I have some beef against the western society who tend to call themselves "shooter gamers" as they seem a bit prideful and ignorant about how the gaming industry works. I find it kind of misplaced and crude that while western rpgs are allowed to flourish in our industry, J-Shooters are seen with a discriminate eye.
It first started with games like Lost Planet where they brought Triple-A quality japanese storytelling to the shooter market, but then for some excuse or another our western culture had to find some way of belittling the recent slew of eastern takes on the genre. Even people like IGN criticize this new space as "it's not COD, so it's not a real shooter" or "it's too japanese-ified to be taken seriously", yet on our end we allow awkward games like Skyrim to open arms.
It's just funny that people who call them Pro-J or Pro-East gamers somehow condone the use of "japanese-ness" in RPGs such as final fantasy and such, were such of the anime influence can be downright mind-jarring, but when they find their shooting stuff instead of smacking it with a sword...it is scene as an abomination.
THE LITTLE THINGS:
Due to the fact that one I don't really get, is the fact that some people won't play some non-US shooters just because the fact that they are THIRD-PERSON. What is wrong with being able to see the character for once? You admit that "OH NO, THEY DESTROYED ANY SENSE OF REALISM!", but the fact that the game isn't real in the first place...give me a break people. I don't see what's more attractive to just staring at the "butt" of a rifle or other gun than it is seeing a fully-detailed character AND a gun.
Also the fact that one of the best and maybe only successful TPS to come out of Japan is Metal Gear, and nobody seems to be complaining about staring and Snake's body for forever.
That and the fact that people sometimes play shooters because they DON'T WANT a good story, just seems they just play games just to shoot people....yay shooting?
THE BARRIER:
Seeing how the Japanese are experts in telling stories (albeit convoluted and half-baked at times), at least their characters are developed enough to make dialogue, cinematics, and some of the dramatization seem engaging and interesting. Sure, games like MW2 have "holywood" quality storylines, but by the end of the game you're like..."Who were those people again?". You never become attached to the characters, and in some ways western titles do that intentionally since they want to kill off as many non-mains as possible for the next release.
Sure, people die in J-games, but they also let you get attached to them and you feel more motivated and confident than the characters are actually "real" to you. Games like Metal Gear, Ace Combat, and others are usually good at making you WANT to keep on going.
GRAPHICS and GARBAGE:
Due to the fact that one of the biggest selling points for shooters is quality and immersive graphics...sometimes some of the biggest franchises like COD are behind the times. I just find it strange that some people like IGN show magnificent screens for J-Shooters that are oozing with detail, with PC versions compliant to DX10 and DX11, but after they show the screens their like.."Meh, they could be better". It's one of those times that either think these people are blind, or they are self-rejecting the fact that J-shooters generally look better than normal shooters...Binary, Lost Planet, and the like are almost ahead of their time and it seems these people are just finding some self-justification to shoot down the rivals on the other side of the pond.
I know for a fact that people who are playing shooters for graphics, aren't gonna find it in games like COD, but if they want graphics they're better off with games like Binary, Lost Planet, and of course MGS.
PIECE OF THE PIE/GIVE UP JAPAN:
I'm going a bit back and forth with this one, and this is why some people are J-lovers hate J-shooters. They think the only reason why Japanese are making shooters is they want a piece of the COD-pie, and that's a pie they will never have. They think japan is in over their heads, even though its quite clear on how generic COD is...they already took the pie, just nobody realizes it. People are brainwashed into thinking games like COD are the only shooters, while games like Binary, Lost Planet, and others are clearly higher values in story and immersion. COD is just like "Shoot shoot..do this..shoot shoot do this", technically that's a shooter, but do you really think that's what they only have to offer?
Going along with this...are the people who are like "Give up japan, every time you release a J-shooter, you're just making something that could have been a good RPG...and if it was an RPG...since I like J-RPGS...I would have bought it BECAUSE I only want Japan to make RPGS and Anime". Yeah, you love your sister country so much, but when it comes to the gritty you won't buy a japanese game since its NOT an RPG, good job idiot.
PROMISES and UNDER-MARKETING:
With all this said and done, the people like IGN and gamers are not the only ones to blame. Yes, even the companies making the games are sometimes at fault.
Lost Planet, Binary Domain, and MGS have recently been having good videos and impressive articles......every other century or two. That's it though isn't it? Seeing how okay games like COD get a commercial almost every week to hype or grab people into the franchise...while it's like..."Hey..this lost planet game...its...COMING OUT....SOMETIME"...yeah...
While marketing cost money, nobody is gonna even know the game EXISTS if you don't push it. I know that PC players for LP2 were almost non-existent seeing how the PC version just disappeared for almost a year and about 2 months before release they re-announced it...but it was too late because of that.
Binary Domain suffers some problems of only being shown at conventions, at SEGA has only been sending info "after" people want it...their Multiplayer looks awesome, but the fact people wanted to know that info ahead of time...people might not be searching for that info anymore....boom...failure.
GENERIC INNOVATION:
You heard me, a lot of people hate J-shooters because while the games are awesome...people look at them through a "W-shooter" eye. They think "the japanese are making me shoot bad guys, lame" and kind of not even look at the fact that "This game has an awesome new AI system, and the characters have a consequence system"..."This game is awesomely innovative"......"Oh, I didn't notice that...its J-Mass Effect"....
Yeah, it's always the rippings and generic things to look at a game, its not like games are NEVER generic in some capacity..I might as well start throwing away the games in my apartment now...idiots.
If I had a dime for every game I played that was generic, I wouldn't need to use my parent's allowance to be buying them.
Closing Comments:
Call me opinionated, but it's comments like the ones above that make people seem ignorant and stuck-up about not giving hugely potential titles a chance, and it disgusts me. It's becoming to where people are more "haters" than "gamers", and just the simplest details make a J-shooter "lame". These misplaced assumptions and remarks are why we ourselves are the cause, and it's not because what seems to be the brightest and most creative country in world is wanting their grubby hands on our already half-baked industry.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more articles.
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