Dogasu wrote:desirecampbell wrote:It can't be the fans' fault. The system doesn't work that way.
That's absurd. If a company puts out a good, quality product with a reasonable amount of marketing and nobody buys it, then the company starts looking at
why said product didn't sell. Sometimes, they'll conclude that it didn't sell because the show being sold is so niche or unappealing that it just wouldn't work. Other times, however, the only logical conclusion they can draw is that everyone already downloaded fansubs months ago and therefore don't see a need to buy the official DVD releases.
Unfortunately, the latter is becoming far too common. Companies have a responsibility to their consumers, yes. But if the anime industry completely bellies up, they won't be the only ones at fault.
I don't think anyone's trying to claim that everything is 100% completely the industry's "fault", or anything is completely 100% the "fans'" fault; I think even desirecampbell recognizes the situation at hand, but perhaps isn't getting it across to you in the best way possible. Actually, maybe he is arguing that fans are completely not-at-fault;
until those same fans start complaining about it. While that unfortunately leaves a situation of "one person ruining it for the group", it's still true... if one person doesn't want to buy something, they don't have to buy something, and that can be fine for them.
But you seem to keep ignoring that it's the industry's responsibility to make a profit if the industry wants to make a profit. The very fact that you're not understanding is that in our system, we don't owe anyone anything for something we don't want to buy. We're not talking a moral or ethical reasoning here; I don't legally owe 4Kidz $20 because I had a fansub of Pokemon movie 1. I absolutely do not. There's nothing you can peg on me for that, what-so-ever.
That's where it splits for some people, though. Personally, for that particular product, I liked the original so much that I felt I should at least pick up the domestic release, even if it wasn't what I really wanted. However, if I didn't make AMVs and thought I would never do anything with the footage, I probably wouldn't have picked up that domestic release; it would be irrelevant to me, because it was in no way, shape, or form the product I wanted.
Little 12-year-old fucktard down the street who downloads his
Nahrutoo digisubs every week and is content with that and only that is
*still* a potential consumer that the industry should market to. They need to figure out how to market, what to market, etc. If no-one buys what they're trying to sell, that is
indeed their own "fault". You need to give some sort of incentive to purchase a product; no-one's ever obligated to purchase something.
In the early days of DVDs, that incentive was the fact that you had a sub & dub right on the DVD. Later on, it moved to any "extras" contained on the disc.
Now we're at a point where the HD fansubs are available a day later, and the SD DVDs are coming out 6-18 months later. It's not cutting it anymore; that incentive is flying out the window.
I totally understand where you're coming from Dogasu; we're from the same time period. I
do think you're being a little idealistic, just like the domestic anime companies are (in general) being. Their heads are in the sand, and they're trying to product a quickly-diminishing business model that will never work in the future. It's their job to adapt to the market; it's not the market's job to adapt to the business model.
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