Topic: Gaming in Japan.

[Pugnate]

Just listen to the opening bit of this CGW podcast... it is fascinating.

http://download.gamevideos.com/Podcasts/CGW/092606.mp3

The stuff about how Half-life has been adapted to the Japanese market is really interesting.

But if I was forced to play Japanese video games only for the rest of my life... I'd probably commit suicide.

[Quemaqua]

To be fair, he was talking about an arcade game, not the PC version, which is likely the same as it is here.  Basically HL2 meets Time Crisis.  Still, kinda' funny.

And frankly, a significant portion of the best games I've ever played have been developed by Japanese companies.  They do have their own way of things over there, and that can sometimes be a bad thing, but they really do know their shit.  I think American development has long been up to the same caliber in certain ways, and surpassing in certain others, but there have always been different strengths and weaknesses between the two.  What's great is that Europe really seems to be moving up in the game development world now.  Things have always suffered there, a lot of times in the technical sense (lame engines, buggy games, that sort of thing), but lately it seems like the playing field is really starting to even out.  We're getting amazing titles from all kinds of places now.  I'd say Chinese development has improved, but it really hasn't.  It's gotten to be a bigger industry, but most of that is just grunt work getting farmed out to them for American and European companies (I don't think Japan has done that as much?), which is an absolutely horrendous practice that I'd like to see stopped.

[Pugnate]

My final comment wasn't in regards to the HL2 arcade, but Japanese games in general. I just find most of them to be behind the times.

As for Europe, it is great they are moving ahead. European gamers thankfully still prefer sophisticated games rather than watered down console versions, and this shows in their game products.

[gpw11]

Some Japanese games are just fantastic and have an art style that I find far more imaginative than American or European developed ones.  Others....not so good

[Quemaqua]

Actually Pug, I'd say European games tend to be far more "behind the times".  If you want to talk about clinging to age-old genre cliches, that's where you look.  Europe from a gaming standpoint has been the land of anachronism for as long as I can remember.  This is starting to change, but it's a very recent change all things considered.  Japanese games can also be very formulaic because the formula is often what gamers demand, not so much the game itself.  That's true of many gamers in America too, but much more so there.  Still, I don't think Japan is creatively behind the times, they just know perfectly well what people there are going to buy and they develop a lot more of that.  But there's plenty of innovation if you know where to look.  Sega took a lot of risks in their better years creating and publishing odd, unique games, which is likely a significant factor in their slow downfall, and some of the more unique games to come out on last-gen consoles were those that came out of Japan.  The current generation is showing signs of people embracing new ideas, but frankly, I don't see any one geographical region doing a lot better than another at this point.

[Jedi]

I think its a little difficult to compare two or three regions as I believe each one is doing different things for different reasons. I might say I hate most games out of Japan because their formulaic but yet someone else might say that's great! I think the conversion of HL2 in Japan is a good indication that the two markets (and the demands that drive them) are very different. So why should developers in one region try to change to be more like the other… unless the market demands it, then they shouldn’t.

Put it this way... compare apples to oranges.

[Pugnate]

In terms of art, originality etc, I'd say Japanese games are ahead. I just meant in terms of polish, interface and just other basic design decisions, comparatively the Japanese sometimes seem to be stuck in the stone age. 

While all of three countries can produce their share of formulatic crap, I still find the Japanese games fascinating to look at. I think when it comes to originality in gameplay and art direction, the Japanese are probably on top.

[Quemaqua]

It's funny, I'd say the exact opposite.  Well, not necessarily to your last statement, but in terms of polish, interface, etc.  I feel like you're probably more likely to find innovation in a game developed in another region (I'm not strictly talking art design and such... I think we can agree there in a lot of cases), but Japanese games by and large are extremely polished and well produced.  Stuff like The Witcher doesn't come out of Japan so much (i.e. games that are innovative and unique, yet suffer from a lot of technical issues that need to gradually get patched out).  Of course, I'm talking console games.  I've run into very few Japanese games on a console that had significant bugs and such, but several American/Euro games where they totally failed to catch stuff... like Surreal's horrible game-breaker in Drakan - The Ancient's Gates and the ultra-shoddy port of Puzzle Quest for the PSP).  Though if you're talking PC development... it seems like the Japanese wouldn't know how to properly develop a PC game if you gave them 10 years and three billion dollars.  Dunno' why that is.  I've played several Japanese PC titles that were fine, but most of the ones I've tried just seemed wonky and never quite gelled.  If you're talking PC development, I'd say yeah, the Japanese still seem to be struggling quite a bit.

[scottws]

I find Japanese games are by far the most creative and innovative.  I mean that's where the Wii and Super Mario Galaxy originated and I think that speaks volumes right there.

Japanese developers also seem to have more flair in terms of their art designs.  You aren't going to see some exquisitely designed Gothic architecture in a Japanese game for the most part, but you generally aren't going to find some real generic environment either.  Instead you'll see the worlds of Mario, the characters of Final Fantasy and other anime-inspired games, or (for better or for worse) the overall art design of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.