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[Infernal Mass]

This thread was inspired for the most part by Meryls excellent article on Culture Clashes. I've been doing some thinking on that subject from time to time. Although there was one part of it that i disagreed with..

Many US games translated into Japanese were very unappealing or not popular at all, one of them being "Grand Theft Auto III". Sale figures for the game in Japan were very low and this game appealed only to a certain group of people. Apparently, it had to do something with the mindless violence since the Japanese are not attracted to very violent games (pretty ironic when you think about certain very violent, bloody Japanese films such as "Battle Royale").

an interesting read:

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4780423/

and a quote from the article by Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series..regarding the grand theft auto series. It's not the mindless violence that the japanese don't like..

“Japanese players do not like being thrown into an arena in which they are given very little instruction,” said Hideo Kojima, creator of the popular "Metal Gear Solid" games. “You can head in any direction, 360 degrees. They say, ‘What am I supposed to do? Give me hints. Provide me service instead of just throwing me into this arena.’"

[kupoartist]

Yes, congrats to Meryl on her Article (or part 1 of it at least!), it was very interesting

First-Person shooters are also enormous in the US. "Halo", "TimeSplitters", and "Medal of Honor", FPS shooters have been a great success for many years. These games allow the player to be very involved since there is no other "body" you have to control. And Westerners tend to enjoy games where you are responsible for your actions, you are seeing everything through your own eyes, where you are your own person. Some might argue there are more involvement in FPS than RPGs since RPGs are about controlling another character and seeing that character's story play out.

What I find interesting, is just how big FPS games are in Korea, particuarly something like Counter Strike. Starcraft was also monsterously popular over there (they used to televise matches)... As far as I understand, the Online Gaming Community of Korea is bigger even than the US... And they appear to favour more western games. Perhaps this is an active resistance of Japanese culture? (which appears to be intrusive in Korea in the way that American Culture is in the UK...)

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Infernal Mass

This thread was inspired for the most part by Meryls excellent article on Culture Clashes. I've been doing some thinking on that subject from time to time. Although there was one part of it that i disagreed with..

an interesting read:

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4780423/

and a quote from the article by Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series..regarding the grand theft auto series. It's not the mindless violence that the japanese don't like..

True what Kojima said, but if you continue reading more of the article, it talked about violence and violent games not selling well in Japan. And the information about GTA3 not selling well in Japan was from a magazine (I remember the quote only but I can't recall the magazine, I'm sorry! I think it was OPM or something). And I believe this was the beginning of when GTA3 was first released over there in Japan, which may have sold more copies when the MSNBC article was released.
But, if someone can show me some information where very violent games sell immensely in Japan, then I will change that part of the article immediately because I don't want to mislead anyone.

Thanks for the feedback on my article, guys. It's very appreciated; I was so stressed about the quality of the content. Glad you guys thought it was satisfactory.

[Infernal Mass]

it was an excellently written article, much more than satisfactory.

Japan has it's share of alot more violent/mature themed games than here in the states. I'm not talking about just playstation though, there is some really weird stuff on pc too. I think you know what i mean, they got some porn games and stuff that would make every congressman over here flip out! They sell pretty well over there too, so i'm not entirely convinced that the mature edge has alot to do with GTA not selling as well as it did here. The sales for GTA actually exceeded rockstars expectations..i think having Capcom publish the game over there helped out a little.

Japan, is very critical of any game to hit it's shores from the west..most of it has to do with nationalism. Just look at the xbox for example..an american system just didn't get a warm reception in Japan. Why? because it was an american system..even with the help of Tecmo's xbox exclusive dead or alive series it still isn't doing too well.

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Infernal Mass

it was an excellently written article, much more than satisfactory.

Oh, why thank you.

Originally Posted by Infernal Mass

Japan has it's share of alot more violent/mature themed games than here in the states. I'm not talking about just playstation though, there is some really weird stuff on pc too. I think you know what i mean, they got some porn games and stuff that would make every congressman over here flip out! They sell pretty well over there too, so i'm not entirely convinced that the mature edge has alot to do with GTA not selling as well as it did here. The sales for GTA actually exceeded rockstars expectations..i think having Capcom publish the game over there helped out a little.

I agree with you about the maturity thing. With all those hentai games (and like you said, especially on the PC....oh my friggin' God!)...it's enough to make people very disgusted.

Japan is a very complex country; even though violent games probably do sell very well over there, I still can't help but feel that violent games aren't very popular as in the US. After all, Japan is a very peaceful place, where the crime rate is pretty low...some sort of kidnapping/murder news will shock them while in the US it's all just the norm. But yet, they love the whole pornography thing and embrace it quite well. Ah, I just don't know what to say.