Originally posted by Calind0r

The music is different, European music doesnt suck hard.

There are many great rock bands from the US. My music collection wouldn't be the same without it.

As a German I have preferred to play on US servers most of my MMO life for one simple reason: Americans are much more open to form communities, to integrate you into a guild than Europeans, who much more tend to "do their own stuff". Its something you can also say about people from US and EU in general. In USA, when you move into a neighbourhood you are greeted, integrated, welcomed more often as in Europe. Europeans tend to look more for the differences, the "fences" between people, just as Americans look more for the community. Europe is the land of fences and locked doors. Its unimaginable for a European to not lock his door, as many doors in US are still unlocked or at least used to be. It says something about the mentality.

When I joined a guild on a US server, mostly ppl take great care to integrate me, while on EU servers guild say "hi" and then you have to see for yourself. So EU ppl seems generally to be much more solo friendly and individual. This individuality also means Europeans tend to seek more individual characters, desire more to express their ideas via the characters look.

Another thing I noticed is that MMOs with too much combat and too less story and atmosphere often fail in Europe, and WAR is the best example. It feel simplistic, streamlined and shallow, while complex MMOs like EQ2 and LOTRO are highly popular in Europe. You can see similar habits in movies. Americans tend to watch more action movies, while the European movies are often more about character and story.

You can see it well in what sells in single player games. Some kind of single player game sells in Europe (and especially in Germany) which rarely would have the same hype in US. Things like Settlers (Die Siedler), or Planescape Torment was very successful in Germany with the long dialogues, something thats not so popular in US.

Its just a generalization, a trend, not an absolute rule, of course.

Originally posted by Praetoriani

Originally posted by Calind0r

The music is different, European music doesnt suck hard.

 

There are many great rock bands from the US. My music collection wouldn't be the same without it.

I should have added "in the last 10 years" to my post.

On Navy Field I apparently joined the Euro version (the link for mmorpg.com goes to there).  It wasn't until playing for a little while that I realized, "wow, there's a lot of bilingual people in this game!"  After realizing it was European, it made sense because we the people of the U.S. aren't even lingual   (just kidding, but I'm sure my friend in England would agree).  I'm picking up a lot of German, very cool sounding language.  My favorite German word is officially "Funker" because it reminds me of George Clinton:

Shot online and Voyage Century have a large international community.  I've met more people from South America from these than any other games.  I'd tried speaking what little Spanish I remember from college to someone in Venezuela, the rest I used www.freetranslation.com/ .  It worked pretty well at first, but must've gotten overambitious with a long sentence because after I said something there was a long pause, then he said, "Dude...I have no idea what you just said."  Hehe, good times, good times.

During my trip to England, I stood at this sign for hours:

Still didn't see any humped zebras.

Lots of intresting info. Thanks for all the Reply's.

Hmm I'd say that differences between Euro and US tastes are pretty slight, given the common cultural heritage.. however IMO EU players slightly prefer teamplay while US are more into competition. This is not to say that there is no teamplay in US or that Euros are not competetive - it is just that the motivation for playing tends to be slightly different. For example Euros dig a well executed "play" regardless whether it is winning or not. US players tend to be more pragmatic in that regard - mostly they play to win with the game itself a sideline and Euros tend to enjoy the game with "winning" being just a part of that enjoyment.

The most telling thing is the difference in American football and soccer. Football is all about a series of short bursts of action with clear winners "who's going to win?!"- soccer is watched more for the enjoyment of the game itself "wow did you see that move!", that's why its not boring even though you can get 0-0 scores after 90 minutes of play.

But these are very slight differences I'd say.. Whatever goes in US goes in EU too - and vice versa. I absolutely loathe the "localized" re-edited films, books, games and media in general... I find that attitude insultingly condescending and completely pointless.

Me 2 cents.

Originally posted by Ekibiogami

Asians seem to prefer Grinders.

Americans seem to prefer Action and Reward now.

What are European's In to? Every MMO it seams like fails in the Euro market (According to the fourms. the worst place to get data :P)

And everyone else feel free to correct my Blatent Disregard for your playstile.

Im intrested in What you and you think your Nationality Like to play.

Can't really speak for an entire continent, but I prefer an MMO with an immersive storyline and depth.

Most fail (to impress me, at least) 'cos they don't have that and focus on endlessly repetitive grinds or item-ladders.

I cannot speak for my countrymen (Swedes), let alone a whole continent. Still I can say this: From what I've seen from my friends they want a sandbox games (most of them are anticipating Darkfall) and PvP with consequences.

Originally posted by markoraos

Hmm I'd say that differences between Euro and US tastes are pretty slight, given the common cultural heritage..

The most telling thing is the difference in American football and soccer. Football is all about a series of short bursts of action with clear winners "who's going to win?!"- soccer is watched more for the enjoyment of the game itself "wow did you see that move!", that's why its not boring even though you can get 0-0 scores after 90 minutes of play.

But these are very slight differences I'd say.. Whatever goes in US goes in EU too - and vice versa. I absolutely loathe the "localized" re-edited films, books, games and media in general... I find that attitude insultingly condescending and completely pointless.

Me 2 cents.

I liked this post, thanks for that.  In addition, even though there may have been a culture-split a few hundred years ago (or thousand if we're talking about Asia), by the very nature of the internet and especially online gaming, those divisions will soon disappear.  What's funny in Korea is likely to be funny in South Africa (judging by Youtube commercials) so even people half-way around the world will be telling the same jokes soon enough.  It won't be "I live in the United States" for much longer, rather, "I play for Blizzard"

What European people want from an MMORPG in general is hard to say. I' would go with the majority and say its a divided market. Different countries seem to like different things.

What i have noticed is that they tend to stick to their own kind (mostly) and speak their own language.

Yeah im a Euro too and hearing people talk my national language in a MMORPG thats entirely in English breaks immersion for me. For that reason i only join guilds / make friends with English speaking people.

What I'm looking for myself in a MMORPG is immersion, exploration, community and let me decide what i want to do for fun when i log on. Could be exploring, crafting, treasurehunting, pvping, decorating my house, telling overexagerated stories in the inn while drinking beer or whatever.

Yes indeed sandbox kind of games like UO.  I have to admit the themepark WOW was fun, but after a certain time it gets repetitive. Any other themepark games you play after that start to get repetitive even faster. The been there done that feeling.

Oh and yes... stop treating us Europeans with the 2ndclass citizens approach. We got internet and can see and read how Americans get a much better service.

Hmm, I'm British & must confess that I love drinking Tea but prefer it hot, but when it comes to Beer I prefer it to be warm & flat in a glass rather than ice cold from a bottle. I have always hated Football/Soccer though & find it almost as boring as Tennis, which is a shame as I actually live In Wimbledon.

Discussing cultural differences is always a tricky subject, even in the same country as I live in the South but was born in the North where I hope to return in the next couple of years. On the whole though I would say that the British are potentially more cautious & sceptical. If someone suggests, "Try this it great but also very cheap", we are probably more likely to ask what the catch is.

In games I think we try to be polite but get easily pissed off when people are rude or take advantage. I think the British are more likely to prefer games where you can enjoy the RP atmosphere & tend to dislike things like 'Dude Speak' or people that pointlessly jump up & down spoiling our enjoyment.

To get back to the original question though, I think the main differences are in playing style rather than the actual games themselves. As far as 'Grinders' vs 'Subscriptions' go, we don't mind paying out money as long as we can see that we get good value for it.

Just my opinion though, no offence meant anyone inside or outside the UK.

Originally posted by LondonMagus

In games I think we try to be polite but get easily pissed off when people are rude or take advantage. I think the British are more likely to prefer games where you can enjoy the RP atmosphere & tend to dislike things like 'Dude Speak' or people that pointlessly jump up & down spoiling our enjoyment.

To get back to the original question though, I think the main differences are in playing style rather than the actual games themselves. As far as 'Grinders' vs 'Subscriptions' go, we don't mind paying out money as long as we can see that we get good value for it.

Just my opinion though, no offence meant anyone inside or outside the UK.

I think this has more to do with maturity than nationality...else I need to apply for dual citizenship.  Works for me though, I love Twinings elderflower tea, Cadbury chocolate, Twenty20 Cricket, houses made of something stronger than wood, Red Dwarf, Avebury, Dr. Who, Picnics at Chatsworth, V&A Museum, etc.

Originally posted by saint4God

 

I think this has more to do with maturity than nationality...else I need to apply for dual citizenship.  Works for me though, I love Twinings elderflower tea, Cadbury chocolate, 20 Cricket, houses made of something stronger than wood, Red Dwarf, Avebury, Dr. Who, Picnics at Chatsworth, V&A Museum, etc.

You won't find many Brits with the same sentiments (apart from the houses)

Originally posted by darwa

You won't find many Brits with the same sentiments (apart from the houses)

I think I was forunate with the friends I stayed with, we had similar tastes...but, how can you NOT love Avebury? O_o  Such a wonderful place for a walk or picnic:

Originally posted by Blodpls

Originally posted by saint4God

Originally posted by Blodpls

There is an american football game as you well know and it doesn't sell in the UK in significant numbers.

I like tea and drink it daily, my friend in England doesn't.  Perhaps by some cosmic accident we were switched at birth.  I love Chinese food, my Chinese friend can't stand it.  Maybe I could apply for dual Chinese-English citizenship.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tea_consumption_per_capita

That's all I got to say to about this.  Not worth arguing about.

I just saw this. Such an ironic example that goes to show stereotyping has misses as much as hits, which makes the whole system a bit redundant.

You see, according to that chart, people in Turkey consume more tea than people in the United Kingdom, which is known for its tea culture. The thing is, Turkey is not known as widely for tea as for coffee. Then it's rather funny that when you go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coffee_consumption_per_capita you'll see it ranks way down on that list.

Stereotypes are for lazy minds. And as for the topic, yes, I've seen many Euros that were deep into EVE and other sandboxy stuff, but I've seen many many more that were into WoW.

One thing you can say about them though, is that they're not getting any younger