The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
I think the youth of today are being given serious history and cukltural lessons by today's compueter games industry. Despite the claims that all games are bad and damage people meentally and physically, the youth of today who are really into their games, I think anyway, must have a higher racial tollerence than any generation before it. You just have to look at today's games to see the cultural influences seeping out from games from all over the world, and I truely belive that games made in the west can clearly be destinguished from games made in the far east.
The last generataion had the commercialisation and globalisation of the planet to halp them become closer to their nieghbours, the threat of nuclear war hung around like Game had let off and the explosion of Holywood bringing films into cinemas worldwide. This began a trend which has never halted to this date. Japan has given us many great games companies over the last 15 years, but they were diluting their products and altering them to suit the western world. Pac-man is the classic example of this, after being originally released by Konami they originally called it PUCK-MAN in their native Japan, but when they tried to release it in the UK, they were faced with black markers turning the name into something rather rude!! Space Invaders also hit the arcades and whilst the Japanese sat in front of their Kendo machines, America put thousands of quarters every day into their new arcade machines!!
This was soon to change, the Arcades were about to be brought to their knees by a new format of gaming, the Home Entertainment System by Nintendo, cutely shortened to the Nintendo Entertainment System by the time it hit the shelves of stores in the Western world, shortly after a release in Japan which was far more beneficial than Nintendo had ever imagined. The man behind the NES was an unknown quantity, Shigeru Miyamoto. He had invented a little character, who was a plumber, not any plumber, but an Italian plumber initially designed for a simple arcade game called Donkey Kong. This plumber became the most recognisable computer games character ever and even manages to be converted to a blockbuster movie.
From there, we all know what happened, Sega appeared and had two fights with Nintendo, but never managed to obtain a foothold, despite having a blue hedgehog with a massive advantage over Mario, speed, and he wasn't shy about it either!! Then Nintendo began to plan for the future with a company called Sony, regarded as the electrical goods company, pioneer of the walkman, the floppy disc et al. Nintendo thought they could use this inventive genius to make a CD based system. Philips beat them to it and released the CDi, which flopped and caused Nintendo to kick Sony out and decide that Cartridges were the only decent format for games, and oh how they came to rue that decision. Sony released the Playstation to an expanding industry, and with a budget about 5 times the size of Nintendo and Sega put together, they globalised and modernised what was regarded as a niche market. Today the war continues but in the mean time, we can sit back and learn from our games the opinions of nations, and at the same time share our opinions with the world.
We see the martial arts prowess of the Japanese through their foghting games, we see their want and love of historical legends through their warrior games and we see their view of the Americans as brash Capitalists who are always out to better everyone else with a new science project and always screw it up. From America, we see the games the way we see America as a whole. Quantity over quality, middle of the road, to appeal to the majority and make as much money as possible, thank you EA, but enough is enough. And from our very own UK, what do we see, our naturally conservative background, our opinion that we are the superior race on the planet, and the fact that we would do almost anything to be Americas friend, even go as far as to make games where we need to drive on the wrong side of the road.
In short, I know more about Japanese and American culture than any other 18 year old kid before me, why, because I invest in learning through experience. I do not sit with my head in a book being lectured to regarding what different cultures see as important, what I do, is I buy games, and if you look through my collection you will find the vast majority have come from Japan. Why?? Because the atention to detail and the sweat and blood they put into an industry they love is evident in almost every single game which comes from their little island, and I appreciate them for it!!
The last generataion had the commercialisation and globalisation of the planet to halp them become closer to their nieghbours, the threat of nuclear war hung around like Game had let off and the explosion of Holywood bringing films into cinemas worldwide. This began a trend which has never halted to this date. Japan has given us many great games companies over the last 15 years, but they were diluting their products and altering them to suit the western world. Pac-man is the classic example of this, after being originally released by Konami they originally called it PUCK-MAN in their native Japan, but when they tried to release it in the UK, they were faced with black markers turning the name into something rather rude!! Space Invaders also hit the arcades and whilst the Japanese sat in front of their Kendo machines, America put thousands of quarters every day into their new arcade machines!!
This was soon to change, the Arcades were about to be brought to their knees by a new format of gaming, the Home Entertainment System by Nintendo, cutely shortened to the Nintendo Entertainment System by the time it hit the shelves of stores in the Western world, shortly after a release in Japan which was far more beneficial than Nintendo had ever imagined. The man behind the NES was an unknown quantity, Shigeru Miyamoto. He had invented a little character, who was a plumber, not any plumber, but an Italian plumber initially designed for a simple arcade game called Donkey Kong. This plumber became the most recognisable computer games character ever and even manages to be converted to a blockbuster movie.
From there, we all know what happened, Sega appeared and had two fights with Nintendo, but never managed to obtain a foothold, despite having a blue hedgehog with a massive advantage over Mario, speed, and he wasn't shy about it either!! Then Nintendo began to plan for the future with a company called Sony, regarded as the electrical goods company, pioneer of the walkman, the floppy disc et al. Nintendo thought they could use this inventive genius to make a CD based system. Philips beat them to it and released the CDi, which flopped and caused Nintendo to kick Sony out and decide that Cartridges were the only decent format for games, and oh how they came to rue that decision. Sony released the Playstation to an expanding industry, and with a budget about 5 times the size of Nintendo and Sega put together, they globalised and modernised what was regarded as a niche market. Today the war continues but in the mean time, we can sit back and learn from our games the opinions of nations, and at the same time share our opinions with the world.
We see the martial arts prowess of the Japanese through their foghting games, we see their want and love of historical legends through their warrior games and we see their view of the Americans as brash Capitalists who are always out to better everyone else with a new science project and always screw it up. From America, we see the games the way we see America as a whole. Quantity over quality, middle of the road, to appeal to the majority and make as much money as possible, thank you EA, but enough is enough. And from our very own UK, what do we see, our naturally conservative background, our opinion that we are the superior race on the planet, and the fact that we would do almost anything to be Americas friend, even go as far as to make games where we need to drive on the wrong side of the road.
In short, I know more about Japanese and American culture than any other 18 year old kid before me, why, because I invest in learning through experience. I do not sit with my head in a book being lectured to regarding what different cultures see as important, what I do, is I buy games, and if you look through my collection you will find the vast majority have come from Japan. Why?? Because the atention to detail and the sweat and blood they put into an industry they love is evident in almost every single game which comes from their little island, and I appreciate them for it!!
Thank you, so my vague generalisations can stay??
40 pages! No thanks. I haven't written anything bigger than about 10 lines in my life. Okay, that is a lie.
Definatley not, no.
You don't want me to write a 40 page dissertaion disecting the culture clash between Japan and America for the sake of this Forum, do you??
I think you're being too vague about the differences between the Eastern and Western market but I do agree with you. Sure the Japanese put a lot of effort into their games and the majority of them are very good i.e when was the last time treasure, Nintendo or Sega made a bad game.
There are a lot of games from Japan that we don't see over here because of it's faliure in Japan. Only the quality titles get a western publisher. I'm sure there are those Japanese companies that make sequel after sequel namely the dating sims and the 'I want to be a' series.
The capatalist society obviously exists in Japan but we cannot see it and therefore your cultural judgement cannot be justified.
I have to agree with American companies being in it for the money and not caring about the quality of the games, namely Microsoft. I saw a video of a Microsoft demonstrator at e3 describing Mad dash. The control looked horrible, he kept on overturning yet he was trying to trick people when describing how many layers of textures were used and how many polygons were flying across the screen.
You forgot the European market which has a mixture of quality. Rare ware makes quality games whilst Ubi soft makes about 1 good game for ever 5 made. Ubi soft are making 15 titles simeltaneously for the Gamecube which says that they won't have the time to concentrate on making the title a hit.
There are a lot of games from Japan that we don't see over here because of it's faliure in Japan. Only the quality titles get a western publisher. I'm sure there are those Japanese companies that make sequel after sequel namely the dating sims and the 'I want to be a' series.
The capatalist society obviously exists in Japan but we cannot see it and therefore your cultural judgement cannot be justified.
I have to agree with American companies being in it for the money and not caring about the quality of the games, namely Microsoft. I saw a video of a Microsoft demonstrator at e3 describing Mad dash. The control looked horrible, he kept on overturning yet he was trying to trick people when describing how many layers of textures were used and how many polygons were flying across the screen.
You forgot the European market which has a mixture of quality. Rare ware makes quality games whilst Ubi soft makes about 1 good game for ever 5 made. Ubi soft are making 15 titles simeltaneously for the Gamecube which says that they won't have the time to concentrate on making the title a hit.
No, that's not what I'm implying, what I'm implying that you can tell the difference between America's Capitalist society and Japan's hard-working, detail seeking society, through their games. Obviously not all games, but the majority.
Parappa the Rappa told me alot about how the Japanese people think. No actually it told me that programmers are wierd, or maybe the Japanese have strange tea.
As for EA programming games for a mass market, yes they do, but you should remember that Japanese programmers also program for a mass market. Yes Parappa the Rappa was aimed at the worlds largest gaming market Japan.
I think that alot has to be learnt from both American and Japanese cultures, however I wouldnt go as far as saying that all Jap games are great and all American games are commercial pieces of rubbish...which seems to be what your implying.
As for EA programming games for a mass market, yes they do, but you should remember that Japanese programmers also program for a mass market. Yes Parappa the Rappa was aimed at the worlds largest gaming market Japan.
I think that alot has to be learnt from both American and Japanese cultures, however I wouldnt go as far as saying that all Jap games are great and all American games are commercial pieces of rubbish...which seems to be what your implying.
I think the youth of today are being given serious history and cukltural lessons by today's compueter games industry. Despite the claims that all games are bad and damage people meentally and physically, the youth of today who are really into their games, I think anyway, must have a higher racial tollerence than any generation before it. You just have to look at today's games to see the cultural influences seeping out from games from all over the world, and I truely belive that games made in the west can clearly be destinguished from games made in the far east.
The last generataion had the commercialisation and globalisation of the planet to halp them become closer to their nieghbours, the threat of nuclear war hung around like Game had let off and the explosion of Holywood bringing films into cinemas worldwide. This began a trend which has never halted to this date. Japan has given us many great games companies over the last 15 years, but they were diluting their products and altering them to suit the western world. Pac-man is the classic example of this, after being originally released by Konami they originally called it PUCK-MAN in their native Japan, but when they tried to release it in the UK, they were faced with black markers turning the name into something rather rude!! Space Invaders also hit the arcades and whilst the Japanese sat in front of their Kendo machines, America put thousands of quarters every day into their new arcade machines!!
This was soon to change, the Arcades were about to be brought to their knees by a new format of gaming, the Home Entertainment System by Nintendo, cutely shortened to the Nintendo Entertainment System by the time it hit the shelves of stores in the Western world, shortly after a release in Japan which was far more beneficial than Nintendo had ever imagined. The man behind the NES was an unknown quantity, Shigeru Miyamoto. He had invented a little character, who was a plumber, not any plumber, but an Italian plumber initially designed for a simple arcade game called Donkey Kong. This plumber became the most recognisable computer games character ever and even manages to be converted to a blockbuster movie.
From there, we all know what happened, Sega appeared and had two fights with Nintendo, but never managed to obtain a foothold, despite having a blue hedgehog with a massive advantage over Mario, speed, and he wasn't shy about it either!! Then Nintendo began to plan for the future with a company called Sony, regarded as the electrical goods company, pioneer of the walkman, the floppy disc et al. Nintendo thought they could use this inventive genius to make a CD based system. Philips beat them to it and released the CDi, which flopped and caused Nintendo to kick Sony out and decide that Cartridges were the only decent format for games, and oh how they came to rue that decision. Sony released the Playstation to an expanding industry, and with a budget about 5 times the size of Nintendo and Sega put together, they globalised and modernised what was regarded as a niche market. Today the war continues but in the mean time, we can sit back and learn from our games the opinions of nations, and at the same time share our opinions with the world.
We see the martial arts prowess of the Japanese through their foghting games, we see their want and love of historical legends through their warrior games and we see their view of the Americans as brash Capitalists who are always out to better everyone else with a new science project and always screw it up. From America, we see the games the way we see America as a whole. Quantity over quality, middle of the road, to appeal to the majority and make as much money as possible, thank you EA, but enough is enough. And from our very own UK, what do we see, our naturally conservative background, our opinion that we are the superior race on the planet, and the fact that we would do almost anything to be Americas friend, even go as far as to make games where we need to drive on the wrong side of the road.
In short, I know more about Japanese and American culture than any other 18 year old kid before me, why, because I invest in learning through experience. I do not sit with my head in a book being lectured to regarding what different cultures see as important, what I do, is I buy games, and if you look through my collection you will find the vast majority have come from Japan. Why?? Because the atention to detail and the sweat and blood they put into an industry they love is evident in almost every single game which comes from their little island, and I appreciate them for it!!
The last generataion had the commercialisation and globalisation of the planet to halp them become closer to their nieghbours, the threat of nuclear war hung around like Game had let off and the explosion of Holywood bringing films into cinemas worldwide. This began a trend which has never halted to this date. Japan has given us many great games companies over the last 15 years, but they were diluting their products and altering them to suit the western world. Pac-man is the classic example of this, after being originally released by Konami they originally called it PUCK-MAN in their native Japan, but when they tried to release it in the UK, they were faced with black markers turning the name into something rather rude!! Space Invaders also hit the arcades and whilst the Japanese sat in front of their Kendo machines, America put thousands of quarters every day into their new arcade machines!!
This was soon to change, the Arcades were about to be brought to their knees by a new format of gaming, the Home Entertainment System by Nintendo, cutely shortened to the Nintendo Entertainment System by the time it hit the shelves of stores in the Western world, shortly after a release in Japan which was far more beneficial than Nintendo had ever imagined. The man behind the NES was an unknown quantity, Shigeru Miyamoto. He had invented a little character, who was a plumber, not any plumber, but an Italian plumber initially designed for a simple arcade game called Donkey Kong. This plumber became the most recognisable computer games character ever and even manages to be converted to a blockbuster movie.
From there, we all know what happened, Sega appeared and had two fights with Nintendo, but never managed to obtain a foothold, despite having a blue hedgehog with a massive advantage over Mario, speed, and he wasn't shy about it either!! Then Nintendo began to plan for the future with a company called Sony, regarded as the electrical goods company, pioneer of the walkman, the floppy disc et al. Nintendo thought they could use this inventive genius to make a CD based system. Philips beat them to it and released the CDi, which flopped and caused Nintendo to kick Sony out and decide that Cartridges were the only decent format for games, and oh how they came to rue that decision. Sony released the Playstation to an expanding industry, and with a budget about 5 times the size of Nintendo and Sega put together, they globalised and modernised what was regarded as a niche market. Today the war continues but in the mean time, we can sit back and learn from our games the opinions of nations, and at the same time share our opinions with the world.
We see the martial arts prowess of the Japanese through their foghting games, we see their want and love of historical legends through their warrior games and we see their view of the Americans as brash Capitalists who are always out to better everyone else with a new science project and always screw it up. From America, we see the games the way we see America as a whole. Quantity over quality, middle of the road, to appeal to the majority and make as much money as possible, thank you EA, but enough is enough. And from our very own UK, what do we see, our naturally conservative background, our opinion that we are the superior race on the planet, and the fact that we would do almost anything to be Americas friend, even go as far as to make games where we need to drive on the wrong side of the road.
In short, I know more about Japanese and American culture than any other 18 year old kid before me, why, because I invest in learning through experience. I do not sit with my head in a book being lectured to regarding what different cultures see as important, what I do, is I buy games, and if you look through my collection you will find the vast majority have come from Japan. Why?? Because the atention to detail and the sweat and blood they put into an industry they love is evident in almost every single game which comes from their little island, and I appreciate them for it!!