Thöja's emails to Sega.com

I started by sending Sega this e-mail:

From: Ela Fontana
To: Sega consumer support
Dear Sega,
I´ve been a Sega fan since your first system in the US, the Master System. I enjoy the Dreamcast a lot, but I also remember some great times playing my SMS.
I´ve read in a magazine that Sega was going to, in a near future, re-release the Master System, probably releasing new games for it. Is that true?
Thanks a lot
-Ela.

And this was the reply:
From: Sega consumer support
To: Mr. Fontana
Dear Mr. Fontana
Thank you for e-mailing Sega.
At this time, Sega has no plans to release a new version of the Sega Master System. May I ask what magazine you saw this in?
If you have any other questions or comments, please e-mail us back or contact our support line at 1-800-USA-SEGA. Thank you.
-Paul
Sega of America Technical Support

Oops! A short and effective answer...and they ask me where did I read that. Of course, I invented it and I didn´t read it anywhere, but I succeeded in annoying this Sega employee! Time to wait a few days and come back with a new name and a similar question...

From: Thöja Enwizz
To: Sega consumer support
Dear Sega:
I´m Thöja, I´ve been a Sega fan since mid eighties, and I´m writing to you because an unusual thing. I discovered Sega, like many others, with the Master System, a console I´ve always loved and still I do, being my favourite console ever. My question is: There´s still a lot of people that keeps on playing the SMS and buying games for it, and since SMS games are still being released in Brazil, has Sega planned something about releasing new games for the 8 bit system, re-releasing some classic or hard to find titles, or releasing some commemorative/ tribute item sometime in the future? I´m sure many old school players would love it. On another topic: is it planned to release some games for the Dreamcast with the classic SMS characters, like Alex Kidd, Wonder Boy or Phantasy Star?
Thanks a lot for your time,
-Thöja.

From: Sega consumer support
To: Thöja Enwizz
Dear Thoja Enwizz,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Unfortunately we do not have any information on wether we will be releasing any new games for the Master system. But we will be releasing Phantasy Star for the Dreamcast. We do not have a date set yet, but it should be out by next year. If you would like more information on our older games you can visit us at sega-parts.com to ask about the older games or you can go to www.sega.com or www.sega.net for our new Dreamcast games.
If you have any other questions or comments, please e-mail us back or contact our support line at 1-800-USA-SEGA. Thank you.
-Joe
Sega of America Technical Support

Ok, a quite elusive and self-promoting answer. This Joe guy from Sega is not really answering my question. At least he´s being quite polite (I guess he has to be this way if he wants to keep his job). I visited sega-parts.com, I was just curious about that, and I found a ridiculous short amount of material at ridiculous high prices. Hmm, too bad. I replied to his e-mail this way:

From: Thöja Enwizz
To: Sega consumer support
Dear Joe, or whoever from Sega,
Thanks a lot for your quick reply.
But, if possible, I would like you to be a bit more specific. Do you feel
that Sega might consider releasing new titles for the Master System,
re-releasing old games or hard to find accesories (I can´t find the
SegaScope 3D glasses, not even at sega-parts.com) or something like that (it
would be the first time in the history of videogames, I think), or maybe you
feel that Sega has totally abandoned the Master System? If so, a lot of SMS
fans, while still enjoying the latest Sega projects, would feel a bit
deceived.
Thanks in advance for your reply,
-Thöja.

From: Sega consumer support
To: Thöja Enwizz
Dear Thoja Enwizz,
Thanks for e-mailing us here at Sega!
The Sega Master System was in fact Sega's first system on the market back in the early eighties. Since then Sega has tried to out do itself and the competition by developing the latest and greatest in gaming consoles. Our most popular, the Sega Dreamcast is our present system on the market that is online capable. Which is to say in short that we haven't abandoned our customers in relation to our older systems but rather over two decades we have improved upon ourselves to bring you the best gaming experience possible.
If you have any other questions or comments, please e-mail us back or contact our support line at 1-800-USA-SEGA. Thank you.
-Jonathan
Sega of America Technical Support

Oh well, an even more elusive and self-promoting e-mail. Don´t know if Jonathan is the same guy as Joe, but he has the same replying mood. Again, none of my questions were answered. I was asking if there were any plans of releasing new/old stuff for the SMS, not if Sega has improved itself in the past two decades. I already know that the Master System was the first Sega system (well, it´s quite possible that our friend Jonathan hasn´t ever heard of the SG-1000 and the SC-3000, so I won´t count them). Jonathan, I know you think your new system is better than our old systems, but there is a lot of people that don´t think so, so maybe they are in fact abandoned? I didn´t bother to e-mail Sega back and ask them this, because I know I would get the same generic answer. Too bad Sega doesn´t give a damn about their past, but I guess that´s how it has to be, isn´t it?
I also e-mailed Sega of Europe, with the same question, to see if they were a bit more specific, but this is the reply I got:

This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:
Each of the following recipients was rejected by a remote mail server.
The reasons given by the server are included to help you determine why
each recipient was rejected.
Recipient: <sega_support@thus.net>
Reason: <sega_support@thus.net>... User unknown
Please reply to <postmaster@teleline.es>
if you feel this message to be in error.

Wha-hoo! Great, SOE can´t even receive their e-mail the right way.

April 17th 2001

Well, here we go again, with another silly question to Sega.com. This time I made an effort in making up this stupid testimony, but I´m afraid each time is harder to "extract" something from these underpaid Sega workers... This time I chose the name of one of our heroes, Billy Lee, well known from the classic game Double Dragon. Of course, nobody noticed that, but what could I expect?

From: William Lee
To: Sega consumer support
Dear Sega:
My name is William Lee, and I am a novel pilot. My main hobbies have always
been flying and Sega, and currently I´m the president of the international
official F-16 Figher fan club. As you know, F-16 Fighter was a great game
from Sega that appeared for the Master System in 1986. My question is: Is
there anyone there at Sega who could provide us, the members of the fan
club, with more information, audio or video stuff, or anything related to
this game? Do you have any plans of releasing a sequel for any of the newer
systems of today?
We are currently in the process of aquiring our own domain name for our site
on the internet. Would Sega.com offer web space to us?
Many thanks and we are hoping to hear from you soon,
-William Lee
President of the F-16 Fighter fan club.

Hey! This is an interesting e-mail, isn´t it? Let´s face the situation: An insane novel pilot whose main interests are flying (most likely using drugs to fly) and Sega, loves one of the worst games on Earth so much, that he has recruited even more insane fellows and created an "international official fan club". And he´s asking for videos about F-16 Fighter! Let alone web space for their fan club page... Oh well, let´s see what was their reply:

From: Sega consumer support
To: William Lee
Dear Mr. Lee,
Thank you for e-mailing Sega Technical Support.
While we'd like to be able to answer your specific questions, we receive so many requests that we are not able to respond to them individually.
For financial information about Sega Enterprises, you can surf to http://www.adr.com and do a search for "Sega." Additional information can be found at Sega.com and Sega.net. Again, we appreciate your interest in Sega.
To get the maximum gaming experience, we strongly recommend only using Sega licensed products, such as controllers.
Want to sign up for the Sega Newsletter or let us know what products you have bought? Go online and register your new purchases at www.prodreg.com/sega/productreg_askage.html.
-Kris
Sega of America Technical Support

Argh!! They´re doing it again! They are dodging my questions and they tell me something totally unrelated and uninteresting. "Only using Sega licensed products, such as controllers?" Oh boy, time to reply...

From: William Lee
To: Sega consumer support
Good morning Kris, or whoever at Sega.
I´m Billy, the novel pilot, and I think you didn´t exactly reply to my questions. I´m the president of the F-16 Fighter fan club, and me and the members would love to be informed about some possible video tapes of the beta game running. I´m not going to visit adr.com because I really trust in Sega´s privacy policies, and I always use Sega licensed controllers, except a little nice controller my cousin made for me (he´s a good electrician!), but it works fine.
Thanks in advance for your answer, and if you reply, we will send you the club magazine.
-Billy Lee
President of the F-16 Fighter fan club

And that is, a totally crazy e-mail from our friend the novel pilot I´d never fly with. Now he wants video tapes of the "beta game" running, and confesses to have an unofficial controller made by his cousin... Will Sega reply something funny?

From: Sega consumer support
To: William Lee
Dear Mr.Lee
We are sorry to tell you that Sega has no plans of releasing what you´re looking for. Please refer to www.sega.com for future updates of our products, and there you can be informed of all our news.
-Roger
Sega of America Technical Support

What? Is that an aswer to my questions? Ok, it´s quite obvious that the people of Sega.com use any chance for self-promotion of their web site. Realizing that I wouldn´t be able to get anything interesting from them, I gave up...until I can make up another silly story with questions to ask to Sega! Until then, it´s up to you to mail Sega and tell me about your questions and their answers!

Ok, I won´t be contacting Sega in a while, but if I ever have some more controversial questions for them, they will be posted here! Of course, as always, if you send some e-mail to Sega about the SMS or other controversial stuff, don´t hesitate to send the Q&A here, to post them!