[MUD-Dev] Cultural impact on Muds (was: Star Wars Galaxies)

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Tue 04 Feb, P S wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-01-28 at 00:36, Eric Hu wrote:

> The second, is that, Lineage, while being a huge success in Korea,
> is a huge failure in America.  If other cultures are so much more
> sensitive to ours, and tailor their big products to us sooo much
> better, why would NCSoft have failed to inspire a following in
> this country?  Korea still plays numerous American titles, the
> cult following of say, Star Craft, being a good example.

I do not think anybody ever suggested here that other cultures or
countries are better at tailoring their products to other countries.
I also think that this is missing the mark.

Rather than putting blame for ignoring or not ignoring other cultur-
es, I find it much more interesting to look at how cultures *shape*
games.  Comparing things to movies is counterproductive here because
there is a huge difference still between the two. Not just in the a-
mount of money required, but also in the large numbers of specialist
jobs that require lots of experience that are difficult to find out-
side Holywood at the same level of professionalism.  Holywood makes
good movies because there are a lot of people there who have already
been involved in making other good movies.  They also make supremely
American movies, reflecting American culture (which does not exclude
quality). An interesting excersise is to compare Holywood remakes to
the French originals of e.g.  Crossroads, The woman in red, La femme
Nikita to name a few.  More discussion of this, however interesting,
is somewhat off topic to this list I think.

Lineage is in this respect an interesting example, not because it is
rather like a typical MUD, but because it does well in Korea and not
in the US. The question is: Is that because there are more sophisti-
cated games available in the US, or because there is something in it
that appeals to Koreans but not to Americans?  How about games that
are meant to appeal to certain subcultures but that do not aim at a
mass market?


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey


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