unsure of what is "okay" to bring up ... you can always ask!

While I can accept and especially understand this, having all of the new weapons look exactly the same as generic/weaker ones is a big problem, and everyone here can agree that using "different version" in this particular case isn't valid. It's missing data that's I'm sure is going to require an XBL update (which I'm sure would take a ton of time and resources) but we really need to know if that's going to happen. It could mean that practically all of the newer weapons in the game will just be generic, which is a real waste of the time that the staff and everyone spent to actually get them to us to begin with.

[DeltaViolet+]

We *all* miss the drama. I've been issuing bans to people on public transit here, but it just isn't the same.

Lmao! :P

[bloodflowers]

If we accept that ours is a distinct version -- and honestly, for this discussion to progress, we have to, or it will be forever stuck at 'yes it is / no it isn't / I hate you I hate you!" -- then we can also discuss ways to improve *our* version. I'm open to that and encourage us to discuss that once we return to our official forums. Just so we are on the same page -- I mean that we can look at how the weapons are balanced, the elements (instead of the surplus of neutral weapons...), the et cetera.

Well there we are, a masterclass in managing expectations, for now I have none.

I think that should be taken to read 'If we accept that Sega has decided to turn the 360 version into a cut-down product', since that is precisely what has happened, and what your post suggests will continue to happen.

I'll probably keep my subscription personally, many won't. At this point it wouldn't surprise me if the PSO2 servers really are global in some way, or if it stays in Japan only. You can only let down a customer base for so long before they turn away.

Oh, and please check your PM, as much as I've lost hope now with regards to content (the PM clothes at least would be nice - I think they were in PSP1 which we appear to have the data for) I still have an intense dislike of scammers and account thieves, there's information there.

[Ilikelamp7]

You've got to be fucking kidding me if you really think playing the "it isn't the same game" card is going to work at this point.

[Fredy+]

Edward just one thing. Please let the violent thorn have an element and many fighmasters will be pleased.

[TeeZy]

You can only let down a customer base for so long before they turn away.

Very true.

[Ishia]

I could care less about the reskinned weapons issue, I just want them to NOT be neutral only. Hunting them would just be pointless. Eduardo, elemental fixes for Nivelhaze, Nivelhaze+, Violent Thorn, and Vergeyz. Gogogo.

[TeeZy]

For many people who have access to a computer that play this game will look and see these very impressive weapons and hope to get them.

They finally receive the update to get the weapon and it's a ugly copy or just not what everyone expected to see.

Maybe it could be our fault for spoiling ourselves with looking at the other server weapons already but even so, its just disappointing to a lot of people that have looked forward to a certain weapon for such a long period of time.

Idk how I'd react if the Rutsularod looked like a Daullgunrod