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JP vs NA players
College just started for me this week. My english professor assigned our first essay to be due in next week. It is supposed to be about Racism. He said to "Think of an instance where you have encountered racism or ethnical differences and how it has effected you"
So for my paper i've decided to write about the attitude of NA and JP players within final fantasy xi.
This is my zero draft. It's by no means even close to a rough draft. It has not been prooferead at all nor spell checked. Many paragraphs are out of order/jumbled around. Some paragraphs may be irrelevent etc. That comes later. I'm just trying to collect my thoughts/ideas so i can go back and write my paper.
Can anyone think of an instance where they have seen japanese hate toward americans or perhaps american hatred to the japanese on their particular server? Any stories you'd like to share would be very welcome ^^

Racism in Online Games
By Jenilee Dunson

The gaming industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, making more than even the Hollywood film industry. Games appeal to many people from many places of the world and are translated into many languages to be played by people living in other countries. Some games are even playable online which allows these players to interact with one another. But anytime you have diverse people from many different cultural, ethnical, and racial backgrounds problems are bound to arise. Many times it is just a difference in the mentality of the society as a whole. Sometimes however it is merely misconceptions and stereotypes that one culture has about the other.

I play an online game entitled Final Fantasy XI Online. It is a huge online game with millions of players. Originally the game was released in Japan about 3 years ago. Last fall the game was brought over to America. And at this same time many Europeans and other English speaking players imported the game. Square-soft, the company who made this game decided they did not want separate servers for the English and Japanese players and wanted to encourage them to play together. They even went as far as to build an auto translator into the game so that we may communicate without knowing each other’s native language.

The Japanese however held 2 years of experience over us and we were considered bad players in comparison. Many Japanese players began to flag themselves as "JP Only". That is to say, when you searched for their name they would have a comment saying that basically they would not play with north Americans. I agree at the time perhaps they held some advantage over us. We had no idea what we were doing at first. I'm sure they didn't when they started out also. But now the game has been out for over a year in North America and we have more than proven ourselves in numerous cases as competent gamers.

It is frustrating to go on early in the morning to seek someone to play with only to be told "Jp Only", but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Many Japanese harbor intense hate for us and feel as though we have invaded "their game" so to speak. Awhile back, on my server, The Fairy Server, A Japanese player by the name of Pengui would intentionally bring high level dangerous monsters near low level American parties. He did it so much that he was eventually banned for his behavior. Another example i can think of off hand was a player who had a comment that read "For every bad attitude another plane will crash into the Towers ha ha ha".

Many Japanese that I’ve spoken to or read online on forums, etc seem to be ashamed by this sort of behavior. I have had both good and bad experiences while playing with the Japanese players. I have been in all Japanese parties where i was the only English speaking person and i have also had about a 50/50 mix of north Americans to Japanese players. Normally there are no problems and everyone gets along fairly well aside from the occasional communication barrier that arises when the translator doesn't have a phrase for what you need to say. I have even made friends with some Japanese players, some of whom, spoke no English at all. So it's by no means all Japanese who harbor this attitude just as it's not all white men who hate black men in America. It is in fact probably the minority view. But it is still alarmingly clear that many Japanese players do not want us there.

The Japanese players use the fact that they've played longer to control and manipulate the game's economy making it hard for north Americans to progress any further. Example, before North American Launch leaping lizzy boots cost 8,000 gil. Shortly after American launch they rose to 200,000 gil. They are now 350,000 gil. It's not that they are any harder to find or rarer than before. And I’m fairly certain demand for them has always been consistent. It is just an example of how the Japanese players who have these items or the money to buy these items have manipulated the economy. Sniper rings have also steadily risen from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands. These are items that are essential to level or progress further. They have therefore effectively crippled our ability to play the game beyond a certain point, or at least made it much harder.

Many North American players hold the Japanese players in high regard. Some English speaking players who imported the game when it was first released in Japan even will flag themselves as "JP Only" even though they themselves are not Japanese. Sure, some of them may speak Japanese which allows them to more effectively play with the Japanese players but there are some that can't even speak the language and still demand "JP Parties".

Even I have my own view/stereotype on the Japanese players. And that is that I tend to find them to be more willing to help with missions and quests in the game when asked by a random stranger. I believe this is largely due to cultural differences. Japanese as a society are very group orientated. Where as we, as Americans, have always been very competitive and taught to look out for number one and strive to outdo and be better than everyone else. So in the game Americans will want to max their character's levels, have the most expensive items, kill the most monsters, etc. If asked for help, they are likely to be too busy to help you unless you're a friend or member of their guild. I do not think, however, that they are better players than us. We just have different playing styles developed through our society and our culture. We have different real life values that we then in turn carry over to the internet.

I have also witnessed on a few occasions North American players who are rude or hostile toward the Japanese. It really bothers me when an American Player refers to a Japanese player as a "Jap". I tell them flat out not to say such things. Saying something like that would be the equivalent to the "N-word" In American society. It is an extremely racist thing to say. The term "JP" Is the correct abbreviation for Japanese players, not "Jap" I have also seen players make fun of the Japanese players or continuously speak in English even when I ask them to please use the auto translator function because one of our members is Japanese. It happens rarely but there is the occasional person I’ve seen flagged as "NA Only" meaning they will only party with other North Americans.

I really dislike this attitude being present in an online game. The point of an online game is to play with other people from around the world. I find other cultures, specifically the Japanese, to be fascinating. I do not understand how in a game where everyone is an anonymous entity behind a computer screen that race could even be an issue. Games are supposed to be fun for everyone regardless of cultural or ethnical backgrounds. Race, gender, social status, etc It should all disappear when one enters this virtual fantasy world.

The reason things are jacked up in price, is because the more seasoned JP players can jack up prices on synthed items. Also gil selling companies.

w00t great essay! i'd like to add a few points, take em or leave em ^^;

I believe NAs are some what "envious" of JP players which results in a bit of hatred towards them. For instance, it has been almost proven fact that there is a 2 second dely on the NA side for such things as mob/NM spawns. Thus making it much harder for a NA to compete at a camp spot with several other JPs. Although i do believe SE has tried to solve this problem, i am unaware if it's been fixed. JPs also use a lot of bots, far more than NAs use. They hold the advantage for NM hunting anyday. Thus the majority of JP players are far more richer than NAs... But... NAs often (mostly at lower levels) "forget" about equipment and simply strive for higher levels. While JPs must equip themselves with the most elite gear they can afford for their level. Oo oo and many JP players dispize having their equipment viewed without being asked first. I am unsure of the reasoning behind this, but many NAs get the impression that these JP players are "snobs" ecause of this.
It is also known that japanese like to "perfect" their style of playing. When a NA PTs with a JP group they will often notice how excellent the EXP comes in and just the over all smoothness of the fights. JP players will often bluntly say that their PTs are better than NAs. Perhaps that is why they often refuse to party with NAs. But thats not to say there aren't a fair share of very skilled NA players and very bad JP players.

Ekk gotta go! Good luck with your eassy! heart

one of the best pt's ive ever been in was an all jp pt. they thought i was pretty cool cuz i knew some japanese words like onegai, hai, iie, ect. we'd exchange words, like they asked me what 'lol' meant ^_^ it was lots of fun!

JP on our server also put stuff up, and inflate prices with mules that they or their LS have. NewCompany on Midgardsormr is a japanese HNM ls and basically controls our economy.

u know before i posted in this thread i thought the topic was about racisim between galka, taru, elvaan, hume and mithra xd cuz there IS racisim liek that in the game. "oh taru's can't be wars" "oh elvaans are better than taru's at being whm!" xp as long as u got the right equipment and know what ur doing, any race can play any class ^^ yes no?

yup yup yup! i personally love taru's in WAR AF with their big great axe xd they're so cool! one thing about taru's character model that bugs me, is that when they are "nekked" they are wearing clothessssssss. and i don't really liek green >.

HNM LS = hyper notorious monster link shell

it's usually a LS of lvl 70+ players who kill the HNMs to get drops to uncurse "cursed" armour lol... and you can get other good drops too