kitsunebi's talking to himself again

[kitsunebi]

4 hours ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

I want to buy one of these Famitsu Xbox magazines to see what articles they ran. Did they feature many western titles for a western console or did they only showcase the few games that Japanese developers created for the console?

I just flipped through a Famitsu from June 2001.  Not a single one of its 214 pages features a Western game.  Not an ad, not even a tiny preview panel.

The only place the Xbox appears is in the black and white release schedule of upcoming games.  Unlike the hundreds of PS1/PS2 games listed, the Xbox has...5 games listed for release in the final 6 months of 2001, and one game scheduled to be released in 2002.  The only Western game scheduled for release is Myst III.

What's especially amusing about the Xbox's pathetically small release schedule is the fact that the %#$%ing WONDERSWAN has 20 titles scheduled for release during the same timeframe.

EDIT: And the Game Boy (the original - the one released in the 80s) has 40 titles scheduled for release.

[Ethereal Dragonz]

Do you feel a lack of exposure is still the case today? The Japanese can see gameplay video and reviews outside a controlled system because of the prevalence of the Internet, so it seems like if Western games are not successful in Japan now, it really is because of an ingrained cultural acceptance (Although they do like Western movies).

Best selling games in Japan 2017: (0 Western titles)
https://kotaku.com/here-are-the-biggest-selling-games-in-japan-in-2017-1824250532

Best selling games in the USA 2017: (3 Japanese titles)
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/top-10-best-selling-games-of-2017-revealed-in-the-/1100-6456205/

[kitsunebi]

1 hour ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

Do you feel a lack of exposure is still the case today? The Japanese can see gameplay video and reviews outside a controlled system because of the prevalence of the Internet, so it seems like if Western games are not successful in Japan now, it really is because of an ingrained cultural acceptance (Although they do like Western movies).

Best selling games in Japan 2017: (0 Western titles)
https://kotaku.com/here-are-the-biggest-selling-games-in-japan-in-2017-1824250532

Best selling games in the USA 2017: (3 Japanese titles)
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/top-10-best-selling-games-of-2017-revealed-in-the-/1100-6456205/

Absolutely.  Remember, no one in Japan games on PCs.  So they're stuck with whatever gets released domestically on the consoles, and that selection is relatively small.

Don't get me wrong - there are more Western games released in Japan than ever before, due in large part to the undeniable strength and international popularity of Western titles in recent years, and some of them, like Minecraft, are very successful.  But the number of Western titles released in Japan is still significantly lower than the number of Japanese titles released in the West.

A part of the problem is that no matter how far Western (console) game development has come, it will always be at a huge disadvantage from an historical standpoint.  Those 3 Japanese titles in the top 10 selling games in the USA are all sequels to series that began in the NES era.  Multiple generations of Western gamers have grown up playing Japanese games, and characters like Mario and Link are as popular as they are in Japan (sometimes moreso).  But Japan has only recently begun taking certain Western games seriously (and to be fair, if you're looking strictly at Western console games, there really wasn't much to pay attention during the critically formative 8/16-bit eras).  They didn't grow up playing Western games, so there are very few Western titles with any kind of far-reaching legacy (outside of, bizarrely, Wizardry.)

[kitsunebi]

Out of curiosity, I dug out a Famitsu from September 2015, which is one of the newest ones I own.  There weren't any advertisements or previews for any Western games, but there was a 14 page feature on "sandbox" games which actually spent 13 pages talking about Minecraft and only a single page talking about some Japanese sandbox games.  So I guess that's something!  There were 2 Western games in the top30 bestseller list: Minecraft: PS Vita Edition (#11) and Batman: Arkham Knight (#16).

[Ethereal Dragonz]

I hope I live long enough for you to open up the Famitsu floodgates and dump all of these great magazines online 

[kitsunebi]

Famitsu is a lost cause when you consider you'd have to release more than one issue per week to even make any progress.  I've released 10 issues of Famitsu in the past 2 years.  Meanwhile, Famitsu has published 100 issues in that time.  So we're 90 issues further behind than when I started.

[kitsunebi]

And speaking (once again) of Famitsu, I'd like to apologize for a bunch of shit-quality covers I'm about to upload.  I'd rather have a low-res piece of crap cover in place than a blank spot in the database and I'll tell you why:  As someone who has spent untold hours combing through google searching for cover images, I can tell you that it is IMMENSELY helpful to know what you're looking for.  If I need a cover for issue 362 of JimBob's Gamin' Mag, knowing what the cover looks like before starting my search can save me tons of time having to look at every single image of JimBob's Gamin' Mag I come across.  I can just quickly scan the page to see if I recognize the image I'm searching for.

So by putting low quality covers in place (which I've already spent a great deal of time searching for), it will help me or whoever else in the future to more easily find a better quality cover, should one ever appear (you never know what will show up in an auction or a twitter post).

That said, I'm entering into the lean times of Famitsu's run, so far as the Internet is concerned.  1998-2011 or so have a pretty weak presence online.  They aren't old enough to be interesting to nostalgia buffs, and they aren't new enough to have been documented online when they were new.  From 2012 onward, Japan seems to have slowly joined the Western world in getting things online and embracing online commerce, so various websites and webstores have documented those newer issues.  But I suspect there will be quite a few holes and quite a few less than ideal covers posted for those years I mentioned.  Still,  I've already got over 900 Famitsu covers posted, and that ain't a bad start.

[orenronen]

19 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Out of curiosity, I dug out a Famitsu from September 2015, which is one of the newest ones I own.  There weren't any advertisements or previews for any Western games, but there was a 14 page feature on "sandbox" games which actually spent 13 pages talking about Minecraft and only a single page talking about some Japanese sandbox games.  So I guess that's something!  There were 2 Western games in the top30 bestseller list: Minecraft: PS Vita Edition (#11) and Batman: Arkham Knight (#16).

I had a gut feeling things had gotten a lot better just in the past 2 years, so I opened the last week's issue and compiled a thorough list of Western games mentioned (not counting the upcoming game release listings):

P6 - One page ad for NBA2K 19
P16 - Top 30: (1) Spider-Man, (3) Minecraft (switch), (7) Shadow of the Tomb Raider, (11) Conan Exiles, (14) F1 2018, (26) NBA 2K19
P18 - Top 30 anticipated releases: (23) Red Dead Redemption 2, (40) Assassin's Creed Odyssey
P20 - Top 30 Downloads: (7) PUBG Mobile
P28 - Reviews: The Messenger (switch), Mini Metro (switch)
P84 - Game preview feature: Assassin's Creed Odyssey (8 pages)
P116 - Feature on racing games: MotoGP 18 (2 pages), Assetto Corsa (2 pages), Ride 3 (1 page), V-Rally 4 (1 page). No Japanese games at all in this feature.
P158 - Marketing Report column: 1 page analysis focusing on Spider-Man's sales.
P159 - Masahiro Sakurai's column: He talks about the TGS Game Designer award, which Gorogoa won this year.
P162 - Difficult Game Topics column: this week's topic is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX series. It's a technical article, and almost no games are discussed, but Crysis is mentioned in passing.
P185 - Back cover editorial column: Discussing TGS. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Days Gone are mentioned as game featured on the show (among many other Japanese games).

So just one ad among the dozens of ads for Japanese games in this issue, but a fair amount of actual coverage. Make no mistake, the magazine's still mostly about Japanese games. But it's an improvement.

[kitsunebi]

7 minutes ago, orenronen said:

So just one ad among the dozens of ads for Japanese games in this issue, but a fair amount of actual coverage. Make no mistake, the magazine's still mostly about Japanese games. But it's an improvement.

At this point, it's almost impossible to ignore the fact that a lot of quality games are coming from the West.  There has been talk amongst those in the Japanese game industry for some time that things have become somewhat stagnant and they are losing ground to Western design. Certainly the international markets are deriving most of their sales from western-developed titles, and Japan is no longer the industry leader that they used to be.  But even so, it'll be a long time (never?) before Western games have the kind of market penetration in Japan that some of them deserve.

[supafami]

The problem back then was that very little western titles were released in Japan, and some had poor or not any kind of localizations.

I checked my charts and from 368 games released in Japan only 5 were partially released by a western publisher, all EA games published by their joint company with Square soft, Electronic Arts Square, at the time most of the exposure japanese fans got from western developers was Nintendo's Rare games and Sony's Naughty Dog games.

As the western scene started to outpace the japanese one more and more games started to come over, but western publishers still weren't in Japan, GTA became huge in Japan thanks to Capcom and Call of Duty is a success there thanks to Square Enix, it wasn't until a few years ago where most western publishers opened branches in Japan and started localizing themselves and its no concidence that western games are more popular than ever in japan, GTA V sold over 1m, Minecraft over 3m, COD consistently sells over 400k and western games consistently show in magazines nowadays, both God of War and Detroit were covers of famitsu issues this year.

[kitsunebi]

Hurr.....that was a close one.  I literally had about $60 worth of magazines in shopping carts across two different sites when I caught hold of my senses and removed them all.

DO

NOT

NEED

MORE

MAGS!!!!

This is what happens when I go in search of new covers for the database.  I inevitably run across a bunch of mags for sale, and before you know it I'm dropping stuff I don't need into carts.  "Ooooh, these are only 250 yen each...and here's some for 300..."  Auctions are bad enough, but the temptation to just straight up buy something when you know you're getting it dirt cheap and it'll be delivered to your door in a day or two is hard to resist.

Anyone else out there have this problem?  Or is it weird to expect people visiting a site about magazines to struggle against the urge to obtain more magazines?

 

[Ethereal Dragonz]

If I was living in Japan and had easier access to some of these magazines that I want to grab and scan, I probably would have pulled the trigger on that buy button .

I did recently buy a couple of magazines I have not seen online anywhere. Once I get those and scan them, I'm out of the game and will be satisfied that I've made my contribution to the community. It's hard to buy items that you know you are just going to destroy anyway.

[kitsunebi]

7 hours ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

 It's hard to buy items that you know you are just going to destroy anyway.

For me it's more a matter of "it's hard to buy items you know you're never going to have the time to destroy anyway."  If i had a robot that could debind, scan and edit magazines all day while I went on with my life, I wouldn't mind dropping the cash for more mags.  But if all they're gonna do is sit in my closet, there's really no point in amassing more.

I think I just like getting packages in the mail more than anything else, really.

[kitsunebi]

In the latest issue of Game Players PC Entertainment, I made a comment that one reason I liked the mag was because the reviews were interesting to read even if I didn't care about the game being reviewed, simply due to the quality of the writing.  I also lamented the fact that the same thing was not commonly true of most video game mag journalism in my opinion.

I got a reply which I'll respond to here, since I've had problems in the past posting images to replies in the download section.

Quote

@Sporeface: I couldn't agree with you more. I used to buy these types of magazines by the dozen, even for systems I didn't  own because the writing was just so good. These days I can't even get through a review for a game I WANT to purchase because of how poorly it is written.

On the one hand, someone agrees with me!  On the other, the above comment seems to misunderstand my point a bit.  I wasn't comparing the reviews of old to modern reviews.  I haven't read any game magazines produced after 2005 or so, so I have no idea how well modern reviews are written.  I was really just comparing Game Players PC Entertainment (and its immediate successor, PC Gamer - the first several years at least) to the contemporary video game mags being published at the same time. 

Part of the problem is intended audience, of course.  Video games and video game mags (particularly in the 80s/90s) were targeted primarily at children and teenagers, whereas computer games and publications skewed towards a much older demographic.  So I'm not saying video game mags are crap for catering to their intended audience - I'm just saying that NOW, as a fully grown adult looking back on these old magazines, the only ones I can get any enjoyment out of reading are the ones that have something to say.

Here's a review pulled from the issue I just posted.  I have no interest in the game (indeed, I suspect I wouldn't enjoy it at all), but the review not only gave me all the information I would need to determine that for myself, but was also enjoyable to read on its own.  I realize there are lots of words , but please give it a look (click to enlarge - hint, after clicking once, right-click and "view image" to get the full-size pic):

And now here's a review from the EGM crew over at Mega Play, the mag devoted entirely to the Genesis, covering Sonic 2, one of the most important games for the system:

Yep, that's it.  Of course, EGM's review crew would give 4 similarly terse reviews (Mega Play gives 2).  But I find far more value in the single review of Seal Team above than in 10 reviews of the "one paragraph" variety.  It isn't really something I would expect a (respected) paid journalist to write - its just a quickie review that could have just as easily been posted on a high schooler's facebook page or something.  I can find much better reviews of Sonic 2 written online, so what reason do I have to read those old mags at this point?

[Ethereal Dragonz]

Yeah I never really paid attention to EGM's reviews or its affiliates even back then. The game reviews were just a column of boxes with surface details of the game which could probably be applied to a number of titles out there. EGM was really known for its news and preview articles.

GamePro however, had some great review sections. Games that didn't have a lot of hype only had small paragraphs, but larger games like Final Fantasy had visually appealing layouts and went into much more detail (images from NeoGaf forum):

 

 

 

[kitsunebi]

You know, both that GamePro review and EGM review bring up another thing that bugs the hell out of me as an adult - the childish pseudonyms.  Real writers use their real names - at least, when they aren't ashamed to do so.  The "Seal Team" review was written by William R. Trotter.  A google search will immediately hit his Wikipedia page, where you will see a list of his published novels and historical non-fiction (a brief mention of his Desktop General column from Game Players PC Strategy Guide/PC Entertainment and PC Gamer also appears).

The GamePro review was written by Scary Larry.  A google search reveals that he is a werewolf who plays guitar in a band made up of other monsters.  In a cartoon.  That didn't air until 2014.  So...probably a different Scary Larry.

The point is, whoever actually wrote that review either never wrote anything but GamePro reviews in their entire career but didn't want to be known as a writer for GamePro, or else they wrote other things under a different name, using the "Scary Larry" moniker to keep GamePro reviews from being associated with (and tarnishing) their other nomenclature's reputation.  Whether deserved or not, an obviously fake name attached to a piece of "journalism" just screams: "this is not to be taken seriously, since the author doesn't even want to claim it as their own."

[E-Day]

Not quite. Scary Larry's real name is Lawrence Neves. And Mike Weigand, who you can see as a review crew member from that EGM page scan, wrote as Major Mike and other names in GamePro. GamePro used pseudonyms to cover up the fact that it was a very small staff in the early years. So each writer would have two or three pseudonyms they would write under in each magazine, making the staff look much larger. It's a bit silly looking back on it, but those pseudonyms were part of the magazine's charm. And none of them seem to be ashamed of their work at GamePro, as shown by this info box on Lawrence Neves' Facebook page.

[kitsunebi]

The fact that you somehow know who wrote under what pseudonym for GamePro doesn't change the fact that that information was never openly presented on the page.  And I realize that kids could give a #$%^ who writes their magazines and probably thought those silly names were totally rad, but I never picked up an issue of GamePro until I was in college, so all I can tell you is that at that age I was not similarly amused nor charmed.  Moreso than even the garish art direction, it was those names that put me off the magazine.

[E-Day]

To each their own. I was always been the type of person who didn't actually want to know any personal information about the lake who wrote in the magazines I read. I didn't even want to invite what they looked like because I always had my own idea of who they were. That's one reason I want a fan of Game Players. Seeing the writers pictures annoyed me. 

[kitsunebi]

It isn't so much a need to know personal information - well, not beyond their name, at any rate.  And of course, just using your real name alone won't give you any airs of respectability if you're always putting pictures of yourself into your mag doing silly stuff, like the guys at Chris Slates' Game Player's or EGM.  But if I pick up a newspaper or any normal magazine like Newsweek or what have you, I not only expect every article to identify the author by their name, I also fully expect that the editorial and regularly published columns will likely also include a tasteful headshot of that person, and it doesn't turn me off.  I'd feel much more confident that I was about to read something intelligent if, for example, the byline read "Fareed Zakaria" followed by his headshot, as opposed to "Tha Newzboy" followed by a cartoon drawing.  But as you say, to each their own.

[E-Day]

You're comparing a serious news journal magazine or newspaper to a magazine which is entertainment focused first and foremost. It's supposed to be a fun publication to read, not serious journalism, which is a problem I have with a lot of game sites and magazines these days. So whether the person writing it uses their real name or a pseudonym with a cartoon avatar, as long as the review is accurate and true, that's all that matters. And when it came the genres I liked, GamePro was spot on for me.

[kitsunebi]

9 hours ago, E-Day said:

You're comparing a serious news journal magazine or newspaper to a magazine which is entertainment focused first and foremost. It's supposed to be a fun publication to read, not serious journalism, which is a problem I have with a lot of game sites and magazines these days. So whether the person writing it uses their real name or a pseudonym with a cartoon avatar, as long as the review is accurate and true, that's all that matters. And when it came the genres I liked, GamePro was spot on for me.

Well, again, we're discussing a matter of different strokes for different folks.

When I was 12, Nintendo Power rocked my world.  And it doesn't ever bother to identify who wrote what article because...there aren't any articles.  Yeah, it was an awesome read as a kid, but the bulk of the mag was just screenshots, maps, and codes. It has virtually no editorial voice or opinions found anywhere within, which is what I'm looking for as an adult.   But that didn't bother me one bit as a kid. Since I was unlikely to ever own or play most of the games being covered, I much preferred looking at pictures and maps that allowed me to play the game in my mind.    Likewise, had I read GamePro as a kid, I'm sure the lack of real names wouldn't have bothered me at all. 

But I have different tastes in reading material now.  I DO appreciate a modicum of serious journalism in a game mag.  Computer gaming mags are always a safe read for me, since they were written towards an adult audience to begin with.  So far as video game mags go, I'll admit that I don't actually read them anymore, but if I had to pick one up and read it, something like Next Generation is a style more to my liking nowadays.

However, you misunderstand me if you think I mean that video game mags should all strive to be The New Yorker.  I have no problem with a magazine's editorial style being wacky or even shallow, but that doesn't excuse the staff to write anonymously, in my opinion.  Entertainment Weekly is a bunch of trite piffle that's strictly "entertainment focused first and foremost," but I still want to see real people's names attached to reviews and articles.  And Computer Gaming World is a fairly sober gaming mag that I enjoy on the whole, but I can't stand the column written by "Scorpia."  Is it because I think her spoilerriffic reviews aren't very good or is it just because she hides behind a fake name?  (It's both, actually. )

[kitsunebi]

The evolution of Pasocom Paradise through Engrish:

 

Version #1.  It sort of makes sense.  In a nonsensical way.

 

 

Version #2.  Almost the same, but rather than adult men, the mag is now made for adultmen.  Which is better than manbabies or ladyboys, I suppose.

 

Version #3.  That's right, this is the WORLD'S ONLY MAGAZINE.  Don't argue with me, you're wrong.  THERE ARE NO OTHERS.

[kitsunebi]

．．．as if I don't have enough hassle with Japanese magazines...

Family Computer Magazine and its supplements are printed "Japanese-style", meaning they open from left to right.  This isn't really a problem if viewing the pages in two-page mode, so long as you're aware that the page on the right hand side should be read before the page on the left.  However, since many people read a single page at a time, the page numbers on facing pages would need to be switched in order to be read correctly.  Unfortunately, this would cause any pages with an image spread across facing pages to be in the wrong order should the user switch to two-page view to view them.

It could be that the only solution is to do what they do with manga and make sure that any pages with an image spreading across facing pages are included in the scan as a single joined image.  Then, the comic book reader can be set to "Japanese mode" so that as readers using single page view push whatever button they push to move the page down, it will start in the upper right, move left, then down to the right and back to the left again, so as to allow reading in the correct direction (generally).  If that made sense to you, you already know what I'm talking about.

Don't get me started on the supplement that came in the form of full-size newspaper pages...

[kitsunebi]

I don't use this thread as a work-in-progress notice board, since whatever I decide to do is my own business and it'll get done when it gets done.  However, seeing as I've discussed at various times and places the huge difference in time/effort between scanning and editing, I figured I'd break it down in a way that will make it clear to everyone.

Yesterday, I released a mag that took nearly 4 months to edit (granted, almost all of that time was spent not even looking at the scan, let alone working on it, and I did edit and release a couple of other mags in that timeframe.  But nevertheless, that was the time it took to muster the willpower to finish it.

On the other hand, today I debound and scanned 9 mags.

So in a nutshell:

Scanning = fast and easy.  Like your mom.  

Editing = long and hard.  Like your mom likes it.