Japanese Game Developers Go West 84
donniebaseball23 writes "More and more Japanese game studios and publishers are looking toward the West. But as the industry becomes more global, is this really such a bad thing? From the article: 'Gameplay is an art that transcends borders, and it simply makes good business sense to keep your eyes open for opportunities no matter where they present themselves, as Zenimax, EA and THQ clearly have. Far from ruining the Japanese gaming industry, it may in fact save some of the best Japanese developers from considering retirement or a career change. They'll be able to make games on their own terms with their own original IP, and shouldn't it ultimately be about these creative types being able to realize their visions?""
Yeah, right... (Score:4, Interesting)
"...major Japanese game publishers have become much more conservative and sequel driven". Uh... and this is a recent trend? Square has been milking Final Fantasy like a cow since the 1990s. Westerners didn't know because they skipped on releasing a whole bunch of games in the series. Same deal with Capcom and Rockman on the NES, except we actually received Mega Man game after Mega Man game outside of Japan. Heck, Konami released a good number of Akumajo Dracula/Castlevania games, some of which were just different versions of the first game.
As for the globalization that the whole article is about. Um... we've had that for years. Sega was founded by an American guy for goodness sake. Namco worked with Bally/Midway to release Pac-Man games (which was supposedly a tumultuous relationship). Japanese companies have founded American divisions who've screwed up countless localization jobs. Action games like some of the ones in the Mario and Sonic series have been developed with Western audiences in mind, because, well, you can make lots of money catering to the West.
Re:Gameplay may transcend borders... (Score:1, Interesting)
Eh, not too many people seem to mind. And any gamer lost due to the "gayness" is replaced by a female gamer who's more than happy about it. Not to mention, we have games like Gears of War which is gay by Western standards, but practically flaming by Japanese standards (the character design lean towards the stereotypical image of a homosexual in Japanese media).
Re:Not a big fan. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sorry, why does a melting pot of ideas ultimately mean an inferior game in any way? I think you're jumping to subjective conclusions.
You can say that many or all of the great action movies of the last 20 years were all inspired by Asian martial arts and more specifically the high amount of skill and talent that Hong Kong and other such centers fostered. The fusion of these people with western developments, writers, etc.. have made for great movies by using good aspects from all cultures involved in the process.
Re:By "west" you mean east, right? (Score:2, Interesting)
It's also common in Japan to say "the west" (seiyou (characters won't render on slashdot--why?)), to refer to what we also mean by 'the west,' meaning specifically europe instead of asia, but also referring to the U.S., and culturally, yes, it's fairly ambiguous. For example, in Murakami Haruki's 'All God's Children Can Dance', in the first vignette Omura is brought to a love hotel that looked like a "seiyou no shiro" (a western castle).
The Japanese word for west itself, nishi is commonly used for referring to Spain, as in nissei (a conjunction of nichi (nippon) and sei/nishi (west) meaning Japan-Spain (eg. Japan-Spain relations).
Of course, in spherical polar coordinates, north and south have non-circular definitions, but east/west is 2Pi-periodic. On the other hand, we do get a sort of branch cut with the International Date Line, so that to Japan, all the rest of the world is to the west. I'm guessing Japan is okay with this idea since it fits in with 'the Land of the Rising Sun', which it's too bad has nothing to do with Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises."
On the topic of the article, I don't think this means the actual demise of game development in Japan, just the expansion beyond its own borders, which I think will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Re:Gameplay may transcend borders... (Score:3, Interesting)
Essentially it goes like this:
Someone who is "overly masculine" to the point of bodybuilding, etc., is obviously obsessed with masculinity. They are obsessed with masculinity because they don't value femininity at all -- because they're gay. ESPECIALLY if they are constantly around men who have a similar physique. In Japan nothing is gayer than a bodybuilder's gym.
If you really want to get the girls, you have a boyish charm, and focus on a softer form of male beauty.
Also, if you like to wear pink frilly dresses it's under the assumption that you're a perv, not gay. (Think of Ed Wood and why he crossdressed. He did it because he WAS into women, and styling himself as one made him feel closer to them.)
That said, there is also an effeminate gay stereotype in Japan, but they are treated almost as women rather than gay men. ...but what's gayer -- an obsession with dresses or an obsession with ripped beefy muscles and oiled glistening skin?
(See other reply to this post for an explanation of "Bara")