Garret

Well, what I was trying to say was that Japanese stuff isn''t the be all and end all of storytelling. It does have a lot of cool stuff, and there are things we could learn from them...but I think the "manga craze" got a little out of hand. I don''t think the Japanese stuff is superior to ours or vice versa. But if we could just borrow elements from each other, then we''d be all the better.

And yes you are entirely right. The Japanese are a very contradictory lot. On one hand, they are supposed to be a very closed society, where the "nail that sticks out gets hammered down". And yet, Zen stresses the capacity to think for ones self and find his own way. On one hand the Japanese are very traditional, bordering on xenophobic, but on the other hand, they will take another country''s product without reservation and adapt it to their own sensibilities (baseball for example). And yes, to the Japanese, the attention is really in the details. I mean what other culture would make an art form out of pouring tea??
There''s an old Japanese saying, "you can tell the nature of a man by how he enters through a door, you cn tell a woman''s nature by how she closes it". The smallest things have great significance to the Japanese, so it is in the execution that matters...not necessarily the final product. One more old samurai tale....

Supposedly one day an old tea master bumped into a brash young samurai by accient. The master tried to apologize, but the samurai challenged him to a duel the next day. Knowing that he could never beat the samurai, the tea master visited a famous swordsmaster that lived in the area. He wished only that he wouldn''t show fear and to ask for advice on how to die honorably.

The swordsmaster sized up the team master and asked him to pour him some tea. With no hesitation or fear the tea master went through the ritual that he had performed thousands of times before, with no mistakes and perfect in execution. He had forgotten his fear totally as he did so. The Swordsmaster remarked to the tea master that his hands did not tremble. So the swordsmaster looked the tea master squarely in the eye and told him that just as he had conecntrated so intently on pouring tea...he must do so with just as much focus when he held his sword against the samurai. The swordsmaster said that he had already mastered the ability to concentrate..and it would be a simple thing to focus his mind on only one act....strike with the sword no matter what.

So on the next day, the young samurai faced the old tea master. But instead of finding a frightened old man, he saw only calm and peace in the tea master''s eyes. As he approached closer and was putting his hand on his sword, he still saw no fear in the other man''s eyes...only an intense concentration and one-mindedness. The young samurai began to grow fearful...he knew that he could strike down the old man, but he didn''t know if he would be able to counter the strike from the old man. The old man had already accepted the fact that he would die...but the young samurai had not. The young samurai was not prepared for ai nuke....mututal destruction. So the young samurai approached the old man, and bowed, asking for his forgiveness, and asking for a lesson in chado...the tea ceremony.

Does that make any sense? It''s not so much what is done, but how we do it that counts. And I think this gets lost on most Americans unfortunately. So perhaps I should say that isn''t that Japanse stuff isn''t better...the american fanboys reaction to it is.

Dauntless, I used to love those Zen koans too, especially one involving a young buddhist monk...

He was instructed to go to town and beg for money as is the tradition. So off he went without a moments hesitation and returned in the evening with money which would be donated to the monastery. He approached his master, and his master said,
"Tomorrow you will go back to town and give the money away". The young monk was troubled. Needless to say as soon as the sun rose he went back to town and gave the money away. He returned to his master. The old master looked at him and intoned, "Your beliefs are based on humility and lack of self, now you must acknowledge the ego...". The young buddhist understood.


Sorry about that, it''s off the top of my head, and I read it 7 years ago.

I''m absolutely amazed at how many people love these console RPGs and run around saying that American companies are crap because we don''t make console style RPGs.

Our (American) companies create crap? I think that the entire FF series is crap. I think that most every console ''RPG'' is crap. When my wife bought me a PS2 (half for the DVD capabilities) she got me FF X and I must say that I''m amazed at the fact that while the game is pretty, in over 2 hours since I turned the game on I have done very little other than watch this half movie/half game and walk around in a completely predetermined path. I''ve heard that it''s a great game, but I haven''t felt that there is much RPGish about it as of right now.

American designers are not any further ahead, or behind for that matter, Japanese, British or any other designers out there. Western (American and European) designers have one style, far Eastern (Japanese and Asian) have another on their games. In my experience one works for console games and the other works for PC games. How many console games make it on the PC? How many PC games make it on the consoles? Not many on either front.

Stop calling people who design for one platform (PC) morons while making people who design for the other (console) out to be brilliant masters. Neither are idiots and neither are brilliant, they''re just game makers.

BTW, someone said something that I definitely agree with, your arrogance will probably keep you from ever making it in the gaming industry. It will also possibly keep you from making it in any other industry. Stop insulting others to make yourself look good. There is a lot of give and take in any software manufacture and there is always a lot more that designers want to put in their games that is either not possible due to physical limitations or due to time restraints put on them by the publishers.

I actually like Shiny''s approach to designing games. They think of something they call "a hook". They think of a really cool feature thats never been done before. If it''s used in future games, then they''ve accomplished their goal. MDK''s sniper mode did this. And i can almost guarantee, some other game will rip-off bullet time from Max Payne. In my opinion 3drealms are good designers, cuz of all the interactivity in Duke3d. And theres gonna be that much more in DukeNukem4ever. I dunno bout most people, but even things as simple as interacting with objects in the world is cool. Another good designer is Warren Spector, cuz he believes the PLAYER should tell the story, not the game. I have a book with Warren Spector talking and he said how he wishes there we''re not streching our creativity. There should be more Pa Rappa the Rapper''s and such... And games that make the player emotional, like the FF series, but not through linearity. He then goes on to say he wishes someone would make this happen in the context of a genuinely interactive game, like a love stroy or human comedy, with the player''s actions driving the relationship and/or comedy. Or how about a tragedy where the player''s choices really make a difference? Where''s our "King Lear" or "Death of a Salesman"? When we have achieved something along these lines, we will have really accomplished something.