It means nothing in Japanese, but if put into kana (Japanese phoenetic spelling) it will have the same spelling as the french word "Oui". Japanese people know that word, just like americans do, and that may be part of Nintendo's reasoning for the name.
Or, instead of guessing wildly and missing completely, you could just go to www.nintendo.co.jp and watch the Japanese version of the same flash animation. It's written (nyuuryokusiki) as uxi-, or wi-. (katakana "u", small katakana "i", enlongation mark).
Just as with the English version, it's based on the English word "we". "wi-" is also the same way that the English word "we" is transliterated into katakana. There is literally no Japanese person who does not recognize this very simple English word, which seems to be the rationale for considering the name to be globally recognizable.
You could also go to www.nintendo.fr and see from the French version that it has nothing to do with "oui". From the French site:
Mon nom est... Wii
Comme on prononce "nous" en anglais
En anglais Wii ressemble à "we" (nous), et souligne que cette console est destinée à tout le monde.
My name is... Wii
Like the pronunciation of "nous" in English
En English, Wii resembles "we" (nous), and emphasises that this console is intended for the entire world.
According to the producers, "Aerith" was originally created by taking the English letters for "Earth" into their corresponding (written) Japanese syllables. This gave the Japanese writing in katakana as E A RI SU. That was then taken back to English as "Aerith" for the official English spelling of the Japanese product.
In the English release of the game, the katakana writing was romanized as "Aeris" (which actually sounds closer to the Japanese pronunciation) instead, giving rise to the debate.
Ironically, "aeris" exists as a word in latin -- but it means "air", the opposite of "earth". And coincidentally, the pronunciation overlaps with the Japanese reading for the English word "air".
The combination of two Japanese vowels E A goes a lot further than sounding roughly like English "air", it has been used to transliterate the word "air" for a long time. For example, EAKON (abbreviation for air conditioner - "air con") and EAMEERU (air mail) are both existing Japanese words based off the English word "air".
It's certainly the overwhelmingly popular artistic style for eastern RPGs, but I wouldn't say that ALL games are ALL anime ALL the time. How about "Ico"? "7: Molmorth no Kiheitai"? "Legend of Mana"? These Japanese RPGs are still cartoony, while at the same time being far removed from the standard "anime style".
Let's consider the converse: Do western RPGs really make much effort to break the mold of generic "fantasy art"? In Asia, the "anime style" is much like that -- generic, marketable, and cheap (i.e. easy to find artists). It's not like they make a concious effort to conform -- that's what culture does. That's what culture IS.
I would also like to take a moment to dump on anime. It's mostly garbage with a gem from here and there, pretty much the same as video games as a medium. Sure there are a few great games every year, but really, what percentage of the total are even worth playing? Anime is much the same, especially in Japan. Most of the anime that makes it to western markets is at least marginally polished.
I don't find it too big of a surprise that the list is full of Final Fantasy titles, but the order was a bit of a shock:
1. FF X 2. FF VII 6. FF IV (Released in west as FF II) 8. FF III (NES - Not released in west until much later) 15. FF V (Not released in west until much later) 22. FF VIII 24. FF IX 25. FF VI (Released in west as FF III) 60. FF II (Not released in west to my knowledge) 63. Final Fantasy
Seeing the original rated lower than ANY of the sequels was a surprise, but nowhere near as big of a shock as seeing FF VI handily beaten by FF III, IV and V! FF VI (later released as FF III in the west) is often considered to be one of the masterworks of the 16-bit era... at least over here. What gives with that?
I can see that FF IV, being the first 16-bit FF title, and FF VII, being the first fully 3-d FF title, were more "revolutionary" titles at their times, but I thought that FF VI had the best in terms of overall polish and presentation based on the technology available. It's really a surprise that it wouldn't immediately come to mind if asked to name a favourite title of all time. Makes me wonder exactly how that survey was taken.
Re:Someone go to Target and buy them some genres
on
Japan's Top 100 Games
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· Score: 1
Only two PC games that I can see (Wizardry and SimCity?)
Even those probably aren't the PC versions. The 1991 SimCity is more than likely the Super Famicom / SNES title. (The PC version was released in 1989.) The 1997 Wizardry was likely the Famicom / NES title, with the original PC release waaay back in 1984. (I have no idea when, or if, a Japanese PC version was ever released.)
Gaming in Japan is largely done on game consoles. Computers are, oddly enough, mostly used for computing. If you visit a Japanese game store, you'll likely find that the PC section is almost as small as the XBox section.
It's still odd that absolutely no PC titles made it onto the list.
The Japanese version of Tactics Ogre was originally released in 1995 on the Super Famicom / SNES, many years before Final Fantasy Tactics came out. Considering that its graphics and interface were nearly on par with many PS titles (besides the pretty summoning and magic effects, even FFT really doesn't outdo it), and that the gameplay and class system of Tactics Ogre was arguably superior to FFT, it's not hard to see why Tactics Ogre was considered a more groundbreaking and influential game than FFT in Japan.
The US version of Tactics Ogre only came out on the Playstation, IIRC slightly AFTER the FFT release in 1998. I never played the PS version, but I understand it was basically a direct port from the SNES version. It's easy to see how Tactics Ogre could appear to be a shallow rip-off of FFT to a US fan, when it was actually a groundbreaking game that later went on to be essentially repackaged as FFT.
Although it was the "grounds" for dismissal, he didn't get fired for PLAYING solitaire. He got fired for leaving it on his (virtual) desk when the highest-ranking official in the city was coming for a photo-op / inspection. You wouldn't leave a copy of Maxim or Cosmo or whatever on your desk in the same situation, and you sure as hell shouldn't have a game on your screen.
Nitpick: The "Yawaraka" in "Yawaraka Atama Juku" doesn't mean "gentle" in that context. It means "soft" or "flexible", referring to maintaining brain plasticity through regular use. Anyone who's played the game can tell you that it's not particularly gentle.
A more literal translation of the title's meaning would be "School for Flexible Brains". ("juku" refers to the famous Japanese cram schools, which are known for being far from gentle as well...)
The site includes the Nanako Matsushima commercial which is currently on air in Japan. There are also a number of web-only segments, featuring average people in their mid-50s trying the game for the first time, which show the exact type of questions and drills in the game.
With Japan's aging society and low birth rate, aiming games at older and older audiences really makes sense, come to think of it...
Funny, this has been Nintendo's exact angle with their TV ads for quite some time now in Japan. There are very, very few "just game" Nintendo ads which focus entirely on game footage. The vast majority of Nintendo's ads now focus on the PEOPLE playing the games.
Promoting Socialization A large number of Nintendo's ads show people playing together. One ad of memorable note (although I can't remember which game for the life of me) showed a grandfather and grandson being brought together by gaming. Even the more "normal" ads often have "people, together" as a theme, thanks to the DS networkability: Mario Party, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing.
These ads probably suggest a fundamental change towards gaming as a social event. Of course, they must reflect, at least in part, the features and contents of the game. Oddly, despite the much-touted online prowess of the 360, Microsoft's ads have yet to really pick up on the interpersonal aspects of gaming, still focusing on solid product shots.
Use Your Brain There are a number of "Use it or lose it" games out for the DS. A recent series of ads features pop stars in their late 20s having their "IQ age" being diagnosed by one game, normally with the humorous result of them being in their mid 50s.
Wha?? Educational games not just for kids?
Sadly, the last time I was back in "Western Civilization", the local Nintendo ads featured dilating pupils (set to the unforgettable sound of Mario's "magic mushroom") and mostly compared the addictivity of the games to that of controlled substances.
[Non-gamers] may not be going into GameStop, but they're probably going into Best Buy. They can see it on display there.
Good point -- and I can guess which system is going to get more attention from non- or semi-gamers. In the display case and at demo terminals, the Xbox 360 and PS3 really aren't going to look any more interesting to non-gamers than their current generation counterparts. Everyone knows what kids hunched over a control pad looks like -- Nintendo invented THAT in the 80s.
On the other hand, with its fundamentally changed human interface, Revolution demos are guaranteed to stand out, even to non-gamers in neutral settings like department stores. ("What's that guy doing swinging that remote control like a fishing rod? Now he's aiming and shooting it like a gun?")
Oops, since the article was published on the 13th, and the Xbox 360 was released on the 10th, it only reflects the first TWO days of 360 sales. (The title of the article also clarifies that the 360 sales figures refer to the first two days.) Apologies.
The sales figures quoted for the original Xbox are for its first three days. I guess that's because it went on sale on a Friday, whereas the 360 debuted on a Saturday. It's also worth noting that I somehow interchanged the Dreamcast and Xbox in my head by saying that it went on sale in November instead of February... the correct release date of the original Xbox in Japan was 2002/2/22.
Just came across this article in Famitsuu Online. It has the sales figures for the first three days after the Xbox 360 release. The article is based on data gathered across the nation by Famitsuu's marketing arm. Here's a quick summary of the numbers:
360 Sales: (initial three days)
Estimated 360 sales: 62,135 units
Estimated units shipped to stores: 159,000 units
Original Xbox Sales: (initial three days following 2002/11/22 launch)
123,929 units
Top 360 Software Sales:
Ridge Racer 6: 29,891 units (Namco)
Perfect Dark Zero: 14,897 units (Microsoft Games)
Need for Speed Wanted: 6,842 units (Electronic Arts)
Software Sale Ratio: (first three days, software sales / game unit sales)
Xbox 360: 0.91 (less than one game being sold with each system on average!)
Original Xbox: 1.45
The article goes on with some commentary about how the delayed release of Dead or Alive 4 will affect the system's sales. It was originally slated as a release title, and expected to be their "killer title". It was first delayed one week to 12/17, then pushed back to the end of the month for 12/29. The editor surmises that 12/29 should be considered the "true" sale date for the 360, and postulates that many of the people buying the system with no games are in fact waiting for DOA4.
My half-baked conclusions:
It looks like there are a lot of unsold units in stores, and despite the claims that the official launch was a "success", they have barely reached half of the original Xbox's opening three day figures. (Remember that the original Xbox went on to take less than 5% of the share). If these initial numbers are any indication, the Xbox 360 is off to a very poor start in Japan.
It's probably no surprise to the readers here that the Japanese-made RR6 is handily outselling Need for Speed Wanted. What's more of a surprise is that the average consumer seems to be buying the Xbox 360 with just one game, or in some cases, none at all! That has got to hurt short-term profits for Microsoft, who is taking a loss on the hardware and hoping to recover on software and online licenses.
I think that if anything, the delay of DOA4 probably pushed up sales of the other titles. Many purchasers had pre-reserved a system, and it would suck to have nothing but a beta of FFXI to play on the system you lined up for.
Not that it's worth much, but I lived in Japan through the release of the PS2, original Xbox, and GC. I'm no marketing expert, but even I can see Microsoft setting itself up to repeat the orginal Xbox's failure.
The Name:
Did Nintendo release the NES as the cryptic "famicom" to the US market? No, and for good reason. The Dreamcast, Gamecube, and Playstation have much more English-friendly names which were obviously intended for the world market. While the exbox has the simple repetitive gruntability to appeal to beer-slamming frat boys in the US, it certainly doesn't have the elegance or foreign mystique that the Japanese expect of even domestic products. After the total failure of the first XBox in Japan, they should have taken the chance to drop the name rebuild their image.
Promotion:
The Christmas release was a bad idea. I think that the 360 has been lost in the storm of new promotions going around. While there is a lot of disposable consumer money this time of year, Microsoft will have to be a lot more aggressive both on TV and at the electronics stores. I was through three major electronics stores in Sapporo on Friday. I didn't venture inside the games sections, but I still should have seen something, if even a few posters, for the 360. If it was there, it was completely lost in the storm of Christmas promotions. Yes, they pulled of their big "official release", but their penetration in the rest of the country seemed dismally poor.
The bland TV ads are poorly styled. Japanese TVs are often left running as background noise during mealtimes and evenings, getting very little concentrated attention. That's why Japanese game commericals have the very distinctive "audio logo" at the beginning (e.g. Nintendo's coin sound) to make the target audience actually look at the screen. Most of the 360 ads simply fade into generic american rock music, with no voiceover to make it clear what the ad is for. The complete dependence on a video message is simply not done in Japan.
The commericals also don't show gameplay that looks any different from current generation Japanese console games, so what exactly are they trying to sell?
Ninety Nine Nights easily looks like another entry in the Shin Sangoku Musou series from the commerical footage.
Project Gotham appears to be just another Turismo wannabe.
Final Fantasy XI is, well, Final Fantasy XI. It certainly has brand name power, but it doesn't scream "new content" in the Japanese market, where most every RPG is a copy of Final Fantasy in some way or another. There are several other major RPGs with TV spots right now, and they go right for the target audience's money by detailing game systems and features. Microsoft gives us images of running Chocobos. If you didn't already own the PS2 version (which you do) you wouldn't even know it's an online game.
Perfect Dark Zero looks like they might be FINALLY getting some ads done right - solid drama shots, use of an audio logo, no rolling stones. Strangely, I've only seen it on air once, despite it being their best commercial by far.
And where is online play in Microsoft's ad spots? This was supposed to be THE major selling point of both 'boxes, but remains invisible to the average Japanese consumer. Last week, Nintendo quietly rolled out cute ads featuring immediately recognizable Mario characters playing Mariokart against each other from around the globe. How did the DS, which had internetability added on completely post-release, beat the Xbox to the punch here?
They also should have made use a mascot character, bought some Japanese pop idols or variety TV star
In japan, Adults don't play video game and children have few money.
I agree that the Xbox 360 will do poorly in Japan, but the price has little to do with that. The Xbox 360 costs just under 40,000 yen, almost exactly the same price as the Playstation 2 at its launch.
If this is too expensive, how did the Playstation 2 (39,800 yen) or the original Playstation (also 39,800 yen at launch) ever sell? If anything, 40,0000 yen seems to be the magic price for launching a successful system in Japan. The PS3 is also anticipated to release at about the same price.
You're also forgetting about the otoshidama for New Year's season -- the average 14-year-old Japanese kid will have right around 40,000 yen burning a hole in his or her pocket within a few weeks.
Christmas: an uncelebrated holiday an Japan therefore rendering a Christmas release date irrelevant.
While only about 0.7% of Japanese people (about one million) are Christians, Christmas is still a major commercial holiday, akin to Valentine's day in North America. Department stores and fast food chains are the two most visible players in the market, but virtually every company out there has a campaign of some sort going. The reason? There is serious money moving around, and every merchandiser wants their share.
Many Japanese employees receive an end-of-year bonus a few weeks before Christmas. As the amount of the bonus is somewhat arbitrary and completely unannounced, very few people do serious winter shopping before the bonus. The bonus is a lot more than just a little tip of the hat from your company -- it's often the bosses' way of saying thanks for "work performance" (i.e. unpaid overtime and slavish devotion to the workplace). Bonuses range between one and three months' salary, often the equivalent of $US 4,000 to $15,000. (There is another bonus in June.)
Let's also not forget that the major Japanese winter holiday, Shougatsu (New Year Holidays), is also just around the corner. The ever-practical Japanese tradition is to give cash in special envelopes to children. This gives the average kid the equivalent of $US400 to $500 of highly disposable income just one week after Christmas.
This said, you don't see too many brand new product lines coming out around Christmas. (The only major late winter console releases that come to mind were the Dreamcast and the original X-Box.) The problem with doing the initial release of a new product at Christmas in Japan is that it's likely to be overwhelmed and lost in the frenzy of promotions. It's literally impossible to make something really stand out in an electronics store that is already swamped with hundreds of spokesladies in neon jackets and elf hats.
3,000,000 accesses from 200,000 unique users in one month = an average of 1,500 accesses per user per month
I could see the occasional hardcore gamer playing 1,500 times in one month, but this just doesn't make sense. Which begs the question, what constitutes as an "access" to Nintendo's WiFi service?
How is this any different from, for example, an oil company sponsoring university programs in petrochemical technology?
Well, I suppose that oil companies HAVE been sponsoring petrochem programs for many, many years longer. And, yes, I suppose that it is a generally established fact that consumption of petrochemicals has a detrimental effect on the environment, as opposed to half-baked "studies" about their effects.
Exxon Mobil had over $100 billion in revenues in this quarter alone! And they donate about $40 million of it to education, part of which supports research and dissemination on selected topics of interest to the energy industry!! OH NOES! The apocalypse MUST be coming! Keep reading!
Adults also seem to enjoy driving powerful cars with poor fuel efficiency. I bet I could find (and not bother to reference, or just make up entirely) a convincing "study" that shows how having a powerful engine makes adolescent males more aggressive and prone to misbehaviour. Then I could say that a "study" showed that driving large, powerful, petrochemical-propelled vehicles provides a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. Here are some arbitrary stats that are probably true in some demographic somewhere: Middle-class suburbian resident males now spend an average of 13 hours per week in their vehicles. It can be shown that spending more time driving in rush hour conditions leads to violent thoughts and poor family relationships.
Therefore, we should do away with petrochemical technology studies! After all, people that study petrochem tech will ONLY go on to the EVIL oil industry, which as you can see by the "proof" above is slowly destroying our society! There are clearly no other applications of petrochemical studies, such as producing cleaner-burning fuels or developing more efficient engines. Likewise, there are no other applications to studying the development of video games, such as, say, developing educational games. Clearly, all games are focused on one thing -- soul-rotting, american-flag-burning, pro-Nazi games such as Wolfenstein 3D. The proof is left as an exercise to the reader.
Car ads have traditionally shown male drivers in a dominant pose, with the female resigned to the passenger seat. If you thought that was bad, remember the 9/11 attacks? The jets were powered by kerosene, a petrochemical. The pilots was allegedly trained by playing flight simulators.
We need to halt education and research in both Petrochemical Technology and Video Game Design now, before these fields of study get dangerously out of hand!
The variety of classes in [Natural Selection] Aliens and Marines provides a lot of depth of play to experience.
Actually, there are only five classes of aliens and really only one "class" of marine. Even the alien classes don't break from the basic archetype of scout, builder, flyer, skirmisher, and tank. The "classes" per se aren't really what makes NS stand out from your run-of-the-mill team FPS.
The actual gameplay depth is provided by the vastly different systems on the two sides, rather than just a different set of classes and weapons. The style of gameplay and teamwork required to win is drastically different. It's much more than just a purely tactical "aliens move fast and have powerful melee attacks while marines move slowly and rely on their high-tech guns and gadgets" situation.
Strategically, the marine commander coordinates an entire team with a top-down view, issuing orders to each individual marine, and deciding what kind of equipment and structures to build. Generally, the marines' entire game will hinge on the commander. On the other hand, the aliens have no centralized commander. Insteads each alien has a kind of limited omniscience which allows them to sense friendly units and tell when structures are being attacked.
Aliens can change classes on the fly, by spending their private stash of resources and precious time gestating. The marine's role is only decided by the equipment he's carrying. This equipment can only be made by the commander, by spending the marine's centralized stash of resource points. Isn't the commander a class? Not really, any marine can become the commander by entering the command station.
The tech tree development is also vastly different. Each map has three hive locations, and for each hive controlled, the alien side can develop one path - Defense, Sensory, or Movement. If the aliens don't control more than one hive spot, they cannot tech up. The marines, on the other hand, only need resource nodes to tech up. They're free to completely relocate their starting base, or even decentralize their resources. This means that completely different styles of strategy are necessary for each side, even though the mission is the same. CS seems quite hollow in comparison, even though each side has a different mission.
NS also requires a lot more communication than CS, TF or the like, even to play casually. As a result, it's a lot more social of a game, and with matches often lasting 20 - 40 minutes, it tends to be a lot more intense.
A game built around skill instead of time investment doesn't have this problem. You don't see this issue in any of the UT's or Quakes do you?
The companies that make Alienware systems, oddly-shaped mousepads, and graphics cards with more heat dissipation than a SHOgun-modded Ford Festiva seem to have a significant part of their business model based on the concept that it is possible to compensate for lack of skill with the newest and leetest hardware. Anyone who can afford that kind of hardware probably doesn't have their entire day free to play on it, unless they're a pro gamer.
Seriously, in today's sniping matches, someone who's only getting a mediocre framerate at 640x480 is going to get pwnt by the neighbor's kid's X600. At 640x480, you can't even make out the guy getting a bead on you at 3 times that resolution.
Haven't really played it deeply enough to see the long term effects of character "development". Thanks for the insight on that one. In my experience, most of the items only tip the odds very slightly. But I can see they could create a virtual goliath when stacked up by a big enough budget.
amoeba wrote:
[Rich noobs are] going to be either playing people who actually worked their chars up, meaning they'll be completely destroyed, or other similarly rich noobs, in which case they might as well have not purchased the gear...
Hmm... that would mean that the hardworking are rewarded by the rich and foolish. Overall, I like the sounds of that economic model! If only the real world were so just.
It would be even nicer if they did this in lieu of monthly subscription rates.
This has been seen before, and seems to be working rather well for the makers of Gunbound. You can play (for free) for hours and hours to accumulate "gold" wealth, or pay a nominal fee directly to the company to receive an injection of "cash". "cash" could be thought of as a service which increases the enjoyment (and thus has "value", considering that games are a vehicle for selling fun) of an otherwise free game.
The interesting thing about Gunbound's model is that "cash" and normal "gold" are not the same, nor are they directly interchangeable, as I recall. I haven't played for so long that I can't remember, but I believe you aren't able to directly transfer "cash" in Gunbound. "cash", which can only be bought, generally has (IIRC) 10 times the value of "gold", which is earned by playing matches.
This reminds me of the old, old days when BBS sysops would sell Trade Wars credits for real cash. That never seemed fair at all, however, since Trade Wars is a long-term strategy game which generally has an eventual "winner". Giving one player money would unbalance the game terribly. Note that Gunbound, however, is a simple shooting game that revolves around matches, and not an RPG or long-term strategy game. Items gained by long-term players give them a slight advantage in matches on high-ranked servers, but it is possible to play the game without worrying about economics at all.
The choice is left up to the user -- live in "high society", where (real) money and (virtual) possessions are quite important, or just play the game on the casual servers, where items are simply status symbols of cosmetic value.
Considering that the game still seems to be alive and kicking, I would say that this is a viable model for "legalizing" and regulating the currency trade in online gaming.
Perhaps an expert player of Gunbound could give an estimate of the real world value of cash, in terms of roughly how much grinding time worth of wealth one US dollar buys.
When I originally saw those shots last week, it occurred to me that the design looked vaguely familiar. I didn't initially even connect it to Zelda, but taking another look, I think there could be serious trouble, especially if this one design is to be used as a "spokescharacter" for the game. Check out the direct comparison. (In Korean.) Looks like the offending shots were right out of the press release. Here's another article (in Korean) with side-by-side comparisons of the images... including the little puff of wind in the title.
And, if you'd like to take a look at some of the other upcoming releases promoted during Webzen 's Feb. 15 conference, all of which seem to be MMORPGs of different themes, look at this Japanese article. (Writer Kim Dong Wook regularly covers new games from Korea.)
Slashdot Mirror
Or, instead of guessing wildly and missing completely, you could just go to www.nintendo.co.jp and watch the Japanese version of the same flash animation. It's written (nyuuryokusiki) as uxi-, or wi-. (katakana "u", small katakana "i", enlongation mark).
Just as with the English version, it's based on the English word "we". "wi-" is also the same way that the English word "we" is transliterated into katakana. There is literally no Japanese person who does not recognize this very simple English word, which seems to be the rationale for considering the name to be globally recognizable.
You could also go to www.nintendo.fr and see from the French version that it has nothing to do with "oui". From the French site:
My name is ... Wii
Like the pronunciation of "nous" in English
En English, Wii resembles "we" (nous), and emphasises that this console is intended for the entire world.
According to the producers, "Aerith" was originally created by taking the English letters for "Earth" into their corresponding (written) Japanese syllables. This gave the Japanese writing in katakana as E A RI SU. That was then taken back to English as "Aerith" for the official English spelling of the Japanese product.
In the English release of the game, the katakana writing was romanized as "Aeris" (which actually sounds closer to the Japanese pronunciation) instead, giving rise to the debate.
Ironically, "aeris" exists as a word in latin -- but it means "air", the opposite of "earth". And coincidentally, the pronunciation overlaps with the Japanese reading for the English word "air".
The combination of two Japanese vowels E A goes a lot further than sounding roughly like English "air", it has been used to transliterate the word "air" for a long time. For example, EAKON (abbreviation for air conditioner - "air con") and EAMEERU (air mail) are both existing Japanese words based off the English word "air".
It's certainly the overwhelmingly popular artistic style for eastern RPGs, but I wouldn't say that ALL games are ALL anime ALL the time. How about "Ico"? "7: Molmorth no Kiheitai"? "Legend of Mana"? These Japanese RPGs are still cartoony, while at the same time being far removed from the standard "anime style".
Let's consider the converse: Do western RPGs really make much effort to break the mold of generic "fantasy art"? In Asia, the "anime style" is much like that -- generic, marketable, and cheap (i.e. easy to find artists). It's not like they make a concious effort to conform -- that's what culture does. That's what culture IS.
I would also like to take a moment to dump on anime. It's mostly garbage with a gem from here and there, pretty much the same as video games as a medium. Sure there are a few great games every year, but really, what percentage of the total are even worth playing? Anime is much the same, especially in Japan. Most of the anime that makes it to western markets is at least marginally polished.
I don't find it too big of a surprise that the list is full of Final Fantasy titles, but the order was a bit of a shock:
1. FF X
2. FF VII
6. FF IV (Released in west as FF II)
8. FF III (NES - Not released in west until much later)
15. FF V (Not released in west until much later)
22. FF VIII
24. FF IX
25. FF VI (Released in west as FF III)
60. FF II (Not released in west to my knowledge)
63. Final Fantasy
Seeing the original rated lower than ANY of the sequels was a surprise, but nowhere near as big of a shock as seeing FF VI handily beaten by FF III, IV and V! FF VI (later released as FF III in the west) is often considered to be one of the masterworks of the 16-bit era... at least over here. What gives with that?
I can see that FF IV, being the first 16-bit FF title, and FF VII, being the first fully 3-d FF title, were more "revolutionary" titles at their times, but I thought that FF VI had the best in terms of overall polish and presentation based on the technology available. It's really a surprise that it wouldn't immediately come to mind if asked to name a favourite title of all time. Makes me wonder exactly how that survey was taken.
Even those probably aren't the PC versions. The 1991 SimCity is more than likely the Super Famicom / SNES title. (The PC version was released in 1989.) The 1997 Wizardry was likely the Famicom / NES title, with the original PC release waaay back in 1984. (I have no idea when, or if, a Japanese PC version was ever released.)
Gaming in Japan is largely done on game consoles. Computers are, oddly enough, mostly used for computing. If you visit a Japanese game store, you'll likely find that the PC section is almost as small as the XBox section.
It's still odd that absolutely no PC titles made it onto the list.
The Japanese version of Tactics Ogre was originally released in 1995 on the Super Famicom / SNES, many years before Final Fantasy Tactics came out. Considering that its graphics and interface were nearly on par with many PS titles (besides the pretty summoning and magic effects, even FFT really doesn't outdo it), and that the gameplay and class system of Tactics Ogre was arguably superior to FFT, it's not hard to see why Tactics Ogre was considered a more groundbreaking and influential game than FFT in Japan.
The US version of Tactics Ogre only came out on the Playstation, IIRC slightly AFTER the FFT release in 1998. I never played the PS version, but I understand it was basically a direct port from the SNES version. It's easy to see how Tactics Ogre could appear to be a shallow rip-off of FFT to a US fan, when it was actually a groundbreaking game that later went on to be essentially repackaged as FFT.
Although it was the "grounds" for dismissal, he didn't get fired for PLAYING solitaire. He got fired for leaving it on his (virtual) desk when the highest-ranking official in the city was coming for a photo-op / inspection. You wouldn't leave a copy of Maxim or Cosmo or whatever on your desk in the same situation, and you sure as hell shouldn't have a game on your screen.
Nitpick: The "Yawaraka" in "Yawaraka Atama Juku" doesn't mean "gentle" in that context. It means "soft" or "flexible", referring to maintaining brain plasticity through regular use. Anyone who's played the game can tell you that it's not particularly gentle.
A more literal translation of the title's meaning would be "School for Flexible Brains". ("juku" refers to the famous Japanese cram schools, which are known for being far from gentle as well...)
Aha, found the "adult educational" game in question: "Motto Nou o Kitaeru, Otona no DS Training".
Official website: http://touch-ds.jp/mfs/mottotraining/index.html
The site includes the Nanako Matsushima commercial which is currently on air in Japan. There are also a number of web-only segments, featuring average people in their mid-50s trying the game for the first time, which show the exact type of questions and drills in the game.
With Japan's aging society and low birth rate, aiming games at older and older audiences really makes sense, come to think of it...
Funny, this has been Nintendo's exact angle with their TV ads for quite some time now in Japan. There are very, very few "just game" Nintendo ads which focus entirely on game footage. The vast majority of Nintendo's ads now focus on the PEOPLE playing the games.
Promoting Socialization A large number of Nintendo's ads show people playing together. One ad of memorable note (although I can't remember which game for the life of me) showed a grandfather and grandson being brought together by gaming. Even the more "normal" ads often have "people, together" as a theme, thanks to the DS networkability: Mario Party, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing.
These ads probably suggest a fundamental change towards gaming as a social event. Of course, they must reflect, at least in part, the features and contents of the game. Oddly, despite the much-touted online prowess of the 360, Microsoft's ads have yet to really pick up on the interpersonal aspects of gaming, still focusing on solid product shots.
Use Your Brain There are a number of "Use it or lose it" games out for the DS. A recent series of ads features pop stars in their late 20s having their "IQ age" being diagnosed by one game, normally with the humorous result of them being in their mid 50s.
Wha?? Educational games not just for kids?
Sadly, the last time I was back in "Western Civilization", the local Nintendo ads featured dilating pupils (set to the unforgettable sound of Mario's "magic mushroom") and mostly compared the addictivity of the games to that of controlled substances.
Good point -- and I can guess which system is going to get more attention from non- or semi-gamers. In the display case and at demo terminals, the Xbox 360 and PS3 really aren't going to look any more interesting to non-gamers than their current generation counterparts. Everyone knows what kids hunched over a control pad looks like -- Nintendo invented THAT in the 80s.
On the other hand, with its fundamentally changed human interface, Revolution demos are guaranteed to stand out, even to non-gamers in neutral settings like department stores. ("What's that guy doing swinging that remote control like a fishing rod? Now he's aiming and shooting it like a gun?")
Oops, since the article was published on the 13th, and the Xbox 360 was released on the 10th, it only reflects the first TWO days of 360 sales. (The title of the article also clarifies that the 360 sales figures refer to the first two days.) Apologies.
The sales figures quoted for the original Xbox are for its first three days. I guess that's because it went on sale on a Friday, whereas the 360 debuted on a Saturday. It's also worth noting that I somehow interchanged the Dreamcast and Xbox in my head by saying that it went on sale in November instead of February... the correct release date of the original Xbox in Japan was 2002/2/22.
Just came across this article in Famitsuu Online. It has the sales figures for the first three days after the Xbox 360 release. The article is based on data gathered across the nation by Famitsuu's marketing arm. Here's a quick summary of the numbers:
360 Sales: (initial three days)
Original Xbox Sales: (initial three days following 2002/11/22 launch)
Top 360 Software Sales:
Software Sale Ratio: (first three days, software sales / game unit sales)
The article goes on with some commentary about how the delayed release of Dead or Alive 4 will affect the system's sales. It was originally slated as a release title, and expected to be their "killer title". It was first delayed one week to 12/17, then pushed back to the end of the month for 12/29. The editor surmises that 12/29 should be considered the "true" sale date for the 360, and postulates that many of the people buying the system with no games are in fact waiting for DOA4.
My half-baked conclusions:
It looks like there are a lot of unsold units in stores, and despite the claims that the official launch was a "success", they have barely reached half of the original Xbox's opening three day figures. (Remember that the original Xbox went on to take less than 5% of the share). If these initial numbers are any indication, the Xbox 360 is off to a very poor start in Japan.
It's probably no surprise to the readers here that the Japanese-made RR6 is handily outselling Need for Speed Wanted. What's more of a surprise is that the average consumer seems to be buying the Xbox 360 with just one game, or in some cases, none at all! That has got to hurt short-term profits for Microsoft, who is taking a loss on the hardware and hoping to recover on software and online licenses.
I think that if anything, the delay of DOA4 probably pushed up sales of the other titles. Many purchasers had pre-reserved a system, and it would suck to have nothing but a beta of FFXI to play on the system you lined up for.
Not that it's worth much, but I lived in Japan through the release of the PS2, original Xbox, and GC. I'm no marketing expert, but even I can see Microsoft setting itself up to repeat the orginal Xbox's failure.
The Name:
Did Nintendo release the NES as the cryptic "famicom" to the US market? No, and for good reason. The Dreamcast, Gamecube, and Playstation have much more English-friendly names which were obviously intended for the world market. While the exbox has the simple repetitive gruntability to appeal to beer-slamming frat boys in the US, it certainly doesn't have the elegance or foreign mystique that the Japanese expect of even domestic products. After the total failure of the first XBox in Japan, they should have taken the chance to drop the name rebuild their image.
Promotion:
The Christmas release was a bad idea. I think that the 360 has been lost in the storm of new promotions going around. While there is a lot of disposable consumer money this time of year, Microsoft will have to be a lot more aggressive both on TV and at the electronics stores. I was through three major electronics stores in Sapporo on Friday. I didn't venture inside the games sections, but I still should have seen something, if even a few posters, for the 360. If it was there, it was completely lost in the storm of Christmas promotions. Yes, they pulled of their big "official release", but their penetration in the rest of the country seemed dismally poor.
The bland TV ads are poorly styled. Japanese TVs are often left running as background noise during mealtimes and evenings, getting very little concentrated attention. That's why Japanese game commericals have the very distinctive "audio logo" at the beginning (e.g. Nintendo's coin sound) to make the target audience actually look at the screen. Most of the 360 ads simply fade into generic american rock music, with no voiceover to make it clear what the ad is for. The complete dependence on a video message is simply not done in Japan.
The commericals also don't show gameplay that looks any different from current generation Japanese console games, so what exactly are they trying to sell?
And where is online play in Microsoft's ad spots? This was supposed to be THE major selling point of both 'boxes, but remains invisible to the average Japanese consumer. Last week, Nintendo quietly rolled out cute ads featuring immediately recognizable Mario characters playing Mariokart against each other from around the globe. How did the DS, which had internetability added on completely post-release, beat the Xbox to the punch here?
They also should have made use a mascot character, bought some Japanese pop idols or variety TV star
I agree that the Xbox 360 will do poorly in Japan, but the price has little to do with that. The Xbox 360 costs just under 40,000 yen, almost exactly the same price as the Playstation 2 at its launch. If this is too expensive, how did the Playstation 2 (39,800 yen) or the original Playstation (also 39,800 yen at launch) ever sell? If anything, 40,0000 yen seems to be the magic price for launching a successful system in Japan. The PS3 is also anticipated to release at about the same price.
You're also forgetting about the otoshidama for New Year's season -- the average 14-year-old Japanese kid will have right around 40,000 yen burning a hole in his or her pocket within a few weeks.
While only about 0.7% of Japanese people (about one million) are Christians, Christmas is still a major commercial holiday, akin to Valentine's day in North America. Department stores and fast food chains are the two most visible players in the market, but virtually every company out there has a campaign of some sort going. The reason? There is serious money moving around, and every merchandiser wants their share.
Many Japanese employees receive an end-of-year bonus a few weeks before Christmas. As the amount of the bonus is somewhat arbitrary and completely unannounced, very few people do serious winter shopping before the bonus. The bonus is a lot more than just a little tip of the hat from your company -- it's often the bosses' way of saying thanks for "work performance" (i.e. unpaid overtime and slavish devotion to the workplace). Bonuses range between one and three months' salary, often the equivalent of $US 4,000 to $15,000. (There is another bonus in June.)
Let's also not forget that the major Japanese winter holiday, Shougatsu (New Year Holidays), is also just around the corner. The ever-practical Japanese tradition is to give cash in special envelopes to children. This gives the average kid the equivalent of $US400 to $500 of highly disposable income just one week after Christmas.
This said, you don't see too many brand new product lines coming out around Christmas. (The only major late winter console releases that come to mind were the Dreamcast and the original X-Box.) The problem with doing the initial release of a new product at Christmas in Japan is that it's likely to be overwhelmed and lost in the frenzy of promotions. It's literally impossible to make something really stand out in an electronics store that is already swamped with hundreds of spokesladies in neon jackets and elf hats.
I'm telling you there were two more zeroes in there at 4:00 am!! (I stand heartily corrected)
3,000,000 accesses from 200,000 unique users in one month = an average of 1,500 accesses per user per month
I could see the occasional hardcore gamer playing 1,500 times in one month, but this just doesn't make sense. Which begs the question, what constitutes as an "access" to Nintendo's WiFi service?
How is this any different from, for example, an oil company sponsoring university programs in petrochemical technology?
Well, I suppose that oil companies HAVE been sponsoring petrochem programs for many, many years longer. And, yes, I suppose that it is a generally established fact that consumption of petrochemicals has a detrimental effect on the environment, as opposed to half-baked "studies" about their effects.
Exxon Mobil had over $100 billion in revenues in this quarter alone! And they donate about $40 million of it to education, part of which supports research and dissemination on selected topics of interest to the energy industry!! OH NOES! The apocalypse MUST be coming! Keep reading!
Adults also seem to enjoy driving powerful cars with poor fuel efficiency. I bet I could find (and not bother to reference, or just make up entirely) a convincing "study" that shows how having a powerful engine makes adolescent males more aggressive and prone to misbehaviour. Then I could say that a "study" showed that driving large, powerful, petrochemical-propelled vehicles provides a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. Here are some arbitrary stats that are probably true in some demographic somewhere: Middle-class suburbian resident males now spend an average of 13 hours per week in their vehicles. It can be shown that spending more time driving in rush hour conditions leads to violent thoughts and poor family relationships.
Therefore, we should do away with petrochemical technology studies! After all, people that study petrochem tech will ONLY go on to the EVIL oil industry, which as you can see by the "proof" above is slowly destroying our society! There are clearly no other applications of petrochemical studies, such as producing cleaner-burning fuels or developing more efficient engines. Likewise, there are no other applications to studying the development of video games, such as, say, developing educational games. Clearly, all games are focused on one thing -- soul-rotting, american-flag-burning, pro-Nazi games such as Wolfenstein 3D. The proof is left as an exercise to the reader.
Car ads have traditionally shown male drivers in a dominant pose, with the female resigned to the passenger seat. If you thought that was bad, remember the 9/11 attacks? The jets were powered by kerosene, a petrochemical. The pilots was allegedly trained by playing flight simulators. We need to halt education and research in both Petrochemical Technology and Video Game Design now, before these fields of study get dangerously out of hand!
Actually, there are only five classes of aliens and really only one "class" of marine. Even the alien classes don't break from the basic archetype of scout, builder, flyer, skirmisher, and tank. The "classes" per se aren't really what makes NS stand out from your run-of-the-mill team FPS.
The actual gameplay depth is provided by the vastly different systems on the two sides, rather than just a different set of classes and weapons. The style of gameplay and teamwork required to win is drastically different. It's much more than just a purely tactical "aliens move fast and have powerful melee attacks while marines move slowly and rely on their high-tech guns and gadgets" situation.
Strategically, the marine commander coordinates an entire team with a top-down view, issuing orders to each individual marine, and deciding what kind of equipment and structures to build. Generally, the marines' entire game will hinge on the commander. On the other hand, the aliens have no centralized commander. Insteads each alien has a kind of limited omniscience which allows them to sense friendly units and tell when structures are being attacked.
Aliens can change classes on the fly, by spending their private stash of resources and precious time gestating. The marine's role is only decided by the equipment he's carrying. This equipment can only be made by the commander, by spending the marine's centralized stash of resource points. Isn't the commander a class? Not really, any marine can become the commander by entering the command station.
The tech tree development is also vastly different. Each map has three hive locations, and for each hive controlled, the alien side can develop one path - Defense, Sensory, or Movement. If the aliens don't control more than one hive spot, they cannot tech up. The marines, on the other hand, only need resource nodes to tech up. They're free to completely relocate their starting base, or even decentralize their resources. This means that completely different styles of strategy are necessary for each side, even though the mission is the same. CS seems quite hollow in comparison, even though each side has a different mission.
NS also requires a lot more communication than CS, TF or the like, even to play casually. As a result, it's a lot more social of a game, and with matches often lasting 20 - 40 minutes, it tends to be a lot more intense.
The companies that make Alienware systems, oddly-shaped mousepads, and graphics cards with more heat dissipation than a SHOgun-modded Ford Festiva seem to have a significant part of their business model based on the concept that it is possible to compensate for lack of skill with the newest and leetest hardware. Anyone who can afford that kind of hardware probably doesn't have their entire day free to play on it, unless they're a pro gamer.
Seriously, in today's sniping matches, someone who's only getting a mediocre framerate at 640x480 is going to get pwnt by the neighbor's kid's X600. At 640x480, you can't even make out the guy getting a bead on you at 3 times that resolution.
Haven't really played it deeply enough to see the long term effects of character "development". Thanks for the insight on that one. In my experience, most of the items only tip the odds very slightly. But I can see they could create a virtual goliath when stacked up by a big enough budget.
Hmm... that would mean that the hardworking are rewarded by the rich and foolish. Overall, I like the sounds of that economic model! If only the real world were so just.
This has been seen before, and seems to be working rather well for the makers of Gunbound. You can play (for free) for hours and hours to accumulate "gold" wealth, or pay a nominal fee directly to the company to receive an injection of "cash". "cash" could be thought of as a service which increases the enjoyment (and thus has "value", considering that games are a vehicle for selling fun) of an otherwise free game.
The interesting thing about Gunbound's model is that "cash" and normal "gold" are not the same, nor are they directly interchangeable, as I recall. I haven't played for so long that I can't remember, but I believe you aren't able to directly transfer "cash" in Gunbound. "cash", which can only be bought, generally has (IIRC) 10 times the value of "gold", which is earned by playing matches.
This reminds me of the old, old days when BBS sysops would sell Trade Wars credits for real cash. That never seemed fair at all, however, since Trade Wars is a long-term strategy game which generally has an eventual "winner". Giving one player money would unbalance the game terribly. Note that Gunbound, however, is a simple shooting game that revolves around matches, and not an RPG or long-term strategy game. Items gained by long-term players give them a slight advantage in matches on high-ranked servers, but it is possible to play the game without worrying about economics at all.
The choice is left up to the user -- live in "high society", where (real) money and (virtual) possessions are quite important, or just play the game on the casual servers, where items are simply status symbols of cosmetic value.
Considering that the game still seems to be alive and kicking, I would say that this is a viable model for "legalizing" and regulating the currency trade in online gaming.
Perhaps an expert player of Gunbound could give an estimate of the real world value of cash, in terms of roughly how much grinding time worth of wealth one US dollar buys.
Here's another interesting take on dungeon hacking. This one's based on nethack.
You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes
You'll laugh. You'll cry. It's (arguably) postmodern. And it's only one page long.
When I originally saw those shots last week, it occurred to me that the design looked vaguely familiar. I didn't initially even connect it to Zelda, but taking another look, I think there could be serious trouble, especially if this one design is to be used as a "spokescharacter" for the game. Check out the direct comparison. (In Korean.) Looks like the offending shots were right out of the press release. Here's another article (in Korean) with side-by-side comparisons of the images... including the little puff of wind in the title.
And, if you'd like to take a look at some of the other upcoming releases promoted during Webzen 's Feb. 15 conference, all of which seem to be MMORPGs of different themes, look at this Japanese article. (Writer Kim Dong Wook regularly covers new games from Korea.)