インタビュー: KotakuのブライアンAshcraft -部2

それは9月末頃である、従って東京ゲーム番組が私達にあることを意味する! 世界中から賭博のジャーナリストが東京で一点に集中するので、私は木曜日の間Gawker所有された賭博のブログのブライアンAshcraftに出くわすことによってあたためた Kotaku. これはインタビューの部2である; 点検の部1 ここに.

ダンOrlowitz: 明らかにあなたの聴衆は大抵アメリカのgamersである、従って何アメリカのgamersと日本のgamersの間に相違をある考えるか。

ブライアンAshcraft: それが完全な例であることを私が先日聞いた、私は考える何かはここにあり。 私は京都のQゲームに行き、それらはPSNのためのPixeljunkをして、「私達している2つのタイプの小型ゲームを」、言い、それを….終えるまでおよび仕事は困難であるが仕事を完了しなければならない、それをし続けるかところにより欲求不満基づかせていて物

: アメリカ人のためか。

BA: いいえ、日本人のために。 And then the games where you can just open it up and go as fast as you can, that was more appealing to American gamers, and I think that’s probably a reason why something like an RPG appeals to Japanese gamers. There’s a level of frustration, grinding through a game, and then for example a shooter, you just let it go.

DO: Racing games… I guess are on both sides?

BA: Yeah.

DO: But games like Crusin’ USA are more for the American audiences, because you never hit the brake pedal.

BA: And that’s why Gran Turismo is so popular in Japan. I remember last year, two years ago, when they showed it first on the PS3, and they were like, “Here’s the motorcycle,” and I’m on the bike, and I move it forward, and I turn it, and the bike just dumped. And it’s like, “This is crap, this is too realistic,” and that’s what they want and people love it.

DO: And the same goes for things like train simulators.

BA: Exactly.

DO: We talked about this on the way here, but what do you think the appeal is of visual novels?

BA: It’s funny; do you remember when SE said they were going to make Dragon Quest button-pushing based, not like a traditional DQ game but more like an action game? Dragon Quest 9 - they were going to make it like an adventure game. And then Famitsu interviewed a bunch of Japanese gamers, and everyone was really pissed off. And people were like, “What if people aren’t good at games? If you’re not good at games, then you won’t be able to complete DQ.” That was the complete.

DO: So I guess with VNs people care more about completing the story .

BA: I think there’s a segment of the gaming population in Japan who aren’t very good at games; they just suck. So for them, going through, for example, visual novels gives them the satisfaction of interacting and playing a game, but not the frustration of losing.

DO: Although with VNs you have multiple paths, but it’s different than, “You run out of lives, game over.”

BA: Yeah, I think that’s one of the reasons. And Americans probably look at that as, “Well, this is a comic book? On my computer? Why do I need that?” It doesn’t connect.

DO: They want to push buttons and kill things and…

BA: Do stuff.

DO: If they wanted to do that they’d read Choose Your Own Adventure.

BA: I think that it just hasn’t made the leap.

DO: You mentioned Famitsu, how would you say that Japanese gaming press caters to its audience differently than the American press?

BA: This is something I’ve heard; I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard that large companies in Japan have deals with large gaming publications in this country, to the extent that these gaming companies are writing articles.

DO: Really?

BA: Yeah, basically putting press releases as articles. And that’s why lots of exclusive information is every week… first screenshots, whatever. I don’t know if that’s true. And I think it’s impossible to prove.

DO: It’s plausible.

BA: Yeah, it’s plausible.

DO: Would you say that it’s the same thing in the US?

BA: I’d say it’s changed now.

DO: But for example, the hype surrounding Halo 3, assuming that Halo is Game of the Year.

BA: But people have played through it, and their impressions are maybe not so great. I think it’s totally different because companies operating in the US, they know that they cannot buy reviews for major sites. It’s just not going to happen. So what they do is say, “Okay, we’ll give you the access,” but they can write whatever they want. It’s not a trade-off.

DO: It’s on good faith.

BA: It’s the same thing as if 20th Century Fox does a sneak preview.

DO: They’re not going to say, “If you see this preview, give us two thumbs up.”

BA: Exactly. That’s all they can do.

DO: Well, if Famitsu scores a game, that’s make or break for the studio, isn’t it?

BA: I don’t think the scores are, if anything, it’s somewhat autonomous. I don’t know to what extent.

DO: Haven’t there been rumors in the past…? Maybe it’s fair to say that they’re as autonomous as IGN.

BA: I don’t know about that, so that’s a different realm… and that’s different from what Kotaku does. It’s not about scoring games, it’s about breaking news, and impressions, and doing actual journalism, and finding weird things that entertain us. It’s a nice mix.

DO: Regarding how companies interact with the press and the fans. In the US there are personalities, like Major Nelson, Reggie Fils-Aime, Gabe Newell of Valve, people like those who interact with the fans on the personal level. Gears of War and Bioshock both have forums that actively seek fan input. Do you see as much of that in Japan?

BA: No.

DO: Why do you think that is?

BA: Japanese companies are not yet as PR-savvy as they should be.

DO: Do you think they’re learning?

BA: I don’t know. For example, there will be events in Japan where it’s not like, “Oh, we need to get western press here.” It doesn’t even factor into the equation. It’s not even on their radar.

DO: For example, look at how Bioshock had the survey for the limited edition extras. Does that happen at all, or do they assume they know what the fans want?

BA: Going back to Dragon Quest, everyone freaked out and said an action-based version of DQ would suck, Square came back and said, “Okay, it’s regular Dragon Quest.” Companies in Japan are slightly behind, even their US branches.

DO: In getting a sense of what the fans want?

BA: Or how to interact with the fans and the press. “We’re having a big event, we should get western press so they can write it in English and more people will notice.”

DO: Recently you went to Microsoft’s presser; was that in English?

BA: Well, it’s changing, because for example Konami had an event recently. The entire conference was in Japanese, but Konami was smart enough to say, “We should have foreign press here, because they’ll write about it and more people will learn about it.”

DO: This is more a question for me, but how do you find out about these events?

BA: You have to get on their lists. It’s funny because when we first started Kotaku, we were getting 20,000 hits a day. I’d look at the site meter and we’d get 800 an hour, and that was impressive. But now, we do 20,000 hits in 40 minutes. Once the site gets bigger, obviously companies will contact you.
Stop being a noob and check out the third part already.

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