As printed in The Northern Light newspaper
Oct. 31, 2006
Even though the mainstream press and politicians act as if video games like “Grand Theft Auto” and “Bully” are indicative of the entire medium, some forward thinkers are starting to think of video games in fascinating new ways.
Technically, the massively multiplayer online Second Life is not a game, per se, as there are no goals, points or quests to complete. Similar to the popular game “The Sims,” Second Life is more about the everyday business of life. The difference is that the business in Second Life is real, with millions of real dollars traded every week. The news agency Reuters even recently opened up a virtual news bureau inside of the game world, with a staff member paid to log onto the game at set times and keep virtual office hours. From virtual business meetings in custom-built virtual meeting rooms (with real-life video conferencers interacting with virtual avatars) to a virtual clothing store that allows avatars (with real-life measurements) to try on and buy actual outfits, Second Life is poised to become the virtual reality that was imagined when the term was first coined.
Wal-Mart, American Express and Intel are looking into using Second Life for corporate training, according to a September 2006 “Popular Science” article. A basic Second Life account is free, and players don’t have to be businessmen – flying, teleportation and nearly anything one can imagine or create is possible in this virtual playground. The site’s creator even hopes that the social aspects of his online community will be like a living MySpace.
On the education front, a year-long study by the Federation of American Scientists concluded that the addictive nature of video games could be used to create new video game learning tools for schools, according to an Oct. 17 Associated Press article. The group called for federal research into the potential of video game learning.
While educational games don’t usually sell well, “Brain Age” for Nintendo DS has been a huge seller – and it’s basically just math and reading mini-games. And if role-playing gamers can memorize all the monster and item names, strengths, and stats, just think if a game used real chemistry and science. Gamers would learn without even realizing it.
Aircraft pilot trainers and even the Army have been using games for years to teach skills that directly apply to real-world applications. Perhaps very soon, playing hours of video games won’t be a sign of a slacker but of an overachiever. Of course, if it really is that easy to learn from games, those disturbed over “Grand Theft Auto” might have a legitimate concern. Then again, school-sanctioned sports have been teaching violent and competitive activities to students for years, so maybe a college “Halo 3” team isn’t beyond possibility. Thanks to Second Life, neither is a virtual classroom.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Friday, November 17, 2006
Blogging gets writers noticed by manga, book publishers
As printed in The Northern Light newspaper
Oct. 10, 2006
A Japanese man who regularly went online to write a daily blog about his domineering wife has now earned the equivalent of more than $300,000 for two book deals, as well as a manga, TV series, movie and video game, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
The “Demon Wife Diaries” is not unique either. The same article goes on to say that Japanese publishing firms scour the Internet for original content, and more than 300 books based on personal writings have been published in Japan since 2004. It’s estimated that about 1 in every 5 people in Japan read blogs and a person in Japan is far more likely to maintain a blog than a person in America.
“Densha Otoko” (“Train Man”) is another popular Japanese property based on conversations on an internet forum. What started out as people giving advice to a nerdy guy over the Internet is now a multimillion dollar, international story that’s generated over a $1,000,000 in royalties for the anonymous poster and the forum moderator. It became a book, manga, TV series and top-grossing movie. The author credited as creating “Densha Otoko” is named Hitori Nakano, a pseudonym meaning “one of those people,” according to Anime News Network. There are a couple of manga versions available in English, and the movie showed in New York at the end of September. The movie is scheduled to be out in the U.S. on DVD in January.
For anyone interested in writing, blogging is becoming the best way to get noticed. Because people from anywhere can instantly read blog postings, it can be as effective – and much less expensive – than trying to self-publish work in print. Of course, it most likely will not become a huge multi-medium hit, but at the very least blogging helps writers express themselves, hone their craft and have something creative to show prospective publishers when they prepare to turn writing into a career.
You never know, though — maybe your blog will be the one that brings the trend of blog books to the U.S.
Oct. 10, 2006
A Japanese man who regularly went online to write a daily blog about his domineering wife has now earned the equivalent of more than $300,000 for two book deals, as well as a manga, TV series, movie and video game, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
The “Demon Wife Diaries” is not unique either. The same article goes on to say that Japanese publishing firms scour the Internet for original content, and more than 300 books based on personal writings have been published in Japan since 2004. It’s estimated that about 1 in every 5 people in Japan read blogs and a person in Japan is far more likely to maintain a blog than a person in America.
“Densha Otoko” (“Train Man”) is another popular Japanese property based on conversations on an internet forum. What started out as people giving advice to a nerdy guy over the Internet is now a multimillion dollar, international story that’s generated over a $1,000,000 in royalties for the anonymous poster and the forum moderator. It became a book, manga, TV series and top-grossing movie. The author credited as creating “Densha Otoko” is named Hitori Nakano, a pseudonym meaning “one of those people,” according to Anime News Network. There are a couple of manga versions available in English, and the movie showed in New York at the end of September. The movie is scheduled to be out in the U.S. on DVD in January.
For anyone interested in writing, blogging is becoming the best way to get noticed. Because people from anywhere can instantly read blog postings, it can be as effective – and much less expensive – than trying to self-publish work in print. Of course, it most likely will not become a huge multi-medium hit, but at the very least blogging helps writers express themselves, hone their craft and have something creative to show prospective publishers when they prepare to turn writing into a career.
You never know, though — maybe your blog will be the one that brings the trend of blog books to the U.S.
Graphics may not matter in next video game console war
As printed in The Northern Light newspaper
Sept. 26, 2006
The thought among video gamers used to be that better graphics meant a better game, but that notion will be tested in the coming months as the three video game systems of the next generation will finally go head to head.
While the Microsoft-made Xbox 360 was released last year, sales of the system in Japan are terrible, selling only 158,000 units so far, according to a recent AP article. By comparison, in 2000 the PlayStation 2 sold almost a million units in Japan within the first two days. Later this year, Japan-based Sony and Nintendo are set to release their respective PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles, but both have totally different strategies to win over gamers.
To try to keep up with the PlayStation 3’s Blu-Ray technology, Microsoft will be putting out an HD DVD upgrade for their system, bringing their total Xbox 360 package to essentially the same price as Sony’s system. Both Sony and Microsoft are counting on gamers to spend a lot of money to acquire the latest cutting-edge game technology.
Nintendo, on the other hand, is foregoing graphics power to make a low-cost system that boasts new levels of interactivity. Of course, Sony then announced that the PlayStation 3 will also have a motion-sensing controller, but Sony’s main sales point will still be the system’s power. Nintendo is counting on gamers wanting games that are simply fun to play and appropriate for families and parties.
While gamers will always want better graphics and physics – as evidenced by PC gamers willing to pay thousands of dollars for the newest graphic systems – there is a growing trend toward games that are quick, interactive and fun. The immersive, time-eating online games will start fading away as the number of Massively Multiplayer Online games dilutes the online player base, leaving only a few standout titles, like “World of Warcraft,” with anything close to a massive audience.
Meanwhile, cutting-edge systems like the handheld PSP are being used by hardcore gamers as emulators to play old NES games and arcade classics. Even on PlayStation 2, interactive games, like “Guitar Hero,” “Dance Dance Revolution” and “Karaoke Revolution” are finding bigger audiences than most generic action adventure titles that only have graphics as a selling point. Even the Xbox 360’s Live Arcade was talked about more than its launch titles.
As video games become more mainstream, we can expect this trend to continue. Fewer gamers will be couch-bound loners who want to spend 10 hours a day in a game world, but more will be groups of friends and families who want games anyone can just pick up and play together, whether online or off.
There will still be a large market for the “Final Fantasy” and “Halo” games, but the classically fun games are making a comeback. The future of video game design depends a lot on which side wins the upcoming console war: the graphics or the fun. Gamers can only hope that companies find a way for games to have both.
Sept. 26, 2006
The thought among video gamers used to be that better graphics meant a better game, but that notion will be tested in the coming months as the three video game systems of the next generation will finally go head to head.
While the Microsoft-made Xbox 360 was released last year, sales of the system in Japan are terrible, selling only 158,000 units so far, according to a recent AP article. By comparison, in 2000 the PlayStation 2 sold almost a million units in Japan within the first two days. Later this year, Japan-based Sony and Nintendo are set to release their respective PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles, but both have totally different strategies to win over gamers.
To try to keep up with the PlayStation 3’s Blu-Ray technology, Microsoft will be putting out an HD DVD upgrade for their system, bringing their total Xbox 360 package to essentially the same price as Sony’s system. Both Sony and Microsoft are counting on gamers to spend a lot of money to acquire the latest cutting-edge game technology.
Nintendo, on the other hand, is foregoing graphics power to make a low-cost system that boasts new levels of interactivity. Of course, Sony then announced that the PlayStation 3 will also have a motion-sensing controller, but Sony’s main sales point will still be the system’s power. Nintendo is counting on gamers wanting games that are simply fun to play and appropriate for families and parties.
While gamers will always want better graphics and physics – as evidenced by PC gamers willing to pay thousands of dollars for the newest graphic systems – there is a growing trend toward games that are quick, interactive and fun. The immersive, time-eating online games will start fading away as the number of Massively Multiplayer Online games dilutes the online player base, leaving only a few standout titles, like “World of Warcraft,” with anything close to a massive audience.
Meanwhile, cutting-edge systems like the handheld PSP are being used by hardcore gamers as emulators to play old NES games and arcade classics. Even on PlayStation 2, interactive games, like “Guitar Hero,” “Dance Dance Revolution” and “Karaoke Revolution” are finding bigger audiences than most generic action adventure titles that only have graphics as a selling point. Even the Xbox 360’s Live Arcade was talked about more than its launch titles.
As video games become more mainstream, we can expect this trend to continue. Fewer gamers will be couch-bound loners who want to spend 10 hours a day in a game world, but more will be groups of friends and families who want games anyone can just pick up and play together, whether online or off.
There will still be a large market for the “Final Fantasy” and “Halo” games, but the classically fun games are making a comeback. The future of video game design depends a lot on which side wins the upcoming console war: the graphics or the fun. Gamers can only hope that companies find a way for games to have both.
Anime misconceptions don’t stop its popularity
As printed in The Northern Light newspaper
Aug. 23, 2006
Japanese culture has a large impact on the entertainment industry. Anime sales in the U.S. are over $5 billion annually, according to a 2005 BusinessWeek article, and video game sales are estimated around $7 billion in 2005. Anime and video games are closer to mainstream than ever. As the first generation to grow up with video games and anime, today’s young adults and their children are likely to be much more accepting of these entertainment forms than older ones.
Hollywood is starting to catch on too; movies based on video games (“Silent Hill,” “Doom”) are increasingly common, while big names like James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson all have different anime- or manga-related projects in the works (manga are essentially Japanese graphic novels, which many anime are based on).
While most people are familiar with at least the concept of video games, many don’t know exactly what anime is.
Put simply, anime is animation from Japan. Although in Japan the term refers to any work of animation, here in the West the term refers to Japanese animation specifically. It also suggests a certain style of drawing, movement and story elements that are associated with anime. While most anime titles share these stylistic traits, they don’t have to fit any mold to be anime; they just have to come from Japan.
But some people still have misconceptions about anime, due to limited exposure. Whereas some think of heavily merchandised kids shows like “Pokemon” or “Yu-Gi-Oh,” others might hear Japanese animation and go the other extreme, thinking of xxx-rated tentacle monsters or gruesomely violent shows like “Fist of the North Star.”
The fact is, anime is a medium, not a genre. Saying “I like anime” is akin to saying “I like movies.” Anime contains the extreme examples cited earlier and everything in between. It includes the same genres as every other medium: drama, romance, comedy, sports, action, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, erotica and so on.
Unlike U.S. television, most anime shows run for only a year, with a complete story told in 13-26 episodes. Without the constraints of live action, most anime tends to contain some fanciful elements, though a few are very down-to-earth and realistic. Of course, some genres are more popular than others, and shows are of varying quality – just like Western entertainment.
That’s where this column comes in; it will feature the newest entertainment to come out of Japan, while keeping readers up-to-date on the latest trends, industry happenings and other analyses. Both newcomers and otaku alike should find something interesting as this new biweekly column examines these cross-cultural mediums, which are too often overlooked but fast becoming part of our mainstream.
Aug. 23, 2006
Japanese culture has a large impact on the entertainment industry. Anime sales in the U.S. are over $5 billion annually, according to a 2005 BusinessWeek article, and video game sales are estimated around $7 billion in 2005. Anime and video games are closer to mainstream than ever. As the first generation to grow up with video games and anime, today’s young adults and their children are likely to be much more accepting of these entertainment forms than older ones.
Hollywood is starting to catch on too; movies based on video games (“Silent Hill,” “Doom”) are increasingly common, while big names like James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson all have different anime- or manga-related projects in the works (manga are essentially Japanese graphic novels, which many anime are based on).
While most people are familiar with at least the concept of video games, many don’t know exactly what anime is.
Put simply, anime is animation from Japan. Although in Japan the term refers to any work of animation, here in the West the term refers to Japanese animation specifically. It also suggests a certain style of drawing, movement and story elements that are associated with anime. While most anime titles share these stylistic traits, they don’t have to fit any mold to be anime; they just have to come from Japan.
But some people still have misconceptions about anime, due to limited exposure. Whereas some think of heavily merchandised kids shows like “Pokemon” or “Yu-Gi-Oh,” others might hear Japanese animation and go the other extreme, thinking of xxx-rated tentacle monsters or gruesomely violent shows like “Fist of the North Star.”
The fact is, anime is a medium, not a genre. Saying “I like anime” is akin to saying “I like movies.” Anime contains the extreme examples cited earlier and everything in between. It includes the same genres as every other medium: drama, romance, comedy, sports, action, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, erotica and so on.
Unlike U.S. television, most anime shows run for only a year, with a complete story told in 13-26 episodes. Without the constraints of live action, most anime tends to contain some fanciful elements, though a few are very down-to-earth and realistic. Of course, some genres are more popular than others, and shows are of varying quality – just like Western entertainment.
That’s where this column comes in; it will feature the newest entertainment to come out of Japan, while keeping readers up-to-date on the latest trends, industry happenings and other analyses. Both newcomers and otaku alike should find something interesting as this new biweekly column examines these cross-cultural mediums, which are too often overlooked but fast becoming part of our mainstream.
Bringing anime to American audience poses challenges
As printed in The Northern Light newspaper
Sept. 12, 2006
One of the more popular anime shows of recent years, “Bleach,” just premiered in America on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block. But before it even aired, Internet fans debated the quality of the show’s translation and English voice-over, as those areas can change a great anime in Japanese to a poor one in English.
While these used to be huge problems in the past, the growing anime market has demanded higher-quality products, and most U.S. distributors are paying attention. Still, many anime fans prefer watching shows with the Japanese language track and English subtitles to get as close to the original meaning as possible.
Translating will never fully duplicate the exact meaning of the original words, as some words don’t have an English equivalent, but the difference usually isn’t significant. With “Bleach,” a few hardcore fans were upset that the word “Shinigami” was translated into “Soul Reaper,” though most agree the change was reasonable.
The translation challenge is greater when producing a script for English dubbing, since the number of words used has to be far less than what subtitles allow and timed with a character’s mouth movements.
Subtitles, on the other hand, can be more accurate, but they can also be stiffer and less natural than how characters speak, especially if an amateur does the translating. This can be true when some fans make their own subtitles for shows (called fansubs, which violate copyright laws) from the original material and distribute them over the Internet. Those who started complaining about “Bleach” have already been watching a fansub of every episode a few days after it airs in Japan. Fans like that are rarely happy with any translation or English dub; it can simply be that the English voice actor doesn’t sound the same as the Japanese one they’re used to, or that some words are translated differently from the fansubs they saw, no matter how accurate or well-voiced it is.
Anime fans should be happy, though; it wasn’t that long ago that anime would be changed completely – names, plot, characters – to fit an American producer’s idea of what people in the U.S. wanted to see. While that can occasionally still happen (“One Piece” and “Card Captor Sakura” come to mind), anime in general is left intact and the quality of translation and voice acting is better than ever. Some shows will still be edited for broadcasting on TV, but so was “NYPD Blue” when it showed on TNT, so that’s nothing particular to anime. Programming directors are catching on that anime isn’t always for children, and late-night programming like Adult Swim allows anime to be aired with very few, if any, edits. With quality dubs on TV and uncut subs on DVD, anime fans have it better than ever.
Sept. 12, 2006
One of the more popular anime shows of recent years, “Bleach,” just premiered in America on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block. But before it even aired, Internet fans debated the quality of the show’s translation and English voice-over, as those areas can change a great anime in Japanese to a poor one in English.
While these used to be huge problems in the past, the growing anime market has demanded higher-quality products, and most U.S. distributors are paying attention. Still, many anime fans prefer watching shows with the Japanese language track and English subtitles to get as close to the original meaning as possible.
Translating will never fully duplicate the exact meaning of the original words, as some words don’t have an English equivalent, but the difference usually isn’t significant. With “Bleach,” a few hardcore fans were upset that the word “Shinigami” was translated into “Soul Reaper,” though most agree the change was reasonable.
The translation challenge is greater when producing a script for English dubbing, since the number of words used has to be far less than what subtitles allow and timed with a character’s mouth movements.
Subtitles, on the other hand, can be more accurate, but they can also be stiffer and less natural than how characters speak, especially if an amateur does the translating. This can be true when some fans make their own subtitles for shows (called fansubs, which violate copyright laws) from the original material and distribute them over the Internet. Those who started complaining about “Bleach” have already been watching a fansub of every episode a few days after it airs in Japan. Fans like that are rarely happy with any translation or English dub; it can simply be that the English voice actor doesn’t sound the same as the Japanese one they’re used to, or that some words are translated differently from the fansubs they saw, no matter how accurate or well-voiced it is.
Anime fans should be happy, though; it wasn’t that long ago that anime would be changed completely – names, plot, characters – to fit an American producer’s idea of what people in the U.S. wanted to see. While that can occasionally still happen (“One Piece” and “Card Captor Sakura” come to mind), anime in general is left intact and the quality of translation and voice acting is better than ever. Some shows will still be edited for broadcasting on TV, but so was “NYPD Blue” when it showed on TNT, so that’s nothing particular to anime. Programming directors are catching on that anime isn’t always for children, and late-night programming like Adult Swim allows anime to be aired with very few, if any, edits. With quality dubs on TV and uncut subs on DVD, anime fans have it better than ever.
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