Originally, I had no idea that I was supposed to include a source from our own class. After Kris’s presentation, I became a little nervous and asked her about it, since I thought my topic didn’t relate to anything we’ve done in class. Sadly, it seems the closest to my topic would be the visuals and setting in Ghost in the Shell, so it seems I will have to look into that movie even more than before.

Technology has very much advanced in the setting of the movie, as the viewer can see with the many 3D ads and cyborgs/limb enhancements. I think I will include this near the end of my essay in order to describe how we predict the future to be, and how this has already began to take place. Overall, I will use it as a way to describe how it will affect the generations to come.

Again, I am unsure of what to use as a source. I feel like I have a bountiful amount already and have covered my topic well.

I was thinking about what to post for a rock post, but I feel like I have all the sources I need for my essay. It’s just a matter of rearranging and fitting them into the essay that needs to be addressed.

For me, the DS and 3DS has been a part of me for around 10+ years now. Heck, as of now I have a 3DS XL, awaiting for the new Pokemon game to come out for it this month, as I have done with every other Pokemon game. Handheld electronics have always been a way for me to take home with me to any place, whether a couple miles away or across the Pacific Ocean. It just makes me feel at ease and allows me to relax.

In “Playing to Wiin : Nintendo and the Video Game Industry’s Greatest Comeback” by Daniel Sloan, he covers the success of the video game industry around the world, focusing on major companies like Nintendo and Sony. The DS/3DS is also covered in this, describing how it “… was hoped to be a vehicle to carry Nintendo’s new share price to new heights and maintain its handheld dominance, although competition with its two main hardware rivals for motion control and three-dimensional bragging rights was intensifying.” It was considered the “next generation console”, the first of its kind to offer a 3DS feature without having 3DS glasses. Despite it losing millions later on, the console still is held dear to my heart and made up my childhood. In my paper, I am wanting to include this in my essay by describing when I first got the DS/3DS, though I will talk more specifically about the 3DS, since I remember very vividly how I got it.

When I was first looking at the Table of Contents for Atari to Zelda: Japans videogames in global contexts, the first chapter I noticed that I thought could definitely relate to my paper is “Localization: Making the Strange Familiar”, where it describes popular Japanese gaming companies being translated and fixed up for people in other countries to buy them as well. A couple quotes that stood out to me included:

“In the early days of video game development, many games never (officially) left Japan, but many of those that did were instant hits and affected the culture of the industry and popular consciousness in ways that we still do not fully understand.”

“Localization has become more critical over the past few decades. Japanese developers and publishers still control a majority of their domestic market, but global sales of Japanese games have been shrinking— from a 50 percent share of the market in 2002 to about a 10 percent share in 2009— as they encounter greater competition from Western developers. 4 In response, Japanese companies have become more aggressive and experimental in their strategies. For example, Square Enix purchased the Western developer Eidos and its library of game titles, and Capcom made the decision to have Vancouver-based Blue Castle Games create the second in its series of Dead Rising games to give the title more “Western appeal.” 5 Companies around the world continue to decide which games deserve global releases, which are for domestic markets only, how to develop intellectual properties that might allow for the creation of different genres of games based on the same IP but are sold in different regions, and how to figure out which of these approaches is the best to take.”

“Like anime and manga fans, some players have hunted down such games and either played them in the original Japanese or figured out how to translate and localize them for themselves and other players, with varying approaches to the concept of professionalization.”
(I have definitely done this)

And one other passage this chapter goes over is currently one of my favorite video game series, Ace Attorney, to give a prime example of the use of westernization in video games. I definitely feel like I’ll use this game as an example for my essay, especially since I have already looked into the differences between the Japanese and American version prior to reading this book.

“Culturalization certainly plays a critical role in the development of the English version of Phoenix Wright because the game relies on conversation, exposition, puns, name-based gags, pop culture references, and the like as a central part of its appeal (figure 5.1). Although the game’s legal system is fiction, the game relies on wit and exacting uses of language in both dialogue and writing. The player must engage with the language of the game as a primary means of gameplay— through interviewing witnesses and defendants, in reading pertinent evidence, and in cross-examinations— and get the content right. Localization is about altering or modifying cultural expressions that might interfere with a game player’s understanding or enjoyment of a game. So if a joke in a game relies on knowledge of a popular television show, localization ensures that players in each targeted market or culture are provided with a reference that they can understand.”

Consalvo, Mia. Atari to Zelda : Japan’s Videogames in Global Contexts, MIT Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, .

I am currently reading a book called Power+Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, and I have reached a section in it that goes on to talk about how Akihabara is the primary center of video game culture (which isn’t surprising, since it IS geek capital). As someone who has also been there, I have found myself being able to relate more to this chapter.

I never realized it up until now, but since my idea of home is electronics/video games, visiting Akihabara definitely allowed me to feel at home, like I was in my “zone”. Sounds a bit cheesy, but I had been feeling some anxiety when I had first arrived there, so visiting there definitely relieved that feeling (especially since many people on my trip were also into these types of things).

In this book, it goes to describe how central street in Akihabara, or “Chuo-dori”, is highly packed during the spring and summer time, and how people “… maneuver deftly, balancing huge shopping bags as they weave in and out, past fellow shoppers, past street-side vendors selling everything from takoyaki to cheap costume jewelery to pirated copies of Microsoft Windows. It is like Disneyland, but twice as crowded and twice as exciting.” It also mentions how “… for the last three decades the stores of Akihabara have been filled with every video game you could ever possibly imagine.” (pg. 184) I went there in the summer, so this chapter basically summarizes my experience there.

As of now, I plan to use this while describing my experience there in Japan, though I may switch what I use as a source from this chapter, depending on how it fits in m writing. Definitely plan to use this chapter, though.

For one of my bibliography sources, I plan to use the book “Electronics and communications in Japan” (found on the library website). There are three parts in all to this book, each going over the history of electronics in Japan, and how all of it made Japan into what it is today. For my research project, I am wanting to focus primarily on Japan (since it’s practically the birth place of electronics), so I feel that this book will really help me.

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-625945.html

Since Nintendo has been a huge influence on my life, researching the history of it will definitely help me write my essay. This link is just a basic timeline of Nintendo and its impactful moments in history.
I was born in 1998, so while anything before this date isn’t as important (in this sense), it’s still good to look into potential facts that could help me later on into my writing.

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/84/89

This journal entry is a very interesting read, describing the representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in video games, and goes over the controversy surrounding them.