Poltergeist13

JudgeNutmeg

feitclub

fadecy

muu

They're Geeks Big Time.

Bluegun

Bluegun

I know what you mean. Their whole gaming community is fucked up right now. They would rather sit 2 feet in front of their televisions playing some generic RPG from Square Enix then play any sort of online game. The only thing good from Japan is whatever comes out of Nintendo it seems.

And it's ironic to. They have the fastest internet in the world over there which makes me wonder if they even get lag. In fact they just launched a satellite that will give them internet speeds up to 1.2GB per second. Why can't the U.S. do that dammit! We invented the damn internet for crying out loud!

Jinto

54% are female.
82% are age 30+.
45% are age 40+.

And we're chalking this up to a cultural difference? Honestly, it's almost surprising how much they DO like online games.

ryusage

kunio

but seriously the jap's just love playing as blond girly men. is it because they will never be blond?

SwindleUK

ZO_Blade

King Seafoam

Leanid

Leobebes

It was a joke, my friend. I just caught a lot of "lol japanese! Me too! We are so cool HIGH FIVE!" vibes, that's all.

I like Japanese culture as much as the next guy, but it's more of an interest (like everything else I like) than a pretentious pedestal on which I place it, you know?

r0bVious

"I am like the Japanese and therefore am more worldly and deep as a person due to my ethnocentricity."

What the heck is this supposed to mean? You just contradicted yourself by saying you are ethnocentric but worldly. Which one are you? Also I don't think the world sees Japan as a whole as "worldly". Talk to me when they have someone who doesn't look Japanese have a decent shot at becoming their country's prime minister.

Leobebes

Druffmaul

Gouki4u

Wolfers

Amen to that.

inphanta

subnet6

rich8606

bird1988

Lokku

Games that offer their online experience as a cornerstone of play are played for fundamentally different reasons than games that offer up a mostly single-player experience. When one enjoys a single-player game, it's the experience of "getting into" the game one enjoys - a healthy serving of escapism and appreciation of the narrative and world the game presents. This is particularly true of any game where story factors in as a major component, but I can see it in something as simple as a good 'ol 2D platformer too. The appeal of single-player gaming is like that of reading a book: enjoyable immersion, at one's own pace.

With online play, the experience people are looking for is, largely, human interaction (and in a majority of those cases, PvP challenge). Because of this, online play is sort of "meta" to the actual game - it breaks the immersion of the setting or story, and offers an immersion via heated, competitive gameplay. In all the times I've played games with friends, I never get drawn in as much as I do if I play them alone, because multiplayer creates its enjoyment one "layer" above the game itself. You can see it in any online game's chat log - the conversation itself is ultimately hyper-aware of the nature of the experience as a game to be played, with technical details (cooldown time, animation frames, spawn points) to be taken advantage of. It's valid as a competitive strategy, but also immersion-breaking. The enjoyment of online play is like that of a sport: competition against others to assert dominance, such that the game itself is only a vehicle for the "enjoyment" other players bring by offering themselves up as human opponents better than most AI.

The enjoyment of single-player is a payoff that germinates on the screen, while the enjoyment of multiplayer is born from the chair/couch, so to speak.

Very little of my own gaming is competitive - the stuff that is, I usually play head-to-head with people in the same room, not online. What I seek in a game is the payoff of the immersive experience. When all is said and done, I want to enjoy a game, and maybe even make some memories with it like I would with a good book or movie. Competitive online play just strikes me as a diversion - something played for entertainment, but is less of a payoff in the long run. But that's just the type of player I am, and, I suspect, the type of player a lot of Japanese people are.

tenken

Tye-The-Czar

Also 15,000 is quite a small number when the population in most games alone is usually about 50,000 at minimum... Add in the fact that the asian market is even more saturated with MMORPGS then the US is and you can kinda see why its a meh situation. When there are a buttload of something people will think meh of it.

Let's say you polled families in an area where mostly all they ate was corn. Now your poll is what do they think of corn? They will likely give you a meh response cuz they see it every day...

linadragon

Edge of Blade

These days thats not the case. Neither is really geeky. It really depends what you define as geeky though to most people this isnt geeky this days its just something people do. To you it may be geeky. But remember those jocks and cheerleaders that used to think gaming was geeky now quite often own a game console and enjoy playing it.

linadragon

...They're two different game types, people. Apples to Oranges ALL OVER these statistics.

I play games like Counter-Strike to compete.
I play games like Fahrenheit (first one to come to mind for some reason) for story and book-like methodology.

So basically what these stats are saying is...

In COUNTRY X, people who do ACTIVITY X prefer to READ A BOOK instead of PLAY A SPORT (at least in the context of gaming).

What I'm most surprised at is the fact that the newspost and most of the comments I've read all say the same thing to me:

"Gaming is gaming. There are not different types. Resident Evil is World of Warcraft is American McGee's Alice. They do not provide different experiences, therefore we can compare them without prejudice."

r0bVious

We all know from playing online that a girl playing online is rare. How are the results shocking considering the sample?

fadecy

Gambare

Sony and Nintendo both have weak online strategies, compared to Microsoft; This maybe the reason. There simply isn't much demand for it in Japan.

RPGEmperor

Golem29

Gray665

Who do you think is buying all those Wiis and DS's?

@koji: Different culture. So, the answer is no.

I don't know why some people seem to think the Japanese standards for what's "geeky" and what's not geeky have to match ours. I'll lay it out for you: video games = not geeky. Online games = geeky. This is true for both guys *and* girls.

That's actually pretty much how I feel even as an American, though. I always end up feeling soiled somehow after playing online, like I've been hanging out with a lower form of life and need to wash myself to get the germs off.

badasscat

Sober

What percentage of the XBL population is over 40, even in the US?

It would actually mean something if they polled actual gamers, and not random people on the internet. To me this just seems like an example of making statistics show the numbers you want to see.

Aertea

MugenNoKaze

tincow

redfoxx

Angryrider

Madeira

It's just, to me, a necessity to have a basic form of it to buy cool stuff from console stores and whatnot.

RichardChaos

ortegar

MMOs are too consuming, I keep away from that stuff entirely.

Madeira

If 15,000 members had been 'polled' then I'm sure that means people who wanted to take part in such a poll or survey returned their answers, whilst others left in lanquishing in their inbox. Hence Gamers sent it back.

If Myspace sent me a poll on 'Favourite practices used when farming/breeding domestic sheep' (or equally alien subject matter) I wouldn't have anything to say about it. Hence not being polled.

new_pornographer

I could talk to them in person, except we all live 2-4 hours away from each other so it's not really practical and costs a crapton of money in gas.

Saxboy

I am with the 75.4% of people in the comments, for the most part online gaming is totally meh. Though I have really been enjoying a bit of guitar hero 3 online, except when someone decides to play at a difficulty level lower than they should be, hits 99-100% of the notes and it is impossible to win unless you are god-like at guitar hero. Which happens at least 1 in every 3 games. So that ruins it somewhat.

DarrenIndeed (xbl)

'poled 15,000 members of Japanese internet community MyVoice about their feelings towards online games.'

Had they merely asked gamers about their feelings towards offline games in the same survey, we'd have a better idea of what people in this poll felt about both types of gaming.

meandering_drivel

I can't agree with you more. I used to like XBOX Live when it first came out but once it became overcrowded with a bunch of pre-teens from God-Knows-Where Alabama who seem to think that calling you a 'faggot' is a good way of communicating with others. Maybe I'm just getting old? Who knows. I just gave up on it and got rid of my 360 all together. I play my PS 3 online a bit for some old school MK 2 and my DS for some Mario Kart. It's refreshing not being able to hear others' voices on my end.

Sparky13

Tei

I agree mate. People are lamenting the lack of 'chat' (in this case I think the lack of possibility for smacktalk) in the upcoming MarioKart Wii but I'm quite glad I don't have to listen to some knob's annoying voice or his annoying friends online whilst playing.

If it isn't smacktalk being bandied around it's some sort of weird snobbery eg. 'Look at the weapon he's using, haw haw haw', 'You're standing in such a n00b place bllaaaaahhhhh'.

new_pornographer

Ether02

That doesn't mean I don't ever want to play online. I was a very active PSO player on Dreamcast. Maybe that was fun because communication was very well possible but quite limited. This leads me to believe that Mario Kart Wii will probably be quite enjoyable online. The DS version is nice but takes very long to start a game.

Tetris DS is my favourite online game at the moment, believe it or not. You don't get insulted, the game is incredibly fun against real opponents and the matching system is great since you always play people more or less your skill. It's a damn shame it takes so long to find an opponent and start a game.

Apart from those games, most online gaming hasn't interested me at all. It's very limited on my Mac, on PC it's very geekish and difficult, on PS2 it was a hassle and didn't work that well, most online wii games are not that interesting. Need I go on?

TrekVogel

Eh? The wii is NOT synonymous with online gaming

@meandering_drivel: I think the females polled are female GAMERS brightspark. More girls play games and are involved in the industry over there too.

new_pornographer

Prophane33

For me, a game is an animated, participatory version of reading a book. I want to do it alone and at my own pace. Online gaming eschews that story driven approach to gaming in favour of a more open ended approach. That just doesn't interest me one bit.

Its kinda odd that the Japanese would avoid the thing that they consider geeky as it is usually the other way around.

johnnywashngo

Nawara_Ven

PooPooKaKaBumBum

PixelRambo

Who said it had to be multiplayer shooters :p any multiplayer game against other humans is more challenging. Could even be chess or uno.

I like JRPGs but they are sodding easy, and as for being moved and engaged in the story i don't think many games are at that level Mass Effect maybe ome of the choices involved you in there. The end of Call of Duty 4 perhaps.

Playing lost odyssey now but it doesn't really engage me much. A lot of the stuff in it comes across as cheesy rather than emotionally evocative. Some of the dreams have a nice narrative but thats about it.

I suppose that somedays i CBA with online though, sometimes you just want to sit downn and enjoy the single player.

baysideSxoc

PixelRambo

arstal

Manny

Sollus

mpmaley

Since people are already saturated with way too many MMOs here.

Witzbold

Otherwise, I'm fine just playing with myself. And playing videogames alone too.

WordMan

no wonder so many people ragged, the demographic polled would have said the exact same thing about offline gaming too.

meandering_drivel

@koji:
Everybody that plays video games in Japan has either played a Dragon Quest or a Final Phantasy. Hey, it's socially expected that you've played either one. ^_-
So no, it's not geekish to play RPGs, not in Japan.

Dir_en_grey

I'd say. Online gaming makes for the BEST intercourse.

Komrade_Kayce

Its sort of seen as "interrupting their game experience" or the like.

Part of this cultural difference is why they don't give a damn about Nintendo's piss-poor online service.

SnakeCL

baysideSxoc

dunetiger reads kotaku, seems pleased

Flare5X

I think its a lot more cultural than that.

Sending someone a game invite while they're playing in Japan is considered rude.

SnakeCL

Anthropomancer

Huh...guess I didn't know you as well as I thought, Japan.

cheeses

Krytha

On topic, though, too bad to hear that this is the case as I think online gaming can be good fun in right circumstance. However, I do not think that Japan is even a decent market to bother making an online PC game for. PC platform penetration aside, their taste in games just doesn't fit that bill.

Or maybe they just need an MMO 'man-cleaning' game? :)

Neer'mo

So yeah, next time Nintendo or anybody else ships a Japan-centered game without online play, can we all collectively remember this please and not WHINE constantly about it?

DaiMacculate

TitillatedOcelot

Not if you're playing against me. *runs into hail of gunfire*

aldo_14

Know what Japan needs? The Xbox.

Moonshadow101

Rebelphoenix83

koji

baysideSxoc

if this poll was done in the us, the number 1 reason for people not playing online would be this.

i mean seriously, 10 years giving me lip on live, just aint happenin brudda

Junp3i

Rebelphoenix83