Theory

[icycalm]

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/in_the_na ... nsistency/

At this point I am basically beating a dead horse, but I figure quotes like this might help the less intelligent readers understand what this whole fuss is about:

One thing that puzzles Nicholson is the way Japanese distributors change movie titles. “The Bucket List” becomes “How to Find the Best Life” for its Japan release. “The original title was obscure in the U.S. and has to be explained in the movie. The expression has since entered the U.S. political campaign with all candidates talking about their bucket list of things to do,” said Nicholson who has endorsed Hilary Clinton. “The title of the Japanese movie ‘Rashomon,’ for example, has entered the English language, but it was never changed to something different in English, so I’m against changing titles. But hey, that’s not my job.”

Jack Nicholson looking for one last big romance

[Recap]

Nicholson seems to miss that his "puzzle" is more of a global issue than a Japanese-only one. He'd love what we do here in Spain...

Anyway. My point regarding this subject has always been beyond the origin thing. This industry is way different to that of the movies. The truth is that, historically, there have never been "per-region versions" of a game if we attend to technical and authorship reasons, despite how much the Western media (especially the US one, of course) love to believe the opposite (they're Americans, after all).

Indeed, they are just different "games", even if they share the very same title.

There are lots of examples which make this quite evident -- Ranma 1/2: Chounai Gekitouhen / Street Combat, Magical Flying Hat no Buttobi Turbo! Daibouken / Decapattack, Black Dragon / Black Tiger, etc, etc. Though, actually, it doesn't matter at the end how much the game is changed for a different country; the truth is that they're different products for different systems / consoles made by different people with usually no relation with the original authors.

It's a very important issue, I believe. I know that globalization is changing this, and that indeed today we CAN talk about different "versions" of a game, given that the devs are involved in all of them, but this is just "modern industry" and still a non-generalized phenomenon. Addressing this is essential gaming education. It can help to make people realize the meaning of "authorship" and the difference between "original" and "derivative" [products]. That the video-game deserves much more respect than that from the Western publishers, which, after more than 20 years, are still missing the point.

[icycalm]

Nicholson seems to miss that his "puzzle" is more of a global issue than a Japanese-only one.

Yeah. He's like 70+ and he still has no idea of the magnitude of the issue. But that's what happens with many native English speakers I guess, and all the more so with Americans.

the truth is that they're different products for different systems / consoles

A very important point that's not at all subtle, but still very few people get it. I have tried explaining it once before:

http://forum.insomnia.ac/viewtopic.php?p=3416#3416

[icycalm]

Just came across this on rllmuk:

Also can the original poster change the title to its english name; "Muramasa: The Demon Blade".

http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?s= ... &p=5498351

It's as if he finds the Japanese title offensive.