Gaming Operation Rainfall

[PolloDiablo]

Hey guys... I think we should support this campaign!

(taken from the Wikipedia entry)

Operation Rainfall is a fan campaign aiming at persuading Nintendo of America to localize three role-playing video games for the Wii console: Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower. Though these games are the main focus of the campaign, many fans have also expressed hope that Nintendo of America may localize other sought after titles such as Fatal Frame 4 and Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories. It was launched on June 23, 2011 and is currently ongoing.

Spoiler: Background

Xenoblade Chronicles was developed by Monolith Soft and released in Japan on June 10, 2010. The Last Story was developed by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive, and was published in Japan on January 27, 2011. Pandora's Tower was developed by Ganbarion and released in Japan in May 26, 2011. Despite Xenoblade Chronicles being set for a European release in 2011,[1] and a Nintendo UK representative hinting at a European release of The Last Story,[2] none of the three games are currently planned for release in North America.
On June 23, 2011, Mathieu Minel, the marketing manager of Nintendo France, stated that Nintendo of Europe wanted to show Xenoblade Chronicles at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo, but that "Nintendo of America wouldn't let them because they didn't want to show products they aren't planning to sell."[3] In response, fans of role-playing video games on the IGN message boards, specifically the Nintendo Wii Lobby, started a campaign the next day dubbed "Operation Rainfall" hoping to persuade Nintendo of America to localize Xenoblade Chronicles, along with The Last Story and Pandora's Tower.[4][5] The main organizers of the campaign do not exclude supporting other titles for North American localizations, but are currently focusing on those three.[6]

Spoiler: Concept

The campaign is subdivided into three distinct campaigns, one for each game, all with their own periods; only the Xenoblade Chronicles campaign has currently started. This part includes sending as many physical letters and e-mails as well as giving as many phone calls to Nintendo of America's headquarters as possible, in addition to posting messages on the branch's Facebook and Twitter accounts, requesting for a North American release of the game. It also involves pre-ordering the game on the retail website Amazon.com, which has a placeholder entry for the game under its development name Monado: Beginning of the World.[4][5] On June 25, 2011, the game reached #1 in Amazon.com's Top 100 game sales, #1 in all Wii game sales and #1 in Wii action game sales.[7]

Spoiler: Coverage

Operation Rainfall has been covered by Kotaku,[4] IGN,[8] Eurogamer,[9] and Game Informer.[10] In addition, video game designer Soraya Saga, who is married to Xenoblade Chronicles creator Tetsuya Takahashi, and Mistwalker have responded favorably to the campaign.

this is a video explanation made by illiteratedino (this guy is doing an amazing Fire Emblem retrospective, so check out that too!)[youtube]BqV_P25_O4A[/youtube]

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Operation-Ra...212751422093743
Project blog: http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/

 

[TheWon]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_750fJRWOc[/youtube]

Other Groups with the same goals!

 

[Urza]

I have a feeling the article will be soon removed from Wikipedia for lack of notability.

 

[Alexander Hartde]

I have a feeling the article will be soon removed from Wikipedia for lack of notability.

What makes you think so? Articles on any subject have nothing to worry if they are well-sourced with established references. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger:_Crimson_Echoes for instance.

 

[Urza]

I have a feeling the article will be soon removed from Wikipedia for lack of notability.

What makes you think so? Articles on any subject have nothing to worry if they are well-sourced with established references. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger:_Crimson_Echoes for instance.

Because Crimson Echoes was a huge project over the course of half a decade, in which people with skill sets actually produced something.

This is just a bunch of random, talentless people, on the internet yet again whining that some game didn't get translated. You want it translated? Do it yourself or shut up.

 

[Alexander Hartde]

I have a feeling the article will be soon removed from Wikipedia for lack of notability.

What makes you think so? Articles on any subject have nothing to worry if they are well-sourced with established references. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger:_Crimson_Echoes for instance.

Because Crimson Echoes was a huge project over the course of half a decade, in which people with skill sets actually produced something.

This is just a bunch of random, talentless people, on the internet yet again whining that some game didn't get translated. You want it translated? Do it yourself or shut up.

Well you're hugely misinformed. Xenoblade is already translated.

 

[Urza]

Well you're hugely misinformed. Xenoblade is already translated.

Note how the number "three" is larger than the number "one."

 

[8BitWalugi]

Let's hope this doesn't end the same as Mother 3. Hopefully NoA would've learnt something from their mistake.

 

[DeathStrudel]

I hope this campaign goes somewhere

I have a feeling the article will be soon removed from Wikipedia for lack of notability.

I kinda doubt it. Have you seen some of the stuff on Wikipedia?

Small penis rule
Cat organ
Whizzinator

 

[PolloDiablo]

It seems that both Monolithsoft and Mistwalker have been aware of what is going on with this campaing
http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=161805

offtopic:

This is just a bunch of random, talentless people, on the internet yet again whining that some game didn't get translated. You want it translated? Do it yourself or shut up.

Stop trashing man. There is no need to do that here... if you dont like the project.. please go somewhere else to talk trash about it

 

[Urza]

I have a feeling the article will be soon removed from Wikipedia for lack of notability.

I kinda doubt it. Have you seen some of the stuff on Wikipedia?

Small penis rule
Cat organ
Whizzinator

Those are all legitimately notable subjects.

 

[Taleweaver]

I was going to agree with Urza on this one...but I gotta say that this group at least deals with reality rather than rely on things like petitions. I bet massive pre-ordering like this is far more likely to be successful than "that talentless whining" Urza describes.

Good luck, guys.

 

[kazekun]

Nintendo is a company who likes the "fame" of doing everything for their custumors, even tough we all know that is far from the truth, so pressing them for releases like this seems to fit the best way to make them go forward with something.

 

[Spongeroberto]

I really appreciate the effort. Even if this doesn't bring success, I hope it might at least show Nintendo that we're pretty upset about it. That might at least make a difference for future games.

This may sound extreme to some, but I've decided I'm not gonna bother buying a WiiU unless there is a noteable change in localization policy. For an RPG fan, the lack of localization hurts so much more. I've seen great and successful RPGs get stuck in Japan since the SNES days (for no sensible reason) but at least back then there were plenty of great RPGs available so you didn't care too much. Since then, though, the number of decent RPGs has dropped considerably. Look at the Wii: there are... 2 decent role playing games. 2. And one of em (Monster Hunter Tri) is far more an action game than a role playing game.