We’re all aware of the role video games have within a US and European cultures, but rarely do we know or hear very much about the importance of video games in other countries. In China, where I live, video games play a huge role in modern culture, particularly youth culture, and much of its effects I’ve noticed first-hand at the school I work. Video games are an outlet in a life otherwise full of great social pressure and hard work. In this regard video games take on a completely different form than what we may be comfortably use to.

In my school, we have an area with roughly 22 dedicated computers for students to use in their breaks or for parents who want to kill time while their child is in class. In a recent staff meeting, one of my colleagues complained about the negative influence the “computer lab” has over students. The teacher griped that many students would rush upstairs to play games on the computers during the 15 minute down time punctuating each hour of study and then subsequently loose track of time and arrive late to the second period. Obviously this is a real problem for our classes when students arrive 5 minutes to even half an hour late as they have done, and in fact regularly do, in some of my classes. (The half an hour example was, however, a once-off instance). Other teachers chimed in to the discussion, citing video games as a negative influence upon the children. The discussion moved away from the lab and into how every male student invariably uses the phrase “game over” instead of “die”, how video games seem to instil a violent tendency in some of the boys or how students could surprisingly reference a rich English vocabulary for firearms and weapons.

These are in fact real problems and as a teacher, they impede on my role as an educator. Never mind the irritation caused from comments like “teacher you’re game over”. However, video games, just like alcohol, film, junk food, pornography and literature are largely innocent on their own and further, it as not as though we can simply remove them from society. It is how society prevents possible issues that may arise from these things that is of larger importance. In which case, these issue is more of an indictment of China’s wider social problems as opposed to an intrinsic harm of the video game medium*.

*It should be noted that, equally, there are some issues on the other side of the fence too, regarding the design of maliciously addictive games.

In order to deal with the massive amount of children being educated in schools across China, the Chinese government employs heavy standardisation largely through the means of traditional examinations. Examinations play such an important role in Chinese education, culminating in what is called the gaokao 高考 (high test). The gaokao is the end-of-high-school/university-entrance examination sat around the nation every June. In the Chinese education system, your score in the gaokao represents your entire academic worth and ultimately acts to place you somewhere within China’s hierarchy of tertiary institutions. Get a good score in the gaokao and you may be accepted into one of the country’s better universities, giving you major advantage when lined up against the innumerable number of applicants gunning for the same job come 4 years times. Get a bad score and your prospects in life are all but shattered.

So obviously tests, and particularly the gaokao, are a big deal. Fail at the gaokao and your fate at the bottom of the ladder is partially sealed. Mass population and a system of standardisation built around examination and thereby ROTE learning are of great detriment to the development of critical and creative thinking, the arts as well as quality of life. And this is where video games come in.

In this world that I’ve just painted, escapism is a precious commodity. And in this modern world, nothing does escapism quite as well as video games (or the internet for that matter). With such an imbalance between work and pleasure, it’s no wonder my students are so memorised by video games. They desperately need an outlet and when they finally get it, the worth is invaluable. In this light, we can somewhat empathise with the reports we hear about Chinese people and video game/internet addiction.

The imbalances between work and relaxation are perfectly viewable from within the classroom. The majority of my students enter the class tired and exhausted. We have classes for kids that are 7-8 years-old which run until 9pm at night. With an open-minded foreign teacher replacing their unruly Chinese teacher, they treat our school like a social club, a reprieve from hard work. This is perhaps the reason why they’re so reluctant to knuckle down in our classes.

Another side of this social issue is the lack of moderation over what children play. If you thought the generation gap between you and your parents was a big deal, consider the changes that have occurred throughout China over the past 30 years. Parents of Chinese children today grew up in the decade Chairman Mao died, the Gang of Four were imprisoned and Deng Xiao Ping introduced sweeping economic reform. Thirty years later and their children are growing up in a world of mass population and accelerated capitalism on a scale the world has never seen where the rich are enormously wealthy and the poverty-stricken incredibly poor. The generation gap is massive and a significant part of that is the digital divide. Chinese parents, unlike their western counterparts, have had so little background experience with technology, that monitoring their children’s consumption habits of digital media is a challenge entirely new to them. When you have the combination of the parents unfamiliarity and the children’s almost religious like worship for video games, given that they can get access, the potential consequences for abuse are quite serious. Moderating children’s play time and actively engaging with a game together with a child is an important social responsibility threatened by the wide digital divide.

In our world, video games are a form of escapism from life’s troubles. In China, where the youth face enormous pressure in academic life due to overwhelming importance of the Gaokao and the immense amount of competition as a result of the large population, escapism is all the more precious and thereby so too are video games. Since video games are a means to escapism, they are often pinpointed as the reason behind social unrest. However, video games highlight the lack of reprieve from work in Chinese culture, bringing to light social issues such as the need for mediation between work and pleasure, the enormous digital divide and the phenomena of media addiction.

When living overseas, we often have to make concessions for the comfort activities we enjoyed when at home. Maintaining our interest and hobbies is a way for us to re-connect with an identity that can sometimes feel suffocated by the new environment and its surrounding culture. Currently, I’m working abroad in China, so for me, playing video games is a way for me to temporarily relieve myself of my predetermined role as an outsider, a foreigner. Video games, as with long distance phone calls and family photos, are comfort food for the soul, and that’s pretty important. Maintaining a hobby like video games abroad is rather tricky though, so I’ve written a list of suggestions that may help others in their relocation overseas.

Bring a Portable Console

A no-brainer, huh? Personally, I chose to bring my original DS along since it can play both DS and GBA games and I have games on both console to complete. The carts are quite small, so the DS is a relatively low fuss option if you’re willing to drag the media itself overseas. I didn’t invest in a carry case for my gear (I play portable games at home), so snap-lock Glad bags have proven sufficient for storying my cartridges. The DSi has an online store for downloadable DSiWare games, so there’s incentive to bring the newer model overseas, if you’re not interested in GBA functionality. Whether the online store still works overseas I can’t say, so it may be a good idea to stock up on games prior to leaving.

The PSP is another option, but one which can be less favourable if you’re less willing to bust the firmware. The UMD discs are a tricky to cart around in comparison to the DS game cards and the open-faced system isn’t exactly portable-friendly. Fortunately, the PSP does allow you to install games onto the device, but with PSP games ranging from 500mbs to 1.6gb in size, the option isn’t so ideal for storing multiple games.

The PSPgo, on the other hand, is an ideal solution with its 16gb harddrive. Topped with PSN classics and PSP Minis and you’ve got yourself a handy travel companion without the need for excess baggage. There’s also travel software like the Passport to [Europe] series and Talkman [Asian and Europe].

In an email, Sony Australia believe that the Playstation Store should be accessible while in China (and thereby most countries), so long as there is no interference from the web filter (a VPN is an easy solution for the latter). I personally would recommend modding your PSP for back ups. However, tread carefully as modable PSP models are no longer in production and the majority of new PSPs floating around on eBay only support temporary modification in the flash memory which is extremely fiddly.

Your iPod/iPhone doubles as a Portable Games Console

The iPod is probably the most user-friendly device for playing games overseas. It’s ultra portable, games are cheap, but above all else, you can access any of the iTunes stores from any country in the world. If you already own an iPod or iPhone and have iTunes and a computer/a wireless connection for internet access, then there’s little reason for your life overseas to hinder your mobile gaming.

Laptop, rip isos, use steam, plain installs, patches

Like the iPod/iPhone, a laptop, even an older laptop, is a great way to stay in tune with gaming. My Macbook has a Windows XP partition which houses my Steam collection, games installed completely to the harddrive, isos of games which won’t run without the CD/DVD, games patched to run without a CD/DVD in the drive, files from Good Old Games, some emulators and games (my Amiga 500 video outputs are busted) and a hoist of indie games. All in all, I have roughly 30-40 games on my Windows partition, enough to last any one a long time.

For Steam, I recommend downloading your games at home and then setting the service to ‘offline mode’ just in case anyone at home decides to boot up Steam and you’re account is suspend etc.

Web Games

Maybe you haven’t considered it, but there are literally bazillions of online games which can be enjoyed at home or in an internet cafe. NewGrounds and Kongregate are great sites for free flash games. Given everything else I’ve set up over here, I don’t often play browser-based games, but that’s by no means an assertion that they’re not worth your investment.

VPN

Since I’m living in China I’ve decided to secure my connection and avoid the internet filter by purchasing a year long membership to a virtual private network service. Depending on the country you’re living in, content may be filtered by the government and a popular target for internet filtering are games websites. Not just news and information websites like Kombo, but Flash game websites, websites for independent developers and general downloading sites which offer video game content.

Accept the Indie Scene

When I am away from the home consoles I like to veg out on indie games, because they’re just so worth your time. Here’s a couple of links to get you started.

Conclusion

On my side of the fence, being away from home offers up the opportunity to try out games which might otherwise be forgotten when at home, and there’s something very rewarding about that. I’m not a big PC gamer and I’m not as invested in the indie scene as I’d like to be, so living abroad allows me to remedy these issue, and along with the comfort food games provide, there’s really no sacrifice to my gaming diet.

Iwata Asks is simply that, Mr Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, asking questions to developers within NCL’s Japanese offices. Such insight into the development of products such as Punch Out!!, Wii Sports Resort, Nintendo DSi and Super Mario Galaxy are valuable as they are obtuse to Nintendo’s prior stringency to divulging such insider information, rare exceptions omitted. These interviews are therefore akin to golden tickets into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

I recommend that you take a read through sometime. The background stories are always interesting, of course, but the interviews too are very light-hearted, constant streams of laughter. For now though, I’ve plucked a quote from the Link’s Crossbow Training interview with Mr Miyamoto, creator of Mario, Zelda, Pikmin etc.

“If there is something simple which someone can find enjoyable, the same joy can be experienced by anyone on earth, I believe. That’s what I always have in mind when I am creating games. For example, when we were working on Wii Sports, Americans kept telling me that there was no way that games this simple would sell in the States. When Wii Sports finally went on sale though, the games included appeared to have even stronger appeal in the US than they did in Japan. When you see a phenomenon like that occur right in front of you, you start to see that there really isn’t any difference in what Asians or what Westerners find enjoyable.”

(This is another canned GameSetWatch column, I hope you enjoy.)

If 10 year product life cycles are anything to go by, then we’re perhaps a third of the way through this most recent generation of consoles. Over the past several years we’ve seen an unprecedented turning point for the industry in the form of audience expansion through the advent of casual gaming. While casual gaming will no doubt continue to embed itself as a norm of this industry, enjoying the many fruits of its labours, we can already see the swell forming for the next phenomena to succeed casual gaming and that is expansion to global audiences.

The Global Medium

Video games are hardly a global medium. Japan, America and “Europe” (includes Australia and New Zealand); the three regions where video games are most prominent in terms of shared distribution, only account for roughly 20% of the global population. Even between these divisions there remains a large disparity in available software. As an Australian player I cannot legitimately purchase PSone classics such as Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil or Spyro the Dragon through the Playstation Network. As an American player, perhaps you don’t know very much about the classic Enix RPG Terrinigma? Nay we dare discuss Japan.

The other collective 70-80% of global population have their own individual market situations. Often the means to acquire games in such regions are more complex (although not necessarily illegal, as one might assume), shifting the market in multiple, intertwining ways. Despite the natural complications, games are often no less prominent and successful in such countries, even though software distribution is rather limited, particularly of the home consoles.

So then; the Difference

What separates a China, Korea or India from becoming a Japan, America or Europe in many cases is systems of trade and systems of localization which are much narrower. Although there is a degree of generalization (comes with the territory) the 70-80% figure can be divided into two groups which I have suitably dubbed “enclosed markets” and “one-way street markets”.

China and Korea (both separate and as a joint unity) represent the former (“enclosed markets”) very well. Both countries enjoy rich game industries which can be segregated in several components; the burgeoning development industry from the mainland, rampid piracy and importation of mostly western or Japanese product from neighbouring areas (ie. Hong Kong, Taiwan) and legal consoles and software (ie. iQue, DS Lite, Wii(Korea only)). The legal, mostly online-based industry lives off the pay-per-play/pay-for-necessity model and is a thriving market. With all of the illegal stuff being detached from the mainland (ie. most of what is pirated isn’t legally available anyways) and everything legal predominately existing only in China or Korea, the Chinese and Korean games markets are in this case self-sustaining.

Unlike the enclosed markets, many of the countries that would fall into the “one-way street market” category have little or no industry of their own. Whatever industry is present usually develops for the web. Common sense given development kits are tough to come by. Jamaica embodies these characteristics. As such, there is no recognised games industry in Jamaica and local distribution is either weak or non-existent. Never ones to let down though, keen Jamaican gamers import their games and consoles either from local import vendors or through the internet. Further, enthusiastic players and community leaders in the capital Kingston will pool together their resources to form community “arcades”. In these “arcades” players can pay to play the latest games, only a couple of months (or less) after the North American street dates. So, in contrast, one-way street markets have relatively small industries of their own and rely wholly on distribution from the outside.

Fixing This “Problem”

Everything I’ve just explained shouldn’t be treated as a “problem” or “issue”, because the reality is that there will never be such a thing as a “total” global market, and nor should we believe otherwise. Games are simply product after all, and product regulation varies per country, per culture. Games are also very subjective things and as people who live in culture which shapes our sensibilities, not every game is suitable for every market or every person. The success of Madden in the UK and Australia is indicative enough of that!

Instead, it’s all about access and distribution. There’s nothing that says players in Russia pirate video games simply because they’re Russian. Rather, there is no distribution model in place which satisfies the perception of value for Russian players. Further, illegal means can give access to certain content, but not all of it. If you provide people with a reasonable deal, there’s no reason for them to turn it down. The reasonable deal obviously must adhere to the cultural norms of the respective societies which is what will shape the consideration sets of the publishers of today and the future.

Old News

Reading this far you might be forgiven into thinking this is all rather current, which is to say that it isn’t! Global expansion is old news and has been quietly developing since the start of the industry. The same countries listed as examples were acquiring games, just as they do now, 15-20 years ago through similar, if not the same means. With this said though the industry is now the largest of all forms of entertainment and distribution continues to lose physicality, ensuring that major strides are all but imminent. The following initiatives are good examples of this;

In April Sony announced that it would be releasing six to seven new titles developed specially for an Indian market in partnership with local developers. On May 25th, Brazil released their own home console Zeebo, created for developing counties and soon to be exported elsewhere. Back in 2006 Nintendo opened a new Korean subsidiary with the DS Lite and Wii releasing in the respective years that followed – both consoles have seen significant success since.

Wishful Thinking?

There are two key factors that are and will continue to affect the global expansion of the video game industry in forthcoming decades. Those being the newfound modernization of countries such as China and India and the continual success and pervasiveness of the video game industry.

As suggested, the internet is a major contributor to the latter. Physical distribution, shipping and additional expenditure that comes with it can be completely avoided through distribution platforms which run over the internet. Every country that is able, already acquires games through the internet, so for publishers it’s only a matter of value proposition. The same can be said for development; the internet creates a viable market place for developers such as the few in Jamaica.

The tools are therefore already in place, with further advancements (such as streaming gameplay) on their way. The key problem then is having someone set up a system of access which provides attractive content at a good price point through a viable means. It’s not particularly easy to do in an industry with multiple consoles, established distribution streams and individual markets, but it’s worth considering. At least, that’s my prediction of where global distribution is heading.

(This is a canned GameSetWatch column. You might notice that I’ve moved from the biweekly format. I hope you enjoy.)

Middle Eastern folk tales have for centuries held a prominent place in the world’s rich thematic of story telling. The earlier stories began their lives existing within the fragility of spoken language. If a story could garnered enough interest within a community it would spread with a pervasive force to neighbouring communities, hoping from township to township. Each step would see the tale take on new forms as cultural influences push and pull various plot points. One Thousand and One Nights is a prime example of such a story, a culmination of Arabic, Persian, Indian and Egyptian traditions and beliefs all rolled into the one collection of fables.

Print would soon come to immortalize these stories and with cross national trade taking place it wouldn’t be long before what originated as a series of stories spread among a few townships became a larger part of the world’s global culture. These stories, now translated, compiled into books and distributed globally would become the foundation for western adaptions into film and then animation. Arabian Nights (1942) The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Aladdin (1992) represent some of the most significant western adaptions of prominent Middle Eastern folk tales. In this industry though, we have Prince of Persia, a game which I would argue has an elusive purity in large part due to the rich palette it draws from.

When creating a piece of media derived from such a rich cultural background it’s important to find a comfortable middle ground which both respects the source culture and the intended audience. After all, you want the audience to enjoy the media, yet at the same time your inspiration contains the beliefs and ideologies of other people, you’d be a criminal to trample all over that by misrepresenting their values.

The Prince of Persia series does partake in its fair share of trampling and a fair share positive representation too. Context is also important, so I say it’s well worth having a look at how Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (it’s my favourite) balances either end.

(The texts are symbolic of the culture, therefore I should clarify by saying that it’s not so important that the new piece of media abides by the original text as so much as to be respectful of intents and cultural differences.)

Generally speaking, Sands of Time is similar to many modern films inspired by the Middle East. Sands of Time is an innocent stab at a popular theme mixed with western ideals and influence. Just like other western attempts it very much takes the extremely oriental perspective, treating the subject matter as the weird and wonderful, yet never quite normal — like us. There’s always a distance to be drawn. The narrative, characters and setting are therefore all set within the appropriate cultural context of western expectations and there’s nothing too culturally offensive so to speak. It might be clichéd but even in this sense, the game deserves major kudos for at least not misrepresenting the culture in this post 9/11 world. Clearly the game was made with good if not a little characterized intent.

My presumption here is that by setting the game and its cast somewhere in the past all is seen as okay since after all Middle Eastern people weren’t really all that bad back then, they’re just not very good now. Taking the safe path through Persian history allows Ubisoft to avoid dealing with the aforementioned stereotypes that westerners hold against the contemporary Middle East. The game can never put modern Middle Eastern people and positive attributes in the same pool. The characters very much reflect this attitude by firmly planting themselves as traditional. If we extend our scope a little into the latest incarnation of the series we can see a contradiction in how the heavily western Prince of Persia (2008) protagonists are designed as people with modern day sensibilities, yet the Middle Eastern folk are reserved to the safe archetype of being traditional. If they’re traditional they’re even less like us and therefore that’s okay. Alas, I digress, let’s stay focused on the characters though.

Characters are very important to this conversation as they’re role models of their culture. As with the game in general, the Prince conforms to typically western tropes, maintaining enough Persian influence through appearance and accent to justify his title of Persian descent. As a partly western character he plays the role of the masculine hero in pursuit of the buxom babe – and yes the babe is suitably buxom. His warrior’s attire very much highlights this, making him ever more masculine as he loses various pieces of his clothing. There’s both quality and detriment to this approach. Portraying the somewhat Middle Eastern protagonist as a competent, albeit western, hero is no doubt positive, yet doing so by means which suppress the Middle Eastern culture is itself misleading. An ideal means would be to depict the Prince’s gradual maturation through a Middle Eastern lens by their own perceptions of heroism. This itself though is difficult within a western context, hence the foregrounded western ideologies can be forgiven as the acceptable norm.

What cannot be forgiven though is how the most Middle Eastern appearing characters in the game; the sand creatures, are depicted as barbaric and dangerous. Most of the monsters are also significantly disfigured and equipped with privative weapons as well. Of course, they’re enemies, fodder for the Prince’s blade, they should look menacing and evil. Wrapping them up in turbans, vests and traditional garbs, and layering them with a grey skin colour and possessed eyes only appeals to our underlying racist sensibilities. Ironically, the Prince’s father in which the Prince must slay early on is the most dressed up of them all.

I’ve been rather critical so far of what is for the most part standard fair in the entertainment business, so let’s look at some of the better representations. Throughout the whole trilogy the importance of water is implicitly stressed through it’s symbolism of life. The Prince drinks water to heal and save, often having to go for multiple drinks to fully refill his health bar. Sand, through the sands of time and sand creatures may also be an opposing metaphor for death.

The game also acknowledges the early conflict between India and neighbouring countries, often referencing names within the real life setting. Furthermore the narrative frequently uses terms of Indian and Muslim hierarchy such as Maharajah and Vizier. Arabic is also encrusted on the Prince’s sword.

Conclusion

The underlying connotations of Sands of Time inherently underpin typically western ideas and norms. Yet Sands of Time‘s acknowledgement and mostly positive representation of the Middle East, while flawed, should not be understated. It’s a typical byproduct of dominant western ideologies, conforming to similarly misguided adaptions which created the precedence for Prince of Persia’s overall theme. This much is to be expected though, we see the world through our own cultural lens and our entertainment is nothing more than a reflection of that.

“I’ve referenced Zelda: Majora’s Mask twice before in this column, because it beautifully captures the feeling of cultural isolation and difference. We have a series of expectations about how the world works, this can be called our cultural understanding of the world. When we exist in a foreign culture, that understanding can be subverted by the immediate culture surrounding us. We might speak a language which isn’t our’s to people who perhaps aren’t quite like us – things are naturally going to be different. Hence when integrating into a new cultural environment the feeling of alienation often arises. You might call it culture shock, I guess.

Majora’s Mask elicits this uncomfortable feeling very distinctively by almost immediately severing ties with player’s expectations of a Zelda game. Just as one’s cultural understanding is quickly subverted in a foreign context, Nintendo destroy all player expectation’s, casting you off as a lowly Deku Scrub. And people don’t like you. In fact, you’re without justification blown off, frowned upon by members of Clock Town – even the town dog aspires for your demise.”

In the past week or so I’ve finished reading both of the GameSpite books (Year One, Volume One and GS Quarterly Spring 2009) which I thoroughly enjoyed – the best games writing you’ll find anywhere. I’m looking forward to rounding out some rather comprehensive thoughts on the massive Zelda Twilight Princess and possibly squeeze in something out on Super Stardust HD which was out this week on the Playstation Store for $3.50. Good news too, I’ve mostly finished the purchasing side of my gaming backlog, minus a handful of imports and rarities. That’s all the minor updates for now.

I’ve been thinking about this Australian larrikinism issue for about a week now as it was mentioned in one of my classes. It’s one of those ideas that’s always been at the back of my mind but never articulated that clearly. Being that us Aussies are a bunch of larrikins – simple eh? The effects of this can come out in intercultural contexts where our perception of a good time can result in a dire consequences in another’s culture. Well, that’s what the lecture was saying, I was too busy casting my mind into the pool of regret when thinking over some of my exploits in China. Ouch!

I’ve wanted to explore the Dane Bishop character for a while, and with larrikinism in hand, I could finally write something interesting about the guy. So please take a read, this entry is much shorter than my Portal analysis.

Lastly, I’m looking to write for external publications more than I have in the past. In fact, I hope that I’ll be able to migrate most of my content elsewhere. I find that writing for other publications ensures that I work harder on polishing my work and elevating my writing style; two areas that I wish to improve at. So look forward to more of that in the future. I wrote some thoughts on this here, if you’re interested.

Column: ‘Lingua Franca’ – Implications Of Dialect In Dragon Quest IV

This time around I look at the use of dialects in video games and discuss the cultural implications that dialects can have on play, as well as suggesting ways to weave this to an advantage. Initially I wasted many words finding my voice for the article, but eventually what I wanted to say came out. I’m weary of a few of the comments I made in the article, one or two which may in fact be generalizations, still the weight of the article is strong. It’s been interesting to observe the feedback from people who have a different interpretation of English dialects to my Australian flavoured opinion.

I’m really starting to find some weight behind this column, as I’m practically plundering the depths of unexplored terrain. It’s similar to a project I’m currently working on now regarding Chinese-Chinese and Chinese-foreigner communication – both fields represent a lack of proper study.

Lastly, I’ve completed the extended introduction of my next column which is a critique of Portal in regards to Erving Goffman’s work on social interaction and institutions. This is a topic that I’ve had on the tip of my pen for almost a year now, I suspect that this will probably be one of my best pieces of writing, it’s shaping up that way already.

You may hear more opinions on Dragon Quest IV in another guest article shortly.

I read a paper a few days ago taken from the first chapter of Gordon Mathews’ book Global Culture/Individual Identity – you can read the first chapter on Google Books (albeit with pages torn out). In the paper he dissects the two core definitions of culture; the traditional anthropological definition as “the way of life of a people” and the more progressive model of culture as “the global cultural supermarket”. Surprisingly the latter definition was completely new to me. On digging around the references it made sense as to why. Mathews had pretty much invented this term himself, although in the references he acknowledged previous examples on where the concept was touched upon briefly by other authors.

I don’t usually cross check references in such a way but this time I felt compelled to not only because the metaphor makes it easy to comprehend a particularly complicated issue but also because it’s such a very workable definition. Hardly perfect of course, as Mathews himself points out, but an interesting lens in which to view the subject matter.

The basic definition is that our consumerism defines our culture, the products we buy, things we consume are as Kathryn Woodward would say symbols of our identity. The global cultural supermarket is a vast database, but full access is privileged unfortunately, and this is one half of where the definition falls short. The cultural supermarket works well only within the model of modern affluent society. It doesn’t particularly cater well for lesser developed countries where the complete range of products within the supermarket is limited. Mathews slices this as being a flaw of the definition, I liken it more to an inherent issue that is part of the definition itself. Geographically the same issue exists as well, where geographical distance limits access, something Mathews didn’t actually touch upon.

The other weakness in the definition is that sometimes our consumerism within the market has no bearing on our identity. An example from the text is an American women who feels that she is of the wrong blood, so each week she eats sashimi, learns Japanese art and religion, all in the pursuit of being “the Orient”. While her involvement is governed for her lust to become Japanese, others participate in such activities purely for interest or simply because the food taste good – it plays little to no part on their concept of self identity.

Video games, like any form of consumer goods exert their own impressions of cultural identity, at least within the players mind. There’s something that has to be has to be said about fans of niche Japanese developers such as Altus, Nippon Ichi and SNK. Games consumerism is representative of culture, buying certain games and being an enthusiast of that flavour of gaming makes us appeared cultured to that respective origin.

You might be forgiven to think that I’m referring strictly to country culture (ie. culture as per the “the way of life of a people”). Where as in the case of the previous example, I’d be suggesting that players of these games would be in pursuit of the Japanese cultural identity, or at least the Japanese enthusiast/fan identity. This isn’t the only case, although it could be (again this refers to the second flaw). Players of those games may in fact be enthusiasts of the culture and identity created by the consumers of such games, I’m talking about fan cultures. Think of such purchases as aligning oneself to a particular fan culture/following.

These cultures are all multifaceted too. My previous example is by no means absolute. That is; playing games by those developers are not the fixed requirement of belonging to the culture of “Japanese wannabes”. This system is variable, and differs among tastes and interests. This is the crutch of the super market, of consumerism; you can pick and chose, accessorize if you will, or in less tainted terms create your own cultural identity through mixtures of different cultural symbols.

One last example to highlight the flexibility and divergent nature of culture. This time I’ll choose the symbols the Dizzy series, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Rare Ware. These symbols are obviously synonymous with the 1980s through to early 1990 retro gaming scene in UK. Hence they fit under a variety of cultural spectrums: video games -> personal computer gaming -> the UK -> 1980-1990s era. And if we change one of those symbols to say the Commodore 64, the spheres of cultural influence shift again. Not to say that our original selection can’t be interpreted differently (because it can as well) but that on the whole the cultural effect of each piece is very vague. Every combination and each piece are culturally identifiable in many different interpretations, hence what they offer our identity is equally up for interpretation.

Perhaps I faltered with the last example, I don’t know. Whatever the case, you can see how games operate within this idea of the cultural supermarket. I’ve also used the concept as a vector to demonstrate how slippery it is to categorize and brand culture by relating it video games and Kathryn Woodward’s idea of cultural symbols. I hope it made some sense to you.

This post was originally going to be about how Solid Snake is a terrible representation of an American born Chinese, but on going over my fact checking I realized that he is actually Japanese/American, surrogated through a Chinese mother (EVA).

I was a little dumbfounded at this revelation when watching the video that re-affirmed this for me (1:50). Mentioning of the Japanese egg donor (IVF process) seemed a little suspect, as it just appear hammed in there. I mean, it appears as though the developers simply wanted to clarify and cement the fact that Snake is actually Japanese, and not of Chinese ethnicity, the latter which would be an easy assumption given the events of MGS3, EVA’s titular title of Big Mama and how she openly states that she is Snake’s mother.

I can see how this was perhaps needed to justify the lines of Vulcan Raven in MGS1, but it does feel very self conscious of itself, that Snake is not Chinese. It really wouldn’t matter either way but consider these two previously glossed over points:

Mei Ling’s odd representation in the later half of MGS4. As I’ve mentioned before, strange, nonsensical, award sexual innuendo that makes her appear unexpectedly ditsy, particular in contrast to her more respected role in Metal Gear Solid. I just find that these two identities don’t match at all.

As I also lightly discussed earlier on this blog, EVA has no hints of being Chinese. No accent, blonde hair and unmistakably western appearance. In one of the games she justifies this (I honestly can’t recall, nor find it) but the justification that an archetypal, western Bond Girl is actually of Chinese ethnicity is a terribly hard sell.

These three ultra subtle clues, suggest some minute, no doubt culturally ingrained influences that have naturally flowed into the development process of this game. I don’t raise these points to be in any way contentious, rather, they make an interesting example of the way in which culture naturally affects video game development, as it would anything else. That we should be conscious of these hints, because, while seemingly insignificant, they are very important in the grander message.

I want to continue discussing Yakuza 2, but in a different frame of mind. Back in my article titled What I Learnt From A Stone Frog Spitting Coloured Marbles, I took the underlying principles of a post by Iroquois Pliskin regarding the way in which games teach players and adapted it to Zuma’s ball flinging frustration. This time around, I’d like to adapt the same idea (the process of how games teach us things) to Yakuza 2.

You’ll remember that in my previous entry I discussed a certain event in which I went into a bar (of sorts), chose a lady of my choice and then proceeded to eat fruit and drink beer with her while she probed me with cute questions. The whole premise of this place was completely foreign to me, as I mentioned in the post; Australia doesn’t have such places…well at least to bounds of my knowledge*.

As foreign as it was I found the whole excursion to be extremely refreshing in a way that a lot of games aren’t. Obviously the “wow, they do this shit in Japan” factor was in play, but so too was the education of “instiutional knowledge”.

As the name suggests institutional knowledge is the knowledge gained by someone who has interactions with an institution**. For example, I go to work and I know which door I have to enter in, how to swipe my card, how to speak to my superiors, how to avoid them when I want to, which people to suck up to and which people to leave alone etc. Institutional knowledge is something that is rarely taught, rather acquired over time. It’s like street smarts for an institution. Institution then can be define in many ways and not just the ones build on concrete and cement. Institutions can range from banks, restaurants and hotels to group seminars, friend relationships and catching public transport.

In the example of Yakuza 2 the game allows the player to acquire institutional knowledge on multiple instances. In fact, the gamey parts of the institutional interactions (you either select product/service, walk around or leave) to a certain extent ensure that it’s taught. Their choices provide you with some light contextualization. With this said there is enough opportunity for both realization and education of institutional knowledge within these environments.

For instance, at the bar place (it’s called Prime BTW) the game drops you into a situation where you must eat and drink. Your enthusiastic partner will ask you to select what you wish to eat and drink, with your choices affecting how well she likes you – incidentally determining if she’ll want your company again*** . The game turns these activities into smaller games which both teach and allow institutional knowledge to be self-educated. The verbal requests by staff colour the purpose of the institution, the way the staff and your lady friend respond to your requests allows mastery of knowledge to be slowly acquired. You soon figure out that buying the cheapest booze never makes her happy, or that accepting extra time results in a higher bill at the end.

Being a game set in a foreign culture, the cultural aspects layer on top of the institutional knowledge. Each country has institutions and the way that participants operate in those institutional contexts change based on cultural norms. For example; the cultural divide between the get-to-know-you-first Chinese and seal-the-deal Western trade approaches, as documented in this paper.

Yakuza 2, being a game set in an overseas, day-to-day commodity environment not only teaches the player institutional knowledge, it shares the wisdom of Japanese institutional knowledge. Everything within Yakuza’s institutions are affected by Japanese culture; the way people react to you, the rules of the institutions etc.

So what’s the point of all this then? Well, consider this. Institutional knowledge is difficult to teach, it’s something gained solely through experience. Think of any company doing business in the increasingly global market, a local business dealing with migrant customers, multiple ethnic types in the work place etc. When dealing with any intercultural context these things matter! If a video game can teach a player not just institutional knowledge, but also that knowledge in an overseas context, then there is clearly more merit here than just entertainment value.

That’s the end of the post. I did just want to include a short ranting post script too, it’s slightly detached from the main piece though.

Within the niche of foreign language and culture, the concept of the virtual classroom has been discussed at lengths with the dominance of references pointing to online life-sim Second Life. From my observations of other people’s experiences, Second Life is quite a rudimentary and troublesome medium which relies on pre-made tools and the online attendance of participants. Particularly with different time zones, the prospect collapses in comparison to the breadth and depth seen in Yakuza 2.

Yakuza 2 in reference to the virtual classroom is by no means a perfectly just relation. The upsides include greater detail and attention to authenticity, the flaws come from the lack of pre-set educational elements. Whatever the case, the argument can be made that Yakuza 2 also succeeds as an educational tool for Japanese context and etiquette.

^{*If I had Powerpoint installed on my machine I would load it up and dig out some references to justify this nonsense.}

^{**Maybe we do? I do think that if we did, the “after hours service” connotation would perhaps be less discrete, making it a different place. I don’t know, I’m not a Yakuza!}

^{***Yes she gave me her email!}

Yakuza 2 (Playstation 2) is a game that I probably would have overlooked if it wasn’t for the recommendations by several bloggers, billing this title as one of last year’s most overlooked gems. The recommendations alone piqued my interest, but the more I read into Yakuza 2 the more it revealed itself as the sort of game I’ve been looking to play.

For one, the game was caught in the trap of being a late release stuck on a console slowly on the software decline, the sort of game I can sympathize with. Secondly, Yakuza 2 appeared to adopt much of the detailed-world-and-exploration elements of Shenmue (Dreamcast); a game that I’ve always wanted to but never had the chance of playing. The most intriguing element though would undoubtedly be the cultural exuberance. As a student of cultural things I’ve always been keen to understand and discuss the ways in which culture is adapted to video games*. Yakuza 2 appeared to be a game which did this quite well. Appearances in this case are very telling as Yakuza 2 is cultural dynamite.

Yakuza 2 flaunts its culture on both macro and micro levels. The macro level implementation isn’t really worth talking about because it’s already very obvious from the outset – the game and all of it’s contents are made and set in Japan. But to just quickly form a small list of those, I’d include:

Japanese spoken dialogue during cutscenes
Japanese approach to detective/crime story telling
the setting; inner city Japan
Yakuza subject matter
authentic rendering of two respective cities including architecture, signage and products

Micro Level Implementations

I find the micro level stuff to be much more interesting as culture is most effective in it’s subtle undertones; the one’s that aren’t very often made aware to the reciever. In that respect, the mass combination of cultural subtleties are fundamentally Yakuza 2’s key strength.

Take the scene setting for example. In the frequent downtime between narrative based affairs you’ll spend a good deal of your time soaking up city life. The city environment likens itself to a real city by the way it connects the player to the street-side NPCs. Just by walking down the street, speech bubbles of text appear depicting the words of pedestrians populating the sidewalk. You can’t actually respond to the good majority of these people – and just like in real life, you probably wouldn’t intrude on the conversations of passers by – but their words create an air of atmosphere, rather than being rudimentary set pieces standing in for the sake of it. The sounds of city chatter and pictures of people grouped together in conversation complement the city vibe created by the text bubbles. Through these subtle techniques, life is injected into the city without way of graphic or sound.

The cultural relevancies of Japan are woven throughout those speech bubbles with people complaining about the differences between Osakan and Tokyo people or how the environment has changed from the way it use to be. These pieces of chatter (sometimes they are relayed through text bubbles or through player interaction) all act as a means to share cultural small talk with the player.

Within the Japanese cities are interior areas such as restaurants and bars accessible from the city hub. The internal areas are more or less avenues for spending money from your healthy yakuza bank account in turn being rewarded by your mild consumerism with experience points. The products and services in this case relate back to the culture, but again Yakuza 2 strives in the details. When it comes to food and beverages, waiters and bar tenders are keen to talk in detail about the item, how it was made and what ingredients were used to make it. These brief info-bites are chocked full of information and are delivered to you when either selecting or after purchasing a beverage/meal.

Services on the other hand come in the form of escorts, a movie renting service (in which you sit in a room provided to you and watch) and a sort of escort-like luxury service. The latter in which you go to a bar, drink and eat with a lady of your choice for a few hours. The fact that I don’t even know what to call this service (since we don’t have them in Australia!) perhaps speaks lengths as to the cultural strength of the title and how it remained unmodified for the western release. Most of these services differ from their western counterparts, some Japanese only. The fact that the game allows you to play around in such instiutions, opens up huge opportunities for cultural understanding.

Yakuza 2 graphically has a very murky, darkened look to it. It looks a little fuzzy and unclear as well. Unfortunately it does damage the experience a little, but it’s also something that I think harkens back to the cultural elements of the title. Densely populated Asian cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo are all infamous for being surfaced with a layer of dirt and dust caused by the dense population and heightened industrialism. It’s hard to know whether the game is just a little dark or if it’s a reflection of one of the more menacing aspects of Asian cityscapes.

To finish off on my tour of subtle cultural quirks I want to talk about the game’s combat, specifically the animations and sound effects behind each punch, hurl and kick. Each attack available to Kiryu animates fiercely and with swift velocity. The rushed flow of animation combined with some cringe-worthy specials evoke a sense of style similar to the rough and tough fighting scenes from the GTO Early Years manga series and undoubtedly many other examples of Asian brawling media (Hong Kong action cinema etc.).

That wraps up my observations on Yakuza 2’s cultural quirks. I’ve still only scratched the surface of the game, so this post may be followed up with more of the same as I continue to play.

_{* Unfortunately there aren’t many culturally interesting games, nor am I much of a champion of the cultural games niche.}

That’s one good example of how culture affects media in the most subtle of ways, beyond the posh British waiter and clichéd American hero. Here is another, much similar to the last. What do all of these female video game characters have in common?

Ada Wong (Resident Evil), Lian Xing (Syphon Filter), EVA (Metal Gear Solid) and Chun-Li (Street Fighter)

That’s right they are all Chinese, well the good bits.

Obviously many attributes have been toned down, while others have been toned up to fit the appropriate audiences. I mean, skin is nice and white, the orientation of the eyes are relaxed, bust is increased and clothes are not particularly Chinese in style (even by contemporary Chinese fashion). These women (excluding Chun-Li) all seem like American born Chinese instead of native Chinese.

A question to you readers, do you think that these characters quantify as culturally authentic and not characters retooled for the western audience? Judging by their appearance, accent, behaviour and so forth. Furthermore, is this perhaps a responsible thing to do and what are the implications of it?

I will share my ideas in another post..well still deciding to respond or to leave it as food for thought. (Yes, that’s right dolling them out in desperation).

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.

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.

Daniel: What sort of games do you find to be popular in Jamaica? Is there any particular style or genre?

Kirk: All genres are enjoyed in Jamaica but I find that shooting games, racing games and fighting games stand out a little more. There is also a huge following of FIFA players.

Daniel: These types of games tend to do well as multiplayer titles, I guess this goes back to that social element of Jamaican culture?

Kirk: Yes. The excitement and exuberance really gets crazy sometimes when playing with friends in local arcades.

Daniel: I noticed on your blog that you mentioned something about getting games delivered in from overseas. How do you guys normally purchase games, through standard retail or online?

Kirk: Games can be purchased at retail here but most times are available weeks late after the initial hype and then there are times when only “popular” titles or genres are supported. Good luck finding a game like Sins of a Solar Empire or Heroes of Might and Magic on a retail shelf in Jamaica. With the proliferation of technology, the internet and local courier companies, many serious gamers now purchase their games online and are then able to play them in a matter of days of their North American release.

Daniel: Much like Australia, Jamaica has a monarchy based government system. Do you find there to be any confliction between the government and video games? Such as content ratings, distribution and so forth.

Kirk: The government right now doesn’t have video games as a priority, there is no localized game rating system and there are still only a few game retailers but I think there is a lot of game creation talent here in Jamaica and who knows maybe I could open a local video game studio one day.

Daniel: You should give it a shot, there are plenty of free tools for indies to break in nowadays. Given your responses it sounds like retailers also import their games from North America. I guess in this case, the players are just cutting out the middle man, right?

Kirk: I’ll definitely give it a try once I get some personal priorities out of the way. As for the middle man, the savings are evident when we buy our games directly as there is a 10-15 percent savings for me personally when I source my games overseas.

Daniel: Jamaica is popular for it’s apt reggae music scene, do you think that there are there any games which typify this part of Jamaican culture?

Kirk: Jamaica, it’s music and culture has been playing small parts in games for decades, from as far back as Deejay in Street fighter to as recently as the Jamaican gang in the GTA series.

Daniel: What do you think of these sorts of examples? Are they realistic or just archetypal/stereotypes of Jamaican culture?

Kirk: I think it’s a little bit of both.

Daniel: How would you like to see Jamaican culture further adapted into video games?

Kirk: Without a doubt a Jamaican music game spanning long history of Jamaican music would be a definitely hit.

Daniel: Say, you told me before about your local arcade in which you go to play some games (Area 51). It seems a little different from the concept of arcades that I’m familiar with, that is a series of arcade machines in which you insert coins and so forth. Can you explain this set up some more?

Kirk: Area 51 is a very unique arcade and I am good friends with the owners. Their aim was to reproduce a living room environment for gamers to come and enjoy playing with friends, hence the accessible consoles systems, comfortable seating, huge plasma screens, massive video game library and refreshments under one roof. The coin arcade system has been tried here but all have failed, that sort of arcade experience is exclusive, expensive and restrictive, plus with new games coming more and more frequently and with customers always wanting the latest and greatest the the arcade machine died in the previous century.

Daniel: So there’s no retro-love for the old coin ‘op or older titles? Beyond the cost (it’s expensive over here too) why do you think that is? Lack of nostalgia or history with this style of play?

Kirk: Apart from massive 80’s arcade hits like Pacman and Space Invaders there was never a coin ‘op culture in Jamaica. Although there have been video games here from before I think the Super Nintendo truly kick started the video game sub-culture here.

Daniel: Who decides on what games are available in the arcade? Do users get an input?

Kirk: The arcade is nothing without it’s loyal customers and they play and important part in deciding which games are available. Gamers in Jamaica are no longer in the dark about which games are available and at times follow games for many months via magazines and websites with the intention of playing them at the arcade as soon as they get released (Gears of War 2). The Area 51 team also tries to introduce new less popular games to the customers, one such example was Time Splitters for the original Xbox which was unknown but when introduced became very popular with players at the arcade.

Daniel: I love Timesplitters, although it’s hard to find down here. Which games tend to be the most popular at Area51? Why do you think this is?

Kirk: Multiplayer games without a doubt are most popular for obvious reasons. Game series like Smash Bros, Halo, Gears of War, Tekken, Need for Speed, Call of Duty and FIFA are popular because although you can played online it’s more personal or should I say social when you are playing with friends on a couch right beside you or just across the room, a headshot in an 8 player game of Gears of War is so much sweeter when you can see the recipient’s reaction and run over for a few seconds with your team to do some friendly jeering. ^_^

Check out this video to see some of the popular games and set-up of Area 51 in early 2008.

Daniel: Do many of the players in the arcade also play games at their homes?

Kirk: Yes. I’d say 90% of the arcade visitors also have at least one video game system at home.

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. ^_^

What do you think makes gaming in the UK different from gaming in other western countries like America or Australia?

Bruce Everiss

The USA definitely likes shooters more than Europe does. This is one of the reasons the Xbox 360 is doing a lot better in America than it is in Europe.

The Australians love localised games. At Codemasters we had the best selling game launch ever in Australia with V8 Supercars, based on their top car racing series. And Shane Warne Cricket was another great success for us there.

Damon

I think the main difference about gaming in the UK is the expected ill treatment at the hands of publishers and hardware companies. I’m speaking as a gamer now, and not as a marketing man, so I find it frustrating when the UK has traditionally had to cope with some seriously long delays before finally getting a game – sometimes a year or more later than America or Japan. It has improved with this generation of consoles but there are still some extreme cases like “Rock Band” which was only recently released in the UK but already we see that “Rock Band 2” is out in the States.

Hardware pricing is still an issue where we’re expected to pay far more to get our hands on state of the art kit. Historically I’ve always felt like the UK was a second (or third) class gaming country with the aforementioned problems, and due to the PAL hardware we’ve also had to put up with sub-par game conversions that ran slower and included horrendous letter-boxing compared to our NTSC cousins. Again this is something that has now more or less been remedied but we don’t forget lightly the sins of the past.

The UK has always had a respectable number of game developers, do you feel that games made in the UK have their own flavour to them? Should they? And is this important?

Bruce Everiss

The UK game heritage comes from the Sinclair Spectrum in the 1980s. There were many thousands of bedroom coders who experimented with everything to do with video gaming. This made the UK game industry very sophisticated well before any other country. It is why you will now find British development staff in most game development studios in the world. Which means that we exported our gaming knowledge and sophistication inside the brains of all the many development staff who emigrated.

Damon

Alas, I feel games which are still made in the UK nowadays are now more representative of a generic western games model and what publishers and development houses feel will actually sell in the big territories i.e. America. It’s a rare thing these days to find a game where you can instantly tell that it was made by a UK developer.

I feel that UK games have lost there identity, gone is the sarcastic wit, or the eccentric humour you’d expect to see. Even if an element of culture is represented it’s usually the extremes like the posh upper class English accent, or the overuse of cockney rhyming slang. The days where games like “Monty on the Run”, “Manic Miner”, or “Jet Set Willy” were produced to reflect political events in the UK are long gone. It’s a shame because any media whether it is video games, movies, or music, should still reflect the culture it comes from to some extent, and of those three mentioned only the latter two really succeed in this aspect.

What aspects of games do you think appeal more favourably to players from the UK?

Bruce Everiss

I think that the UK market is more mature in it’s game understanding. We have forums like rllmuk which don’t exist anywhere else. It is taken very seriously. So I think that a far wider range of genres are accepted here. And there is far less belief of marketing bullshit.

Damon

There seems be a blossoming casual market in the UK with games like “Brain Training”, “Wii Fit”, “Wii Play”, and other party games faring particularly well in the software charts. Apart from that racing games are always popular, and it goes without saying really that as soon as a football game (FIFA or Pro Evo) is released it will sell by the bucket load.

Lastly, PAL gamers often seem to draw the short straw when it comes to release dates, prices and general publisher attention. Why is this a mistake?

Bruce Everiss

This is easy to understand. USA and Japan are both NTSC (Never Twice Same Colour) and that is where most of the big publishers are. So they look after their own markets first. This is gradually changing as they start to realise that Europe is the biggest market in the world. Simultaneous global launches are becoming a lot more common as marketing departments become more professional, the advantages are huge.

Damon

I touched upon my frustrations earlier but in the specific sense of “why is it a mistake”: I’d have to say that if a something is delayed for too long then personally I’ll just forget about it, no matter how good it is, and move onto something new instead. I’ve probably missed out on quite a few excellent games because I just got fed up of waiting. I can imagine quite a few PAL gamers, unless they’re devoted followers of a franchise, adopt the same attitude.

I think UK gamers are now getting a bit more savvy with regards to pricing. Unfortunately it’s taken for granted that we’ll usually pay more and the result is that most consumers will wait until the price becomes reasonable before deciding to purchase. There’s also a large second hand market which a lot of gamers resort to, the profits of which will all go to the shop (GAME, Blockbuster, Gamestation) rather than the publishers and developers.

It’s 11:30pm on a week night and I’m starting to get a little worried. My list of ready-made blog articles are beginning to shrink and I desperately need some more ideas to fight the tide. There are plenty of hand-wavy ideas in the slosh but I need something to jump out at me, so I load up Google Reader and read until something clicks. It doesn’t take long for someone else’s work to remind me of one of those endearing ideas that I’d left on the wayside a few months back, and then without even thinking I’ve found a way to segue it into culture. Wow too good, now..no more procrastination.

Social Stigma of Games

As someone apt enough to be reading this blog, I suspect that social stigma in relation to video games should be a familiar topic. I certainly am familiar with it. Fortunately the transition from high school to university (and the catching up in maturity levels) has eased the stigma a little. Transforming the perception of social inadequate over to fruitful, interesting…maybe even sophisticated if I lie to them and say that I “do” games criticism.

Despite the change, there is no doubt that being a consumer of this medium brings with it a lot of social baggage. You can see it in their faces, when you let it slip that you spent last weekend hunched in a dark room, glorifying over the onscreen fireworks display instead of having a night out with some friends, beverages and maybe a funny story or two.

Why though? Why does playing games automatically place us on the bottom rung of the social ladder? There are many good reasons, all more or less due to a lack of understanding, you can read some of them here.

Oh yeah…Culture!

How could I write an article without including the flavour of the month? Ignore the sarcasm because I have no plans on shoehorning this in for the sake of it.

When I think of the social heirachy dictating Western culture, I often come up with a phrase much the same as the following; “we all seek security in the flaws of others”. In such situations, depending on the exchange at hand, games can be seen as a crack in our social construct, one which can be exploited by others for personal leverage, ie. face. Unfortunate isn’t it?

That’s just amateur anthropology mussings though. Let me make this relevant again by introducing games and culture. Imagine culture as a pointer that deviates social typography, don’t think too hard about it, otherwise it becomes needlessly confusing – this is the messiness of culture. Now let’s step out of western culture for a second and see what happens.

What happens is very intriguing because different cultures place games in slightly different positions in their social mindset. Two weeks ago, I was attempting to explain to my Chinese friend how it is that I am socially decredited for playing games. Even after explaining this a few times in both English and Chinese, my friend still did not understand the justification.

She responded saying that some of her friends (also friend’s of mine) are avid game fans and despite this they were the most popular people in their university classes. And that basically, my explanations make no sense because this mindset (ie. playing games as a social weakness) doesn’t exist in China.

With this idea in hand, think of what this means for people who play games in China. It promotes a much healthier image about games. As pathetically true as this sounds, you can play games and not be worried about what your friends may think of you.

This reflects on the demographic as well, I’ve seen plenty of females, older people and couples playing games in internet cafes over here. It’s interesting. Even my friend’s mother plays games via the QQ Instant Messaging service (quite popular that).

This is purely one example of how cultural diversity can affect player demographic and then pretty much everything else.

My travel to Shanghai has done a lot to postpone and yet at the same time nurture my thoughts on culture. Now that I am over here and settled, I’ve finally gathered my ideas together and have a plan on how to address the complicated matter of culture and games. I also wish to stir in my commentaries of games in China as it’s most appropriate. Here is my plan of attack;

Rough Definition of Culture:

Culture can roughly be defined as a set of socially transmitted norms that characterize the behaviour of a community. Our culture affects our understanding of the world around us and hence dictates how we behave in this space.

For starters, culture is an unwieldy beast when it comes to definition and it would be stupid of me to try and explain it all, if that were even possible. As such, I’d like to cut a slice out of the definition and just look at that. This slice is what I’d refer to as ‘world culture’, that is the differences between countries, states, provinces and regions.

Secondly, to further adjust the lens, I think that we’d be best to analyze this issue on the rationale of “How culture affects games” and not the other way around. With games being industry, community and design.

I want to talk about this issue as there isn’t much coverage in general about games from a global perspective outside of Japan, American and Europe. Even out of the three, game coverage is still largely skewed towards America. Despite this games are a powerful medium in other countries too, which is what I wish to look at as well as the influence of culture since there isn’t much talk of that either.

Games and Culture

Introduction
Perspectives from Different Cultures
-series of interviews
China, Games and Culture
-series of articles
Various Articles
-Implausibility of niche cultures, Markets and Cultures etc.
Culture Affecting Game Design
-case studies
Conclusion

Since I’ll be working on this topic for a few months, this isn’t intended to be a single stream of posts, put out in that order but instead this is just an outline of what I wish to look at and how it all relates to one another. If you have any ideas or think that you can contribute then please comment or send me an email (daniel [at] danielprimed.com). Will try and get the contact form fixed soon.

I’ve spent the past weeks in Shanghai and after a lot of commotion I have finally settled down and am ripping into my studies. Of course, as I promised, I have been keeping my eye out on the state of gaming in China, while I will undoubtedly be going more in depth on these issues on the future – you know I gotta makes some more friends first – for now here is everything that I have noticed in dot point form.

Firstly, it must be said that with or without piracy, games are big in China, much as they are around the world.

A driving force behind that are Internet Cafes (Wang Ba) which provide facilities for the most popular games in China this includes games that can be played locally, as well as access to movies, instant messaging and a wealth of other services.

Many of the internet cafes are themed around gaming with furnishings inside very similar to the old Time Zone arcades.

The most popular games in the internet cafes seem to be World of Warcraft and Counter Strike with random card and party games also being popular (I think these are linked to QQ; China’s most used instant messaging service).

People spit on the floors of the internet cafes – spitting is normal in Chinese culture but this shocked me – and smoking is allowed and often taken up by the participants.

I noticed a shortcut to Bookworm Adventures on my computer.

Much like in other Asian countries, the arcades still maintain a significant following in China, both new and older titles. I’ve been to one arcade in Xujiahui (Shanghai’s electronics centre) so far which had most of the typically popular games for arcade players. Also plenty of sponsers from Sega.

Most popular arcades game is – no surprise – King of Fighters ’98, this is the most tournament likened KOF game.

Department stores seem reluctant to sell video games or consoles full stop (I tried two upper class stores and a Best Buy).

Although I did notice on the Samsung TV displays – everything is divided by brand and seems individually licensed out – they had 1080p video of Street Fighter 4. Samsung TVs are popular for their colour so it was a suitable selection.

Electronic stores (as in crowded complexes filled head to toe with electronics) do sell games though. Maybe I am not looking in the right place but they don’t seem to popular in contrast to laptops and whatnot. I think that I need to find the pirated goods store.

Most games on sale are probably legit (well at least where I was; a lot of *seemingly* brand sponsored stalls).

All games are NTSC, being either Japanese or Hong Kong imported, proving that nobody wishes to sell games directly to China.

Nintendo do though and their products are co-branded with ‘iQue’ so that is ‘iQue Nintendo DS Lite’ etc.

I have also spotted several DS card readers with the mini SD cards, too bad for the iQue.

Overall though the PSP seems to be the most popular console (handheld or otherwise), although I didn’t check, the consoles on sale are again probably Hong Kong or Japanese. They’d have to be as they had so many colors available.

The PSP is also beating the DS in the subway wars.

Oh yeah, the Wiis would have been from Japan as they had Tales of Synphonia 2 being demoed and I confirmed with the shop keeper that it was Japanese.

Also the reason why the PSP is so popular is because they are the easiest to crack and get games for.

Lastly, when I was in best buy they had a rom or hack of Super Mario All Stars going on one of the laptops (looked like a hack) with a PS2 styled controller hooked up.