Jimquisition: Tomodachi Strife

[Sticky]

Snip

Welcome to the forums

You do bring up an excellent point: what about the Japanese viewpoint in this? Nintendo doesn't seem to really care about being the spearhead of gay rights movement in Japan, so why do people in the west feel that it is their job to be that way?

I'm sure no one would argue that it's Nintendo's duty to fight for the rights of the downtrodden whoever they may be on the basis that they are a company that sells video games for profit.

 

[Sticky]

Oh yes Nintendo is horrible because as a Japanese company, it applies Japanese cultural norms to a game.

Ah, the Nintendo white-knighting continues. I'm rather tired of this particular line, so let's deal with it. They are not just a Japanese company. In fact, I believe the response that annoyed everyone came from Nintendo of America, which is most definitely not a Japanese company. They work in a global marketplace, same as anyone else, and the game is being localised for NA release, which is why gamers from NA and Europe asked them to make the change.

Are you still following along, or do you need help?

It's not the job of localization to add features, that's the job of the original developers at NoJ. And the developers at NoJ have no incentive to modify the design document after the main game has already gone gold. It makes no business sense or practical sense to make it this way and is completely infeasible by design standards. For whatever reason, financial or practical, they decided not to pursue making it a feature. This is also likely because games about heterosexual couples come out here in the west all of the time, I can find several about them just looking at a list of recently released games, and no one raises a fit about it except this one time.

Still following along, or do you need help?

 

[Silvanus]

The problem with the argument that Jim is making is that homosexuals represent an extremely tiny percentage of the population.

Why should they be given fewer options because of this?

What's more it's not something that is "generally accepted", it's a major political issue

I'm really hoping you're not saying we should turn our backs on equal treatment in order to placate people.

Trying to say that "gay rights" shouldn't be political is by definition a political statement, and a controversial one. Especially seeing as the entire gay rights movement started as saying that someone should not be arrested simply for leading an alternative lifestyle. The very term "alternative lifestyle" has fallen out of use right now, but it was a key element of the whole gay rights movement for a long time. Only some very extreme people were making arguments that gays should be basically inserted into all aspects of society and media, and presented as being around in equal number to heterosexuals and such when they aren't.

I have never seen an argument that gay people should be shown in "equal number", and I'm pretty well informed on this subject. I'm pretty certain that's just an imaginary argument, invented by people who want to smear the cause for gay representation.

What's more, one has to also look at video games in particular and the negative reaction the gay community is getting from it's own actions. Look at say "The Old Republic Online" as an example, a set of designers (Bioware) who showed that they had no problem developing gay and bi-sexual characters when they fit a given storyline, was brutally attacked for writing a game where they didn't insert any such characters and romance options as they didn't think it fit. The basic argument was one of an entitled minority. When Bioware eventually agreed to develop some, a promise it kept with it's first major expansion, the gay community then rallied screaming that it wasn't enough, making it clear (and some people even outright stating) that what they wanted was intrusive gay content, so if you walked onto your ship you'd have homosexuals trying to flirt with you and stuff, with the specific intention of annoying straights in order to make a statement. The clashes over this in and outside of the game have largely died down, but it kind of showed that this is a minority group that tends to escalate it's demands when you give them anything, which can be an issue when your dealing with sexual behavior that actually repels a good amount of the population who aren't wired that way (basically you might not care if two dudes want to get it on, but you don't want to have to watch them make out, or have some dude following you around, trying to get into your pants).

May I just ask-- do you consider it "intrusive straight content" when a straight character flirts with your character in a game, or does the sexuality of it simply not enter into it when it's straight?

I'll also say that I think "alternative lifestyles" is a slippery slope especially when you start looking around globally. One group that outnumbers homosexuals vastly for example are Polygamists, which can become increasingly common outside of the first world. Even the US has had issues with Polygamist communes and the male children being forced out as soon as legally possible so the older men can monopolize all the girls. I don't know if this game already allows that, but to put things into perspective it could be argued that if your going to allow one alternative lifestyle, you have to allow all of them, especially more common ones, when looking at a global marketplace. Follow that train far enough and even if it's not polygamy and it's problems you will eventually wind up with something that will offend even the most tolerant person.

You seriously implied that acceptance of homosexuality may lead to acceptance of polygamists who force male children out?

You are deliberately associating me-- and anyone else who loves the same gender, through no choice of their own-- with those actions. You cannot just say something so incredibly hurtful, and personal, and then say you're not going to "get into" it.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Okay, I'm usually on the same page as you on these issues, Jim, but after watching this video, I have to ask the question: What the fuck are you talking about? Setting aside the issue of (in my opinion) Nintendo not saying what you implied that they said, how can you reasonably claim that including something that is a current social hot topic is not a socially political comment while excluding the same automatically is? Whether positive or negative, publicly taking a stance on gay marriage at this time(and especially in Japan where there is no clear majority of support for it) is absolutely making a political comment, as there is a lot of politics involved in the issue right now(as you yourself mentioned later in the video).

Actively taking a stance on pro-blacks or pro-women's rights isn't a political issue because the laws involving those topics are well established and long standing, so taking a negative stance on that is only bigoted, not politically controversial. The laws involving gay marriage are currently in flux, so taking a negative or positive stance on that is political(though being negative is no less bigoted).

On the other hand, I also don't believe that one is making a socially political comment either by including or excluding unless one intends to. Not everyone cares about social politics, and despite what some of the more abrasive members of out community might claim, you don't fall into the "against" column by default if you don't proudly proclaim that you are "for." You aren't part of the problem simply by not actively trying to be part of the solution. The only way to be part of the problem is by actively campaigning against gay marriage.

And that isn't what's going on here. Nintendo is a Japanese company. There is no gay marriage in Japan, no laws concerning property distribution for gay couples, and no great majority of Japanese citizens campaigning for a change in that regard. When a company from such a background says that they had no intentions of making socially political commentary through their games, I believe them, and I can't see any way to claim otherwise without coming off as a demagogue.

It's important to remember that there is a difference between you inferring something and them implying it. Intent matters, and trying to put words into someone's mouth to further your own political agenda is a bad, bad thing regardless of how benign the agenda itself is. It's the difference between your usual episodes, which are pointed commentary calling out the bullshit that people in the industry try to get away with, and this one, which comes off like a feminazi's blog reading rape intent in every word a man says or writes.

Remember: just because you are offended does not mean that they were offensive.

 

[Scars Unseen]

The game was originally made for the japanese audience and Nintendo decided to port it for extra revenue.Asking that they alter the game to suit the needs of another audience reeks of self centeredness.I don't see people from other countries demanding features from western games aside from censhorship,so this is just the case of us Americans thinking the wrold revolves around us once again.

If Japanese companies want to sell something to American (or Western in general) consumers, then their world damn well better revolve around those customers. This is the basic principle of business: The customer is always right as he is king. I hate how you get called "entitled" (or some other less friendly, but no less stupid, terms), by fellow consumers no less, for being critical of companies or even *gasp* actually refrain from purchasing their crap entirely.

Just because the lords of glorious Nippon deign to grant us gaijin the right to purchase their games, doesn't mean we have to swallow whatever archaic regressive crap they try to push.

I'm sorry, but that is so much bullshit, and it's that sort of thinking that ruined Squeenix until they made Bravely Default and realized how much bullshit it is. You cannot compare a work of art, be it a game, book, movie, etc, to a banal retail slogan. Granted, I wouldn't compare this Tomadachi thing to a well written novel or anything, but trying to cater to the largest audience possible is one of the worst trends in big media right now. A developer is under no obligation to make a game that caters to your tastes, and you are under no obligation to buy a game you don't like. Learn to love the niche, for it is your friend. Better to have games you love and loathe than a market full of "meh."

Japanese developers catering to western markets is the worst thing to happen to Japanese games.

 

[atavax]

To me this situation seems comparable of accusing eastern developers of pedophilia for the sexualization of girls that appear to be about 10 years old in many eastern videogames. First, the lack of homosexuals wasn't inherently hateful, 2nd, their game is perfectly acceptable in the society that the developers were living in and where the original market for the game was. If you aren't comfortable playing a game that doesn't allow homosexual options, simply avoid the game like people that aren't comfortable with sexualized 10 year old girls avoid games with them in it. Calling out the developers in a foreign culture for homophobia because of the lack of homosexual relationships seems as arrogant as calling out eastern devs for pedophilia for the presence of sexy 10 year old girls. Why as a culture should we let sexy 10 year old girls slide but not the lack of same sex couples? As long as they aren't preaching hatred, intolerance, or violence (which is better then what some american developers can claim) let them be, imo. I mean, really? Of all the violent shit that is perfectly acceptable in videogames, the lack of same sex marriage isn't?

 

[Eve Charm]

The game was originally made for the japanese audience and Nintendo decided to port it for extra revenue.Asking that they alter the game to suit the needs of another audience reeks of self centeredness.I don't see people from other countries demanding features from western games aside from censhorship,so this is just the case of us Americans thinking the wrold revolves around us once again.

If Japanese companies want to sell something to American (or Western in general) consumers, then their world damn well better revolve around those customers. This is the basic principle of business: The customer is always right as he is king. I hate how you get called "entitled" (or some other less friendly, but no less stupid, terms), by fellow consumers no less, for being critical of companies or even *gasp* actually refraining from purchasing their crap entirely.

Just because the lords of glorious Nippon deign to grant us gaijin the right to purchase their games, doesn't mean we have to swallow whatever archaic regressive crap they try to push.

1. People asked for this game that came out last year in only japan and wanting them to put in something that never really existed in the game is basically asking them to move a mountain.
2. Going by state and country legislation, They ARE catering to AMERICA. And that's not even factoring in the causal and young crowd this is targeted to, not the hip generation that contain the people perfectly fine with loving whoever you want to love. So be more upset it isn't the normal in your country first before your upset it isn't normal in some other countries video game.
3. Last maybe the issue is to mature for a group of people willing to go off on a SJW tirade then bother to check the facts.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Oh yes Nintendo is horrible because as a Japanese company, it applies Japanese cultural norms to a game.

Nintendo is of course also "racist" against Muslims, since this game does not allow marriages with little children (as the Prophet with Aisha), or plural marriages (a basic islamic right).

The western release could have easily included gay marriage as a feature.

Possibly yes, but probably no. Do you have any idea how much work what you might consider a "minor" feature can take to implement? How much coding is involved, how many bugs could result? Unless the game was coded with the intention of adding such features from the start, adding something as seemingly simple as your suggestion could take a lot of time and effort, more so than what usually goes into localizing an already existing game. This is usually only done when a developer is required to censor a game by another country's law, not to broaden a game beyond its original intent.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Snip

But the team was already adding development features :/ They already did what you said they never do.

http://nintendoeverything.com/bill-trinen-talks-more-about-tomodachi-lifes-localization-changes/

They are changing mini games to entirely new ones. They are developing the game for a western audience. Your post makes so sense when this is the case.

Changing a bunch of mii's singing to a bunch of mii's doing a rap battle is changing a bunch of text boxes.

Also changing two people dressed up in sumo outfits running into each other and pushing to two people in football outfits running into each other and pushing is just changing avatar outfits. ((also we know what sumo is out in the west nintendo ;p))

They aren't changing the hard code or core mechanics of the game, which what would be needed.

This doesn't make any sense. Like, at all. Unless the programmers behind tomodatchi life are idiots, allowing gay marriage shouldn't require more code changes than a couple of lines here and there. Which is about as much as those other changes would require. I mean, it should just require a change to some if statements. That really should be it.

 

[Chris Slime]

I didn't see anyone mention this but i certainly didn't read all the comments but whatever.

The bug that allowed for male/male marriage just tagged a male character as female randomly, even if they could have left it in it would not have been a good idea since you can't control it. Also a tagged character would only be able to marry other male characters, basically meaning your character would randomly be made gay and all other males would be gay only for him. As a completed project adding in gay characters is unrealistic without a massive overhaul, but doing it from the ground up it would have been minor in the grand scale of things. But this also means the positive aspect of the bug can be recreated exactly as it was by making a female character with male ascetics. The most you can say Nintendo did is remove the uncontrollable element of it.

 

[Redd the Sock]

The lemming readers, never one to avoid a good twitter shaming of perceived bigotry, didn't stop to ask about context, and went on to vent their usual vitriol about how the rest of the world hasn't come about to the correct way of thinking.

As opposed the the people who disagree with them, who went about this completely calmly, and never once posted an angry rant comparing those people to Nazis. And never once boiled down the complexity of many different people's opinions to "SJW,"

I mean, as if people could have varying degrees of opinion and aren't all members of a groupthink activist cabal. That's just crazy talk. Obviously nobody would ever express their individual opinions without the consent of the hive mind.

Does that excuse the behavior of people that claim to be righter and smarter than the people you put down? As an isolated indecent, I get you, but how many mass internet shamings have come down in the last 6 months alone every time someone we thought was cool says something we don't approve of?

 

[Eve Charm]

Snip

But the team was already adding development features :/ They already did what you said they never do.

http://nintendoeverything.com/bill-trinen-talks-more-about-tomodachi-lifes-localization-changes/

They are changing mini games to entirely new ones. They are developing the game for a western audience. Your post makes so sense when this is the case.

Changing a bunch of mii's singing to a bunch of mii's doing a rap battle is changing a bunch of text boxes.

Also changing two people dressed up in sumo outfits running into each other and pushing to two people in football outfits running into each other and pushing is just changing avatar outfits. ((also we know what sumo is out in the west nintendo ;p))

They aren't changing the hard code or core mechanics of the game, which what would be needed.

This doesn't make any sense. Like, at all. Unless the programmers behind tomodatchi life are idiots, allowing gay marriage shouldn't require more code changes than a couple of lines here and there. Which is about as much as those other changes would require. I mean, it should just require a change to some if statements. That really should be it.

If you don't care that regardless of the genders of the character, one character is going to play the male role, and one is going to play the female role in events like marriage and child birth and so on, your asking for a whole lot of work, that can screw up in a whole lot of places, that even working PERFECTLY, will be no better then just setting a character to the other sex and cross dressing him or her, something people have already been doing in the game. The best case scenario for that outcome is already doable in game effortlessly.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Part of the reason Tomodachi Life didn't intend have gay marriage in the first place was because Japan doesn't accept it as a whole

Funny enough, Japan only stopped accepting it because of western ideals.

Oda Nobunaga was known for being bisexual.

And we wasn't the only famous Japanese lord to be openly bi-sexual, as I understand it.

It was only when Christianity made its way to Japan that it started being shunned.

Not really funny so much as demonstrative of why Japan is behind some countries on the gay marriage issue. It all comes down to one word: face. Japan, like many Asian countries, is a nation of tradition. They have a way of doing things, and they'll keep doing it that way because that's the way they do things. The only way to break them out of tradition is to embarrass them. They'll do a lot to save face. They reformed divorce law because they were embarrassed at how much higher their divorce rate was than in western nations(and they went overboard; if a couple can't agree to terms it can take up to 20 years to finalize a divorce in court). I'm betting that Japan will follow the west when it comes to gay marriage as well, but only after the western nations themselves have figured it out. It's not like gay marriage is universally legalized yet, after all.

Basically, don't expect Japan to be socially progressive.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Snip

But the team was already adding development features :/ They already did what you said they never do.

http://nintendoeverything.com/bill-trinen-talks-more-about-tomodachi-lifes-localization-changes/

They are changing mini games to entirely new ones. They are developing the game for a western audience. Your post makes so sense when this is the case.

Changing a bunch of mii's singing to a bunch of mii's doing a rap battle is changing a bunch of text boxes.

Also changing two people dressed up in sumo outfits running into each other and pushing to two people in football outfits running into each other and pushing is just changing avatar outfits. ((also we know what sumo is out in the west nintendo ;p))

They aren't changing the hard code or core mechanics of the game, which what would be needed.

This doesn't make any sense. Like, at all. Unless the programmers behind tomodatchi life are idiots, allowing gay marriage shouldn't require more code changes than a couple of lines here and there. Which is about as much as those other changes would require. I mean, it should just require a change to some if statements. That really should be it.

Have you ever written a program of any size? Even changing a couple of lines here and there can create unintended bugs that can wreck the game. That's why you often see game patches that fix one problem, but cause new ones. A lot of it depends on how interconnected everything is. Mini-games could be an easy change if they don't interact with the core programming. Basically one program calling another. But any change, however trivial, made to the core program will take a lot of testing, debugging and retesting to make sure that you don't break the game.

 

[hazydawn]

The issue is that even if he was just focusing on the statement it reinforces the increasingly popular and very bad notion that if "If your not for us, your against us". Especially when it comes to clash with other regions and cultures that don't give a shit about Western ideals. In the case of Nintendo they make a game that is only for a Japanese audience. Japan is a place where gay marriage is illegal. As such it comes to no surprise that they don't put that feature in the game.

Would you finally shut up with your "If your not for us, your against us" bullshit? Jim and many others explained why in this issue Nintendo did not act in a neutral way.
Doesn't matter what culture you're from. The moral argumentation of whether something is wrong is still the same no matter what part of the world you are from and whether it is socially acceptable in this place.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Snip

But the team was already adding development features :/ They already did what you said they never do.

http://nintendoeverything.com/bill-trinen-talks-more-about-tomodachi-lifes-localization-changes/

They are changing mini games to entirely new ones. They are developing the game for a western audience. Your post makes so sense when this is the case.

Changing a bunch of mii's singing to a bunch of mii's doing a rap battle is changing a bunch of text boxes.

Also changing two people dressed up in sumo outfits running into each other and pushing to two people in football outfits running into each other and pushing is just changing avatar outfits. ((also we know what sumo is out in the west nintendo ;p))

They aren't changing the hard code or core mechanics of the game, which what would be needed.

This doesn't make any sense. Like, at all. Unless the programmers behind tomodatchi life are idiots, allowing gay marriage shouldn't require more code changes than a couple of lines here and there. Which is about as much as those other changes would require. I mean, it should just require a change to some if statements. That really should be it.

Have you ever written a program of any size? Even changing a couple of lines here and there can create unintended bugs that can wreck the game. That's why you often see game patches that fix one problem, but cause new ones. A lot of it depends on how interconnected everything is. Mini-games could be an easy change if they don't interact with the core programming. Basically one program calling another. But any change, however trivial, made to the core program will take a lot of testing, debugging and retesting to make sure that you don't break the game.

Yes, I have. I have written quite a few programs in my day. If the programmers behind it weren't terrible, changing something like this should create few to no problems. Yes, changing a few lines can create unintended consequences... But that is why good programmers use techniques like MVC and OO, among others. To separate out functionality and logic so as to avoid most of that shit. If changing something so trivial completely breaks the game, there is likely something very wrong with the code.

 

[Dragonbums]

The issue is that even if he was just focusing on the statement it reinforces the increasingly popular and very bad notion that if "If your not for us, your against us". Especially when it comes to clash with other regions and cultures that don't give a shit about Western ideals. In the case of Nintendo they make a game that is only for a Japanese audience. Japan is a place where gay marriage is illegal. As such it comes to no surprise that they don't put that feature in the game.

Would you finally shut up with your "If your not for us, your against us" bullshit? Jim and many others explained why in this issue Nintendo did not act in a neutral way.
Doesn't matter what culture you're from. The moral argumentation of whether something is wrong is still the same no matter what part of the world you are from and whether it is socially acceptable in this place.

How about I won't shut up?

Because this is exactly what I'm talking about. "It doesn't matter what culture your from" argument never works because the culture it assumes everyone has to live up to is the Western culture with no consideration for other countries in the slightest.

Ethnocentrism is quite a blindfold in a lot of situations it seems.

 

[xaszatm]

Snip

But the team was already adding development features :/ They already did what you said they never do.

http://nintendoeverything.com/bill-trinen-talks-more-about-tomodachi-lifes-localization-changes/

They are changing mini games to entirely new ones. They are developing the game for a western audience. Your post makes so sense when this is the case.

Changing a bunch of mii's singing to a bunch of mii's doing a rap battle is changing a bunch of text boxes.

Also changing two people dressed up in sumo outfits running into each other and pushing to two people in football outfits running into each other and pushing is just changing avatar outfits. ((also we know what sumo is out in the west nintendo ;p))

They aren't changing the hard code or core mechanics of the game, which what would be needed.

This doesn't make any sense. Like, at all. Unless the programmers behind tomodatchi life are idiots, allowing gay marriage shouldn't require more code changes than a couple of lines here and there. Which is about as much as those other changes would require. I mean, it should just require a change to some if statements. That really should be it.

Have you ever written a program of any size? Even changing a couple of lines here and there can create unintended bugs that can wreck the game. That's why you often see game patches that fix one problem, but cause new ones. A lot of it depends on how interconnected everything is. Mini-games could be an easy change if they don't interact with the core programming. Basically one program calling another. But any change, however trivial, made to the core program will take a lot of testing, debugging and retesting to make sure that you don't break the game.

Yes, I have. I have written quite a few programs in my day. If the programmers behind it weren't terrible, changing something like this should create few to no problems. Yes, changing a few lines can create unintended consequences... But that is why good programmers use techniques like MVC and OO, among others. To separate out functionality and logic so as to avoid most of that shit. If changing something so trivial completely breaks the game, there is likely something very wrong with the code.

OK, would you mind explaining to me why changing this would be so trivial? I mean, I know I've been ignored in every post I've made on the topic (even the one I started), but I'll attempt to ask anyways. As someone who is just starting to learn code, I am curious on how something that seems integral to the game itself would be something trivial. Although part of me suspects that you don't know much about this game, I'm still curious to see how simple this game's code really is.

 

[Eve Charm]

Snip

But the team was already adding development features :/ They already did what you said they never do.

http://nintendoeverything.com/bill-trinen-talks-more-about-tomodachi-lifes-localization-changes/

They are changing mini games to entirely new ones. They are developing the game for a western audience. Your post makes so sense when this is the case.

Changing a bunch of mii's singing to a bunch of mii's doing a rap battle is changing a bunch of text boxes.

Also changing two people dressed up in sumo outfits running into each other and pushing to two people in football outfits running into each other and pushing is just changing avatar outfits. ((also we know what sumo is out in the west nintendo ;p))

They aren't changing the hard code or core mechanics of the game, which what would be needed.

This doesn't make any sense. Like, at all. Unless the programmers behind tomodatchi life are idiots, allowing gay marriage shouldn't require more code changes than a couple of lines here and there. Which is about as much as those other changes would require. I mean, it should just require a change to some if statements. That really should be it.

Have you ever written a program of any size? Even changing a couple of lines here and there can create unintended bugs that can wreck the game. That's why you often see game patches that fix one problem, but cause new ones. A lot of it depends on how interconnected everything is. Mini-games could be an easy change if they don't interact with the core programming. Basically one program calling another. But any change, however trivial, made to the core program will take a lot of testing, debugging and retesting to make sure that you don't break the game.

Yes, I have. I have written quite a few programs in my day. If the programmers behind it weren't terrible, changing something like this should create few to no problems. Yes, changing a few lines can create unintended consequences... But that is why good programmers use techniques like MVC and OO, among others. To separate out functionality and logic so as to avoid most of that shit. If changing something so trivial completely breaks the game, there is likely something very wrong with the code.

Well gotta factor in also your working with a year plus old code going back to when it was starting to be created in japan, And the people editing the code, aren't the original writers of the code. Considering the wacky nature of the game and all the random events your looking at a ton of code to read and decipher with no prior knowledge of it before you can even start to say theses are the right switches you should flip. It's a Giant waste of time to recreate something users can already do.

 

[Kameburger]

The issue is that even if he was just focusing on the statement it reinforces the increasingly popular and very bad notion that if "If your not for us, your against us". Especially when it comes to clash with other regions and cultures that don't give a shit about Western ideals. In the case of Nintendo they make a game that is only for a Japanese audience. Japan is a place where gay marriage is illegal. As such it comes to no surprise that they don't put that feature in the game.

Would you finally shut up with your "If your not for us, your against us" bullshit? Jim and many others explained why in this issue Nintendo did not act in a neutral way.
Doesn't matter what culture you're from. The moral argumentation of whether something is wrong is still the same no matter what part of the world you are from and whether it is socially acceptable in this place.

How about I won't shut up?

Because this is exactly what I'm talking about. "It doesn't matter what culture your from" argument never works because the culture it assumes everyone has to live up to is the Western culture with no consideration for other countries in the slightest.

Ethnocentrism is quite a blindfold in a lot of situations it seems.

Actually I am inclined to agree that culture plays a huge role in the argument because different cultures tackle different problems differently, to state the amazingly extreme obvious. Not that anyone could come to defense of Nintendo for excluding gay people, and the initial statement from Nintendo of America was a big fumble on their part, but issues like this are tackled in very different ways in Japan then they are in the US.

Sexism is a good example. Japan has a lot of content that is considered quite sexist in the west however, there is a clear segmented content for men and women in Japan, and so while this kind of content is seen to alienate women in the west from mainstream gaming, in Japan women have games, comics, and various other forms of entertainment designed by them and for them. Sure this has not eliminated sexism, far from it, but it has eliminated this feeling of alienation and even misrepresentation as you can find plenty of content with positive depictions of women. A lot of this doesn't make it to the west and that is another problem, but again its a different solution that is based on the culture in question.

Similarly, with Japan, we are not dealing with a culture that has a violent opposition to gay culture, gay people are not being beaten in the streets. Gay people in Japan face more of a cultural barrier that stems for very entrenched family values which means that there aren't nearly as many hate rallies explaining how gay people threaten the fabric of society, but rather there are a lot more parents disowning their children because they embarrass the family type attitudes. But one thing is for sure, not many are stepping forward to talk about the gay experience. In that way, no one talks about these problems. Nintendo would likely have said nothing, and no one would have lifted a finger in Japan. At the same time, Nintendo Japan, coming forward in defense of gay people would probably do very little to help the problems that the Japanese Gay community faces, because again a lot of the problems stem from the family and culture of shame in Japan.

So yes culture makes a difference, maybe not in the morality of the core issue but certainly in how the issue manifests, is perceived and handled.

Jim's argument is absolutely correct, and he has a point and I didn't disagree with a word he said. But that is no excuse to ignore the nuances of reality.