I don't remember that stuff happening explicitly either back then. I would like more examples of published articles from -different- sources that help show it was a widespread thing rather than just a (relatively speaking) handful of racist people that were reviewing games doing racist articles. I can't say I'd be terribly surprised if it turned out it was widespread though.
One thing I -do- remember though, since I was an avid supporter of japanese rpgs, is how you'd have various people shitting on the medium as 'anime' as 'cutesy' but 'the same old crap' under new coats of paint. And while to a point that's true, that's exactly how I describe every 1st person shooter ever. "Same crap but with a new series of levels. Usually." Very much a coat of paint in nature. Just didn't look cute. Probably the most in-your-face example of that jrpg-shitting I remember from back in the day was when the creator of VG Catz spent an entire comic saying this. ^^ Kinda felt stupid to me to say "These games are all the same." when they're part of the same genre - a collection of similar things so to speak. Yet these people never bitched about all FPS's being essentially the same game with different maps and occasionally a newish kinda gun, etc.
But alas I rant. I don't know if I really agree that jrpg is a racist tag, but I'm not the one who has to determine that. I guess the question is if it's just that one dev in japan that has a problem with it, or if most/many have an issue with being pigeon holed into that term. IE: Is that person being too sensitive, or is it a real sense of racism felt by japanese devs. For me the term mostly just described a type of game that happened to start and mostly happen in japan. If they have a problem with it, that's fine, but give us a term that helps describe the same genre of games. I would agree that calling them "japanese rpgs" these days is certainly less accurate since you can find these types of games created outside of japan nowadays... now that everyone with 50 bucks can get a legal copy of rpgmaker and start making those types of games. ^^;;;
And I will... eventually... I'm sure... probably... some day.
I guess my point ultimately whittles down to "Cool. I get you don't like the term. Give me a term that describes this type of game I can use instead then. IE: A game where you play the role of another (mostly) predefined character going through a (mostly) predefined storyline with a strict and separated battle system." Pretty sure that's mostly how I've thought about this genre.
*update*
Actually watching the video and reading the subject line now - like these guys, I don't really have any memories of this X Play thing. I wasn't in Quebec, but mid 2000's I didn't watch TV if that's where this was, and if it was just online then I guess I'd have to say I wasn't really watching any gaming media online either back then. In those days I was essentially on IRC and playing consoles offline on my own - often discovering games only when they showed up in ebgames/gamestop.
no subject
One thing I -do- remember though, since I was an avid supporter of japanese rpgs, is how you'd have various people shitting on the medium as 'anime' as 'cutesy' but 'the same old crap' under new coats of paint. And while to a point that's true, that's exactly how I describe every 1st person shooter ever. "Same crap but with a new series of levels. Usually." Very much a coat of paint in nature. Just didn't look cute. Probably the most in-your-face example of that jrpg-shitting I remember from back in the day was when the creator of VG Catz spent an entire comic saying this. ^^ Kinda felt stupid to me to say "These games are all the same." when they're part of the same genre - a collection of similar things so to speak. Yet these people never bitched about all FPS's being essentially the same game with different maps and occasionally a newish kinda gun, etc.
But alas I rant. I don't know if I really agree that jrpg is a racist tag, but I'm not the one who has to determine that. I guess the question is if it's just that one dev in japan that has a problem with it, or if most/many have an issue with being pigeon holed into that term. IE: Is that person being too sensitive, or is it a real sense of racism felt by japanese devs. For me the term mostly just described a type of game that happened to start and mostly happen in japan. If they have a problem with it, that's fine, but give us a term that helps describe the same genre of games. I would agree that calling them "japanese rpgs" these days is certainly less accurate since you can find these types of games created outside of japan nowadays... now that everyone with 50 bucks can get a legal copy of rpgmaker and start making those types of games. ^^;;;
And I will... eventually... I'm sure... probably... some day.
I guess my point ultimately whittles down to "Cool. I get you don't like the term. Give me a term that describes this type of game I can use instead then. IE: A game where you play the role of another (mostly) predefined character going through a (mostly) predefined storyline with a strict and separated battle system." Pretty sure that's mostly how I've thought about this genre.
*update*
Actually watching the video and reading the subject line now - like these guys, I don't really have any memories of this X Play thing. I wasn't in Quebec, but mid 2000's I didn't watch TV if that's where this was, and if it was just online then I guess I'd have to say I wasn't really watching any gaming media online either back then. In those days I was essentially on IRC and playing consoles offline on my own - often discovering games only when they showed up in ebgames/gamestop.