matty said:
Uh ...I will get the game, but will probably buy the artbook from Japan, which will cost about 30 bucks. If you don't have a credit card, I feel for you since I was in that situation when I was young, but if you're making a fuss about paying a few bucks for shipping an item that costs 10x more, then I can't help you, pal!
To be perfectly honest the shipping cost doesn't bother me half as much as the fact that I'll be getting the game later than everybody who buys it in stores. You might say that's tough cookies and I shouldn't complain, but the way I see it is I'm not really getting a "bonus" for preordering the game if I have to give up something else in return. To me, a preorder "bonus" is a free extra you get from GS in exchange for promising to give them your business. If I have to be penalized in order to receive this extra then it isn't so much a bonus as a tradeoff for paying more and getting the game later. That's not how a "free bonus" should work.
GS is not thinking of their customers, and even worse they're not thinking of the companies that support them like Aksys. As I understand it this artbook was intended as an extra incentive to get people to buy the US version of the game instead of the JP version. Thanks to GS essentialy screwing people out of any preorder bonuses, a lot of people no longer have any reason to wait an extra week to get the game in the US. That means a lot of the really hardcore fans are likely to import instead. That hurts sales for the US version of BB and it hurts Aksys.
Maybe I'm mistaken about how all of this works, but that's how I see the situation. I'm pissed at GS for having deceptive and unreasonable business practices, not because I'm so spoiled that I have rage over being forced to pay for shipping (which by the way was over $11after tax which is more than "a few bucks").