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Asian Influence
tinypyro
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 371 Bounty Hunter
First let me start by saying this is in NO WAY intended to be racially discriminating.
That being said I am curious how much if any Asian influence there will be in NWO. I am personally not a big fan of the Anime style games. I know millions are, it's just a personal preference. It seems as though the vast majority of PWE sponsored games are of Asian design. (Meaning lots of foo foo pretty bright flowery colors, tiny women, men that look like women, gigantic swords way too large for for the toon to wield unless defying physics, very distinct whack-whack sounds during combat, and the very odd absence of beards).
I had never played a cryptic game before, so I downloaded STO to see if there was any anime in that particular game and it appears there is not.
Again this has zero to do with race so please do not go there. I just simply prefer good old western style gaming and was curious about our beloved NWO. I will play either way of course. Was just wondering if Y'all had any thoughts. Ive watched every trailer and its hard to tell for certain, but it seems to be western.
That being said I am curious how much if any Asian influence there will be in NWO. I am personally not a big fan of the Anime style games. I know millions are, it's just a personal preference. It seems as though the vast majority of PWE sponsored games are of Asian design. (Meaning lots of foo foo pretty bright flowery colors, tiny women, men that look like women, gigantic swords way too large for for the toon to wield unless defying physics, very distinct whack-whack sounds during combat, and the very odd absence of beards).
I had never played a cryptic game before, so I downloaded STO to see if there was any anime in that particular game and it appears there is not.
Again this has zero to do with race so please do not go there. I just simply prefer good old western style gaming and was curious about our beloved NWO. I will play either way of course. Was just wondering if Y'all had any thoughts. Ive watched every trailer and its hard to tell for certain, but it seems to be western.
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RaiderZ itself is a game developed by MAIET Entertainment which is a Korean Game Development Company.
Cryptic, on the other hand, is an American Game Developer based in one of Las Angeles' neighboring towns I believe.
D&D and Star Trek are not Asian Games and should be properly portrayed with only minor and purposeful Asian Influences.
What all this boils down to is that while Perfect World Games do show a lot of Asian cultural influences this is because those games were designed to be based on cultural influences by asian companies. D&D is not a game which is based on Asian culture and should properly lack heavy Asian cultural influences.
Yeah that is what I had basicly assumed. I did notice that Cryptic was based out of the LA area. But there seems to be such a trend lately leaning in that direction that I was looking for some additional feedback. Thanks
However, there's zero room for them to use anime in a D&D product. Considering what hell we put them thru for giving us anime-like bear emotes, I don't think you got a thing to worry about on this front!
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You killed Mr. Grumpy paws...You <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>!!!! *sobs uncontrollably*
Errrrm... I was wondering what that was I stepped on... at least my feet are now warm, albeit a bit more hairy now.
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It took far longer than anybody in Community Management imagined or hoped but it has been done. The one thing which I can say without a doubt is this game is being designed by true fans of D&D.
Melanderi, lead GM for Neverwinter, and the Community Moderator Team have exchanged quite a number of PnP Stories over the last few months and she still has weekly PnP sessions. Crypticmaplois has stated he still plays Dungeons and Dragons when he's not at work.
With all the care major parts of the development team have for D&D I think the last thing we have to concern ourself with is if the Dev Team is going to take a lot of oriental influences into D&D. There will, hopefully, be some things which are direct parts of D&D Based on oriental society and weaponry but we shouldn't see two handed swords which look like this. I really like anime...but I think most of us would prefer it to stay away from our D&D.
Yeah I still have nightmares about that horrid Dragonlance Anime film
Anime art, with its big eyes and cutesy things (called kawai I think....) are everything against what D&D stands for. Those strange anime things are better in their own world, but they are outsiders in D&D.
As for Asian influences, I don't mind as long as they are D&D themed.
EDIT: Katana is other if it can be called Asian.
btw Happy new year from England
My work: Heroes Blacksmith - Library
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?21051-Heroes-Blacksmith-Library
Its speculation. Without speculation, we would have nothing to talk about here
Happy new year from here too. The fireworks have not yet stopped
I said another person *evil laughter*
(but they made me turn in my "hat collection")
Thanks to Storm being a good sport on this!
I can say with absolutely no hesitation based on the screenshots and video alone this is absolutely not an anime/kawai themed game whatsoever. While I also love anime, I LOATHE it in my D&D and most MMO's for that matter. If you want a classic fantasy but with kawai influence, play Wizardry Online.
Being from the Los Angeles area, I can unequivocally say they are NOT in the area and with PWE's US branch, are in Central California. Riot games and Activision however, are in L.A.
My mind must be tricking me haha. Indeed they are in central, I based the LA Claim off my memory of you stating a half hour drive from your LA locality.
No problem
Yeah Cryptic is up in Los Gatos, CA, they got to keep their very nice offices and Atari moved out, a Buddy of mine who use to work for them but lives in the UK now told me one thing he misses about those offices was the Warhammer tables they had set up...sounds like a fun place to work.
It's funny how some words are already set up in heads of many. To give some example how people think how great ancient Greece was. Greece had a democracy, but how many people will say that it was full of religious persecution which we can clearly know from "Trial of Socrates". Democracy itself is a distorted system where most of people decide about things they have no idea. The only reason we keep it is because somehow society do not fall into war, insanity and we can keep something we could call more less normal life.
Another magic word is "revoltuion". How positive feeling it bring but who will say that revolution happends when there is no more dialogue between people and only solution left is common people killing rulers, or vice versa. Even if you were to say that this are old times we can look to something called "orange revolution" which happen in 2004 Ukraine, where people was persecuted by their own government and the new president as it turned out was poisoned and that made his face disfigured.
Fantasy is based on medieval times and myths from that era and even older ones. Dragons and many creatures are not made by modern writers, everything you will see from how homes, clothes, habits look are medieval stuf but just to sell game they will cut off anything they don't like.
So what if there will be some assian influence in game if what they sell you is distorted view. How the cartoons look 10 years ago and how they look now? You go to the park and playground is not same as 10 years ago, everything is made so your children don't get hurt or don't learn anything bad about world. We live in times where we want to put children in golden cage where there is nothing ugly just to open it when they get 18 and say now you are free and deal with real world by yourself.
My work: Heroes Blacksmith - Library
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?21051-Heroes-Blacksmith-Library
I don't think all fantasy is based solely upon european medieval and renaissance culture, but a great mix of all sources. That's what I love the most about D&D, it's not about one place or one influence and they have taken inspiration from basically every part of our real world and used that world to reflect real issues in our world.
However I view D&D, especially the Forgotten Realms, as a world which is no different than ours in terms of physical laws. I view it as our reality if magic and gods existed, at least in a more tangible form.
I see anime and love it and respect it in it's own right. Goodness knows I was and still am fascinated by Kenshin Himura, which is one of the more realistic anime's around but as much as I can respect Kenshin Anime with Razor Wind attacks and a man smaller than myself swinging a sword which must weigh over 500 pounds...
That sort of physical law breaking doesn't exist in the D&D world in my own eyes. Player Characters, albeit superhuman in their own right, still have to conform to the same laws of science unless magic is involved. If I see my character swinging a sword that Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime couldn't swing then I have a major disconnect from what I view D&D as.
To me the Forgotten Realms are no different than our own reality. Anything which breaks our own rules has to be a direct effect of magic or a deity.
Although I don't picture Neverwinter looking like Feudal Japan I can imagine other places in Toril resembling it just as I picture Calimshan being similar to Arabia.
And generally these concepts aren't up for interpretation, at least not in a cannon and official release. If I made my own Neverwinter, without the endorsement of WotC, before I go to jail for copyright infringements I could make my city look like something out of Star Trek. I could but wouldn't. But while it may be a valid interpretation on my own part it still isn't something that Wizards would sign off on.
So long story short, I'm fairly sure most of the D&D Players have very specific ideas on what different locations of the Forgotten Realsm look like and for the most part it's the same as TSR/Wizard's version. I don't expect ungodly huge swords, oversized eyes or a coloring scheme which seems more fit for a girl's coloring book than a depressed and hopeless world.
Why do I find that sentence full of factually incorrect information? Children were usually not allowed to play this game, and no the fact that it has lot of rules doesn't have anything to do with that. The thingy with devils and suicides...
Secondly, as I stated before, Japan stuff is already there in form of Katana, Kenku, Kama etc. - only "stupidly unrealistic" stuff from their version of cartoons is not there - just like we don't have Tom & Jerry in D&D.
Lastly, sword coast is mainly based on medieval Europe - in that fantasy includes witches, Merlin like magic, Tolkien interpretation of Germanic fairy folks, Devils and Demons(even Baba Yaga). Cormyr is based on royalty and knights. Calimshan is based on desert culture. As Ambi said, there are other realms based on other places too.
D&D is realistic setting with magic & deities - that is all there is to it.
p.s. And there are some settings not at all appropriate for children ... um... or for adults for that matter.
This is exactly why I hesitated to even ask the question. I am sorry if my distaste for anime offends you. It's a personal taste. You went to great length here to illustrate a hundred things about modern society that you find troubling. Honestly I am getting sick and tired of walking on pins and needles afraid to speak my opinion without offending someone.
Cryptic Studios is located in Los Gatos, CA, within Silicon Valley. I initially browsed the fine print too fast and saw LA instead of LG. My bad.
As mentiioned by many including me, there is little to no anime in D&D even asian influence for that matter. If one wants said "Asian" influence, one adventures in the region called "Kara Tur" or plays a shapeshifting race calls a Hengeyokai.
Now, please understand your desires or fears are not necessarily always accurate in D&D so ask before you vent or crow about something. Thank you.
As for people not wanting asian influences in their beloved D&D, they've come to the party a bit late. D&D already has a ton of ancient stuff in it. From the katana and kama weapons, to the monk and divine fist classes, to the yuan-ti and kuo-toa, it's filled with asian influances. Just like every other big fantasy world, it draws inspirations from cultures all over the world, as well as from classic literature. Asian culturee is not the only one. Or have you forgotten the sphinxes, the medusas, the genies, the succubi and the nagas? Or the mind flayers?
You're probably not gonna see anime eyes and pink hair anytime soon (now that I think of it, pink might actually be an acceptable nutural hair color for a drow, seeing that there are some red-haired drow in the otherwise white-haired population) but the asian influence has always been there. Plus, when it comes to anime, not everything is like the nonsense that happens in kids' programms like Bleach and Naruto. The anime that is for more mature audiences is no less reasonable than you'd see in your average American live-action series.
O.o Pretty sure the OP was formatted as a question Truth. An innocent question at that. Please just remove this thread.
Did any of you guys actually READ the OP? I was pretty clear that I meant anime when I was talking about asian influence in the development of the game. I did not mention anything about asian aspects of D&D.
Exactly as I was saying. We need to differentiate b/w those "silly anime themes"(because some anime are different, GiTS) and Asian themes.
Also, as I said before, Kenku - you forgot those birdmen who were also Asian based.
EDIT: However, these things are rare(except for kama I think) in sword coast region.
You guys are killing me. I mean anime art. Period. Of course there will be asian influence in some aspects of D&D. I don't think very many people are actually reading the original post. Which was an honest question about wether or not there will be anime in the game since many of PWEs games are anime based. I suspect many of you are reacting to the title of the thread rather than the content of the original post. To those of you that understood the question I was asking and responded accordingly... thank you.
Unfortunately it is a public discussion forum. Once you start a discussion you cannot control the direction of arguments as apart from you, many more people are presenting and discussing their opinions. For feedback, I would suggest starting a poll. You can start a poll by using Thread Tools on right side of the thread.
EDIT: for poll you don't need to create new thread but being an opener you can attach one to this. Also use [noparse]
option
[/noparse] tag for your options for visibility purposes...
Well to some folks unless you have AOC nudity and the ability to emote <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> (as well as full gore and decapitations) You are a kiddies game. I have been DMing since 1979 playing longer than that, and I can count on one hand the times I have used or played explicit themes. One thing I agree with Lucas on (before he went insane) was during the filming of ESB talking about the Wampa Ice Monster and how it was more effective not to show his lair just shadows.
What I had imagine was a hell of a lot terrifying than what they showed years later, and one of the most scary/erotic movies I have ever seen in my life, "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" never showed one drop of blood or one boob, yet you left the theater with you emotions in a stir. That to me is great adult story telling; also I love the fact that I can sit down on CO and play a mission with my wife and daughter, and I'm looking forward to being able to do that in Neverwinter and I don't care that it pisses off this type.
I found it rather easy to discern that Tiny will not be happy if Cryptic decides to infuse the distorted art designs/styles that could be found in modern anime. I'm in full agreement with that.
As far as Asian culture in D&D, well that's an entirely different story, kinda (Anime is a Japanese form of animation derived from American, French German and Russian animation pioneers). Arnesson and Gygax were inspired by all kinds of cultures (Greek, Celtic, etc etc) and entertainment genres . As long as the "Asian influence" does not overstate it's own historic value to D&D (whatever you want to argue its ratio as being, my point is it should stay at that value in Neverwinter), I think we'll all be ok. But once I see anime art design, and that includes pets, I'm out.
On a good note Tiny, I just dont see it happening (WoTC would never allow it). Cryptic, an American company is the developer, not the Chinese owned PW. PW is also the "bank" however, and the first place I plan to see Chinese influence is in the cash store. But now we are effectively off topic
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Thanks man. After a few insightful responses to the question, and a little more research of my own, I have come to the same conclusion
I know what you meant from the beginning. Sometimes you just have to draw people a picture (or take a screenshot of what you mean). A lot of people find me and my arguments demeaning, because I often start out explaining things like I'm talking to a 1st grade class. "Now class, when I told you to draw a picture of an 'apple', I was expecting this (holds up fruit), not this (holds up a laptop)."
You probably should've shown pictures of Lunar, Persona, Xenogears, etc., as examples. Of course, there's a ton of videos and screenshots all over the place of NWO showing that it's clearly not anime influenced as well.