My biggest passion right now, other than my family, are video games. Ever since getting my first Mattel Intellevision console in 1980, video games have always been a part of my life and since the mid-80's Japan has been a Mecca for video gamers. The United States only gets a small percentage of the video games that are released in Japan and the attitude towards gamers in Japan is totally different.In Japan handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, and now the Nintendo 3DS, are very popular mainly due to the fact that people in Japan are always taking the bus or train somewhere, allowing gamers to get in a "quicky" during their journey. In the US, that is much more difficult because everyone is driving, so gamers usually leave their handhelds at home.
Now let me go off on a tangent here - the Nintendo 3DS has this feature called StreetPass. With this feature if you pass another 3DS user in public, you exchange information with them. It can be just a simple "hi" message, or it can be game information including high scores, rare items that you can trade and in some instances you can even battle against their teams.
Since most people do not take their 3DS consoles out with them in the US, it can be pretty difficult getting StreetPasses. While fans like Jordan White and Rob Oehlberg have formed groups like StreetPass NYC and StreetPass Princeton to overcome this, it is still not as easy to get them as it is in Japan.
Let me give you an example: I usually pre-order my games from places like GameStop and pick them up on launch day and I always bring my 3DS along to StreetPass other people doing the same. I went to the launches of Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus Uprising and more. They are all very popular 3DS games and many people showed up for the launch at my local GameStop and purchased the game, but I didn't get one StreetPass at any of these events! People where obviously in line to buy the games, why didn't they bring their consoles?
Now in Japan, I happened to be at the mall at the launch of Monster Hunter 4 and people where hanging out in the aisles playing the games on their 3DS. I got 40 StreetPasses that day just shopping with my family!
I can only assume that gamers don't share the same stigma in Japan that they seem to have in the US and as a result people can walk the streets with their handhelds without embarrassment and this extends to gamers of all ages, because while in Japan, I've StreetPassed with children, teen agers, adults and even an old man!
Freaking old geezer beat all my high scores, too! WTF?
Its changing slowly... When i went to the midnight opening for GTA5, i got there at 10:45 and the line was around the building already, and the "building" is a strip mall... And it was a total mix from little kids with their parents, to old people, and i dont mean old like us, 45, i mean old like 60s 70s, maybe older.. and vaginas... people with vaginas were there, yes i mean girls... alot actually... and not just with their boyfriends.. there was even a few gaggles or packs of them, i couldnt believe it. So especially now with the new consoles being aimed as TV entertainment boxes replacing cable boxes, gaming is getting more mainstream and not as just for geeks anymore.
ReplyDeleteI was going on a rant b/c I had a 3DS since 3/11 and in the US and I got a total of 700 StreetPasses in 27 months; 2 months in Japan and I now have 1600! That shows the big difference between how popular video games are here.
DeleteYour blog is awesome dude and i look forward to readin it every day, and it inspired me to write mine every day too.. i had an xbox blog i did also with a link to my darkside blog, but i think i'm just gonna focus on the darkside blog and try and get readers somehow, thru facebook or sumpin.. so keep readin mine every day too and comment so i know youve visited and i'll namedrop your blog in mine too, so my readers will see yours cuz its really good... mine is just random shit, yours has a point...lol
ReplyDeleteHaving a point makes it so much easier to write, too. There are hundreds of differences that I can write about. I've been leaving responses on your blog.
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