WRPG's are just Shooter/Action games. The main difference is that your character is nameless and you have a few extra options to tinker with, rather than being named "Master Chief" or "Marcus". Because that way you aren't just controlling some bad ass, YOU ARE THE BAD ASS ZOMG

Fallout? Shooter. Mass Effect? Shooter. Too Human? Shooter.

Why is this a pattern? Lets take a look at where most WRPG's reside: Xbox 360. Hmmmmmmm...

I don't care what culture makes the RPG, as long as they are the turn based or real-time formulas. Since the Japanese tend to to make the more classic RPG's, I buy those games more.

Let me make it clear: I really don't feel comfortable calling most WRPG's an RPG. There are exceptions like Oblivion and Fable that I would gladly call a WRPG, but most "WRPG"'s are just shooter games in my eyes.

No argument here, but do realize that a change in that philosophy will lead to a change in the games themselves. The product, no less than the business, must change with the times.

Shooter/Action RPGs have a wider appeal to a Western audience. As far as the JRPGs are concerned only a few of them sell well in the Western world: Pokemon, Final Fantasy series and Dragon Quest series.

What's the development philosphies of the Japanese and Western game developers anyway?  I am not certain about the development philosophy's are.

Japanese Philosophy: Take our time, get the job done with some clean coding. Stick with the formulas we've been doing for years, rarely stray.

Western Philosophy: Rush it out the gates; we'll solve all the bugs in a patch in the following months. Try new directions until we find something that works. Hype hype hype, milk milk milk.

That's the pattern I noticed. A humble Japanese strategy vs aggressive Western strategy. Both need work in my opinion, one just happens to make a lot more money because people are dumb and fall for the same trick countless times.

I think JRPGs have their place and WRPGs theirs. They both need to learn from each other.

Maybe in general, but "milk milk milk" seems to apply more to JRPGs than to WRPGs.

You're being...rather unkind to the Westerners, but I think you've gotten the Japanese philosophy down pretty well.

And yes, the Western studios seem to be more comfortable with having a little less polish in their games than Squeenix (the big player in the JRPG market), and with utilizing larger teams to get stuff done more quickly. That results in games coming out sooner, but there's also less attention given to the smaller details than in Squeenix's approach.

Fun fact: this is the first generation in which Squeenix is using middleware to make its games, rather than making a unique engine for each game. The same is true for many other Japanese developers. I get the impression that Mistwalker was originally looked down on for using middleware, but it seems reality has brought everyone around.

What could WRPGs learn from JRPGs that they haven't already?

WRPGs sell towards Americans and Europeans - they are easy to get into and to understand. They have well written stories thanks to Western developers. WRPG game developers have large budgets to utilise.

JRPG are mainly niche and target mainly Japanese gamers and JRPG fans. There are JRPG exceptions like Pokemon series, Final Fantasy series and Dragon's Quest series that sell worldwide due to their popularity and many fans. The Japanese developers have not progressed the JRPG genre over the years. JRPG games are usually hard to get into and hard to understand. Turn based systems are frustratingly hard for casual/beginner/novice gamers like myself. JRPG game developers often have smaller game budgets to utilise.