General Discussion

I recently finished watching Bonus Round: Episode 11: Part 1 - Japan: Culturally Biased? on GameTrailers and it left me with one huge question. 

Why do Asian gamers love senseless violence in MMO games, but demand a rich, full, immersful world with a purpose in every other genre?

So I know a lot of what the guys talk about in the interview are opinions, but they do have some good points.

1.  Some big selling (non-MMO) titles in America over the last few years have been NWN, Elder Scrolls, GTA, Gears of War & the Halo series.  Now, I'm not going to pretend to know why these types of games do not sell in the Asian marketplace, I just know that they don't.

2.  Some big selling titles in the Asian market are Anything from Nintendo, FF, Metal Gear, Gundam.

In my own opinion it seems that games with a very abstract world (Katamari Damacy) or very well written storyline (MGS) do very well in the Asian market.  While games that have a more realistic art style, and maybe lacking in the story department (Gears of War) do not do as well.

Why is it then that mindless grind fest MMO games such as Maple Story (40 million+) Lienage 2 (1 million+) or WoW (3 million+) do great in Asian market?  Of course this is not a complete list.  There are a ton of Asian developed MMO games that are comprised of nothing more then grinding on monsters for levels then selling your loot.  Subscription numbers for those probably tops 100 million combined (just a guess).

I have thought about this for a while now and I really can't come up with an explanation why this is.

Where is the demand for a great story, a rich world full of life, or a highly stylized art form (Well I guess WoW kind of fits into that one)?

Am I missing something?

I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on the subject. 

Thanks!

Well I have a friend who's not asian but she likes the kind of grind fest MMORPG's that you find in the asian market, the best explanation she gave to me of it was basically along the lines of I like to feel that I'm ten times more skilled than my enemies and can cut them all down without anyone telling me it's wrong. My speculation of these types of games is this, because games developers have not tried to innovate the way they're showing how strong players are, they just add more and more monsters of the same type to get the gamer hooked, what puzzles me is, what happened... What happened to games like Baldurs Gate 2, I LOVED the way in that game where when you levelled up your spells or abilities it actually showed in your combat how strong you were, none of these stats and none of these thousands of monsters, but your spells actually got stronger I.E flashier, more explosive, that sort of thing, I personally can understand why they'd be attracted to that sort of game, but I think it's not because they're dull or anything, far from it, they just probably haven't had any experience with the types of games that western gamers have such as Ultima Online or Pre-Cu SWG, which have been pretty much nerfed out of existence by now so they're the same type of games that others are today really.

I have actually found that asian MMORPG's/Games have got some of the best art I've ever seen, RF Online, Lineage 2, they look great for the time they're in now, what takes the piss is that these games have nothing innovative or new in them and I think that ruins their art appeal greatly, as for WoW though, I can sort of agree with the rich world, but not the lore/story or art *shudder* that kind of stuff just puts me off MMORPG's entirely.

Asian mmos typically have a better community system.  They can hold alot more characters on screen at the same time.  Until 2006, the number 1 mmo in Japan was Ragnarok Online for a reason.  You can make a name for yourself in the game and it feels meaningful when 10k other players play on that server over 2k.  Also you can't forget the choices you make in the game are much more meaningful since you have a limited amount of skills and stats to build your character.  It also creates higher build diversity unlike the easy mode games like WoW.

Imo, while Maple Story is a huge success in international market, there are many games that outperform Maple Story in the asian market. Maple Story is more suited for teenagers.

the reason games like Lineage 2 are popular in Asia..well, you answered your own question. Lineage 2 is so popular because of its pvp system that is heavily based on clan politics, as you said, Asian gamers want to have a purpose.

I think the reason WoW is so succesful is because, for one the blizzard name, there is a lot of cultural bias in the east, so asian gamers were prepared to give WoW a shot, but also because WoW does a great job at rewarding players.

I saw a commercial on Adult Swim (late-night cartoon network) for Maple Story...

I lol'd

"....Asian mmos typically have a better community system.  They can hold alot more characters on screen at the same time.  Until 2006, the number 1 mmo in Japan was Ragnarok Online for a reason.  You can make a name for yourself in the game and it feels meaningful when 10k other players play on that server over 2k.  Also you can't forget the choices you make in the game are much more meaningful since you have a limited amount of skills and stats to build your character.  It also creates higher build diversity unlike the easy mode games like WoW"...

HUH?

Never seen one asian game with even close the community of Wow, in fact I don't even know of an asian game with even the slightest hint of a community and I have tried a bunch of them.

What are you talking about when you say "higher build deversity"?  Most asian games have very little build diversity, everyone looks the same  and uses the same equipment at particular levels.  Where is the diversity?  I have yet to meet an asian game that is not a huge grindfest, at least Wow breaks up the grinding with quests, only a few Asian games even bother with questing.

I can understand that the ansian gamer has different likes than mine, more power to them. They should play what they like.  What I don't understand is all these when they port these games to the US/European market where such designs are not desired.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"....Asian mmos typically have a better community system.  They can hold alot more characters on screen at the same time.  Until 2006, the number 1 mmo in Japan was Ragnarok Online for a reason.  You can make a name for yourself in the game and it feels meaningful when 10k other players play on that server over 2k.  Also you can't forget the choices you make in the game are much more meaningful since you have a limited amount of skills and stats to build your character.  It also creates higher build diversity unlike the easy mode games like WoW"...

HUH?

Never seen one asian game with even close the community of Wow, in fact I don't even know of an asian game with even the slightest hint of a community and I have tried a bunch of them.

What are you talking about when you say "higher build deversity"?  Most asian games have very little build diversity, everyone looks the same  and uses the same equipment at particular levels.  Where is the diversity?  I have yet to meet an asian game that is not a huge grindfest, at least Wow breaks up the grinding with quests, only a few Asian games even bother with questing.

I can understand that the ansian gamer has different likes than mine, more power to them. They should play what they like.  What I don't understand is all these when they port these games to the US/European market where such designs are not desired.

Most asian games have little build diversity? thats complete bullcrap, I'm not even going to begin to describe how rediculous that statement is.

oh by the way, an interesting fact. If we didn't include WoW, did you know that Maple story and Silkroad online have more players in the west than the average western mmorpg does? Probably not, because this would mean you would actually checked the facts before you post, and we can't have that now can we?

WoW breaks up the grinding with quests? You mean 1000's of go kill XX quests and 1000's of go find XX items, ofcourse, by killing XX.

that really breaks up the mold /sarcasm

There is a very simple and straightforward answer to the OP's question...

MMOs are dominated mostly by Chinese and Koreans, while other genres in Asia are dominated by the Japanese. Quite simply, the Japanese demand a higher quality product, just like everything else in life.

Of course, these are broad generalizations and there will be exceptions.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"....Asian mmos typically have a better community system.  They can hold alot more characters on screen at the same time.  Until 2006, the number 1 mmo in Japan was Ragnarok Online for a reason.  You can make a name for yourself in the game and it feels meaningful when 10k other players play on that server over 2k.  Also you can't forget the choices you make in the game are much more meaningful since you have a limited amount of skills and stats to build your character.  It also creates higher build diversity unlike the easy mode games like WoW"...

HUH?

Never seen one asian game with even close the community of Wow, in fact I don't even know of an asian game with even the slightest hint of a community and I have tried a bunch of them.

What are you talking about when you say "higher build deversity"?  Most asian games have very little build diversity, everyone looks the same  and uses the same equipment at particular levels.  Where is the diversity?  I have yet to meet an asian game that is not a huge grindfest, at least Wow breaks up the grinding with quests, only a few Asian games even bother with questing.

I can understand that the ansian gamer has different likes than mine, more power to them. They should play what they like.  What I don't understand is all these when they port these games to the US/European market where such designs are not desired.

Thats because you are playing crappy games.  You should really play an asian mmo that has a budget.