[Note: If anyone out there is fluent in Japanese and is willing to translate this, I will happily edit this post to include it.] Dear Mr. Yoshinori Ono and the team behind the development of Street Fighter V, I am writing a formal letter to express my disappointment with all of you. I am not entirely sure if you listen to your fans as much as you claim to do, but I will take my chances. If you have any self-worth as game developers, I would greatly appreciate a proper response and acknowledgement of the opinions that I and your fanbase share regarding the self-censorship of your upcoming fighting game, Street Fighter V. I present the definition of self-censorship to you. "Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own blog, book, film, or other forms of media. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority." I would like to take the opportunity to apologize in advance for my straightforwardness and blunt statements that will be seen throughout this letter. But I am tired of this. I am tired of having to see article, after article, after article, of developers both in Japan and in the West censoring content in video games. I am tired of having to write 10,000 or more words in emails in response to the censorship that is endorsed by these people. I am tired of developers refusing to listen to their audience, hiding behind drawn curtains with their hands over their ears in order to ignore the reality of their situation. I am tired of being treated like a child. I am truly sickened by the silence. I feel like I am screaming at a brick wall from on top of the tallest building on the planet, trying desperately to have the people responsible for the creation of content that I trust listen to what I have to say. It does not happen. It continues to not happen. Mr. Ono, you claim to have self-censored your game in order to appease a certain group of people. Allow me to briefly tell you who these people are. They are not, never were, and never will be your audience. They never had any intention of buying your game. They will not care if you censored your game to make them feel better, because they already dismissed the entire Street Fighter franchise as "problematic" and "unwelcoming" for women. They have already dismissed your game as being "racist", simply because you announced Rashid as being a playable character. As of the time of this writing, there are nearly 7,000 signatures from Street Fighter fans across the world on this petition. One of those signatures belongs to me. Regardless of how statistically insignificant this might seem to you and your sales figures, the people you are trying to pander to are not that numerous, either. The problem is they have the gaming media projecting their opinions louder than the rest of us, hence why Koei Tecmo refuses to bring Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 to the West, and why Idea Factory's President, Haru Akenaga, is unable to bring over certain Compile Heart games to the majority of his fans. I will make one thing very clear to you, Mr. Ono. Un-censor this game, or I will not buy it. I will not support censorship, and Street Fighter V will be no exception. I played every single beta test up to this point, and I will participate in the final test this month. But I will not buy the game in its current form. Mark my words: I will not stop telling you this until you un-censor the game. Regards, Kyle Aiden Brown.
Print it and send it to their office. Also, include pictures of your Capcom and Street Fighter products.
Send it over to MOMBOT at twitter, she speaks Japanese and I believe she translated the japanese 8chan things for us as well.
Having studied business for a long time, and having worked with a lot of different people, I have a fair amount of experience writing and reading customer letters. If you want to improve yours, make it clear that you are a sincere fan of them and their work. This needs to be the dominant sentiment in your writing, not your anti-censorship stance. Take the time to start these letters off explaining how and why they are important to you. Even things like going to the arcade with your friends after school on Fridays to spend your allowances on Street Fighter, or how the game inspired you to start learning martial arts go a long way. And make sure to refer to your admiration and appreciation of them a lot. You also seem a bit too angry in this paragraph. Focus on your feeling of disappointment instead. They let down a fan, make sure that's clear. If I were writing this, I'd probably say something along the lines of "I am sorry, as much as I love Street Fighter and your games, I cannot support the direction it has gone recently, especially concerning the inconsistency or lack of information. I will not be getting the game in it's current state." Fan mail is the best mail to these guys, being angry will just encourage them to censor things before anyone has a chance to catch on. They need to understand who they let down and how for this to be effective.
If you (or anyone) wants to voice their concerns, take to the following: Capcom Unity Thread on SFV Censorship Dear Capcom, please add a toggle for censored SF5 events. Everyone wins. (And Censorship Discussion) (However, they seem much more soft-hearted, asking for a toggle. Being They are trying to appeal to people who don't play fighting games or have never been interested before moreso than fans who built and supported the franchise, feel free to show your polite anger and frustration. Tell them how appealing to those people will stop you from buying the game. They have to pick, they can't have both. I can't find the community manager, but go sniffing). Capcom HQ CAPCOM | Contact Us (Be damn polite. It also has info for contacting other branches) Capcom USA Capcom Corporate (No contact info apart from customer support, but they DO have an address if you want to write to them, and even a phone number. Show them you aren't scared to be treated like an adult. Plus, people are more receptive to a human being than text on a screen). Capcom Europe Contact | Capcom Europe (Remember, even if they can't do anything, the point is to show your disgust and how you won't buy the game.) In addition, take to #s that advertise Capcom games, and to the comments sections of Capcom videos. DO NOT JUST COPY 3RD STRIKE'S LETTER. This can result it quickly being dismissed as a bot, or that somehow the complaint is worth less as people just copied someone elses's words. Put your complaints into your own words. When they see thousands of different ways people are mad about this, they'll buckle. Or it'll be such a PR nightmare the game won't sell. Speaking of, try to get other fighting game people into the game. In addition, women who took part in #NotYourShield might want to be contacted, if they wish to speak up and show that most women in their audience don't care about this sort of thing.
UPDATE: Capcom Support responded to my letter. I replied with an apology and mentioned I started Ultra Street Fighter IV as Fei Long and Poison (which is true).
I wonder how the japs are reacting right now. This time it's affecting then too, so it's not like they can go all "gaijin pigu go homu!" on us again like they did with Dead or Alive Xtreme
I honestly don't expect Capcom to back down or change this. They've always been a money grubbing business so if they think raising the camera up from Mika's ass is really gonna help sell games to the easily offended, then they'll stick to their guns.
This is what I just can't wrap my head around. Has Capcom been ignoring Japanese game and anime advertising for the past 5 years? Sex sells a lot. Do they not want the horny otaku audience anymore? Because those people spend a lot of fucking money.
I'm sure they'll find a way to whore product to the otaku with Mika body pillows, ect, but this whole pandering their games to the west thing isn't anything new. You can blame Inafune's for this nonsense from when he was still with Capcom; the drive to turn their IP's into bland vanilla safe/cringy products started with him bitching about Japanese games not being like western or something years ago. Examples: Gritty Bionic Commando, Lost Planet in general, RE's identity crisis that came to a head with 6.
Some other petitions that will be helpful Capcom: Do not censor Street Fighter V KOEI Tecmo, Capcom, Namco, Monolith Soft, NCSOFT: 1 Million Gamers Strong For Japanese Gaming Signup — League For Gamers Please do that last one, b/c a western dev is going to meet a bunch of eastern devs showing them those signatures. It'll really help if he goes around with 50,000 sigs.
