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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
Yodariquo said:Well, you'd have to define "American" then. It's tricky, because development has been until more recently heavily either in the US or Japan, thanks to those being the centres of the actual systems themselves. And when a country is culturally identified with guns and explosions, it's hard not to cross paths in a videogame.
By "american" I meant of the United States of America -- thus the quote marks. I guess the bottom line question is that a lot of non-Japanese games are made around the world (just look at the back pages of EDGE to see all the non-US developers) and yet most of them feel like they were made in West LA (even if they were made in Melbourne, Vancouver, Dublin or Vladivostok).
aspro said:
Yodariquo said:Well, you'd have to define "American" then. It's tricky, because development has been until more recently heavily either in the US or Japan, thanks to those being the centres of the actual systems themselves. And when a country is culturally identified with guns and explosions, it's hard not to cross paths in a videogame.By "american" I meant of the Unite States of America -- thus the quote marks. I guess the bottom line question is that a lot of non-Japanese games are made around the world (just look at the back pages of EDGE to see all the non-US developers) and yet most of them feel like they were made in West LA (even if they were made in Melbourne, Vancouver, Dublin or Vladivostok).
I didn't mean geographically speaking, but the concept of "feeling American" and what that actually means. Another aspect is the aspiration to movies wherein the premiere focus is on movies out of the US.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:aspro said:Yodariquo said:Well, you'd have to define "American" then. It's tricky, because development has been until more recently heavily either in the US or Japan, thanks to those being the centres of the actual systems themselves. And when a country is culturally identified with guns and explosions, it's hard not to cross paths in a videogame.By "american" I meant of the Unite States of America -- thus the quote marks. I guess the bottom line question is that a lot of non-Japanese games are made around the world (just look at the back pages of EDGE to see all the non-US developers) and yet most of them feel like they were made in West LA (even if they were made in Melbourne, Vancouver, Dublin or Vladivostok).
I didn't mean geographically speaking, but the concept of "feeling American" and what that actually means. Another aspect is the aspiration to movies wherein the premiere focus is on movies out of the US.
I hear you now. You mean that if you look at novels, film, fashion or music no matter where the are poduced outside of Japan they too are also "american". So pop-culture is of the United Staes? I think that people from Canada are probably uniquely qualified to understand this as they have the best understanding of what the US is actually like and also what it is not like (Canada). So can you point to a uniquely Canadian game? One that best exemplifies what Canadian culture is like? Strangely, I think of Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, for whatever reason (though I think it is set in a faux NY and developed in my former home town in So.Cal.
I can't think of a game that really takes in the Australian ethos either (even though there are some quality dev houses down here).
aspro said:I think that people from Canada are probably uniquely qualified to understand this as they have the best understanding of what the US is actually like and also what it is not like (Canada).
You stated it very appropriately here. Given the relative segregation of other countries (we're literally an ocean's apart from Europe and Asia), we're more prone to definition based on comparison and how we're different and not how we're defined. For lack of better phrasing, Canadian culture is basically a less obnoxious version of American culture.
If you try to break it down, in terms of values we'd be defined by multi-culturalism and peacefulness, and materially by nature, beer and hockey. I can't really say I've played a game and said "this feels Candian."
If I were going to select a game as distinguishing itself, I'd go with Company of Heroes. Wherein the typical American affair has you as the lone hero winning the war, you see the wider struggle, while still being close enough to the action to appreciate it. But I'm probably thinking too much on that, and I haven't played it.
At any rate, it still stands that you have to establish what characteristics are considered distinctly American so we can understand what makes a game seem that way. Potentially it could be a matter of the default position: Is this game Japanese? No. Does it show any European aesthetic? No. Does it...? No. Default: American.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:At any rate, it still stands that you have to establish what characteristics are considered distinctly American so we can understand what makes a game seem that way. Potentially it could be a matter of the default position: Is this game Japanese? No. Does it show any European aesthetic? No. Does it...? No. Default: American.
Yeah that's pretty much it. You know, it makes me sad that you as a Canadian can say that you have not played a game and felt that "yeah, this is a canadian game". I'm pretty sure you could watch a TV show, listen to a song or read a book and go -- yeah this is a Canadian form of media -- I know I can do that regarding a So.Cal. Product or Australian product -- but we can't do that about games, even though there are tonnes of quality devs in both Canada and Australia.
All Rare games used to have that British sense of humor. Killzone 2 has guys with Dutch names, Witcher is based on a famous Polish fantasy novel, some Ubisoft games feel French.
However there are many games that are culturally blank. De Blob is originally Dutch, but the only way to tell it is by the word 'de'. World if Goo is American, but it could have been created in Switzerland and no one would find it strange.
aspro said:I wanted to tap into one of the benefits of this site -- our cosmopolitan diversity -- and ask if you think that "western games" (that is non-Japanese games) are "American" only or if there are games out there that represent the ethos and spitit of their native countries.
Games are developed all over the world, but when you lok at the sum total (except for Ancel's games) they generally come off as being disinctly "american" and no representaive of their native country. When I look at the games from Starbreeze they do have a distinct nordic feel to them, others point to FEAR (I think) as being distinctly Russian, but beyond that I cannot think of many examples.
Good question and its something I was thinking about in the other thread. You have western developers, European and Canadian but the games they make almost always attempt to ape american style games.
Rockstar Scotland are somewhat strange, they have such huge success in their games yet it takes another company to make a GTA style game set in a UK city - The Getaway.
I dont think a game has to be completely steeped in the culture of the developers country, but when games are set in different countries they usually have an american lead. Why is this so important? I would like to see a different perspective.
Games are developed all over the world, but when you lok at the sum total (except for Ancel's games) they generally come off as being disinctly "american" and no representaive of their native country. When I look at the games from Starbreeze they do have a distinct nordic feel to them, others point to FEAR (I think) as being distinctly Russian, but beyond that I cannot think of many examples.