Montana, watch it please. Offending people in mass is the easiest way to get banned.

...

I personally think Training games are great. The very concept of playing a "game" that involves some aspect of your being is a fantastic idea. It doesn't surprise me that these games are more popular in Japan than in the west. There is a much stronger culture there revolving around self-improvement (I think this actually applies to many parts of Asia actually).

One of the biggest issues with gaming criticism is that it has little or no philosophic or intellectual basis to fall back on. Which is to say, movie critics who prefer serious, intellectually sophisticated films over action/comedy (which tends to be a fair assessment for many reviewers) can justify their position by stating that intellectually or emotionally sophisticated material is inherently more valuable. Whether you agree with that or not (I do), that's a defensible position.

I'm not entirely sure what foundation game criticism is built on, because it obviously isn't emotional or intellectual sophistication. Is it how hard the games are? Then obviously multiplayer games would be the natural evolution of gaming, as playing against skilled and experienced humans will almost always be more challenging than facing AI. Is it simply creating bug free code? That seems like a facile definition. I'd be interested to see what others believe the foundation for games criticism is, because to me, it's foundation is noticably shakier than the criticism of Film or Literature. 

I have to agree with you Bodhesatva, he's basically saying that he's not complaining about their taste, it's just that ......he is.
Training games are not all the same either, not at all. Madden is nearly the same game every year and yet it sells over 6 million copies (j-league soccer might get to a million, powerful pro might get to 500k). Don't forget all the other rehashes, movie games, millions of shooters etc. Spiderman will instantly sell at least 500k on its name alone, regardless of how good the game is.

 Well I have to agree and desagree...... the problem is that the FPS genre yeah it's oversaturated.... but at least you have good titles and for every kind of tastes in the genre....

I personnaly like other genre a lot too... in particulare mecha games and jrpg.... but i'm sorry I haven't seen a single good one overall in the past 5 years beside steel batallion....  the round by round FF style is getting effing old, ennoying and so not entertaining anymore..... the story is almost always the same kind of old japanish bulshit...... the powers are always the same kinds with different names.... and I'm a dead fan of jap animation..... so it's not that I have anything against the culture or the artistic style over there..... it's just plain annoying...... the dialogue in 80% are text... come on 21st century and I still don't have actors reading the line are you effing kidding me.....

BD, ES etc.... for me it's the same with different charaters and graphics... but bottom line it's the same..... I want a game where i'm a soul society member like in Bleach and fight like that really with great animation a solide story, evolution of my character, I can make choices not just follow a stupid tunel. I can become arrancar, a vizzar, betrail my buddy.....

I want a good old... hmmm I don't know DBZ jrpg where I built a character from basic martial art technics to super saian... with all the specific of that type of fighting....

I want saint seiya JRPG where I choose which zodiac knight I am and fight with his technics and evolve like it maybe to a gold armor....

I want a ghost in the shell, akira, evangelion, tri gun, cowboy bebop, S-Cry-ed, hellsing, gundam mobile suite, Space Pirate Captain Harlock,escaflawne and hundreds of other of licence out there

instead of that I have the same old crap a FF 3 bilion a cheesy rpg about a chopin triping on X on ihs death bed, and 4 pokemon like fighters with dragon instead of pikatchus.... by the way pokemon sucks.... why ??? because it's for 5 years old kids... it's like if in the US you had a sesame street RPG.... and come on in term of manga there is way better franchise than that crap..... they can do it, they have story all done, the technology there and the dev capable of pull it out... they just have to put the mean to it.... and I really want them too.... but until then I'll agree  with montanahatchet..... their games right now are just shit compare to what I expect from them and what I know they are capable of.... everbody is letting it go because it's japanese style BLABLABLABLA.... I'm sorry what we see right now it's crapy japanese style..... since the US started watching jap annimation the genre started to get crapy (no offence to any culture there, it's just what it looks to be)

Mrstickball, and others: Just so people can see there is a flip side, examine this link.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/import-multi_tap/2chan-explains-why-japan-hates-xbox-360-280004.php?mail2=true

Explaining why the Xbox brand has not met Microsoft's expectations. Among the reasons are as follows:

"Its image is Western games and boob volleyball. With that, how are you supposed to buy it?"

"Foreigners are satisfied only with killing. Japanese are not that stupid."

Apparently, many Japanese see us Western Gamers as obsessed with Sex and Violence, and even call us stupid. Is that fair? Perhaps not, but it shows that it really does work both ways. The suggestion that we play "good" games and they play "stupid" ones (again, direct quote from Stickball) is precisely reversed by Japan -- many see our games as stupid. That doesn't make them right and us wrong, it means that it's a matter of perception and you shouldn't behave as if the games you tend to prefer are inherently better or smarter.

well I'm sorry but if you are into jap animation and i'm not talking about what you see on cartoon network but in general... they have a lot of sex or at least suggestive things about it... I'm not saying they are obsessed it's just integrated in it... with characters with oversized boobs and sexy outfit..... and no it's not a myth from the west.... I'm or I have seen at least 200 different jap animation title some of them you have to import from japan as you don't find them anywhere else in the world..... and japs are also big on killing in there games and animes.... it just might be a little bit more spiritual way of doing than just run and shoot.... but bottom line they enjoy it too... jap animation might be the animation genre where you can find the most violent and sexual one in the world.... and not for exportation.... so I haven't read the article yet but your two quote are not acurate...
and I'm not a noob on the matter I have about 21 or 22 years of jap animation culture behind me....

hmm I read the article I don't need to add anything infact... beside that obviously some answers were flame bait...... I mean in japan you have animes making spawn look like a teddy bear and fritz the cat a nun

You're talking about anime, it's a small nitch in a large culture.  Yea there are perverted anime and such, but in general the Japanese aren't like that.  Don't use a niche to make assumption about a whole culture.  I have a Japanese girlfriend right now, and she is disgusted by the kind of stuff that they show on TV here in America (even though they do have bad stuff on Japanese TV late at night).  Culturally they do not like violence or sex as much as we do, don't give me an example using anime.  I'm not saying one person's tastes are better than another, they are just different.

When I had a Japanese NES, I played that first Konami baseball game - the one with fat, short players (not unlike Miis) - and the game was awesome.

I then moved, and got a US NES - and bought that game again. Realistic people! Everything about the gameplay was the same except the look and feel of the players.

Both games are awesome - because apart from the cosmetic difference, they are the same game.

Suggesting that the Japanese have poor taste because they prefer short and fat ballplayers that look like Russian babushka dolls doesn't mean Western cultures have any better taste because they prefer realism.

It's just a matter of perspective, and in that regard, Microsoft could be doing much better catering to the wants of the Japanese demographic. If Microsoft managed to do that and sell even 1/2 as much as the PS3 in Japan, they would actually be sitting pretty in the console wars.

It's easier to go to the mountain than it is to have the mountain come to you. 

 lol maybe violence on TV in USA.... but if a developed country in the world is concervative about sex it's definately USA..... I'm not american I just live here for now.... I'm french and US TV is effing prudish lol.....

Francehas been the second consumer of jap animation for the past 20+ year and even their it's not a niche (i'm talking about jap anime in general not the extrem genre)..... it's entire  generations who grew up around that.... it's part of the culture, it's like sesame street and transformers in USA or the magic school bus or I don't know what else in USA (didn't grew up here).... so if jap animation is not a niche in France I highly doubt that it's a niche in japan especially when they have at least 20 if not a 100 time more animes and title than us in france... I have also IM friends and a lot of online friends in japan plus a friend who did her studies entirely focusing on japanese culture.... and they all admit that animation is a big big big part of their culture like marvel and DC comic books are in USA for some generations.... 

and I don't see what's wrong with it.... they have an amazingely rich culture that depict in their manga and that allow the genre to be as wide as the cinema is in hollywood if not way more than that..... I would be proud of that...