Video Games - Lost in Translation? 509
MikeDawg writes "No, it's not a case of 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us'. MSNBC is running an article about the relative popularity of some game hardware and software in the West vs. the East. This article covers the phenomenon of games vs. culture and why video games that do well in the U.S. generally don't do well in Japan, and vice-versa." The piece notes of the Japanese market: "American-made consoles such as 3DO (released in Japan in 1994) and most recently the Microsoft Xbox (released in two years ago) never seem to attract consumers in large numbers. Games such as 'Enter the Matrix' from Atari, and 'The Lord of the Rings' by Electronic Arts, both released [in Japan] last year, often vanish... without leaving a trace."
Obviously (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder why
I used to LOVE to play (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, as I recall, the game was wildly popular in both regions. Granted, it was a Japanese game ported to the US market. But, aren't most of the best games in the US? My experience with "enter the matrix" was that it sucks!
IMHO, this is another case of results being skewed to some agenda.
Well no wonder... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yea, well, there is a reason. Both of those games were crap here in the U.S. as well.
reverse is also true... (Score:5, Insightful)
3DO (Score:5, Insightful)
Just maybe.. (Score:5, Insightful)
In addition, "Enter the Matrix" and "The Lord of the Rings" were abysmal games developed quickly to take advantage of the sucess of the movies their based upon. Of course, these movies are exceptionally popular in the US, and it is sure that rabid fans will buy them because they feature their favourite charachters. However, in Japan these movies are not so popular and without playing on the success of the movies, they really do not appeal to many.
Even American game networks such as GameSpy, GameSpot and many others rated these games poorly. As usual, most games that are spin offs of movies suck, god I still get nightmares about the Survivor game. [http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/survivor-ultimate-editi
Don't be suprised that games which base their success on culturally dependent factors such as how well a movie is received, rather than how good the gameplay is don't do well in other places than where the movie is popular.
Think about it (Score:5, Insightful)
In Japan, stuff like animae and manga is wildly popular, it features intricate storylines, often times fantasy based. That's one thing the Japaneese get that I've noticed western audiences never seem to notice: You can do ANYTHING with games, movies, stories, or art...so why stick to simulating real life?
The western world, on the other hand, has Hollywood fever, we like car chases and action, we like sports events watched by millions, we like reality. Kind of depressing if you think about it, almost like we're so fed up with REAL reality we find it amusing to play in a pretend-yet-realistic world. Either that or I've also noticed that some Americans, especially the current generation of teens, seem to feel like they're "retarded" or immature for using their imagination. A shame, to say the least.
I won't speculate on what this means culture-wise anymore than I have done at the risk of trolling, but if game-makers want to sell well internationally, they need to realize they'll either need to rely on seperate product lines tailored to the specific culture of the region, or (and this I'd like to see) start to bridge a cultural gap and create a game with elements of both cultures' preferences, and see how well that sells.
I think Japan would enjoy some more excitement action-wise in their games, and the western world needs to learn to explore their imagination more and do some problem-solving/puzzle type stuff. A nice healthy blend.
Re:I used to LOVE to play (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed. In the US. The main difference, I think, is the huge culture difference. Look at the Samurai, vs. the American soldier. For example, Americas Army Operations vs. the later versions of the Final Fantasy series. One appeals to one cultire, while the other appeals to the other.
games like GTA3, Halo, and Madden are the bread and butter of most college-aged males video game experiences here in the west. I think it's an important distinction to make.
I rest my case.
Re:United States of Japan (Score:2, Insightful)
Obviously the US is not a country where everybody carries guns and shoots everybody else, nor is Japan a country with only perverts and gropers.
I know this is redundant... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:On Xbox's lack of success in Japan (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not trolling, I'm looking for a sincere answer here. I'm one of the many who grew up on Nintendo, but have long since left (since the SNES) because Nintendo seems to be unconscious of our gaming needs.
Re:I used to LOVE to play (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to LOVE to play The Legend of Zelda. As I recall, that game was made in Japan, by a Japanese developer, even based on many elements from his real life.
I wonder if a game popularity's diversity of region is based more on level of detail rather than what the game is based on. I read some of a book, "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, and while I do think some of its contents is debatable, one thing I couldn't argue with was.. the more abstract a character, the easier it is to think of the abstraction as a representation of yourself, and thus relate to it. So with the older games such as Zelda, Metroid, Pac-Man, and even Space Invaders, I can see them having a region-independent fan base as opposed to more realistic games like John Madden Football or Lord of the Rings.Re:Obviously (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:United States of Japan (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not saying violence is better, only that I wouldn't be so quick to choose one over the other. Sex sounds nice, hell who doesn't like sex, but some people have some wicked sexual vices.
Re:Just maybe.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I would be careful here. I think it's pretty clearly stated in the article, and been said many times in this thread, that "more things to do = bad" in Japanese gaming culture. They like games with single storylines and definite direction. Example: As a western gamer, my favorite RPGs of the past two years have been Morrowind and Knights of the Old Republic. Those games both offer a HUGE variety of things to do. Yet both are decidedly "non-Japanese" because they have very open, branching storylines. Games that are played like storybooks are much more popular in Japan than here.
And to counter your point about "blowing things up pointlessly," I could say the same thing about you training your characters up to level 99 so you could beat Ruby Weapon (or whatever), whereas at least when I'm playing Halo I'm sitting in a room with my friends enjoying healthy competition. It goes both ways, don't assume that one side is inherently "better" than the other.
Re:Their brain has a bullshit filter (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to focus on the differences in cultures, the article pointed out the much more major one: Americans like to have no boundaries and Japanese like to have clear direction. Japanese players get confused with a lack of defined goals.
As for another one of note, Japanese gamers tend to prefer a sense of community, while Americans tend to prefer a sense of personal success. That only really shows up much in MMORPGs, at least as far as I've seen. Look at Legacy of Blood: it is doing very well in Asian areas (particularly Korea, I think) but has done jack squat in the US. This is most likely because the play requires that you interoperate with other players on a massive scale. You need to have some sort of community. For similar reasons, Japanese MMORPG players are more likely to use something because it looks cool, while American players are more likely to use something because it is useful.
Dead Horse (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure that by now, everyone knows that certain games and genres just don't translate well.
Re:Regimented psyches (Score:2, Insightful)
>>Give me hints. Provide me service instead of just throwing me into this arena
>I guess that in Japan, society is a lot more regimented and order-driven than in the
>west, and so they'll seek games that are similar.
I dunno...Mario 64 is pretty `there you go - do what you want`, and that's Japanese AND it was pretty popular.
HAHAHAHAHA (Score:2, Insightful)
And McDonalds doesn't sell cheeseburgers in Israel (Score:4, Insightful)
Has this auther ever considered the possibility that the consoles were designed with certain markets in mind?
Microsoft and Sony could have planned to make systems that would sell most heavily in the US while Nintendo planned to make the GameCube the champ in Asia.
From the introduction of the original PSX until the demise of the Dreamcast there were 3 big players in the console game market. They all did fairly well for most of that time. Because there are enough customers to go around. One could even argue that if a company tried too hard to get all of the customers, they'd lose the ones they already had by taking too many resources away from the things that they were doing well.
MS, Sony and Nintendo are each getting a slice of a really big pie. So what if they targeted their products towards different segments of the market?
LK
Re:Think about it (Score:2, Insightful)
Anime is not a genre. It's a medium.
Re:Regimented psyches (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting point. But I would offer that they do actually like things that aren't order-driven. A lot of japanese anime focuses on a person who gets tossed into a situation where they have no idea what to do, and they have to figure it out. And I wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't such a stereotyped plot, its ridiculous.
Perhaps, they would prefer a game which didn't make it seem like someone was rating them on how they did (ie. points, score, etc). A pure simulation, but as crazy as they wanted.
Re:I used to LOVE to play (Score:1, Insightful)
[In June, 1978], Taito, a company that sold video games since 1971, launched the first Space Invaders coin operated cabinet. The game became immediately a national passion. It was so popular in Japan that it caused a severe shortage of the 100-Yen coins needed to play the game, until the coins production was quadrupled. Beside arcades shops which featured nothing but Space Invader machines, one found Space Invaders cabinets everywhere in Japan: restaurants, ice cream and pizza shops, laundries...
In 1980, the game was licensed from Taito by Midway for production and use in the United States. The mania wasn't quite as intense - no quarter shortage - but Space Invaders was still a phenomenal success. The same year, it was released on the Atari 2600, making it the first ever home conversion of an arcade game. Several dozen thousands 2600 consoles were then sold only for playing Space Invaders.
The Space Invaders phenomenon stunned conservative adults who were certain the games soured the minds of their youngsters. In Texas, some of them asked the Supreme Court to ban the illicit machines from their Bible-belt community.
Re:reverse is also true... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Obviously (Score:4, Insightful)
Would you like your foot shaken or stirred? :-)
Re:Obviously (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I used to LOVE to play (Score:5, Insightful)
The Representational versus the Presentational (Score:5, Insightful)
In Japan it is the opposite: logic is derived from what is presented to the audience. So if a character walks through a door in his house and ends up on Moon, that is fine since the director is trying to say something. American audiences will expect some sort of rationale for it happening (i.e. that he has some sort of To-the-Moon teleportation door in his house). Japanese art design is authoritative from the creative design of the artist.
This thirst for "realism" based upon some ruleset drives the Western aesthetic. Look at the games listed as most popular in the US: crime, sports, shooters. These are genres that attempt to capture some authenticity of an experience.
On the other side you have the Incomprehensible Japanese Videogame Plot: starts reasonably, long character expository dialogue, wierd imagery, enemies dying, enemies revealing their "true form" . The Japanese game is a vehicle for the gamer to experience the designer's 'vision'. The gamer is along for a ride, and his role suppletory to that. The gaming experience improves by how much the gamer can live up to the creator's designs: how well he can sneak and run around in a box as Snake, how totally he can learn the techniques of Forrest Law, etc.
The US saddles the player with the primary responsibility. He is the engine of the storytelling (generally. Only recently have open-ended games allowed a full realization of this).
Americans like killing stuff, that's for sure... (Score:3, Insightful)
See, here in America, home of 12,000 gun murders a year compared to less than 100 in Japan, this makes complete sense. Saying we Americans are a violent group would be an understatement of the ages.
Liking violent video games is merely a result of the asinine, violent way of life we propel here.
Re:I used to LOVE to play (Score:2, Insightful)