Bridging the Culture Divide: NCsoft's Brian Knox

[Sygris]

Originally Posted by justamemory

But, can Brian Knox bring World Peace!?

Well, who knows!!

[Ravian]

Personally I think the reason for the 1 year long wait is that NCSoft is rewriting most of the stories to fit in with the western culture. Not many of us would have the same feeling about the story and the quest lines if they were al related to korean situations and myths. I for one know very little about Korea, other then where it is located and how people look over there. For me having to relate to some korean hero from some korean myth would not have the same feeling as relating to a hero from a norsk myth that I, as a northern european, can relate to.

It is a plus to have a smooth, working product. I have played to many MMO's lately that were not finished at launch time.

[Livvy]

There are so many things that go above and beyond just literal translation. For instance, if you put in a Korean fable into the game that everyone?s going know, like, ?The boy got lost and found his uncle.?

Everybody in Korea that plays will go, ?Oh yeah, that?s a good little tie-in to that!? But for us, it?s ?Huh? Okay??

So, we may tie it in and talk about someone chopping down a cherry tree and not telling a lie, or something that would automatically resonate with a North American audience, or a European audience.

And not one word about gaming taste differences either. It's just about the texts/cultural differences . If you're going to take close to 2 years for that , why not adjust the client to western tastes as well?

[Wintergrowth]

I think they might've overestimated western Xenophobia. One of the things I liked about Lineage2 and look forward to in Aion are monsters and myths I know nothing about, coming from an "alien" point of view.

I can't be alone in this either as WoW made an entire zone in WotLK based on Norse myths, certainly unfamiliar in NA, and everyone ate it up.

I still don't get why we can't just play the beta continuously. I have major AWS