The Vault Dweller
always looking for water.
Recently Playstation Magazine a popular console magazine ran an article entitled "East Vs West" in which is described the gradual differentiation between American and Japanese RPG's. Surprisingly for a console magazine they not only mention Fallout, but even the author has amazing knowledge about just how much Fallout represents the American flavor of RPG...<blockquote>Take Interplay's Fallout, one of the most highly regarded Western RPG's of the past decade. It allows players to create and customize a character, form allegiances, take on jobs and bounties-all of which are tangential to the main story, which involves a hero's quest to save his "hometown" from imminent drought. But the path to completing the task is left to players to determine. </blockquote>I would like to point out to you the reader also that the article makes constant note of the differences between American and Japanese RPGs.<blockquote>It's hardly news that American and Japan are like night and day when it comes to tastes in videogames, but the differences are even more pronounced when it comes to RPG's. Aside from a shared fascination with the primping pretty boys of Final Fantasy, our two nations define "roleplaying" as two very different creatures. Here, they're enormous, open-ended adventures in which the story is loosely presented and players are free to progress as they see fit-just like in the old days of tabletop RPG's when the dungeon master determined the plot and outcomes were settled with a roll of the dice.
In Japan, though, an RPG is something completely different . You have your character stats and your experience points. You may have familiar character classes and even beasts to battle straight from TSR's Monstrous Compendium. There could be dungeons to spelunk and townsfolk to assist, too. But those elements ultimately serve as a mere window dressing for the linear adventures in which plot, not the player, determines the game's outcomes, direction, and pacing. </blockquote>I'm fairly certain that if your experience is like mine that you have many RPG friends who play console (JRPG), but wont touch a PC (American RPG) and this article could a good introduction to proving to them that the difference is one of style and not quality. Who knows? You may even make a believer of them.
Be sure to pick up the November 2006 copy of the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine Issue 110 and show it to a friend.
Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
In Japan, though, an RPG is something completely different . You have your character stats and your experience points. You may have familiar character classes and even beasts to battle straight from TSR's Monstrous Compendium. There could be dungeons to spelunk and townsfolk to assist, too. But those elements ultimately serve as a mere window dressing for the linear adventures in which plot, not the player, determines the game's outcomes, direction, and pacing. </blockquote>I'm fairly certain that if your experience is like mine that you have many RPG friends who play console (JRPG), but wont touch a PC (American RPG) and this article could a good introduction to proving to them that the difference is one of style and not quality. Who knows? You may even make a believer of them.
Be sure to pick up the November 2006 copy of the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine Issue 110 and show it to a friend.
Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
Ah, now I know why you write these things here, you were the one that wrote the darn article to the magazine, and now you want to get recognition of it, in this forum(we all want to be famous) and get all the little pennies you can by selling your soul to the devil, the add agency. 
