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Yeah. Between the parent comment about the software that runs the convenience stores. And yours, Games. Sony, Nintendo, are we really saying the country that

Yeah. Between the parent comment about the software that runs the convenience stores. And yours, Games. Sony, Nintendo, are we really saying the country that makes PlayStation and Nintendo's is 'bad' at software? And, Didn't someone in Japan make the Ruby language? I need to go back to the other post and re-read to find, where is the 'bad' software? How are they categorizing Japanese software as 'bad' compared to any other country? Was it just because US Silicon Valley has had a few bigger startups in general? Is that really a good benchmark?

eru 2y ago
No, no, I can believe that most Japanese software is bad. And also that the average piece of Japanese software is worse than the average piece of eg US software.
ffsm8 2y ago
I mean most Japanese games are known for their stories and character development - with negative remarks wrt the user interface. Also, Sony hasn't been Japanese in ages. It's even a pretty well known point theyre often salty about, because they feel betrayed by Sony for the most part
- TeaBrain 2y ago
  What are you referring to by Sony not being Japanese?
  - dmonitor 2y ago
    They've heavily invested in moving a lot of their game production to US and making more western-style games. They only have a few game developers in Japan these days since closing Japan Studio.
dmonitor 2y ago
The benchmark where Japanese software allegedly fails (user experience) rings true especially in their video games. One of the major reasons Xbox was so successful in the mid 00's is because the Japanese companies were far behind on online user experience. Japanese video games tend to have really great gameplay, but the menus and settings are incredibly lacking. Japanese PC ports were all around terrible up until a few years ago. Elden Ring launched on PC without an "exit game" button in the pause menu, for example. Nintendo's settings menus only having one option (rumble on/off) is a running joke at this point. I think the "design to meet spec, not to anticipate users needs" philosophy is also apparent in the game design. Western RPGs are characterized by their sandbox/do anything capability. Create a character, choose your class, pick your allies, kill any NPC, choose your ending. Japanese RPGs are structured with predefined characters, class roles (with a bit of customization sometimes), narrative, and ending (and maybe a "bad ending" if they want to punish you for not doing all the side quests).
- smugma 2y ago
  Breath of the Wild is much more “do anything.” Exception to prove the rule?
  - dmonitor 2y ago
    Zelda definitely took inspiration from Skyrim/Minecraft sandbox with the recent titles. There's also lots of Western RPGs that brand themselves as JRPG because they follow the linear format. It's less the exception that proves the rule, and more evidence that Eastern and Western developers are learning from each other.

eru 2y ago

No, no, I can believe that most Japanese software is bad. And also that the average piece of Japanese software is worse than the average piece of eg US software.

ffsm8 2y ago

I mean most Japanese games are known for their stories and character development - with negative remarks wrt the user interface. Also, Sony hasn't been Japanese in ages. It's even a pretty well known point theyre often salty about, because they feel betrayed by Sony for the most part

TeaBrain 2y ago
What are you referring to by Sony not being Japanese?
- dmonitor 2y ago
  They've heavily invested in moving a lot of their game production to US and making more western-style games. They only have a few game developers in Japan these days since closing Japan Studio.

dmonitor 2y ago

The benchmark where Japanese software allegedly fails (user experience) rings true especially in their video games. One of the major reasons Xbox was so successful in the mid 00's is because the Japanese companies were far behind on online user experience. Japanese video games tend to have really great gameplay, but the menus and settings are incredibly lacking. Japanese PC ports were all around terrible up until a few years ago. Elden Ring launched on PC without an "exit game" button in the pause menu, for example. Nintendo's settings menus only having one option (rumble on/off) is a running joke at this point. I think the "design to meet spec, not to anticipate users needs" philosophy is also apparent in the game design. Western RPGs are characterized by their sandbox/do anything capability. Create a character, choose your class, pick your allies, kill any NPC, choose your ending. Japanese RPGs are structured with predefined characters, class roles (with a bit of customization sometimes), narrative, and ending (and maybe a "bad ending" if they want to punish you for not doing all the side quests).

smugma 2y ago
Breath of the Wild is much more “do anything.” Exception to prove the rule?
- dmonitor 2y ago
  Zelda definitely took inspiration from Skyrim/Minecraft sandbox with the recent titles. There's also lots of Western RPGs that brand themselves as JRPG because they follow the linear format. It's less the exception that proves the rule, and more evidence that Eastern and Western developers are learning from each other.