BA RR Part 2.

Following a conversation with Sharon, I'm changing the perspective of my research/essay slightly.

What direction has Japan moved in since the 'Westernization' of game content?

What kind of impact has video game Westernization had on Japan?

What kind of impact has the Westernization of the video game industry had on Japan?

Chapters:

• Overview of Japanese industry/Introduction.
• Brief history.
• Surge in the West. Japanamerica.
• Criticism + Join to the next chapter.
• Inafune.
• Hideo Kojima.
• Focuses on the Western market & Experiments.
• Controls.
• Ryozo Tsujimoto quote, Monster Hunter.

• Aesthetics.
• Release schedules. 
• X/Y released worldwide at the same time.
• Wii U released in NA before JP.
• Japanese developer isolation & "Going back to what is known."
• Tales Dev on 'doing what they do best'.
• TGS in 2012 and 2013.
• 2012 = no Western presence.
• 2013 = lots of Western devs. Dominating more than Japanese console wise.
• E3 has no Nintendo. Konami (Kojima!) & Capcom did attend.
• Mobile gaming.
• Market figures. TGS 2010 vs 2012
• PS4/Xbox One not releasing in Japan till 2014, console focus shifting away. Japan called a 'tier two' country RE: release priority for the Xbox One.
•  Different factions? The crossroads & future potential. Combining all of the above.
• Kojima/Inafune, criticizing the industry.

• Japanese developers split into factions. 
• Focusing on the mobile market
• Specialisms.
• Appealing to the West and trying to adapt.

• Durkheim quote & Japan taking on Western ideas, traits, and processes.
• Homogenization & Heterogenization. Taking inspiration from Western tech and ideas with Japanese creativity to create a globalized, heterogenic game.

(Conclusion)

Cultural homogenization and heterogenization are not alternatives or substitutes; rather, they tend to come together.
 
Market growth causes heterogenizing and homogenizing mechanisms to operate in tandem. Some parts of the market become more alike, while other parts of the market become more different. Mass culture and niche culture are complements, once we take the broader picture into account. Growing diversity brings us more of many different things, which includes more mass culture as well. 

Product differentiation and niche markets rely on certain kinds of social homogeneity. Mass marketing, for instance, also creates the infrastructure to peddle niche products to smaller numbers of consumers. Magazine advertising, mail order, and the Internet allow recording companies to make a profit issuing CDs that sell only five hundred copies. Book superstores enable readers to stumble across the products of small presses. Most generally, partial homogenization often creates the conditions necessary for diversity to flower on the micro level. Claude Lévi-Strauss noted, "Diversity is less a function of the isolation of groups than of the relationships which unite them." (Creative Destruction, Tyler Cowen [p16])

Cross-cultural trade does not eliminate difference altogether, but, rather, it liberates difference from the constraints of place.

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“Certainly different societies tend to resemble each other more, but that is not the same as saying that the individuals who compose them do so. . . . There are no longer as many differences as there are great regions, but there are almost as many as there are individuals.” (Durkheim, Emile [1893])

I like the above quote quite a bit. Inafune and Kojima both criticize the Japanese games industry. While Inafune is more extreme in his criticism, they both indicate that Japan's refusal to look to the West and bring in technology and influence from other countries is its downfall. Inafune claims that Japan's belief in its superiority (bestowed from success of old) is the reason for its stunted growth. While adapting parts of the West's technology, processes, ideas and locales may change certain parts of the Japanese game formula, it wouldn't have to change the individuality and creativity that Japanese games are known for. Taking on aspects of the Western world for use in Japanese gaming would only create more kinds of individual games as new ideas filter through and are adapted for use; while Japanese games may change to have more in common than Western games than before, each individual game would exhibit more differences than before from its peers. Japanese games will remain creatively Japanese, but able to appeal on a global level through the adaptation of beneficial technology, culture, and techniques. Heterogenization, not homogenization.

"I don't want to break this down to a thing where it's Japanese games versus non Japanese games. The key is it has to be a global game, it has to be something made for everybody. I want to get rid of all those barriers." (Kojima, Hideo [2012])

Heterogenization in this context meaning 'diverse in kind or nature; composed of diverse parts.'

I am excited about the way my perspective, topic and research focus has evolved throughout this project. At first I wondered if Japan should Westernize their games. I realized after looking into more recent years that this question is behind the times; Japan has already made that movement with games like Resident Evil 6 and Dragon's Dogma (aesthetically). They've seen failed experiments in this area, however (Ninja Gaiden 3), and some developers (Tales Series devs) have backed well away from Westernizing their games at all.

“Usually people become more interested in fantasy when the reality around them is not as interesting or satisfying,”

But why wouldn’t American directors be more than willing and able to provide an animated escape zone, at least as much so as the Japanese? “In some ways our culture has gotten much more cynical,” says Solomon. “That’s a problem of a lot of animated films from this country—the characters are so sarcastic and hip, they don’t even seem to believe in the story they’re in. You don’t find that sarcasm in Japanese anime."

This perspective, given by historian and animation critic Charles Solomon, provides interesting insight into why Japanese animation took off in America. While Japanamerica primarily addresses anime and manga's popularity in the West, a lot of what is said applies to Japanese video games as well. Solomon's quote is telling; young people found their need for fantasy and escapism better fulfilled by Japanese offerings than American ones because the characters in American products sabotaged the illusion of their own fantasy world with their disbelieving attitudes. This is the exact opposite, he claims, of Japanese anime and characters, who believe in their world and react to it with genuine sincerity regardless of how unbelievable their circumstances might be.

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2011/10/05/digital/why-do-japanese-developers-keep-us-waiting/#.UqD3pOI2Lkc

Found a good article on long development times in Japan and their refusal to adopt/license Western game engines. The article boils down to the fact that Japanese studios have a bad habit of developing engines alongside games and then never using them again. This contrasts with Western studios, which make an engine and then make several games around it.

--

Some insight on why Japanese traditional market is shrinking:

"Baba came up with another statistic that sheds light on why the traditional Japanese games market is contracting. Whereas in the US and UK, the average gamer is in his or her late thirties, the average Japanese gamer is 21 to 22. He said: "In Japan, when you grow up, you tend to stop gaming. The population is declining, so the number of gamers is declining.

The extreme youth of Japanese gamers also explains the growing popularity of Gree and DeNa's games, which mostly provide no more sophisticated a gameplay experience than tarted-up Top Trumps. In Japan, of course, the salary-man's game of choice is the inexplicably popular pachinko - so at least Sega, having merged with leading pachinko company Sammy, should be OK."  [Boxer, Steve, quoting Akira Baba, 2012]

Professor Akira Baba, from the University of Tokyo.

One of the big differences between Western and Japanese games is the huge visual gap. Americans complain that Japanese games are too bright and crazy and cartoonish, while Japanese gamers complain American games are too dark and generic and realistic. Why do Japanese games tend to stylize the graphics rather than favoring realism?

Inafune: From birth, you are exposed to your native culture and you view it through your own eyes. Japanese children are exposed to "manga culture" and the established aesthetics that exist in Japan. It is ingrained in our culture. Western audiences, especially Americans, on the other hand, are exposed to a wide variety of characters. From Spongebob to comics such as X-Men, Spiderman, and other superheroes, westerners are exposed to vast differences in the cultural products they consume and this is seen in the visual style exhibited in western games. I don't think this cultural difference is going to change, and to be honest, I don't think it should. As Japanese designers, we can still make games that appeal to not only Japanese, but also western visual tastes.

Kobayashi: I think a lot of the bright, cartoonish visual look in many Japanese games is a result of the strong culture of anime cartoons and manga comic books we have in Japan. The gamers here have all grown up on anime and manga, and many continue to read manga into adulthood. Since Japanese anime and manga are usually very bright and colorful, that tends to be the kind of visual style that is accepted in Japan. For overseas, it might be that with more of an entertainment background in movies and TV, realism is the type of visual style that is desired. Of course, this is not always the case as there are a lot of American and European gamers that do like the bright and colorful art style and plenty of Japanese gamers that prefer the realistic visual style.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/eastvswest/eastvswest.htm kurt kalata

Kelts, Roland (2006-11-28). Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. (Kindle Locations 434-435 & 439-442). Palgrave Macmillan. Kindle Edition.


http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/07/02/microsoft-no-xbox-one-in-japan-this-year-tier-2-country-asks-journalist-not-to-report-negatively/

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-09-09-playstation-4-wont-launch-in-japan-until-february-2014

http://gac.sagepub.com/content/6/1/61.full.pdf+html

http://gac.sagepub.com/content/3/1/13.full.pdf+html?hwoaspck=true

http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/07311.36257.pdf

http://www.aughty.org/pdf/orientalist_perspective.pdf

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/04/keiji-inafune-qa/

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/09/25/western-games-may-have-won-the-tokyo-game-show-this-year/

Kojima, Hideo. (2012). Kojima: Japanese developers lack global outlook, technological skills . Available: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-16-kojima-japanese-developers-lack-global-outlook-technological-skills. Last accessed 14/11/2013.

Durkheim, Emile (1964 [1893]). The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press. (p.136).

http://www.latintimes.com/articles/10602/20131125/square-enix-focus-online-games-kh3-ff14-release-date-delay-why-financial-problems.htm#.UplWROK8N1j

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/02/feature_fire_emblems_western_adventure

Whittaker, Jason (2004), The cyberspace handbook, Routledge, p. 122, ISBN 0-415-16835-X