Thursday, Apr 20, 2006
I've noticed a trend amongst Lemmings in the forums recently. Calling the Japanese racist simply because they don't support the XBox franchise like Sony and Nintendo's franchises are supported. I wrote this in a post where such foolishness was reaching an extreme, then later thought it was so well written that I'd post it here.
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Japan is no more or less racist than any other country in general. I'd go as far as to say the US has a more general racist/predjudiced attitude than Japan(though they both have their moments). Saying they don't buy the XBox because they don't like Americans is just stupid to an extreme. Lets take a rational look at the situation shall we?
Fact: Japan is more technologically advanced than 99% of the world at any randomly chosen time.
Result: Casuals tend to believe Japanese products are technologically superior to other products. There is no racism here, it's simply a fact that the casuals depend on. There are exceptions, but what casual notes the odd exception to the rule?
Fact: Japan loves rpg games, and quirky games.
Fact: The XBox franchise is lacking in these genres, though it's doing better than it used to be.
Result: The XBox won't get as many sales due to a smaller library of games that are enjoyed by the culture compared to it's competitors.
Fact: Japan has known Sony and Nintendo both as big names for a good 20+ years.
Fact: Japan has known the name of Microsoft since at most about 10-15 years, with only 10 of those as a big name. Only 5 as a console gaming company.
Result: Sony and Nintendo enjoy more name recognition and trust than Microsoft.
Fact: Microsoft has a horrible reputation for bugs regarding it's Windows software, as evidenced by a recent Windows update causing the vast majority of all HP PC's crashing shortly thereafter.
Result: People don't tend to trust Microsoft. This is one of the reasons I believe they haven't gained as much ground in North America and Europe as they might have, not to mention Japan. Sony can lie about a feature, then not bring it out. Who did it hurt? Nobody but the fan boys. Microsoft screws up your PC and causes a fatal error in your HDD thanks to not sufficiently testing their security update. 20 GB of info gone forever. Dozens of companies are paralyzed until someone figures out how to fix it(usually Microsoft is not the first to develop a patch, though sometimes they pull it off). Which one of these issues are you more likely to remember five years down the road?
I probably just wasted my fingers for some of the Lemmings, but perhaps others will see the reality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Japan is no more or less racist than any other country in general. I'd go as far as to say the US has a more general racist/predjudiced attitude than Japan(though they both have their moments). Saying they don't buy the XBox because they don't like Americans is just stupid to an extreme. Lets take a rational look at the situation shall we?
Fact: Japan is more technologically advanced than 99% of the world at any randomly chosen time.
Result: Casuals tend to believe Japanese products are technologically superior to other products. There is no racism here, it's simply a fact that the casuals depend on. There are exceptions, but what casual notes the odd exception to the rule?
Fact: Japan loves rpg games, and quirky games.
Fact: The XBox franchise is lacking in these genres, though it's doing better than it used to be.
Result: The XBox won't get as many sales due to a smaller library of games that are enjoyed by the culture compared to it's competitors.
Fact: Japan has known Sony and Nintendo both as big names for a good 20+ years.
Fact: Japan has known the name of Microsoft since at most about 10-15 years, with only 10 of those as a big name. Only 5 as a console gaming company.
Result: Sony and Nintendo enjoy more name recognition and trust than Microsoft.
Fact: Microsoft has a horrible reputation for bugs regarding it's Windows software, as evidenced by a recent Windows update causing the vast majority of all HP PC's crashing shortly thereafter.
Result: People don't tend to trust Microsoft. This is one of the reasons I believe they haven't gained as much ground in North America and Europe as they might have, not to mention Japan. Sony can lie about a feature, then not bring it out. Who did it hurt? Nobody but the fan boys. Microsoft screws up your PC and causes a fatal error in your HDD thanks to not sufficiently testing their security update. 20 GB of info gone forever. Dozens of companies are paralyzed until someone figures out how to fix it(usually Microsoft is not the first to develop a patch, though sometimes they pull it off). Which one of these issues are you more likely to remember five years down the road?
I probably just wasted my fingers for some of the Lemmings, but perhaps others will see the reality.
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