You two guys made a great description of how we gamers feel in general and what's the different orientation gaming as an experience is taking. The West has embraced open world non linearity full fledge and the East is on a crysis of sorts, aparently don't knowing if to keep it "pure" or westernizing. That lack of confidence, that confusion is what should be deal with in the following years.

I was born in 1982, I did most of my gaming in the 90's, so I feel connected to what you both are saying.

I enjoy jrpg games because they tend to be so intense, there is usually so much genious behind them... I can see, though, how some people might get tired of it, specially if they played two or three non innovative games with a weak plot.

The first and only GTA I ever played was IV. My two brothers played all of them and they are big fans of the franchise. I personally felt it was very very boring. I will give it a try once again in the future, specially now that I am playing Read Dead Redemption and it's becoming one of my favourite games. In this case in particular, I think the cling was the horse and the steppe... I am from the South of Argentina, from Patagonia, a land which had many similarities with what in the US they call the West, non only because of its scenaries, but also because of how the process of colonization of those lands worked. It even started in the same historical moment. Now I live in Buenos Aires, a big concrete city and I miss those skies and the horizon... Riding with my horse through dusk made the deal for me with RDR. I was already satisfied with that.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 have shown me all the possibilities behind the "make your own adventure inside these different paths and chose your personality through some ethical choices" concept and I gotta say, wow, if the future is offering more of this, welcome to me oh, divine future. Not because is better than traditional ways, but because is different and amazing and very rewarding too.

Alphacris, if you haven't tried Mass Effect out yet, please do. I'm very confident you will have an outstanding experience. Specially with ME2.

@ Pariz

Thanks for your feedback. No I haven't tried out Mass Effect yet. Now that it is heading to the PS3 I could give it a try. But since that Oblivion incident I am really unsure what do to with WRPGS. I bought Oblivion together with Dragon Age last year and that still lies around sealed. Everytime I finish a game I grab it, but then start another Game instead. Well, after the God of War Trilogy I only have "The Force Unleashed" and "Bionic Commando" left, and I just bought Enslaved and Castlevania...

My problem with this decisions-focus is that they are often tied to certain events in the game. Lets take Valkyire Profile: Lenneth (PSP) as example. If you want to get the A Ending, you have to do certain events within a certain time frame. Since I have limited time and do not want to play the game through a second time just after I finished the game I played the whole game with a guide for the A Ending. I was under the permanent "Stress" that I could screw up and have toplay again from the start, losing precious time. In the end such an architecture where there are many ordered endings (A,B,C, etc) could be gamebreaking if you can't figure out what to do to get the best ending.

That architecture *could* work for me if those decision are not tied to certain special items/endings/story relations. Another example, InFamous. My first playtrough was aimed at getting all "good karma" related trophies. I enjoyed that game and it could have been a really good gaming experience (although the story was too "american" for me, lacking character and story depth. It was more like a playable comic) . It could have worked that way, but for the Platinum trophy i had to play it a second time for "bad karma". Through that decision archictecture I was missing out something and had to replay it. Since I couldn't connect to the bad action and the story was bland, I got bored and the initally good gaming experience turned to a bad taste in the end. I doubt that I will get InFamous 2 if you have to do it the same way. I don't want to be forced to play it against my moral standards to get the Platinum. And i will not play it, if the Platinum Trophy is unattainable...

If you go further and do not separate only in "good" and "bad" (= two branches), but in more shades of grey (multiple branches) you have to do multiple playthroughs = more time requirement or ultimately missing out a great part of story content. So if Mass Effect 2 enables you to get all trophies in one playthrough and there aren't many different endings but one ending with some slight variations, it *could* work for me. Then I could play it 1 time and make decisions according to my own moral standards and see how that ends up and I maybe enjoy it.

An other Problem with Mass Effect might be that I just don't like shooters. I would never buy Halo, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Army of Two, etc. I just don't know if the combination of Shooter and RPG will work for me. Uncharted was really good, but that had great Characters that kept me interesting. Ratchet and Clank is awesome since it has its special sense of humour and lovable characters. Resistance... i liked the Story (to my own surprise), but getting the 10.000 Kills in competitive mode was a chore, and i got insulted via headset so many times that I despise online gaming somehow. The community just is not mature enough for it to work and my gaming experience was often spoiled by others.

For Dragon Age, I have to play it with each character to a certain amount and that turns me off, along with that Moral System, that decision system and some other small things.

I do not want't to downgrade Western RPGS as a whole. I just wan't to point out, that although non-linearity is regarded more modern in the US/UK, that it is not the best architecture for the whole world. If you analyze the Sales Figures of Continental Europe or Japan, you can clearly see that "open world architecture" can even be considered a bad thing in other cultural circles. And i really hope that Japan realizes, that "Western Style" should be divided in Angloamerican (US/UK) and Continental Europe and maybe even further.

God of War is one of the most acclaimed Games in the US. But the European Sales figures were considerably weaker. I just started with the God of War Trilogy and must admit, that although the Gameplay is really good, the Story is somewhat lacking appeal to me. I like the Ancient Greece Setting, but I think that Kratos is portrayed to stereotype. I would call it a typical American game. Lots of Action, focus on gameplay and making the gamer feel strong. You want to connect with Kratos and thinking you can crush the whole world. But the motives of Kratos are very questionable. I can understand why it is not selling well in Japan. Not because it is a foreign game, but because there is a lack of character and story depth. Its the old formula "pure muscles-no emotions-cool bahavior", I don't like it that much either. It is ironic, that a fellow-Austrian, Arnold Schwarenegger, was one of the main contributers to that stereotype (Conan the Barbarian, Terminator, etc...).

Thanks :) Summed it up better than any could.