Poll: Why isn't Australia in any shooters?

[Fleeker]

If you make a big main stream game you need to maximize its audience. Australia has 21,874,900 according to 2009 data, US has 350,000,000 give or take a few million. Not everyone is a gamer....There is a good chance that you have as many gamers in California as in Australia. A game passed on Australia isn't as interesting in the US as the US would be, Australia isn't as interesting as Russia, China, Korea, Europe, the Middle East, or Africa. That's the issue. A game based on Australia isn't as marketable internationally or in bigger nations.

I respect that Australia has a culture and history like everyone else but the reason for a huge investment in a game base on Australian history is total dollars. Now they could invest in DLC that is Australian and have success but Call Of Duty Sydney isn't as appealing on a global scale and Call of Duty North Korea, Iran, or NYC.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It's actually a possibility that he was adopted and British born.

[HEADING=1]WITH MY BARE GODDAM HANDS[/HEADING]

 

[darkman80723]

One opinion I want to give for all the US haters; Stop blaming us for the decisions that developers make. If a shooter were competent and had a semi-decent story I wouldn't care if I were playing as an Aussie, Canuck, Limey, Frog, Kraut, Ivan, etc etc etc...In fact (again, this is just an opinion) I'd love to see a shooter where you play as an Indian gunning down US calvary on the American plains with an M16 given to you by a time travelling transgender panracial man/woman hell bent on making Geronimo president...whilst riding a buffalo...in space....But back to what matters, its not like developers go door to door and ask us Yanks how terrified we would be of playing a character that wasn't a hyped up super-Yank with creamy skin, blond hair, blue eyes, and perfect aryan pedigree.

But you're not a "Yank".

Actually thanks for pointing that out. Technically I am a Yank, when I made my profile I was living in Canada and just never changed it, I was born and raised in Nebraska; but currently live in Colorado.

 

[gigastrike]

Name one game of any genre that has Australia in it at all (and isn't safari themed or sports)...

...Exactly. Australia is kinda one of those parts of the world that people forget about, being on the other side of the world from every western country and all.

 

[PhiMed]

One opinion I want to give for all the US haters; Stop blaming us for the decisions that developers make. If a shooter were competent and had a semi-decent story I wouldn't care if I were playing as an Aussie, Canuck, Limey, Frog, Kraut, Ivan, etc etc etc...In fact (again, this is just an opinion) I'd love to see a shooter where you play as an Indian gunning down US calvary on the American plains with an M16 given to you by a time travelling transgender panracial man/woman hell bent on making Geronimo president...whilst riding a buffalo...in space....But back to what matters, its not like developers go door to door and ask us Yanks how terrified we would be of playing a character that wasn't a hyped up super-Yank with creamy skin, blond hair, blue eyes, and perfect aryan pedigree.

But you're not a "Yank".

Actually thanks for pointing that out. Technically I am a Yank, when I made my profile I was living in Canada and just never changed it, I was born and raised in Nebraska; but currently live in Colorado.

But Yanks don't self-describe as "Yanks". Yankee, maybe, but not "Yank".

*eyes you suspiciously*

 

[Fleeker]

Name one game of any genre that has Australia in it at all (and isn't safari themed or sports)...

...Exactly. Australia is kinda one of those parts of the world that people forget about, being on the other side of the world from every western country and all.

Risk

 

[darkman80723]

One opinion I want to give for all the US haters; Stop blaming us for the decisions that developers make. If a shooter were competent and had a semi-decent story I wouldn't care if I were playing as an Aussie, Canuck, Limey, Frog, Kraut, Ivan, etc etc etc...In fact (again, this is just an opinion) I'd love to see a shooter where you play as an Indian gunning down US calvary on the American plains with an M16 given to you by a time travelling transgender panracial man/woman hell bent on making Geronimo president...whilst riding a buffalo...in space....But back to what matters, its not like developers go door to door and ask us Yanks how terrified we would be of playing a character that wasn't a hyped up super-Yank with creamy skin, blond hair, blue eyes, and perfect aryan pedigree.

But you're not a "Yank".

Actually thanks for pointing that out. Technically I am a Yank, when I made my profile I was living in Canada and just never changed it, I was born and raised in Nebraska; but currently live in Colorado.

But Yanks don't self-describe as "Yanks". Yankee, maybe, but not "Yank".

*eyes you suspiciously*

Rubbed off from my lover, she calls me that.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Shooters are largely made in America and Americans (as well as everyone else) are ethnocentric and think of their own situations first. Also, as Yahtzee says, nobody seems to care about Australia.

 

[Trogdor1138]

Because we're too busy with our wallaby's and sheila's ya bloody poof ay.

But seriously. I guess we just haven't got around to it, if they're developed in America it will obviously be from their mindset so they'd rather do what they're more accustomed to at this point.

 

[retterkl]

Name one game of any genre that has Australia in it at all (and isn't safari themed or sports)...

...Exactly. Australia is kinda one of those parts of the world that people forget about, being on the other side of the world from every western country and all.

Hearts of Iron III

Games which have whole world maps in them are obviously going to feature Australia. If you select to start in 1945 or 44 Australia is even labelled as a country of interest to play as.



I like it how everyone here talks about what Yahtzee says to no end and yet they still go against him saying 'lets make another WWII game!!'. There are other things you could do with Australia then a generic WWII shooter with nothing new but a change of accent.

You could have a story like Dances with Wolves (or Avatar for the 12 year olds) where you are a convict on one of the first prison ships to Australia but after suffering near death on the ride over you turn your colours and become a missionary. You seek out the local people to teach them about the West. However soon enough those rowdy convicts decide that Australia's not big enough for the two of them (which is quite ironic really...) and you have to train up the locals The Last Samurai style.

Or use something from Australia's unknown past, making up something in the 40,000 year period without Western intervention, like a time of hunting GIANT KANGAROOS and KILLER KOALAS (or dropbears as they're more formally known).

Make Crocodile Hunter: The Game where you have to swim around avoiding jellyfish.

A game where the desert in the centre of Australia doesn't have anyone in it because it's been secretly colonised by ALIENS and they kill all who come near... then just replay Crysis 2 in a desert setting



The problem with saying "why can't we play x game in y country" is that the location is going to have little effect on gameplay overall, so you might have some different scenery and the occasional 'A DINGO ATE MY BABY!' cry but the gameplay is still going to be the same if you're trying to port games that already exist to new locations.

 

[cthulhumythos]

Because America is actively picking fights, where as everybody loves Australians

Them be Fight'n Words!

 

[Rottweiler]

I'll go ahead and say it, isn't Australia to a degree anti-war? Not saying anything as a criticism, but I was under the impression (and I might well be wrong) that, as a whole, Australia wasn't a supporter of war unless it really felt it was justified.

That might be it, frankly. They tend to make shooters for or based in places where either war happens enough that there's a large base of people who find it believable, or where the population is seen as 'fans' of it.

Case in point, 'everyone knows' that Afghanistan is full of heavily-armed people. Therefore, it's a believable location to have a shooter in. However, there aren't any major armed conflicts in or around Australia, and while certainly Australia has a stereotype of survivalists and beer drinkers, that comes off more as 'bar fight' than 'heavily-armed vigilantes'.

Now, if they did a Dead Rising variant where you have to survive a footy brawl, like a major championship match where you have to fight your way out of the post-game riots, I think Australia would be a contender.

 

[Fursnake]

You forgot the option for

"Because the Australian government would have a shit fit..."

The Australian government has been known to have a stick up its ass regarding video games in general. They would probably ban the game on principle.

"Oh no you di'n't just depict Australia in a video game...BAN IT!!!"

(This is meant to be humorous, hope it doesn't offend...if so then my apologies. No offense meant to Australia in general, just that the goevernment over there needs to lighten up on its stance on video games so folks over there can enjoy more games and less censorship.)

I think more Aussie elements in games would be great. Australia would make a great setting for a shooter or survival action game.

 

[Zaik]

Because the Australian government would ban the shit out of it.

 

[owyndevaldeck]

Name one game of any genre that has Australia in it at all (and isn't safari themed or sports)...

...Exactly. Australia is kinda one of those parts of the world that people forget about, being on the other side of the world from every western country and all.

Risk

Best and worst continent in the game, woot!

 

[Zantos]

Same reason Yorkshire is never in shooters, because if someone proposed it to a publisher their heads would explode from awesome.

 

[ace_of_something]

Probably because it's a big and empty other than a few key locations. Kind of like most of the American midwest (which is also never featured in games... even Chicago the 3rd largest city is rare)

 

[Da_Schwartz]

Because you have that awesome arcade game where u drive the jeep and lasso animals...wtf else do you need?

 

[Laser Priest]

Australia's quite far from a military power of the world.

And it's nowhere anyone wants to conquer either.

 

[ddrfr33k]

Two words: Michael Atkinson. That guy would create a s***storm, even though he's no longer an MP. The pundits there are as wacky as the US, only it seems that the nutjobs here spend too much time at war with the other party to do jack diddly.

(sorry about this turning into a political rant, I just see politics playing into this dilemma way too much)