right. Window seats.

So many countries don't have that.

But japan CONSIDERS.

Legend of Zelda wasn't originally developed, though, as what it became.

It was originally developed as dungeon-building software

in much the same vein as Super Mario Maker

One person builds dungeons and the like, for others to try to beat

Hydelide.

I wouldnt attribute the achievements of the few on the whole

Theres alot of creative geniuses in Japan yes

Plenty of weaker games existed by that point.

As proofs of concept that probably helped.

"Okay we do this part, but not shit. And THAT part, but not shit."

"And this, except we don't ripoff the Indiana Jones theme."

I don't see how Hydelide disproves my angle.

The game was originally a dungeon-builder. It turned into a better version of Hydelide later on. Making it sound like he just got this idea from walking around a forest and then he made it isn't quite an accurate portrayal.

There are countless examples of japans collectivism backfiring on them

Especially in the games industry

Find someone whos played Metal Gear Solid Five and ask them what they think of it

Hideo kojima, brilliant creator got literally fired by his company halfway through writing it

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Japanese culture isn't beautiful. I really do like a hefty portion of it.

But given how good it is, it's really easy to cross into excessive praise of it where it's undue.

I've been there before, myself. I was once... A weeb.

Like, one of the interesting differences that I learned in Japanese class is one of the initial Japanese greetings. Their equivalent to 'Nice to meet you', our Japanese teacher (who was native and ESL, mind) translated it roughly to 'Please take care of me'.

The dungeon builder bit was probably AROUND the whole "No map" thing

And then they decided that was a little much.

(probably a better refutation)

It was impractical.

anyway a lot of people actually laughed at this translation, but when you really inspect it, there's an important cultural mistranslation. It's really more an equivalent of 'Please treat me well'.

The truth is, it's valid to say that Japanese is actually a rather polite culture, but it's also worth considering it's a culture from which massive amounts of violence have come as well. It highlights exceptionalism in it's modern incarnation, but that exceptionalism comes largely from a culture that doesn't tolerate failure.

There's a reason such a polite-seeming and considerate culture has such a high suicide rate.

Earlier I mentioned Window Seats.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with that expression.

Many Japanese firms don't really fire people.

Instead, if someone has failed them, they move their desks to the outskirts of the office, and basically pay them to look out the window.

It's the dirty side of the asset of 'getting out of the way'.

Day in, day out, no work is crossing your desk. You want to work, but all you've got is an empty desk. They don't trust you to work.

American culture might consider that to be a great job. Well paid to look out a window.

But to a culture that values exceptionalism, and performance, to be not given a chance is insulting.

on a fundamental level.