Japan’s Economy Growing at 3.5% Annualized Rate

[Mr Khan]

badgenome said:

outlawauron said:

I really don't think it's changing much of anything. There's always been low budget games and media that relied on a lot "cute" characters and tropes. You just hear more about them since the internet gives everything more exposure.

There's a rather infamous email/blog post that was made in 1993 about how anime and games were being ruined by creators getting lazy and relying on cute characters rather than plot or substance.

I'm a bit biased though because I separate quirks or style from the quality of the game. I can enjoy it regardless, because if it's good, it's good. I know there's plenty of people who refuse to play or watch something because of an art style though, so I suppose it just is what it is.

I know it has always been a thing (I played Princess Maker before it was cool!), but it seems like it makes up a larger share of Japanese games than it used to. Whether that's because it has just matured more into a market unto itself, because there has been a general loss of confidence among Japanese devs with all the tumult and upheaval of this generation that caused them to become more focused on their home market and especially this very lucrative niche, or I'm just perceiving something that isn't really the case, or something else entirely, I'm not sure.

It's a regional variation of the problem confronting retail games as a whole, namely that an unspoken stagnation in the market forces them to be more conservative and focus on fleecing the core market who is more willing to spend a lot of money (and again, an art form in Japan. I remember a collection for Fate Stay Night on Blu-Ray in Akihabara that ran for something like $600 US), and then that creates an inward-focused market spiral.