Local, National and International audiences

Hi all,

Here's a very recent case study that you might like to explore.

Nintendo is due to release Tomodatchi Life in the US and Europe in June. This has been a massive hit in Japan, and looks like it will be here too.

You play the game with your Mii, an avatar (in game representation) of you. I think it is a bit like the Sims. You meet people, have fun, and invite avatars of your friends  and family.

Click the link to find out more about the game: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-3DS/Tomodachi-Life-871968.html

But there is a problem: same sex characters are not allowed to marry in the game; it just won't let them. This has caused complaints about the fact that it excludes gay people from playing the game in a way that represents their life.

Read some of the articles to get a sense of the argument:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27321200

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/nintendo-same-sex-marriage-tomodachi-life-game-article-1.1784866

Some people have argued that this might reflect the societies of Japan, US and Europe. In some parts of the US and Europe, gay marriage has become legal, and much more widely accepted. In Japan this is not the case.

From the NY Daily News:


"The issue marks not only a cultural divide between Japan, where gay marriage is not legal, and North America and Europe, where gay marriage has become legal in some places, but also in the interactive world, where games are often painstakingly “localized” for other regions, meaning characters’ voices and likenesses are changed to suit different locales and customs.


“The ability for same-sex relationships to occur in the game was not part of the original game that launched in Japan, and that game is made up of the same code that was used to localize it for other regions outside of Japan,” Nintendo noted in an emailed statement.


While many English-language games don’t feature gay characters, several role-playing series produced by English-speaking developers, such as “The Sims,” “Fable” and “The Elder Scrolls,” have allowed players to create characters that can woo characters of the same sex, as well as marry and have children. Other more narrative-driven games, like “Grand Theft Auto IV,” “The Last of Us” and “Gone Home,” have included specific gay, lesbian and bisexual characters."

This is an example of where it perhaps would have been more appropriate to localise the game for the different regions.

Could you use this if local, national and international audiences came up?

Also the BBC article ends with Nintendo's next console which seems to be one targeted at people with a lower income. THIS IS INTERESTING! Do more research on this!