1. Jose P. Zagal & Noriko Tomuro DePaul University Chicago, USA

2.  What can we learn from games by studying how people write about games?  How do game reviews shape our understanding of games?

3. What do people from different cultures appreciate in videogames?

4. What, if any, are the fundamental elements of games that affect their reception in different cultures?

6.  Reviews for games released in 2009  Requirements Released in both US and Japan Needed professional review scores Needed user-submitted reviews

7.  Metacritic Influential  Gamespot.com Popular /Influential Many user reviews  Famitsu.com ( ファミ通 ) Popular/Influential  Gameworld ( ゲエムノセカイ ) Most user reviews

8.  Games with same title but different platforms counted separately (e.g. Tekken 6 for the PS3 and Xbox 360).

9.  Simple statistical tools  Natural language processing techniques

10.  Automatically analyze human languages Useful for analyzing and extracting information from a large amount of text NL analysis

11. …mostly a journey through different questions we asked.

12.  Inter-culture correlations highest  Still strong (positive) across cultures

13.  No evidence of platform bias E.g. Japanese users don’t hate Xbox360 games

14.  Often used pejoratively  Very loose definition  Yoge or not? When was it released in Japan? Developed by a Japanese company? IP associated with Japanese popular culture? From a traditionally Japanese franchise?

15.  No significant differences More on this later!  Caveat: Classifying as yoge/not yoge is “squishy”  Super Punchout!!! (Wii) -> Yoge?  Just Dance (Wii) -> Yoge?

16.  Narrow our focus  Find opposites Examine specific games  “Hated” in US but loved in Japan?  “Hated” in Japan but loved in US?

18.  Broadly Speaking Players in both groups praise/hate similar kinds of issues  Japanese players seem more sensitive to :  technical issues (e.g. bugs, lag in online play)  translation/localization (e.g. typos, low quality voice actors)  Are US players more “accepting” of technical issues? E.g. Glitching as a fun part of “gamer culture”

19.  In positive reviews, what words are used more frequently?  In negative reviews, what words are used more frequently?  Gamespot Reviews Based on review score E.g. Above 8 on Gamespot = Positive  Gameworld Reviews Based on Good/Bad section of Review

22.  Gamespot - Referred to story in positive way (e.g. “it draws you in with a fantastic story and a set of great characters.”),  Game World - Referred to story in negative way (e.g. “Story is rough”, “The game is too much story- based”).  Japanese players value character and story in games quite highly [Ngai 05]  Bad narratives (including poor translations) have a high impact on the overall evaluation of a game (in Japan)

24.  Multiple approaches are necessary  Yoge games – higher scores, but… “For a yoge, faces of the characters are not scary or grotesque – they are actually likable.”  Emphasis only on “common” games Significant cultural differences would be in games they don’t share

25.  Why do amateur reviewers write? Establish identity / credibility Is “reviewing” secondary?  Influence of web interface / structure Gameworld has separate good/bad sections

26.  Different cultures can “weigh” things differently  For the same games… What is valued is remarkably consistent  User reviews can be a rich source of insights on games and the understanding people make of them

27. Jose P. Zagal @JoseZagal jzagal@cdm.depaul.edu http://facsrv.cdm.depaul.edu/~jzagal Images used in this presentation are the property of their respective owners. Their use here qualifies as fair use under US copyright law for educational purposes and critical commentary.