TotK was clearly playtested for like 100,000 hours to see that the puzzles were challenging but not frustrating, like they spend more time than makes economic sense on stuff like that. They can do this without getting bitched at by shareholders or Prep private equity owners.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5342970&forum_id=2#46333447)

Some genres, such as fighting games, westerners basically can't do because they lack the craftsmanship.

Btw Japan = FromSoft & Kojima where the west has no analogue.

aside from that, it's not that Japan's output "sucks," it's that Japs understand that "AAA" gaming on is passe. We're just a bunch of insipid western cattle trying to relive the 90s through gaming nostalgia because the present sucks. In Japan, the 90s kind of sucked, so they don't have any nostalgia for it. They aren't even hugely into console/PC games atm, and would sooner play some handheld shit you've never heard of. They were into "mobile" games, like on cell phones, years before smartphones became big in the U.S. The clienteles in each market are totally different. In the U.S., the Scumloser came to prominence at some point. In Japan, games are for kids and effete intellectuals who you'd associate with the Sega Saturn.

Archetypal western games come in two categories:

1. innovative, Engineering exercise such as Doom, where the game isn't actually fun but you admire the Engineering and innovation. Roller Coaster Tycoon is known not for the fact that it's a good game, but that it was written in Assembly, by an autist. Groundbreaking titles like Civilization or WoW or whatever also belong here in a sense.

2. Ruthlessly capitalistic business models a la annual COD murderfests/DLC required to play as a white guy/annual identical Maddens

Gabe Newell/Valve cover both archetypes. One gave way to the other. A Nerd, skilled at Engineering, who devolved into a ruthless capitalist who makes No Games.

^^Nowhere in the process, in either archetype, is there a bunch of craftsmen trying to make their games entertaining and fun. It's all about autism and Engineering, because we have a Clique System and Losers/artists, who would be skilled at this part, are suppressed and bomb interviews. Imho, because of Japan's higher average IQ, random university grads can Engineer video games and also handle the softer liberal arts elements, and there, you don't need to be a part of a Nerd subculture where Engineering is your one and only concern and where Losers are seen as dead weight to the capitalist (Prep) owners who want to wring out every penny of profit. In the U.S., if you don't just hire a bunch of Engineers who are obsessed with Code, nothing will actually get done. Discuss.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5342970&forum_id=2#46333883)

this isn't true at all

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5342970&forum_id=2#46357407)