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American market slipping?

Kine

Whatev
    • 607
    Posts
    20
    Years
    Not a lot of people are gonna listen to me, but what the heck?

    1. NoA has been getting quite sloppy with keeping stuff pure as it is. That's nothing new. They do it because they feel it will best appeal to the western market. And I'm pretty sure it does. I mean, that haven't quit yet, right? And if the people buying the games don't know any better, what's stopping them?

    2. While true, 4Kids doesn't seem to have a lot of new voice talents, the show is still one of 4Kids better dubs compared to a lot of their other work. And if it wasn't for 4Kids in the first place, we wouldn't even get to see Pokemon. We should really be thankful for that, in that I'm sure a lot of us were pulled in by the anime's first season. Even today, they keep in some of the original music. I'd like to know what other anime 4Kids dubs does that much.

    Now as another note, if it wasn't for 4Kids dubbing Pokemon, 4Kids probably wouldn't be as big as they are now, but that's a totally different story.

    3. Meh...well... okay. I suppose that's true. But then again, Pokemon, though available for a very wide audience, is still marketed to kids in its core. You can never escape that.

    4. Well the 'states have never been as big on Pokemon as Japan. It probably has something to do with the western attitude of cute things being childish or for wusses. But then again, at least with them coming out straight to video/DVD, we no longer have to hear about the film critics drone on and on about how Pokemon is/should be a dead franchise with 1% of that review actually based off of the film (which they probably didn't watch, but who am I to say that?).

    All in all, I say there's not much one can do. And unless you get a mass number of people to start some sorta seige, then all we can do is sit back and be glad we at least get something.
     
    I mostly agree with most of the points Jake brought up, but the sad truth is that, even though the American companies in charge of Pok?mon are majorly sucking, we can't just boycott them. As much as they suck, we still depend on them for pok?mon merchandise. I'd just hate if a fan rebellion forces NoA o stop distributing Pok?mon games...
     
    Satoshi-kun said:
    Watch the looks of Emerald in the games forum. Go to Pok?mon.com. Tell me a lot.

    I feel the market has severely stuffed itself. What a pain. Nintendo of America has probably gone to the worst level of Pok?mon distribution ever. It's so bad I want to flame when I get access to the NoA forums.

    Recently:
    - Emerald's dubbing has taken a terrible turn. Names are just... awful. (Teresa Lillygren's work has officially started becoming sloppier.)
    - The dub has become... awful. 4Kids insists its 52 episode dubbing. Jeez laweez, the season dividing is awful, just as the "Advanced" intro was. The themes are replaced, never quite pure. And Haruka's dub voice, in fact a lot of dubbed voices... are done by the same people everyday. (Japan does the anime scripts like a radio show. 4Kids is person's script by person's script.) Episode cuts controlled by the STUPID KidsWB. Think you get the perfect anime (let alone episode)? Come to Japan.
    - The website... appeals to mostly the kids now. The mailbag has become quite serious though. I'm so mad I wanna FILL THE DARN THING UP WITH HATE MAIL AND SPAM. That mail replier is just evil. Look at the replies and you'll see what I mean.
    - Movie distribution. Movies 1, 2 and 3. All cinematic releases everywhere. Movie 3 kinda lost in advertising materials though... And all three movies made it across the world. Miramax's time. They've done it with their limited release. This would probably be what killed off half the fans. You go, stupid 4Kids. Movie 6 and 7, DVD only releases. 7 comes on TV blandly cut (and stupidly advertised). And Japan gets the Premier tickets and the roadshow, and all over cinematic releases. What do other countries get? You Americans are SO LUCKY, you get to see Movie 7 and Jirachi Wish Maker still hasn't released here yet. (And to make my cut, I'm obtaining AG Movie 2 in Japanese, maybe subbed, and intend to do the same when AG Movie 3 becomes available.)

    I plan on not helping Nintendo of America/4Kids/Miramax's profits. Lousy people, they are. >>;
    Click to expand...
    I agree with every word. America has screwed it up, a lot. :confused: . I have been waiting for someone to do this. America should just let the pros do it.
     
    Legendary Pok?mon Master said:
    It's because in America (were I live) Pok?mon is viewed as a game for little kids.
    Click to expand...

    That's only part of the problem; Nintendo is gearing the pokemon franchise towards children under the age of 12 for the most part.

    ... I was saving this rant for a new thread I was going to start, but I'm going to vent here instead.

    Nintendo needs to grow up!
    I used to be an avid Nintendo fanboy, respective of the originality and creativity that they brought to the gaming genre, and I'm losing that now. The following is an editorial that was posted in the local games magazine, with edits to fit my own ranting.

    -----

    If only the Super Mario Brothers had had Carmen Electra to chase around, maybe they would have been happier.

    Or maybe they just would have been out of work.

    If you havn't heard, video games - once the domain of adolescents crowded around arcade stalls - aren't for kids any more. The age of the average player is 29, and 92% of all video-game purchases are made by players over the age of 18 (uncommented on, but given fact that older kids are buying "+18" and "M" games for younger siblings and friends >_>)

    Given those statistics from the Entertainment Software Association, it's not surprising that, despite headlines about the graphics violence found in such enterprises as the Grand Theft Auto series, gamers have tumbled head-over-heel for the oldest of adages: sex sells. Even if it's pixellated.

    Jim Perkins is the CEO and president of ARUSH Entertianment, which teamed with Playbot for the release Playboy: The Mansion, featuring a digitized Electra and Hugh Hefner, amoung others.

    "Playboy: The Mansion is targeted to the growing adult gaming population... an M-rated game demonstrates that we are not marketing it to those under 18." An M rating is the equivalent of the film industry's R rating, meaning some leading electronic retails won't sell it.

    Wal Mart general manager Mark Schaffel says, "We don't sell any M-rated games, or anything that is too explicit for the customer." (I mean we don't want eldery people passing out everywhere right? ;)) Rather, these games are available at some major retailers like Fry's Electronics and industry specific retailers such as EB Games and Video Game Trader.

    The origins of this current wave of sex-themed games can be traced back to the 1987 hit, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Now there's no shortage of hormonally charged electronic escapades to embark on, whether it's exploring fame, fortune and sexually inspired fun through the aforementioned Playboy: The Mansion, or runing through college campuses in Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude as a younge and often-time perverted Larry - Leisure Suit Larry's nephew - recruits sexy singles for his reality match-making show, Swingles.

    And don't forget, there's also Singles, Flirt Up Your Life, which is best described as a raunchy version of The Sims - where your job is to act as a matchmaker for a couple of characters and run their daily lives. With full-frontal nudity, though unrealistic and pixellated, the game's pinnacle is getting the characters to fall in love and eventually make out under carefully placed sheets.

    That all in retrospect, the tamest of this new crop in the sex appealing games is Playboy: The Mansion, which focuses more on the task of building up the Playboy mansion and empire.

    "First and foremost, this is a lifestyle simulation game that focuses on living the ultimate 'good life', while integrating a business-themed experience," Perkins says. "It is tasteful with an element of fun and sexiness delivered in signature Playboy fashion."

    [enter advertisements]
    Are you game? Check the following titles out:
    GTA: San Andreas
    BMX XXX
    Sexy Beach 2
    DoA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball
    Fetish Fighters
    Airline 69 II
    Ultra Vixen 2
    Sex party 6
    Betty's Beer Bar

    -----

    (Japan is in a whole different dimension on this topic so I won't divulge there.)

    Now, obviously there is a huge part of the current pokemon community that supports various _ships, heterosexual and homosexual alike. I have no comment on either specifically, but therein exists the fact that such rather mature content is being played upon by the involved fans. Whatever your fancy is in fetishes, the entire pokemon franchise is stagnating since almost all the gamers who play it right now are sick to death of repetitive remakes (or close enough stuff to be called remakes completely lacking in originality), and want something playable, in games, that there is a story that you don't know the outcome right off the bat, or viewable, in the cartoons, vaguely what will happen without cheesey cut and hacked up scripts that we all know somehow that main character and co. will overcome all odds by courage and friendship.

    Contrary to the above rant, I do not feel that throwing more sex appeal into the pokemon franchise will allure more gamers to the series. It will probably destroy it more than it is currently doing. The above was just an industry oriented rant in general about what a large part of the current gamer generation is craving.

    Pokemon needs to change its image and presentation. Or maybe Nintendo itself. The Gamecube has become increasingly uncool lately at every EB I go to, compared to a couple of years ago, Xbox fans have skyrocketed in number, and Microsoft seems to be doing rather well despite initial predictions. Sure neither compare to the almighty PlayStation 2, but I'm saying that even Microsoft is doing better in marketing and management right now than Nintendo, they are producing games that meet all sorts of desires in gamers, hardcore RPGs, online games, shooters, racing, you name it. Nintendo isn't. Bite me that they're making a few creative games here and there, Namco has made a whole whopping 2 RPGs for the Cube since it released. That's bad. Very bad. Katamari Damacy for the PS2 is full of simple originality, and that was nothing Nintendo couldn't do, but the PS2 has a huge battlechest of games right now, and Nintendo is refusing to make games to meet the fans right now. Most of the good stuff the GameCube has is multi-platform, so why bother getting a GC version?

    Now please excuse me while I go throw up.

    ~DS
     
    Holy freaking crap I agree so much!

    4Kids ruined the US dub by making it kiddy, and the dub's kiddiness made Pokemon in general kiddy. But Nintendo of America isn't helping one **** bit to stop the kiddiness.

    *Waits for Pokemon Emerald's kid-friendly commercial that's nothing like the preorder one*
     
    MegaDitto said:
    America should just let the pros do it.
    Click to expand...
    OK, first, we must define the pros. Second, we must make NoA employ them. I mean it. NoA has to do something... I seriously think they are underestimating the pokemon market. I don't live in the US, but by looking at both pokemon.com and .co.jp, i have to say .com is aimed much more to kids, and also by watching the English ep's in HK, I agree with what other people are saying about.
     
    kohei said:
    OK, first, we must define the pros. Second, we must make NoA employ them. I mean it. NoA has to do something... I seriously think they are underestimating the pokemon market. I don't live in the US, but by looking at both pokemon.com and .co.jp, i have to say .com is aimed much more to kids, and also by watching the English ep's in HK, I agree with what other people are saying about.
    Click to expand...
    What I meant is that america should stop editing every epsiode and leave it the way it was.
     
    Oy vey...

    *sigh* It's so easy to complain... I give up.
     
    The american market was on a downside since the 3rd movie, which was when I quite pokemon in every form except the games.
    It wont recover, markets are ficall,they flucuate on a yearly basis ,based on the current craze
    Craze right now:Yu-gi-oh I bleive but honeslty I stopped caring
     
    I do argee 100% with what DeltaSuicune said about Nintendo has not changed their perspective about the wave of games that are more mature and how Pokemon fans want something new.

    Plus, I also do think that Nintendo should change its image of being a kiddy company, which for better or worse, it has earned. And probably that's one of the reasons a lot of gamers are going to the Xbox. Heck, I have an Xbox myself. And a PlayStation 2 and my friend wants me to get a Gamecube, which I will NEVER get.

    And having 4Kids ain't making anything better too!! I wish I lived in Japan so I can see Pokemon in its uncut glory!!!
     
    SADM said:
    It is america's obseession for keeping shows such as pokemon just for kids. Why cant they have a mature version with stuff like Alchohal,guns, sex etc..
    Click to expand...
    Because somehow it will corrupt the minds of small children everywhere. Soccer moms will confuse it with the "child's" version and it'll be a complete failure.

    Supposedly.
     
    Good to see some people digging up the gut to post their commentary and agreeing with me... the last time I posted something this outgoing at another forum it got locked saying I was a radical fascist or something >_>

    Next rant of the day on what NoJ will screw up; Pokemon D/P online rumours.(scroll to the bottom). Given that Nintendo announced their partnership with Gamespy earlier that blew the table top off everyone else (details here)

    This has thrown the tables upside down on many people, who never thought Nintendo would go online with the DS. Guess what, it may finally happen. And with that comes rumours and dreams of an official pokemon online, Diamond and Pearl perhaps, via wireless, to the web.

    However, I bring up several points which people commonly overlook in how this will fail. (I'll try to keep this on topic with how NoA is going to do things badly..)

    1) Fees.
    Gamespy and all its servers runs on subscription fees from users. At least the dedicated high speed ones. People who don't get bumped to the public servers (think a lot of you know the gamespy arena public server queues). So, unless people pay to play these Pokemon DS games, they will likely have severe lag and/or limited amounts of people only allowed to play online at a time (and 100 players/hour rotation is NOT good, trust me). This cannot possibly be free unless Nintendo hashes up all the server maintenance, bandwidth, and client fees. They obviously havn't gone ahead with the initiative of funding their own servers to make a PO, so why would they start now. It's going to be P2P, no ifs, ands, or buts.

    2) Connection.
    You need to pay your ISP to connect your internet to the WWW. Duh. However, the only dedicated wireless-internet connections that exist for the DS are the given "hotspots" that have come up with regards to the FR/LG wireless adapter for the GBA. This isn't going to change with the DS; a small portable is NOT going to have the power to connect online like a cellphone, it will HAVE to connect, much like a cellphone, to the nearest ISP receiver. Unless they come out with a dedicated near-satellite powered adapter, they are not going to be able to pull this off. Crystal confirmed that parents were not willing to pay the astronomical fees associated with cellphone networking to play "pokemon online". Hotspots aren't powerful enough to cover all of north america, so they may have a few on the east or west coasts, scattering them through europe as well hopefully, so the people who live in highly urbanized areas will probably get some kind of boon here, but the rest of us are screwed. (if they managed to somehow employ a modified cellphone chip into the DS already which would let the lil things connect halfway across a country to a hotspot in every dang country.. I'll be stunned, I really will be)

    3) Hardware.
    Unless they come out with a USB adapter on the DS to connect to the computer for a dedicated client on your computer, it is not going to be able to go online like stated above. Since they said they will collaborate with Gamespy on the matter, I'm suspecting that they will connect this to the computer somehow.

    4)Security.
    However, the moment the DS can connect to the computer... it opens themselves up to all sorts of hacking and cheating, no ends of it at all. I can guarantee this much. Nintendo is NOT above hackers, Datel Inc. isn't that stupid, and neither are all aspiring hackers and hacker wannabes. If nothing else upsets the system, this will.

    NoA is not going to be able to pull this off. NoJ may, given that Japan is smaller and pokemon is more widely tolerated, hotspots being more common and all, but I highly doubt it.

    ....

    Uh where was I... oh yeah. I'm curious, how many of you right now are rather sick of pokemon? :\ 3rd Gen was bad enough, and now I'm really disgusted by the sneak-peek of 4th Gen.

    ~DS
     
    Nine said:
    Because somehow it will corrupt the minds of small children everywhere. Soccer moms will confuse it with the "child's" version and it'll be a complete failure.

    Supposedly.
    Click to expand...

    I want small childrens minds corropted, but I am not a sane man.
    soccor moms could tell the difference and they would air it at like 10:30 pm
     
    Legendary Pok?mon Master said:
    It's because in America (were I live) Pok?mon is viewed as a game for little kids.
    Click to expand...

    Its true, basically 4kids ruined the anime series. I like the videogames especially Pokemon Coliseum. I am 18 years old and I like the game(And yes I live in America)
     
    actualy i am 9 and watch shows that have stuff like that and they should make it a bit more machure like when ash and misty seperated there should have been a kissing seen
     
    Well, just remember that the anime is more directed at a younger audience. Not to say that kissing shouldn't be shown at all to little kids, but ya know...ya knooooooooooooooow how it is. XD

    I think the U.S. could come up with some better advertisments for the video games. The FR/LG commercial was OK, but the Emerald one was crap. XD It was just the box art and a title basically. =\

    ~Kelsey
     
    well, i guess when we are the owners of the multi-million dollar company and we are to make those decisions, then I guess we would see the true light of the criticism. It's still gotten to a point where pokemon is just, well, kinda stretched out to its limit, I mean, in a way the show is a repeat in itself, you can mostly almost guess the plot just off of the title... and the site is kids related... lol... at least the .jp domain isn't that much kids related.
     
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