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As part of my research<\/a> 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<\/a> and UK game marketer Bruce Everiss<\/a> for their time in helping me along.<\/p>\n 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. ^_^<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What do you think makes gaming in the UK different from gaming in other western countries like America or Australia?<\/strong><\/p>\n Bruce Everiss<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Damon<\/em><\/p>\n I think the main difference about gaming in the UK is the expected ill treatment at the hands of publishers and hardware companies. I\u2019m 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 \u201cRock Band\u201d which was only recently released in the UK but already we see that \u201cRock Band 2\u201d is out in the States.<\/p>\n Hardware pricing is still an issue where we\u2019re 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\u2019t forget lightly the sins of the past.<\/p>\n 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n Bruce Everiss<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Damon<\/em><\/p>\n 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\u2019s a rare thing these days to find a game where you can instantly tell that it was made by a UK developer.<\/p>\n I feel that UK games have lost there identity, gone is the sarcastic wit, or the eccentric humour you\u2019d expect to see. Even if an element of culture is represented it\u2019s usually the extremes like the posh upper class English accent, or the overuse of cockney rhyming slang. The days where games like \u201cMonty on the Run\u201d<\/a>, \u201cManic Miner\u201d<\/a>, or \u201cJet Set Willy\u201d<\/a> were produced to reflect political events in the UK are long gone. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n![\"rock](\"http:\/\/danielprimed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/rockband2.jpg\")
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