Very good article about Japanese FPS tastes.

Indeed, very good.

 

Wow. I can't believe how even a popular LAN game has to go thru so many changes to appeal to a different culture. And yet there is still no gaurantee that CS: Neo will be a hit in Japan.

 

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Huh... at what point do you change the game so much that it isn't recognizable as counter-strike? Some people still wonder why the xbox fails in japan... when you have to change western games to this extent just to make them playable, it can't be hard to see microsoft's failings.
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I think that the problem is most game designers (as it appears from the games currently on the market) do not take into account the difference between cultures and the expectations of gamers from different countries. I seriously doubt that we will ever see a perfect merging of traditional Eastern and Western game design into a single paradigm which pleases gamers across the board.

I don't profess to know a whole lot about Japanese culture in particular, however, I think it is truly naive of game designers/publishers (coughMScough) to think that a game, system, or in some cases an entire genre, can simply be placed in the Japanese market and be expected to perform as well as it does in other markets. It just does not work like that. The article touched on the issue a little bit, but never treated it like the major source of contention it is.

 

After reading the article, I had to check out what did they change about Counterstrike. So I went to the website to take a peek.

http://csneo.com/

I gots ta say, not being a fan of the original, I like the sci-fiy direction they went with this iteration of the franchise. I could see this being back ported to America for those people that aren't fans of military type games.

 

I'm not sure I agree about the cheating comments. When has cheating ever been an issue in a versus fighting game? Overall, it's a pretty good article, although not exactly rocket science. One could probably draw a comparison of PSO in the US and JPN to see how cheating is treated in the two communities. Probably could've talked about PSO in general, as it's pretty much the first huge Japanese made online game, despite that it was first available only on very unpopular hardware. Still after 5 years it has a decent fan-base on the other platforms.

EDIT: THis is a WAY smarter move than Counter Strike Survivor. Having played it, I can honestly say it's a turd -- plays about as good as Counter Strike on a decent PC.

 

Yep, I used to play PSO with 2 japanese and a german guy. Me and the german, we always stay back shooting at shit while the others guys went melee on everything...

But then, how is that the sonic adventure series didnt sell well there? You cant get more face-to-face than that, literally:lol:

 

it is the code of bushido. It is still alive in japan.

 

Here is what I think they should do:

For an FPS to be popular in Japan

1. Anime characters
2. Big ass explosions (not western style but anime nuking the shit out of everything style.
3. Emo characters
4. They need to wear leather and chains and shit. Actually, this is close to emo.
5. Japanese music
6. Being able to fly
7. Characters must know all forms of karate AND can shoot beams of power from their bodies.
8. Giant mechs as vehicles
9. Sci-Fi weapons and unrealistic close combat weapons like katanas and shit.
10. lolis
11. High hairstyles (Because the higher the hair, the closer to god.)
12. Evil long haired pretty boy as a last boss

Well, I think thats about it. Feel free to add on something if I missed anything.

 

tentical penis monsters is what you missed. oh and 13 year old big breasted cousins who are so hot they tempt the main character who has to study to get into tokoyo univ.

 

Um, well, thats a loli, as I already mentioned.

Ok.

13. Tentacle Penis Monsters as main alien enemy dudes

 

i didn't know what a loli was or is.

 

Loli means "Girl Child", Hence any Anime girl thats under 18 is considered a loli.

:Girl:

 

it is all so clear to me now... Don't understand the like or lust for underage girls but to each their own.

 

I agree with anime characters and mecha, but FPS should also have more anime-like stories. The military-marine trend most FPSs have is kinda anoying over there (and for what I've heard, in most places outside the US).

And big-ass explosions are apreciated here too, but since they require some big amounts of physics and graphics to look real, most games cant support them (and in japan PCs gamers with big rigs seem to be quite rare ones).

 

I think "loli" is under 12... or at least looking so. There is a loli section in big manga shops (at least mandarake), and the standard "large breasted 18 year olds" are not in there, as they are scattered about in other sections of the store. It is indeed twisted.

I tend to dislike any theme that seems to "real" to me. I play games to escape this world, not to emulate it. Even of genres I like, like shooters, it holds true. I don't like the WWII-based ones like Garegga or 194X. Makes war-based FPS games easy to ignore, whereas I'll give HL2 and Halo a play, even though they don't exactly steal my heart.