AMERICANIZATION

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What do you guys feel about making changes to a game based on the culture that they're localizing for? Do you think that keeping the source is your preference or that marketing it to the target audience was a better idea? PS: This is meant universally, not only for this game, it's just a textbook example for Americanization as a whole.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
The North American ice skaters look like whores.
Why would they change it!?
the Japanese one is so cute.

I say it wasn't a good idea in this case.
but i'm also not a teenage/below girl that this is targeting, so idk.
Guess it really depends. I totally understand some things must be changed. Like, for example, Reimu.



Good luck with localizing that. She might as well have the rising sun on her forehead.
But I see absolutely no reason why they changed that wonderful artwork to some slutty politically correct artwork. It's not like they had any Japanese culture in their designs (besides the art style) that any American kid wouldn't understand.
rabitZ
amusing tassadar, your taste in companionship grows ever more inexplicable
1349
author=InfectionFiles
The North American ice skaters look like whores.


I was thinking that exactly when I saw the pictures o.0
treeghost
a lot better than being a wapanese kiddo
38
author=InfectionFiles
The North American ice skaters look like whores.

Fits perfectly.
We're all living in Amerika . Amerika. Amerika.
Despite
When the going gets tough, go fuck yourself.
1340
Yeah I really don't see the point in the change, and ditto on the whore comment.

Even though I've seen plenty of prostitutes with less make up than that.
I don't know, I would say it's a case-by-case basis. Redesigning something for a new audience makes sense because it will be more familiar to them in general but it's not always necessary (or wise). I've never played that game and I have no idea what it's about so I can't say whether or not they should have changed it, though on first glance the Japanese cover is a lot more colorful and appealing than the other one. The other one looks kinda.... crappy.

I don't think Americanization is an appropriate term though, unless you're referring to that specific example, because lots of countries do this for shows or games or what have you.
I can't look away from the eyeshadow. It's like they fell into a vat of it

I can't even comment on the left, it's so nondescript


I usually like Japanese covers more, NA cover art feels like something you'd find on the scifi/fantasy aisle at the bookstore. These are probably related in a terrible way.
don't you mean americanisation?

B)
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
Okay, short of THIS EXACT EXAMPLE, I understand it to a degree. Japanese styles of art have always been significantly different from American styles, and can look foreign to someone who's not into anime (or anything else Japanese - anime is not the only distinctively eastern art style) - causing an otherwise possible customer to turn a blind eye to the 'unappealing' version. I know people who just hate anime art styles, and would automatically pass that game up. Not that the whores dipped in eyeshadow are much more appealing, but they're certainly more catching to the American eye.

Think of it the other way - if that game was American and they made it more Japanese, the images would still be exactly like this.
Creepy make-up aside, you gotta recognize that the poses in the second image are more elaborate and from it you can really tell the game is about ice skating. While the first impression the other image gave me was more like: "generic magical loli bs or whatever"

Edit: Political correctness, or an accurate portrayal of reality? mmh?
I'v been noticing a ton of this here in america. Back in japan, I would buy games and they would all be nice and interesting artwork, but a lot of times they torch the old with slang and in using the original release of persona as an example, even skin color?! There has to be a limit to this policatically correctness.
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
author=Hostilefun
even skin color?! There has to be a limit to this policatically correctness.

I JUST noticed that the American version put a black girl and an asian girl (I assume from the slightly different skin tone and the black hair) in there. Talk about reverse racism - we're so terrified of offending someone that every depiction of more than one person has to be a rainbow.

Of course, Japan seems to wish they were caucasian and does not give two shits about making every anime character as white as possible
author=Versalia
Of course, Japan seems to wish they were caucasian and does not give two shits about making every anime character as white as possible


I hear that Anime characters have faces which are based off of Japanese people. The radical hair colors, well, I guess it's because they'd look all the same (since they usually have the nearly the same faces). I think there were also Japanese forums which actually disliked the fact that Western people thought that they loved them due to how anime is styled.

Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
Oh, I don't think they love AMERICANS. But I have a hard time seeing how anime faces are based on Japanese people any more than anyone else really. To jump from anime to games for a minute, for an immediate example, it's clear that in FFX they tried VERY HARD to make characters look Japanese in the cutscenes, but they do not look Japanese at ALL outside of cutscenes; but in FFXII everyone is undeniably caucasian all the time.

And 'foreigners' in anime, if they're caucasian, are usually* only differentiated by being very blonde and blue-eyed or some other arian extremity; they also frequently use kansaiban because these are the only really obvious ways to differentiate an american from a japanese person in anime (and we are the butt of jokes that kansaiban usually implies)

* Of course they can just look like perfect stereotypes of an american military soldier and throw SONIC BOOMS, or dress in american flag print, etc
I
author=InfectionFiles
The North American ice skaters look like whores.
Why would they change it!?
the Japanese one is so cute.

I say it wasn't a good idea in this case.
but i'm also not a teenage/below girl that this is targeting, so idk.

love
author=rabitZ
author=InfectionFiles
The North American ice skaters look like whores.
I was thinking that exactly when I saw the pictures o.0

misogyny.
author=Despite
Yeah I really don't see the point in the change, and ditto on the whore comment.

Even though I've seen plenty of prostitutes with less make up than that.


and that's not even all the people in this thread who have talked about how the teenage girls depicted wearing makeup are sluts for some reason! male video gamers.

author=Versalia
author=Hostilefun
even skin color?! There has to be a limit to this policatically correctness.
I JUST noticed that the American version put a black girl and an asian girl (I assume from the slightly different skin tone and the black hair) in there. Talk about reverse racism - we're so terrified of offending someone that every depiction of more than one person has to be a rainbow.

Of course, Japan seems to wish they were caucasian and does not give two shits about making every anime character as white as possible


there is literally no such thing as reverse racism so there is no way to "talk about it." that girl's skin tone is the same. it speaks volumes about you that you would see a cover with a black person and assume "reverse racism" I guess. japan is pretty well known for being a xenophobic culture and I don't really mind fucking with their shit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QaO8t-Tejk&feature=related

americanization is great because most of the time anime is cookie cutter awful bullshit. look at the four girls on the left. they are all the same. and really stupid looking. "rtp" if you will...
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination

I just don't think that it's a requirement to show different skin colors in every single depiction of multiple people but then look at the japanese girls on the left

I'm torn but I think some form of oversensitivity to political correctness / xenophobia plays a part in BOTH versions
wow cool wikipedia citation. unfortunately reverse racism literally still does not exist no matter what article written by shutins you would like to link next.
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