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ctk495 on 24 June 2015
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Nuvendil said:
ctk495 said:
Nuvendil said:
Part of it comes down to business culture. Japan is a high-context culture. One feature of that is a greater comfort with uncertainty, which extends to timeframes and such. So a Japanese company is going to be more receptive of a development timeline needing an extension and less strict with deadlines. Western companies, on the other hand, are low context and prefer precise time frames, tighter control of deadlines, etc. This isn't the only factor, but it is one. There are obviously far more intricacies to high-context vs low-context cultures, but this is likely the most influential factor in development times.


Did you read Edward T.Hall? I really like his theories and they could be use to explain Japanese people's behaviour. Westerners seem to be driven more in the idea of finishing a product then  improving it  on the next product. Similar as to how you work on an essay hand it in and you can improve your mistakes in your next essay. While for the Japanese and other cultures the emphasis appears to be in delivering the best product you can-the first time. The Japanese people probably think of it as a work 'in process' while Westerners see the opportunity of improvement once the work is completed within the established boundaries. The Western idea has more practically to it as you will finish a product even if its half-baked its better than having nothing. This reminds me of a lot of American punk bands that released an awful first album but there next one was much better- I am thinking of the Replacements here. That could also be the origin of recency bias! Since people are always improving in their craft, they will tend to think that the latest work is the best.

Studies in business writing, technical writing, and oral communications for professionals were standard for my degree (Creative Writing, it was a liberal arts university), so I learned a good bit about culture in the workplace and international business communications.  The high context nature of Japan probably plays a big role in a lot of aspects of the Japanese developer scene.  Their obsession with visuals - quality, style, symbolism, and so on - likely ties into the characterestic emphasis on surrounding context in communication and nonverbal communication.  Gestures, colors, expressions, etc. are important to them in all communication and are often key to conveying the idea.  Low context is more direct, more frank, which is probably why we have a tendency to have things more gritty, direct, and stoicly straight forward. 

As for development, "patience" is the key word.  Japanese companies are more patient in general while low context cultures are more focused on time efficiency.  For high context cultures, concept may be just as important if not more important than concrete details (similar to context being as or more important than content in communication).  That's probably why a number of developers over there prefer to start at the general concept stage and begin development there and shape it as they go as opposed to western developers who prefer to fully flesh everything out before committing resources. 

Interesting thoughts Nuvendil. I tended to view the Japanese game production similar to you-where I would try to understand decisions on the production and conception in terms of culture. I have, however, realized that cultural reasons are one of the explanations for how games are made. I think that economic reasons play a significant factor, as well. For instance, I asked myself why do the protagonists in Kingdom Hearts look white and androgyneous? At first, I answered my own question culturally and concluded that it was deep-rooted in a Japanese aesthetic tradition. After reading various articles from SE, however, I  came to realized that they were trying to appeal to Western markets as people would identify with the characters(light-skinned Europeans.) and also trying to get a broadest appeal as possible in other countries-  white people are heavely featured in advertising. I recommend you to check Extra Credits video(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os3lWIuGsXE) as its a good explanation of the difference between Japanese and Western cultures in relationship with weapons(guns and swords.)The video,however, gives a culturally based explanation. I can't find the video where some guy- a developer himself- gives a throughout and insightful economic explanation. How the reason for the production of FPS are not culturally based but rather economically based. Developers were trying to make the most immersive experience with the best cost-effectiveness. Therefore, the FPS genre was the best to accomplish this goals-immersive and cheaper to produce.