bluerei

About the article, I kind of laughed when he said that the size of people's houses is the reason why consoles aren't popular in East Asia (excepting Japan). Uh... Japanese residences are also fairly small as far as I know.

And given the prestige that comes from owning a gray-market PS2 or PSP in Mainland China, the real reasons for the lack of success of consoles there are two-fold: 1. governmental bans (which also applies to South Korea), and 2. the cost. Granted, cost is becoming less of an issue nowadays but China (and Korea) still missed that 80s/90s console window and correspondingly their game culture has developed/is developing differently.

Nonetheless, excellent article!

rpatnode

As for the actual content of the article, I think that a solid MMO fighter would be nice to have. Of course, it has to be done right, and it's no secret that at least most attempts to make MMO action games have been mediocre at best (unless I'm missing one that was great and usccessful or something?), but 2D beat 'em ups rock, and if they really can pay homage to things like Streets of Rage and Final Fight, the result at least has the potential to be a good game.

Pyrthas

dabu

Developers can leverage their native culture to enrich a game's content. I would expect Japanese developers have a distinct advantage in creating samurai-themed games over Western developers, but proper research can help tackle any foreign or ancient cultures. Developers always have artistic license to fall back on, but authenticity can be nice.

I do agree with Laurence on the free-to-play model. Time is money. Some people would rather spend the cash than dedicate hours of their time to enjoy a game. Like very few things in life, it's also a relatively "no cost" cheap thrill. I would have liked to hear more about Laurence's thoughts on the subscription model and how sales channels dictate game design. "Grind 60 hours a month" doesn't do anything for me.

As for Kung Fu Hustle, the game's production value might suffer under a free-to-play model unless they have some serious money behind it. I suspect gameplay (and Stephen Chow's humor or lack thereof) will determine the game's overall success.

Ainai

It's this kind of stuff which makes Kotaku such a strong site, you never know when one of the writers are going to go somewhere off the beaten track to see if there's a story hiding in the tall grass... like pokemon... I can't think of another blog in any genre (let alone a gaming one) that drops these little feature gems with the frequency you fine folk do.

thebigsmoke

RykinPoe

I agree. I read it (and enjoyed it =D) but for most of the people here, the only form of literature they've read in the past year is a gaming magazine.

Jim on the Wall

You should really try to embed the pictures within the article. It helps break up the text making it much easier on the eye.

asphix20

Chilly Hollow

LORDofDANCE

Oh gee, I guess that's why WoW never caught on in Korea or China.

Rayonic

Afterwards, I realized we had not been shown one important (to me) part of the company so I asked to visit LucasArts games. John said sure and took us over to a separate building on the campus. I think John had only been there a few times himself. We saw cubicles and desktop computers. There was not much to show that this was the home of one of the best game development companies in the world at that time. A few posters hung on the walls and there was the usual collection of nerd toys. The lack of fun things to look at was more than made up for by the enthusiasm of the LucasArts employees who, it seemed, had never been included as part of the famous ILM tour before.

LucasArts has since moved to their swanky new headquarters in the Presidio. I hope one day to visit them again. Perhaps I can convince them to continue their X-Wing vs Tie Fighter series.

grangerfx

Dorcas

modifiedbears

Phlycheez