4 ms·

> Has the myth that Japan is a uniquely technically advanced society been debunked in culture yet? One hypothesis I saw put forward by a Japanese-American vlog

> Has the myth that Japan is a uniquely technically advanced society been debunked in culture yet? One hypothesis I saw put forward by a Japanese-American vlogger was that Japan basically "does not do software". * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMSWuSeDPA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMSWuSeDPA Software is treated as a second-class career in most major corporations. There's less cultural prestige with being a software engineer. I'm not sure that Japan is uniquely advanced, but it certainly is skilled in certain niches. Does any doubt the quality control of most things manufactured in Japan? Culturally it seems to be content with the old way of doing things in other ways (e.g., using cash (wrapped in envelopes)).

sumedh 5y ago
> Japan basically "does not do software". I guess they dont know how to do UX either. As a tourist using Japanese (English) websites was a terrible experience. I dont know why the web designs is still stuck in the 90's
- suction 5y ago
  I asked this exact question in Japan. The usual answer was "because it is safer" - when I asked to elaborate what "safer" meant, I was met with annoyed stares. Questioning things isn't really known in Japan, if someone sometime decided that it's safer, then that's what it is. Apart from some boutique startups, UX isn't even a thing in Japan. Similar to how it worked in the 80s in the US, UX is done by the same people who engineer the application who have no formal training or talent in UX.
  - neillyons 5y ago
    Good article on this from a few years ago https://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/ https://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-differe...
ascagnel_ 5y ago
> Software is treated as a second-class career in most major corporations. There's less cultural prestige with being a software engineer. While I can't comment on the latter half of this statement, the first still rings true even today. The PlayStation 5 came out and featured a completely new system interface, and there have been numerous complaints about everything from navigation to moving saves forward from the PS4 to the PS5. Microsoft, Sony's biggest competitor in the space, chose to iterate on their interface, and while there are still some complaints, keeping the same wheel let them focus on things like easing the transition between hardware boxes via game updates and syncing saves. For example, if you want to move a save game from a PS4 to a PS5 running an updated version of the game: - Start the game on the old PS4, and make sure the save is synced to the cloud service. - Install the PS4 version of the game on the PS5. On launch, the system didn't do a very good job of distinguishing the two versions of a game. - Launch the PS4 version of the game on the PS5, just to pull the game down from the cloud service. - Launch the PS5 version of the game on the PS5, so it can ingest the now-local cloud save. Microsoft set up some system-level infrastructure to handle installing the "correct" version of the game (useful since they're selling two boxes with different specs) and has always handled save games as cloud saves, so moving between platforms can be as simple as "install game, start game", provided the developer/publisher hasn't opted out of the upgrade infrastructure (so they can sell an upgrade path).
- filoleg 5y ago
  What you are describing definitely happens, but it is 100% up to the specific game dev implementation. Some games indeed require that weird dance with "launch ps4 game on PS5, launch it, download ps5 version, launch ps5 version, etc." But plenty of PS4 games that got corresponding PS5 versions don't require that, and getting your PS4 saves on PS5 version of the game is as simple as just launching the PS5 version and continuing from there, without any dances surrounding PS4/PS5 version swapping (assuming you have your PS4 save files either locally or in the cloud). Which makes me reasonably believe that it isn't an issue inherent to PS5, but to how the specific games implemented that save file import functionality between PS4 and PS5. Despite that example you used being a bit flawed, I totally agree with the rest of the general points you've made.

sumedh 5y ago

> Japan basically "does not do software". I guess they dont know how to do UX either. As a tourist using Japanese (English) websites was a terrible experience. I dont know why the web designs is still stuck in the 90's

suction 5y ago
I asked this exact question in Japan. The usual answer was "because it is safer" - when I asked to elaborate what "safer" meant, I was met with annoyed stares. Questioning things isn't really known in Japan, if someone sometime decided that it's safer, then that's what it is. Apart from some boutique startups, UX isn't even a thing in Japan. Similar to how it worked in the 80s in the US, UX is done by the same people who engineer the application who have no formal training or talent in UX.
- neillyons 5y ago
  Good article on this from a few years ago https://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/ https://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-differe...

ascagnel_ 5y ago

> Software is treated as a second-class career in most major corporations. There's less cultural prestige with being a software engineer. While I can't comment on the latter half of this statement, the first still rings true even today. The PlayStation 5 came out and featured a completely new system interface, and there have been numerous complaints about everything from navigation to moving saves forward from the PS4 to the PS5. Microsoft, Sony's biggest competitor in the space, chose to iterate on their interface, and while there are still some complaints, keeping the same wheel let them focus on things like easing the transition between hardware boxes via game updates and syncing saves. For example, if you want to move a save game from a PS4 to a PS5 running an updated version of the game: - Start the game on the old PS4, and make sure the save is synced to the cloud service. - Install the PS4 version of the game on the PS5. On launch, the system didn't do a very good job of distinguishing the two versions of a game. - Launch the PS4 version of the game on the PS5, just to pull the game down from the cloud service. - Launch the PS5 version of the game on the PS5, so it can ingest the now-local cloud save. Microsoft set up some system-level infrastructure to handle installing the "correct" version of the game (useful since they're selling two boxes with different specs) and has always handled save games as cloud saves, so moving between platforms can be as simple as "install game, start game", provided the developer/publisher hasn't opted out of the upgrade infrastructure (so they can sell an upgrade path).

filoleg 5y ago
What you are describing definitely happens, but it is 100% up to the specific game dev implementation. Some games indeed require that weird dance with "launch ps4 game on PS5, launch it, download ps5 version, launch ps5 version, etc." But plenty of PS4 games that got corresponding PS5 versions don't require that, and getting your PS4 saves on PS5 version of the game is as simple as just launching the PS5 version and continuing from there, without any dances surrounding PS4/PS5 version swapping (assuming you have your PS4 save files either locally or in the cloud). Which makes me reasonably believe that it isn't an issue inherent to PS5, but to how the specific games implemented that save file import functionality between PS4 and PS5. Despite that example you used being a bit flawed, I totally agree with the rest of the general points you've made.