<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I just had to respond to the letter by 'Jealous Bastard', who stated that "[the] Japanese Perception of Americans is quite possibly the most common reason why good video games just never make it to the United States"
As a professional in the video and computer games industry, I can tell you that this is quite entirely wrong.
When decisions, such as those that gave us 'Secret Of Evermore' instead of 'Secret Of Mana 2', or which stopped the 'Earthbound series' from continuing in America, or which prevented the US from having 'Vib Ribbon' were originally made, they were not made by the Japanese side of the industry. Agreed to, yes, but not made.
The people who screwed Americans, and continue to screw Americans out of the best games are in point of fact, Americans. Back in the 80's, the American game culture was essentially bought out by an influx of ex-record executives. I saw this personally occur, when I worked at Activision, and at Electronic Arts, as just two examples. The music industry executives promised greater profits and success, and they had money enough to buy into and control most of the games industry, and make it their own. I kept seeing it as I forged my own games company, and it ultimately helped to destroy that company.
However, to this day, many of the heads of the largest American game companies still actually brag about the fact they have never touched a game in their lives, that they despise the public that buys their 'crap' and that they disparage what they are doing, save for the fact that it makes them a lot of money. I have personally dealt with these people, I have heard this with my own ears. I still hear it...though less and less as time goes on.
The general attitude has been, until very, very recently, that all gamers were in the 8-18 age range, were all boys, were functionally illiterate (and to be fair, 45% of all Americans really are functionally illiterate), enjoyed only sports and violence, and would never buy any product that was not action oriented. Only in the last few years has this quasi-religious belief begun to change, as management gradually is replaced, and marketing studies are finally being accepted, rather than rejected because they "do not fit the known facts". Another factor in the change has been the clear rise of the popularity of anime, which has shocked the American side, forcing some degree of reevaluation of the marketplace. After all, anime and Japanese game design are closely related, and influence each other.
As for the Japanese, the attitudes they have regarding Americans are the direct result of trusting the opinions and decisions of the American executives they hired to manage the American market for them. The American executives informed the Japanese side what the 'reality' of the American market was, and the Japanese corporate leaders did the only thing they could: accept that these successful, highly rated people they hired knew their own foreign, American market better than they could, trying to manage from Japan. They believed the people they hired. So, they agreed with the decisions of the American executives. This is reasonable, from a business, indeed a logical, perspective.
Unfortunately, the American executives were....to be polite...somewhat uninformed.
I still deal with the remnants of this today. In running Otakuworld.com, for instance, I occasionally get letters from Japan written by people amazed that Americans even know that anime exists...or that we play games based on anime series, or that we like RPGs. What our own executives told the Japanese executives filtered down to the average person.
Americans, know this: we did it to ourselves. Our own people set these ideas, created these views, not only in the American games industry, but also in the minds of the Japanese companies that do business with America. I saw it happen. I lived it.
Jennifer Diane Reitz
Accursed Toys Inc.</div>
As a professional in the video and computer games industry, I can tell you that this is quite entirely wrong.
When decisions, such as those that gave us 'Secret Of Evermore' instead of 'Secret Of Mana 2', or which stopped the 'Earthbound series' from continuing in America, or which prevented the US from having 'Vib Ribbon' were originally made, they were not made by the Japanese side of the industry. Agreed to, yes, but not made.
The people who screwed Americans, and continue to screw Americans out of the best games are in point of fact, Americans. Back in the 80's, the American game culture was essentially bought out by an influx of ex-record executives. I saw this personally occur, when I worked at Activision, and at Electronic Arts, as just two examples. The music industry executives promised greater profits and success, and they had money enough to buy into and control most of the games industry, and make it their own. I kept seeing it as I forged my own games company, and it ultimately helped to destroy that company.
However, to this day, many of the heads of the largest American game companies still actually brag about the fact they have never touched a game in their lives, that they despise the public that buys their 'crap' and that they disparage what they are doing, save for the fact that it makes them a lot of money. I have personally dealt with these people, I have heard this with my own ears. I still hear it...though less and less as time goes on.
The general attitude has been, until very, very recently, that all gamers were in the 8-18 age range, were all boys, were functionally illiterate (and to be fair, 45% of all Americans really are functionally illiterate), enjoyed only sports and violence, and would never buy any product that was not action oriented. Only in the last few years has this quasi-religious belief begun to change, as management gradually is replaced, and marketing studies are finally being accepted, rather than rejected because they "do not fit the known facts". Another factor in the change has been the clear rise of the popularity of anime, which has shocked the American side, forcing some degree of reevaluation of the marketplace. After all, anime and Japanese game design are closely related, and influence each other.
As for the Japanese, the attitudes they have regarding Americans are the direct result of trusting the opinions and decisions of the American executives they hired to manage the American market for them. The American executives informed the Japanese side what the 'reality' of the American market was, and the Japanese corporate leaders did the only thing they could: accept that these successful, highly rated people they hired knew their own foreign, American market better than they could, trying to manage from Japan. They believed the people they hired. So, they agreed with the decisions of the American executives. This is reasonable, from a business, indeed a logical, perspective.
Unfortunately, the American executives were....to be polite...somewhat uninformed.
I still deal with the remnants of this today. In running Otakuworld.com, for instance, I occasionally get letters from Japan written by people amazed that Americans even know that anime exists...or that we play games based on anime series, or that we like RPGs. What our own executives told the Japanese executives filtered down to the average person.
Americans, know this: we did it to ourselves. Our own people set these ideas, created these views, not only in the American games industry, but also in the minds of the Japanese companies that do business with America. I saw it happen. I lived it.
Jennifer Diane Reitz
Accursed Toys Inc.</div>
I was there on that fateful day, were you?
