Currently the site is quite focused on two markets, the US and the Japanese. For sure, the US market is huge, but for instance, the european market is underrepresented (on this site) compared to the much smaller Japanese market. The home page got this Others-section for sure, but it's definititely not giving a good picture of the European market as it contains other markets that are quite different from the european.
Almost all the mods are from the US, some from UK, and a few from other countries including Japan, but none from continental europe (if I got it right). This also is reflected on the front page Editorials and News sections. Every week we get great information about the upcoming japanese and american market, preview figures, but none from europe. Some active members try to correct this in the forum section (for which I am very thankful), but those would deserve an "editorial status" like the US and Japanese equivalency.
The games database does contain solid sales figures about almost all games realeased in the US and Japan, but the same is not true for the european market. For instance, Rainbow Six: Vegas (PS3) (http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=6843) is tracked by the US and Japanese market but no sales from europe. Why?
The european market, is over 1/3 of the ww market, would be better and more accurately served if we would get more mods from the continental Europe (not UK, because there are already mods from the UK and the UK market and mods are IMO more like the "US little brother"). The Europeans are also active VGChart members, so it cannot be justificated with the lack of interest.
Also, I would suggest that the front page should be divided into four "main markets" (at least):
- the US,
- the European,
- the Asian (inc Japanese),
- Australasia (inc Australia & NZ) and Others
This would, in my opinion, more accurately reflect on the cultural differences of the markets.
I have made some posts about this topic before but it doesn't seem to spark that much interest. Still, I really would like some discussion about this. Is it just me or are there other opinions on this matter?
Lost my faith in VGChartz. Too many stupid and ignorant Americans, even as moderators.
It's a shame, really. "The Boss" should do something radical about this Americanization, but it seems hardly feasible, so my days here are numbered.
