I am wondering how many DAZ/Blender/MAYA (or any other 3D rendering softwares) assets that (correctly and realistically) depicts people from various ethnic groups or countries, environment (like streets, buildings, architecture) from various countries or places? How much do they cost? Availability as in how many choices (or variations) are there etc.?
How are they compared to the common or stock assets (that widely available at very affordable price or perhaps free) that are mostly used (over and over again) in so many games? Imagine that, if an artist can tweak any stock model to make it look like whatever ethnic group or race (for example turn it into an alien, furry, orcs, 'Smeagol'-like, Asian, African etc.), how much work required and times will that process take
? (Multiply that with the total number of characters in the game and I guess it will take maybe a year at least for a solo developer?) Perhaps there aren't that many Japanese male model or most of them look like Hideo Kojima? Perhaps the developer has few favorites and/or already procured/obtained (male and female) models but they aren't Japanese (or Asian-looking) but he/she really wants to work and use them in a game? Do you want (or need) to know all of that or do you instead would like just to play and enjoy the hard labor of love that someone is willing to share in the first place?
I never see any unique or even landmark buildings like for example the New York Empire State building, the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Wall of China, the Louvre Museum in Paris etc. depicted in any games that I ever played (and I played a lot). I am not saying that they don't exist but it is 'Loch Ness monster' rare to me. I have seen the same environment assets over and over again though (with little tweaks here and there) and the same models are being used over and over again that almost feels like there is at least one character in a game that I also see in another game (maybe tweak the hair or something). It is more prominent with Honey Select-based renders that even the panties are the same (lack of good choice perhaps
?), especially if it is stock HS without (or very little) mods used.
Having said that, let say that even if someone managed to get all the correct models and environments that depicts the place or setting in line with his/her vision. Would it make sense to do that when the demographic of the player base are not of that place
? In order words, would it made sense to make an all out Japan themed game when none (or very little) of the players are Japanese in the first place, who can barely relate (or associate) themselves with the characters (especially) and the environments? Even if you claim that you would love to play as Japanese in a Japan based game but you are just one person, the majority non-Japanese players might not like it at all.
One more thing, to what extent does this Japanese-theme game should be? For me personally, it should go all out Japanese so even the dialogue and voice acting should be in Japanese also, would you like that? But of course you wouldn't like it, even if it doesn't make sense at all that all the Japanese characters in Japan speaks fluent English and not Japanese. I don't know how many times I loathe watching movies where alien beings or whatever characters from even the remote places on earth speaks English, when clearly they have their own languages, or the fact that all the alien encounters or conflicts only happened in America (as if it is the only place in the whole universe that human live in). But no one seems to complaint about that. Most of these "it does not make sense" arguments and all the "bullshit immersion" are solely based on ones own biases and preferences.
Obviously there are more to game development but I just could not cover (and speculate) them all especially since I am not a game developer myself
but I do have an interest of the process, so I learn a bit or two here and there.
I would say that it was an err on the game developer previously (was clarified recently which received mixed responses) not to be upfront with the location setting, but it is an honest mistake. Rarely any game ever mentioned an exact
location,
place and
time where it took place except for one game (that I am aware of, there are others of course)
Inside Jennifer by
Inceton Gaming, which specifically mentioned it took place in New York (but even if that is true, I have no way of knowing since I don't live in New York, it might make sense or not to a New Yorker though). Some games mentioned fictional town or universe just so that this is not going to be an issue. Even though from time to time there will be players who questions that because this fictional town or universe apparently is based off reality i.e. the town is eerily similar to this real town or that character is exactly like this famous person or celebrity etc. (no surprise there, no one can really come up on their own, they have to base on something). Most (if not all) games only depict 'slice of life' view of the game settings that is you get to see only portions of the said plcae/location for example its exterior, some internal rooms, a few buildings (not the entire neighborhood, town, district or state) where events took place. The shown locations does not necessarily reflect the entire full location. I remembered being in a foreign country once upon a time years ago and 'stumble' a sight which resembles a lot my home country, maybe I am just homesick but that location really stands out and totally different than the rest of the locations I visited on that foreign country. However, the odds are very low that multiple sights have this 'out-of-place' feelings to them, it is more like 1 in 1000 chance.
All in all, this is just a game depicting fictional characters and places. Although I am aware that there are those who insist that even fictional work of arts must adhere to facts and cannot be made up or mix and match as the creator please but I would say that they are the exceptions. I would like to cultivate an environment where artists can express their freedom to make stuff up, mix and match as they please, where fiction is concerned (and applied). If you want realistic experience and immersion, then just go live a life. Just go to Japan, it is not that hard. Don't be mad if you can't experience Japan in a game because you literally can't and never will, just go to Japan and experience it real life. Don't be mad if the game is not to your complete liking either because *spoiler alert* it was never made specifically for you according to your specifications in the first place. Throwing tantrum expressing the lacks of immersion (according to your standard) and going over all sorts of "what if" scenarios, are not going to make the developer re-made his/her game to suit that intagible immersion standards of yours either. Cheers.
