Not exactly. Young people have little chance of buying a new house, but getting an apartment is super easy. The average cheap apartment price in Tokyo is about $500 a month. Out in the country you can getting f***ing huge places for $300 or so. You don't need to be making a huge income to afford that. The big reason is simply cultural: there's no burning need to move out. In America, you're an ubergeek for living at home at age 30. In Japan, you're just saving money. There are plenty of love hotels around, so the "living at home=never has a date" thing isn't true either. Sure, there are still plenty of advantages to living alone, but don't get the idea that Japanese who live at home do so because they have no choice; many just don't feel like moving out.
And the fact remains that the PSX is a product sold in Japan only right now, and the Japanese do not know the original PlayStation as the PSX. I don't see why they should have named the new product in order to fit a market it's not being sold in, any more than Nintendo should have called the Super Famicom the "Super NES" because the original Famicom was known as the "NES" in America.
I haven't heard of a single friend or coworker who wants one (and I work in a computer company with lots of gamers). I think this whole "sold out" thing simply means that they sold all their units to electronics stores, not that the electronic stores are selling out to customers.
" Isn't that what the original Playstation was called?"
Not in Japan. The "PSX" is (from what I gather) an overseas only term for the Playstation. I've heard rumour that it was because Sony was initially concerned that the name "Playstation" wouldn't sound serious enough for American gamers, but it may nothing more than a rumour.
Yeah, it was a great show. I will admit, however, that for the most part the American DJs tend to do a more visual, energetic style. Kentaro was very technical, but not quite as flashy. Still, since most of the audience had probably never seen real scratching before, it was a huge eye-opener.
If you're using conventional subject matter (people, animals, etc.) then this is true, but if you're using prerendered digital art, abstractions, patterns, etc. it would probably work very well.
Except most DJs are probably pretty busy with their decks, and wouldn't have much time for a third video deck. What I can see, however, are DJs who want to try their hand at VJing using this as a smooth gateway (like Final Scratch is used as the gateway between Vinyl DJs and PCDJs).
"This seems to be just another case of the people who dislike the game being especially vocal, while those who like it are too busy playing to respond."
Not attacking you or anything, but based on what?
Personally I played for about 2 months before quitting, pretty unsatisfied, but I rarely discuss it (except right now).
"I don't know how console gamers got the idea that more bits = better system: sure this was important back in the days of the 6502, the jump in bits (NES->SNES, Master System->Genesis) was a jump in generations."
While that may be true for many people, the converse is probably true for many people as well. I never finished Splinter Cell, because I kept getting stuck in the exact same area, forever. After a few days of trying, I realized that while I was spending my time in the game, I wasn't actually enjoying myself, I was just getting frustrated and angry. It's bad enough when I get frustrated or angry at work, but using my free time voluntarily to get into a bad move struck me as a pretty bad idea, so I quit the game.
Maybe it's an issue of whether it's the solution to problems or the process of finding these solutions that appeals to different players.
Ok, apologies, that came off as more snarky than I had intended. I just meant to say that there are other reasons to enjoy getting better at a game besides showing off.
Or if you're the kind of person who enjoys the feeling of satisfaction that occurs as your increases in skill make previously difficult things easy.
I suppose there are some people who like that feeling of "banging your head against the wall", where no matter how much better you get, everything is just as hard. Personally, I like the feeling of getting better at something and being rewarded for my skills, not penalized.
While, overall, I agree, I would like to point out that, dumb as upper management may be, most are at least wise enough to realize that any studies published by a company that indicate that the company is superior are mostly advertising, and not true studies. I'm not saying that they will go with Linux, but just because the word comes from a respected company doesn't mean they'll be more inclined to believe it than any other PR that comes from the same company.
"it really needs on the cover "if you buy this for your kid then you are a fucking moron" in bright red...."
I would love it if the ratings system used this approach. True, you probably couldn't get the game stocked with the word "fucking", but "Warning: If you buy this for your kid then you are a moron" would be strong enough that some parents might actually notice it.
Of the top 20 XBox games on Gamerankings.com, at least 12 have not been released in Japan. Admittedly, a good chunk of that is made of sports games, which wouldn't sell even if released, but the point is that there are no equivalent high-rating Japan-only XBox games. The situation is getting a lot, lot better, but then again, Microsoft is going to some desperate measures: releasing Morrowind untranslated for the Japanese market?
This is actually a really tough call. There is definite correlation, but there may or may not be causation. That is, I suspect that Japanese buy Japanese products not so much because they are Japanese, but because they are better. I can't really think of many non-Japanese consumer device companies who produce to Japanese standards. I would say the XBox, but the giant CD-scratching fiasco on launch pretty much knocked that out. Motorola stopped making phones in Japan for a long time due to low sales, but the low sales were due to incredibly crummy phone specs (black and white when TFT screens were standard). I can't hink of any big non-Japanese manufacturers right off the top of my head, so please help me out.
The one obvious exception I can think of is Apple. People here are all over iPods, and I never hear the country of origin discussed.
And when it comes to computer parts, Taiwan is king of course.
I suspect the simple answer is just that consumer electronics from other countries almost always have a higher than normal number of defects/bugs (and horrible instruction manuals (hehehe)), which shys consumers away more than the intrinsic non-Japaneseness of the product.
How Sony manages to keep selling Vaios well, despite their reputation for breakage, is beyond me though...
Different reasons, though. American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot. I don't know if things have changed, but it's less the "foreignness" of the product than the "low quality".
XBox, on the other hand, is a pretty high quality product (I own one and am very happy with it). The problem is that they have NO decent games on it in Japan! It's incredible! Pick your favorite 10 XBox games. 9 of them have probably not been released here. The only game that looks like it would truly snag a few Japanese gamers is Tekki (uh, "Steel Batallion", I think?), which even then only appeals to otaku. I had to resort to buying an American XBox and getting games shipped from overseas because the dearth of interesting games to play.
Nope, GTA is sold as Grand Theft Auto here in Japan. I suspect that it was just a few copies short of the top 30 (maybe #32 or 33?). GTA is distributed by Capcom. I don't think the list contains only games made by Japanese companies (game magazines don't tend to do that), but few if any non-Japanese made games sell very well here.
Biohazard was sold as Resident Evil abroad because of (I believe) issues with the band Biohazard.
There is interest in golf in Japan, but it's primarily among older males (40's and up). Women and young men generally have little interest. However, from what I understand from coworkers, Everybody's Golf (minna no gorufu) is a pretty fun game, regardless of whether you like or dislike golf, hence its universal popularity.
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Not exactly. Young people have little chance of buying a new house, but getting an apartment is super easy. The average cheap apartment price in Tokyo is about $500 a month. Out in the country you can getting f***ing huge places for $300 or so. You don't need to be making a huge income to afford that. The big reason is simply cultural: there's no burning need to move out. In America, you're an ubergeek for living at home at age 30. In Japan, you're just saving money. There are plenty of love hotels around, so the "living at home=never has a date" thing isn't true either. Sure, there are still plenty of advantages to living alone, but don't get the idea that Japanese who live at home do so because they have no choice; many just don't feel like moving out.
And the fact remains that the PSX is a product sold in Japan only right now, and the Japanese do not know the original PlayStation as the PSX. I don't see why they should have named the new product in order to fit a market it's not being sold in, any more than Nintendo should have called the Super Famicom the "Super NES" because the original Famicom was known as the "NES" in America.
I haven't heard of a single friend or coworker who wants one (and I work in a computer company with lots of gamers). I think this whole "sold out" thing simply means that they sold all their units to electronics stores, not that the electronic stores are selling out to customers.
" Isn't that what the original Playstation was called?"
Not in Japan. The "PSX" is (from what I gather) an overseas only term for the Playstation. I've heard rumour that it was because Sony was initially concerned that the name "Playstation" wouldn't sound serious enough for American gamers, but it may nothing more than a rumour.
I've seen copiers with labels indicating that if money is copied, an alarm will sound. Time to check out Snopes to see if that was true.
Nice catch ^_^
Yeah, it was a great show. I will admit, however, that for the most part the American DJs tend to do a more visual, energetic style. Kentaro was very technical, but not quite as flashy. Still, since most of the audience had probably never seen real scratching before, it was a huge eye-opener.
Just a sign that you haven't heard a decent scratcher. DJ Kentaro had people crying at his Tokyo New Years show from sheer amazement.
Ah, I thought it was an intentional Ayanami Rei joke...
Sure, LPs spin at 33.3 RPM, but CD DJs are spinning discs between 200 - 500 RPM, so it's not such a big gap.
And, yeah, I know I'm responding seriously to a light-hearted joke post. Bad habit.
If you're using conventional subject matter (people, animals, etc.) then this is true, but if you're using prerendered digital art, abstractions, patterns, etc. it would probably work very well.
Except most DJs are probably pretty busy with their decks, and wouldn't have much time for a third video deck. What I can see, however, are DJs who want to try their hand at VJing using this as a smooth gateway (like Final Scratch is used as the gateway between Vinyl DJs and PCDJs).
Sorry, forgot how distracting that patch over one eye can be.
"This seems to be just another case of the people who dislike the game being especially vocal, while those who like it are too busy playing to respond."
Not attacking you or anything, but based on what?
Personally I played for about 2 months before quitting, pretty unsatisfied, but I rarely discuss it (except right now).
"I don't know how console gamers got the idea that more bits = better system: sure this was important back in the days of the 6502, the jump in bits (NES->SNES, Master System->Genesis) was a jump in generations."
Question, meet answer.
While that may be true for many people, the converse is probably true for many people as well. I never finished Splinter Cell, because I kept getting stuck in the exact same area, forever. After a few days of trying, I realized that while I was spending my time in the game, I wasn't actually enjoying myself, I was just getting frustrated and angry. It's bad enough when I get frustrated or angry at work, but using my free time voluntarily to get into a bad move struck me as a pretty bad idea, so I quit the game.
Maybe it's an issue of whether it's the solution to problems or the process of finding these solutions that appeals to different players.
Ok, apologies, that came off as more snarky than I had intended. I just meant to say that there are other reasons to enjoy getting better at a game besides showing off.
Or if you're the kind of person who enjoys the feeling of satisfaction that occurs as your increases in skill make previously difficult things easy.
I suppose there are some people who like that feeling of "banging your head against the wall", where no matter how much better you get, everything is just as hard. Personally, I like the feeling of getting better at something and being rewarded for my skills, not penalized.
While, overall, I agree, I would like to point out that, dumb as upper management may be, most are at least wise enough to realize that any studies published by a company that indicate that the company is superior are mostly advertising, and not true studies. I'm not saying that they will go with Linux, but just because the word comes from a respected company doesn't mean they'll be more inclined to believe it than any other PR that comes from the same company.
A quick glance at Amazon.com indicates he is the author of the bestsellers:
- Perfect Kids' Parties: 12 Fantastic Theme Celebrations
- Count the Animals on the Farm
- Super Fun Brain Challenges
- Naughty Dots: Fun for Adults Only
- How to Select and Install Medical Practice Software
- Play Winning Checkers
But I remember him best for Mirrorshades (cyberpunk).Something tells me Amazon doesn't sort their Bruce Sterlings apart...
"it really needs on the cover "if you buy this for your kid then you are a fucking moron" in bright red...."
I would love it if the ratings system used this approach. True, you probably couldn't get the game stocked with the word "fucking", but "Warning: If you buy this for your kid then you are a moron" would be strong enough that some parents might actually notice it.
Of the top 20 XBox games on Gamerankings.com, at least 12 have not been released in Japan. Admittedly, a good chunk of that is made of sports games, which wouldn't sell even if released, but the point is that there are no equivalent high-rating Japan-only XBox games. The situation is getting a lot, lot better, but then again, Microsoft is going to some desperate measures: releasing Morrowind untranslated for the Japanese market?
This is actually a really tough call. There is definite correlation, but there may or may not be causation. That is, I suspect that Japanese buy Japanese products not so much because they are Japanese, but because they are better. I can't really think of many non-Japanese consumer device companies who produce to Japanese standards. I would say the XBox, but the giant CD-scratching fiasco on launch pretty much knocked that out. Motorola stopped making phones in Japan for a long time due to low sales, but the low sales were due to incredibly crummy phone specs (black and white when TFT screens were standard). I can't hink of any big non-Japanese manufacturers right off the top of my head, so please help me out.
The one obvious exception I can think of is Apple. People here are all over iPods, and I never hear the country of origin discussed.
And when it comes to computer parts, Taiwan is king of course.
I suspect the simple answer is just that consumer electronics from other countries almost always have a higher than normal number of defects/bugs (and horrible instruction manuals (hehehe)), which shys consumers away more than the intrinsic non-Japaneseness of the product.
How Sony manages to keep selling Vaios well, despite their reputation for breakage, is beyond me though...
Different reasons, though. American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot. I don't know if things have changed, but it's less the "foreignness" of the product than the "low quality".
XBox, on the other hand, is a pretty high quality product (I own one and am very happy with it). The problem is that they have NO decent games on it in Japan! It's incredible! Pick your favorite 10 XBox games. 9 of them have probably not been released here. The only game that looks like it would truly snag a few Japanese gamers is Tekki (uh, "Steel Batallion", I think?), which even then only appeals to otaku. I had to resort to buying an American XBox and getting games shipped from overseas because the dearth of interesting games to play.
Nope, GTA is sold as Grand Theft Auto here in Japan. I suspect that it was just a few copies short of the top 30 (maybe #32 or 33?). GTA is distributed by Capcom. I don't think the list contains only games made by Japanese companies (game magazines don't tend to do that), but few if any non-Japanese made games sell very well here.
Biohazard was sold as Resident Evil abroad because of (I believe) issues with the band Biohazard.
There is interest in golf in Japan, but it's primarily among older males (40's and up). Women and young men generally have little interest. However, from what I understand from coworkers, Everybody's Golf (minna no gorufu) is a pretty fun game, regardless of whether you like or dislike golf, hence its universal popularity.