hey boys & girls, let's not turn this into a male vs female, black vs white kind of thread. i mean, c'mon, the game is not even 50% complete yet and already there is heated debate on gender issues.
What heated debate? All some of us are doing is commenting civilly on prejudices in the game development industry. You make it sound like we're storming the Bastille with lighted torches while tosssing down hated Royalists on their own bayonet heads. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> That said, I don't propose to make believe male game developers are all without prejudice, or that game companies are fully aware just how much of their audience is non-Caucasian and/or female. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
i'm not saying heated debate as in "storming the bastille" kind of thing; more like a heated debate as in pulling each other's hairs out. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
i do agree that some game companies have a myopic view of the gaming market. business has been revolutionized because of the internet, and the world is truly one global village. people now are better informed, whereever they may live, because information travels fast nowadays.
i'm from asia myself (that's why i like playing monks in 3rd ed. d&d games.i do hope larian adds unarmed combat as a skill in dd2, in much the same way sacred implemented it), and pc games here are as popular as in anywhere in the planet. but maybe not just advertised as being so. just take a look at korea. it has the 3rd highest broadband connection in the world. for an asian country, that is quite a feat. mmorpg's are all the rage in korea, and koreans are also crazy over warcraft & starcraft series that matches are even televised. blizzard saw it fit to put a "korea" map in the frozen throne, proof of the huge success that they had and are having in that country. japan is also another large market (it is the 2nd largest economy in the world after all, behind only the U.S.), but i think gamers there are fixated on the final fantasy series. china is potentially the largest market in the world, with over a billion in population. i guess that's why blizzard made sure it had a chinese partner for its mmorpg, world of warcraft. and bioware will be releasing jade empire, which is set in ancient china, on the xbox (god i wish i had an xbox <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />). these companies know the immense potential that this market holds for their games.
