Observations from the Shanghai Subway
November 10th, 2008
After being here for maybe two months I’ve realized that I haven’t actually said much about the gaming scene in China. I’ve been to a few arcades, shuffled through pirated and import markets, observed gaming on the subway and made friends who all play games in some form or another. I also have a room mate who owns a Japanese Sega Saturn, although, he is creepy, so I probably won’t explore that avenue!
The only facet that I feel well grounded in is gaming on the Shanghai subway, which is much more prominent than you might first assume. Inspired by Stephen Totilo, I decided to keep a tab of the number of times I spotted a handheld game being played on my daily commute and back. Unfortunately, the more I tally, the more I realize how useless my original plan is since the PSP is wiping the floor clear.
While Mr Totilo counted something near 70 PSPs on the New York subways in over a year, in only two months I have see upwards of 30 PSPs being played. I see at least one PSP player a day, sometimes up to five or six. The DS on the other hand is much lower but I occasionally spot a DS, which my tally being up to around eight. It’s quite obvious which way the data will skew, so I have decided to give up counting.
A lot of rich Shanghai’ers are also equipped with flashy mobile phones too and much like anywhere it is common to see people flash them out in public. The most popular mobile phone games are simple card games, Mahjong and Bubble Bobble.
For the DS I’ve spotted one of the Harvest Moon games being played (the 3D, isometric one) as well as some Castlevania. I’m not sure if people are using a SD card adapter but it is likely as they are readily available.
For the PSP I have seen it been used for a number of features. Games have included God of War, GTA: LCS, Jean D’arc and a number of popular Asian titles; weird stuff like half turn based, half board game RPGs. The PSP is also used quite often as a movie and MP3 player, I see more of this in public than games being played. Most surprising of all is that the most widely used function of the PSP (and by a considerable margin) is to display .txt files. Ridiculous I know, but is quite common to see passengers scrolling through a novel of Chinese characters while jammed between the divides.
And that concludes all that I have to report. I want to do some general surveys on gaming in China soon, wrap up my thoughts on internet cafe culture and start doing some actual analysis of networked games that my friends are hooked on as well as the pirating/import scene. I’m currently doing some general online and forum research.
Exploring Jamaican Game Culture (Interview)
November 1st, 2008
Continuing on from the last set of mini-interviews, I would like to turn our attention now to Jamaica. This time I have recruited Kirk from the Infidel Gamer blog to discuss the state of play over in Jamaica. We talk about a number of topics such as games that appeal directly to Jamaican people, how Jamaican culture is represented through games as well as the local arcade. I hope you enjoy.
Daniel: First off, I should probably start by asking; what do you think sets the Jamaican style of gaming apart from other countries?
Kirk: Firstly thank you for interview opportunity Daniel. From my observation and experience I think that the Jamaican style of gaming is different from other countries because Jamaicans are social gamers who enjoy playing not only at home but in a group with friends.
Daniel: Where do you think this comes from? Do Jamaicans usually do things together in a particularly social manner, together in each other’s company (hence games are a natural extension of that)?
Kirk: I would say most definitely. Now that I think about it Jamaicans really are social people who enjoy going out and interacting with each other. Video games highlight that trait as although many households now have access to the latest games, nothing beats going out and playing with friends.
UK Gaming Survey
October 29th, 2008
As part of my research into culture and games I knew that I’d need some help. There is no way that I can provide a legitimate case for the matter if I don’t provide more perspectives than just my own. Especially when dealing with something like culture. As such I’ve been calling upon the help of others to help substantiate this investigation (I make it sound so serious >_<). So to kick things off I want to take things slowly and explore the subtle nuances dividing the UK from other western countries. I’d like to thank Damon from the Consolation Prize blog and UK game marketer Bruce Everiss for their time in helping me along.
The point of this article is to warm you into the idea of differences among seemingly similar cultures. It’s an introduction of sorts thanks to the insightful responses which should act as a starting point for further analysis. I put a lot of thought into the questions, so I hope you get a lot out of it. ^_^
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