Recent backlash in response to QOL mods for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has highlighted a fundamental difference in how mods are viewed in Japan vs in the West.
I almost struggle to believe that Japanese gamers aren’t down with modding. Nintendo fans maybe. As aside where are all the Japanese posters to be like “wtf is this guy on about”. Every other day I get to giggle at German memes I don’t even understand; but I only see Japanese comments on stuff like YouTube. Maybe they got weirded out by English speakers since the days of image boards, which is fair enough tbh.
Tbh this is first time I learned japanese being divided over mods. As stated on the written article, Capcom and Square Enix on Final Fantasy are those that “worried” by mods because they deem some stuff are too “over to the top”.
A lot aren’t going to have a huge opinion because easily-modded games aren’t a thing due to platform. PC gaming was always a very niche hobby here with most people not owning PCs. That has somewhat started to change recently, but that basically left other platforms where mods were either available (for free or paid) from the publisher or very difficult to go about at all as compared to modding common games on PC.
Based on my incredibly non-scientific “watching some stuff on youtube over the years” method, my money would be on Minecraft turning things around a bit as I did see Japanese creators playing a lot of modded minecraft on youtube.
The article explains it well. At least some of them see it as defacing a work of art, which I think it would be fair if games were unique pieces and not mass produced - it would piss me off if someone drew a mustache on the Mona Lisa in the Louvre but if you want to do it on your mass printed Mona Lisa copy, be my guest.
I almost struggle to believe that Japanese gamers aren’t down with modding. Nintendo fans maybe. As aside where are all the Japanese posters to be like “wtf is this guy on about”. Every other day I get to giggle at German memes I don’t even understand; but I only see Japanese comments on stuff like YouTube. Maybe they got weirded out by English speakers since the days of image boards, which is fair enough tbh.
Tbh this is first time I learned japanese being divided over mods. As stated on the written article, Capcom and Square Enix on Final Fantasy are those that “worried” by mods because they deem some stuff are too “over to the top”.
On Assetto Corsa for example Japanese players embrace modding because it is one of the only way to fully experience driving over real course like The infamous Shuto Expressway network that back in the day used for street racing.
A lot aren’t going to have a huge opinion because easily-modded games aren’t a thing due to platform. PC gaming was always a very niche hobby here with most people not owning PCs. That has somewhat started to change recently, but that basically left other platforms where mods were either available (for free or paid) from the publisher or very difficult to go about at all as compared to modding common games on PC.
Based on my incredibly non-scientific “watching some stuff on youtube over the years” method, my money would be on Minecraft turning things around a bit as I did see Japanese creators playing a lot of modded minecraft on youtube.
The article explains it well. At least some of them see it as defacing a work of art, which I think it would be fair if games were unique pieces and not mass produced - it would piss me off if someone drew a mustache on the Mona Lisa in the Louvre but if you want to do it on your mass printed Mona Lisa copy, be my guest.