World of Warcraft in Japan
There was only one time I remember where I think I ran into another World of Warcraft player from Japan. To the best of my knowledge, it was during a Dire Maul run. The player was complaining about some noisy youths outside of his apartment in Osaka and had to AFK.
For all I know, he could have been lying through his teeth while residing in Arizona. But it does bring into question the games player base and how it’s distributed worldwide. From what I understand, WoW is not officially sold in Japan. But after doing a search for WoW on Amazon Japan, there appear to be Japanese people playing this game.
I’ve always been curious as to how this game would fair in Japan if it was heavily marketed. Have Blizzard get a big-time celebrity endorsement from the likes of Downtown and see what happens. Or have Arino Shinya play WoW on Game Center CX. How funny would it be when Arino’s level 25 gnome warrior gets ganked for the 10th straight time by a level 70 undead mage? Sadly, I look at Japan’s lukewarm response to the Xbox and Xbox 360 and wonder if WoW would suffer a similar fate.
Japanese game design has a tendency to differ from what we find stateside. But not always for the better. I found Final Fantasy XI to be a painfully monotonous experience compared to WoW. Would the average Japanese player look at WoW in the same way?
I’d like to hear what you have to say. Have you run into any Japanese players in World of Warcraft? What was your overall experience like?
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[Screencap courtesy of Kilroggian]
Comment by Kiyoshi
I don’t know. Japanese gamers don’t tend to like what we over here like. It’s strange. They would much prefer a dating or soccer coach sim to almost anything. Our tastes are almost 100% opposite from each other.
Comment by matt
Thanks Kiyoshi for your brainless response. I wish I had a dime for everyone who thinks their contributing by posting “Japan and other countries have different tastes!” Learn to be creative and actually contribute something.
Comment by Kiyoshi
Geezus. First of all, Matt is it? Why are you coming at me like I harmed one of your family members. Calm down with that. Second of all, you obviously have never met a Japanese gamer(Yeah, yeah, I know you have). I didn’t say it was bad that they had different tastes I’m just stating the facts. A lot of them would rather play a soccer sim then something like Halo. It’s called observation. But seriously, calm down. It’s not that serious.
Comment by naels
I am also curious about the number of Japanese people playing WoW.
I saw one computer store in Akihabara selling WoW expansion box, but I didn’t ask if anyone buying or playing them.
Comment by Dee
I’m curious to see how WoW would fair in Japan also… Kiyoshi is not far off from the truth about Japanese gamers. How do I know? My wife is Japanese and I game’d out there for about 6 years. The players out there prefer online games such as Maple and things of that nature… For the up comming XP WotL is suppose to be hitting stores in Japan we will then see how good the game does out there… I know the Hardcore gammers will take a like to it, but it might take some time for it to really catch on in Japan. Only time will tell
Comment by Pandion
I’m sure there are some Japanese people playing WoW from Japan but my hunch is it’s probably the gaijin who are buying on Amazon. Having said that I played UO back in 2000 while living in Japan (bought it at Lawson). The lag was horrible but quite few Japanese people were on the servers. Since WoW is, IMHO, a much better product than UO I can see where it would have a niche following.
Comment by Teru
I live in Hirakatashi, Japan about 20 minutes from Osaka. The only people i know who play WoW are myself and other gaijin. Although, when Japanese gamers see us play they are amazed.
Comment by Alex
I’m looking to get a proper (and powerful) desktop machine in Japan to replace my ageing laptop that I brought from Australia. While I’m considering going “local” by getting a Japanese OS machine, I was wondering if it would allow me to install the English-version World of Warcraft? Does anyone have any experience to share?
Much appreciate any advice.
Oh .. I do know someone playing WoW in Hokkaido. But yet again, he’s not a native Japanese.
Comment by Maikeru
@Alex - I played the ten day trial of WoW a few months back without any problems. My PC was bought in Japan and runs a Japanese OS so I don’t think you should have any problems from that at least. The difficulty I’m having is upgrading my trial account to a full one so that I can keep playing. The U.S. warcraft site requires a zip code together with your credit card details but my Japanese yuubin bangou doesn’t fit. Waiting for a reply from customer support…
Comment by Jason
If that doesn’t work you can always pick up a boxed copy on Amazon and use prepaid time cards.
Comment by Alex
Thanks guys. I did some testing by installing WoW on my wife’s Japanese PC (which aggroed her big time) and it worked fine most of the time. I didn’t try going into instances or raids. Questing outdoors and going into cities were ok. It gave me the “blue screen of death” twice. Not sure what happened. Had to un-install the game quickly before I get kicked out of the house.
But I’ve decided to go ahead and buy the new desktop anyways; will deal with the problems as they come.
Thanks again for the advice.
Comment by kinkin
Hi!
I`m a Japanese player of World of Warcraft. It very isn`t popular in Japan. Reason mostly is most Japanese gamer don`t play regular PC online game. Most School Student play on T.V game as they have not enough time in their everyday life, so a simple cheap game system is best for them. Children and school student are best target for games. I don`t know if it`s different in other country sorry. I play World of Warcraft because I saw it when I went to America and I absolutly enjoy it. Also, it was a good way to improve my English. Is my english bad or good?
Comment by forsooth
Most of the sentences in your post have at least one error in spelling or grammar, but they are all very understandable. Your English is just fine; not bad. Depending on how long you’ve been studying and practicing, it may even be very good. I wish that I could relate my thoughts in Japanese as well as you do in English.