Did You Know!?!

[Spooniest]

...That Ted Woolsey is now in charge of First Party Publishing for Xbox Live Arcade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Woolsey#Microsoft)?

I guess I just assumed that he was still translating stuff, but I guess he got tired of all the kanjis after a while. Still working with video games, though, so I guess having translated the best game of all time has its perks. ;)

Discuss.

[chionos]

He hasn't done any translating in a long time. Kind of surprised he's still working in the industry.

[Vyk]

Hopefully they appreciate him. It'd suck if he's being treated like crap by corporate after everything he's done and contributed to the industry

[Spooniest]

SE should probably give him some kind of recognition. Without him we might not have had such a coherent script for a lot of these games, which cemented SE's relationship with its fans, and pushed them to the fore of the industry.

I know that'd make me think about my opinion of the current SE corporate culture a bit.

[Vyk]

True. But back then, and even now for the most part, SE didn't give much about the opinions of its Western fans. And Woosley had zero impact on Square's Japanese fans. So they probably don't give too much of a lick about him these days in either case :/

It's kinda weird how these Japanese companies still only care about their Japanese fans. I realize the Japanese buy millions of their games. But you'd think American and European fans buying millions would matter more. But that's probably a discussion for another thread

[Spooniest]

I think there's probably a lot of pressure in Japanese culture not to "sell out" to another culture, to represent the Japanese culture in ways that are acceptable to that culture...possibly a lot more than someplace like the States or the UK.

But the point I'm making is that, for such a grueling amount of work in such a short time, it is a fine script. Neat, tidy. Maybe name an in-game achievement concerning the speed at which you've read the script, or your performance on a certain event in the game (that requires speed-reading) after him or something. Or, I guess they could go real obscure with it and test a reader's knowledge of Japanese...that'd be something to see. :)

"The Woolsey Over Your Eyes" or something. ...I dunno.

[The Man]

It's kinda weird how these Japanese companies still only care about their Japanese fans. I realize the Japanese buy millions of their games. But you'd think American and European fans buying millions would matter more. But that's probably a discussion for another thread
I don't know if that's necessarily true. Square Enix has been trying to "Westernise" its games to appeal more to Western audiences for quite some time.

[Vyk]

Westernizing games and listening to Western audiences are kinda different. And I'm not totally convinced of either. The hallways simulator in XIII was hardly "Westernized". And the fact that they almost kept Bravely Default from us means they weren't all that eager to listen to us either. I know they want to change. But it's obvious they still care 90% about their Japanese audience, and only a little about their Western audience

Not to mention I still resent the fact that they shoe-horned in Vaan into XII and damn near ruined the game, just to appeal to some random Japanese teenage focus groups. Or (which I've brought up multiple times) that they've went on record that they don't want their fans to grow up with them, they want new fans each generation, and have no intention of growing their games with us. They'll always be aimed at teenagers *gag*

And I honestly can't imagine any Western fan wanting that. Even the younger video gamers would want things that would appeal more to the older audience. I didn't want to play as little kids when I was a kid. And I don't want to play as little kids as an adult. FFXV is the first time they seem to be aiming something more adult-oriented at us. We could argue that Type-0 is mature enough, except for the fact that they wanted to keep that from us until they found out we were going to give it to ourselves anyway through fan-translations

They're a long way away from washing away their Western ignorance. And I like to think I'm not too concerned with them, they'll make their mistakes and I'll laugh and move on, and try to convince myself that I've quit holding my breath or holding out hope for them to change their minds. But the fact alone that I can rant like this on this topic just proves how burned by them I feel as a Western fan. So we'll see just what they have in store in the future. But I'm yet to be really convinced the opinions of me and my peers really matter to them

[Sephex]

It's kinda weird how these Japanese companies still only care about their Japanese fans. I realize the Japanese buy millions of their games. But you'd think American and European fans buying millions would matter more. But that's probably a discussion for another thread
I don't know if that's necessarily true. Square Enix has been trying to "Westernise" its games to appeal more to Western audiences for quite some time.

I-is that what they've been doing? I..uh...alright.

[The Man]

I didn't say they were doing it successfully. But it's clear from various comments their execs have made that it's what they've been attempting, at least.

[Ayen]

Don't think I've forgotten about Wedge and Vicks, Ted Woolsey. I'm coming for you, and your little dog too.