[GRWC8] Global Gaming [Article]
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:31 am
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Anonymous wrote:Global Gaming
The great cultural schism of the modern world lies between East and West. Since the collapse of the Roman Empire in 44BC, the world has seen no end of progression in these respective regions, branching off in unfathomably different ways. As we progress into an age where Wikinomics and Peer to Peer Sharing are redefining our global community, East and West are being pushed closer together than they’ve been in two millennia. In some fields, this has led to fascination with a different culture and social ethos, where as other practices leave us dumb founded and ethically abhorred.
Many would argue, that to an extent, the art form of video games has the capacity to bridge this social gap, and allows our respective cultures to have real insight into a radically different world. Successful video games must be designed with global appeal in mind, and in recent times we have seen this ethnological transition as one that has proved hard to master for most developers.
The sociological and anthropological causes of this gap are altogether too multifarious to consider adequately here – ranging from heritage through to political tolerance, it is evident there are an infinite number of variables to be considered by developers. Reaching the equilibrium where a game has global appeal is what these social innovators strive for.
Global releases are an expected norm, and a game that does not appeal in both regions is often labeled a ‘failure’. In style and brand obsessed Japan, the latest console will be sold as a must have accessory and in thrifty Europe, the extra features a machine offers will be the primary selling feature. In this generation, we have seen a more global demand for increasingly similar qualities. Now, games and machines have to meet world criteria, cranking the pressure up on designers more than ever.
Video games evolved into big business around the same time as the World Wide Web did. The impacts of this cannot be under estimated; players were able to correspond across the globe about a common interest, they developed their own stereotype and created their own totem figures of worship. Now, online play is an integral part of the current batch of video games on the market, and the thrill of being able to play with anyone in the world is a selling point highlighted by every company.
Nintendogs is perhaps the great success story of this generation. The idea of carrying a pet in your pocket had been a proven success in both markets, with Tamagochi’s and Pokémon being incredibly lucrative crazes. However, the incredible foresight of Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto in creating Nintendogs, was unfathomable. It launched the DS’s sales on a trip to the stratosphere in Japan, which has only now started to slow down. Eclipsing it’s rival, the Sony PSP, the DS has now even outsold the PlayStation 2 system. This phenomenon was mirrored across the waters, and the simple philosophy of cuteness and universal appeal unleashed the beast that we now refer to as ‘casual gaming’, setting off a chain reaction that has been the centrifugal marketing point for any system on the market, with titles such as Guitar Hero, Sing Star, Buzz and Wii Sports being the great modern system sellers.
Casual gaming is the love child of East and West co-operation. It is here to stay and is a financial steamroller. Generally, casual games are easier to create and thus cheaper to produce. They always offer incredibly collectable or competitive elements and have a simple aesthetic charm. By reverting to base game play styles and graphical output, games have once again become as accessible as they were in the first days of arcades.
Videogames now need to be a cultural inebriate – they offer the possibility of financial viability for large PLC’s as well as the small time developer. Anyone who can engineer the right balance between East and West, casual and hard core and fun and accessible has a memorable place in this social unification.
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