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Esports and (PC) gaming in Japan

Blogs > Jitensha
Post a Reply
Jitensha
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Sweden68 Posts
March 28 2012 21:14 GMT
#1
Hello TL!

Figured I'd make this a blog post since it didn't seem like TL Community-material.
Hopefully I avoided grave mistakes in the making of this blog.

Anyway, I'm an engineering student from Sweden. Starting this autumn I'll move to Japan and start my master studies via a double degree program which'll put me in Japan for at least two years. From what I've been able to gather from elder members of the research group I will join, I will have free time to spend which knowing myself will be partly spent on gaming.

With that introduction out of the way, I would like to know how the PC gaming community is in Japan. Last time I lived in Japan (~year), I had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends in the game centers playing street fighter, but I found no signs of any real gaming outside them.

Can anyone tell me what games are played in Japan these days, and if so any details on the community?


I greatly appreciate answers!
Thanks in advance

Arterial
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Australia1039 Posts
March 28 2012 22:13 GMT
#2
I've never been in Japan, but I thought the general consensus is that Japan is mostly made up of console/arcade gaming communities?

Tekken and Street Fighter...
savior & jaedong
Jitensha
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Sweden68 Posts
March 28 2012 22:35 GMT
#3
That is pretty much my experience as well :< I figured there has to be some smaller PC gaming communities as well though, similar to http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=141703

Anyone experienced with playing games similar to DotA/HoN/LoL/SC2/BW online in Japan?
fanta[Rn]
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Japan2465 Posts
March 29 2012 00:08 GMT
#4
You should check out niconico streams to get a better idea of what Japanese people are playing. Last time I checked there was a lot of minecraft and some sc2, not sure how much sc2 though.

Which city will you be in? I'll also start a 2year degree in Japan in autumn.
Jitensha
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Sweden68 Posts
March 29 2012 10:38 GMT
#5
On March 29 2012 09:08 fanta[Rn] wrote:
You should check out niconico streams to get a better idea of what Japanese people are playing. Last time I checked there was a lot of minecraft and some sc2, not sure how much sc2 though.

Which city will you be in? I'll also start a 2year degree in Japan in autumn.


I'll try that then! Cheers

I'll be in Yokohama!
Just saw your blog - congratulations on admission :> Great school too, from what I hear.
Do you have any plans on gaming in Japan?
Skilledblob
Profile Joined April 2011
Germany3392 Posts
March 29 2012 10:56 GMT
#6
most gaming is done on consoles. That's why you hardly see anything out of japan developed for the PC.

It's probably because japanese can do most of their email and similar stuff with their mobile phones so they are not as dependant on a PC to do these things. Which leads to them having not as many and ,based on the PC games they produce, not as good PCs on average.
affinity_12
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
172 Posts
March 29 2012 10:57 GMT
#7
My friend who lived in Japan left a few months ago due to radiation fears. I heard that Kyushu and the more western parts of Japan are not as bad though.
Sickkiee
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
Japan607 Posts
March 29 2012 10:58 GMT
#8
Ummmm, there's a semi-decent gaming mindset in Japan... but it's more based towards Street Fighter/Tekken/Soul Caliber etc. Mainly arcade based games; and hell most nerds or 'Otaku's are focused on anime, hentai and AKB48. T_T

Maybe at a few LAN's you might find a small community but I've never really stumbled upon one, and I've lived there for ~5years as an exchange student and avid SC:BW/SC2 player.

Lifes too short to be small.
fanta[Rn]
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Japan2465 Posts
March 29 2012 16:42 GMT
#9
On March 29 2012 19:38 Jitensha wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 29 2012 09:08 fanta[Rn] wrote:
You should check out niconico streams to get a better idea of what Japanese people are playing. Last time I checked there was a lot of minecraft and some sc2, not sure how much sc2 though.

Which city will you be in? I'll also start a 2year degree in Japan in autumn.


I'll try that then! Cheers

I'll be in Yokohama!
Just saw your blog - congratulations on admission :> Great school too, from what I hear.
Do you have any plans on gaming in Japan?

Cool, from what I gathered my dorm is close to yokohama. We should definitely meet up some time. Ill probably just stick to the ocassional quakelive game. Id like to spend more time exploring the city and socialize. Thought of joining a uni club too.
Jitensha
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Sweden68 Posts
March 30 2012 19:05 GMT
#10
On March 29 2012 19:58 Sickkiee wrote:
Ummmm, there's a semi-decent gaming mindset in Japan... but it's more based towards Street Fighter/Tekken/Soul Caliber etc. Mainly arcade based games; and hell most nerds or 'Otaku's are focused on anime, hentai and AKB48. T_T

Maybe at a few LAN's you might find a small community but I've never really stumbled upon one, and I've lived there for ~5years as an exchange student and avid SC:BW/SC2 player.



Aw, okay :< Do you play SC2 on the SEA server then? If not, is the ping terribad to whatever server you do play on?

On March 30 2012 01:42 fanta[Rn] wrote:
Cool, from what I gathered my dorm is close to yokohama. We should definitely meet up some time. Ill probably just stick to the ocassional quakelive game. Id like to spend more time exploring the city and socialize. Thought of joining a uni club too.


Yeah, we should! Do you know which station you'll be closest to? I'll most probably be at Hiyoshi.

Also, uni clubs are awesome if you have the time :> Great way to get away from the easily made lump of exchange students too. Go tennis-saa if your interest is mainly in socializing and drinking XD
fanta[Rn]
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Japan2465 Posts
March 31 2012 01:18 GMT
#11
I don't know yet. I'm only going in October so there's a lot to wait for I'll leave u a pm when I know more in summer probably.
Leeoku
Profile Joined May 2010
1617 Posts
March 31 2012 01:35 GMT
#12
im pretty sure most of it is done on arcades>consoles>pc
JapaneseSC2
Profile Joined April 2012
60 Posts
April 02 2012 09:11 GMT
#13
Hi! I am living in Japan and heavily involved into Japanese sc2 community.
There is a community site you can check out.
Also you can find quite a few Japanese SC2 players, many people stream on twitch.tv, ustream and niconico douga(Japanese site like youtube where you also can stream). There is a person who does casts on YouTube as well.
Also there is a PCgaming place in Chiba prefecture you can also visit.

Guys I dont really know about TLs rules about placing links...
I was banned couple of times from TL when I tried to let people know about that guy on YouTube, so I will not place links right now...

If you think it is safe to do, please let me know I will add them.

My apologies, I just dont want to be banned once again...
fanta[Rn]
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Japan2465 Posts
April 02 2012 16:07 GMT
#14
You can post a link if it's relevant to the discussion. I assume you were banned before maybe because you started a thread with just a link and no further information on the topic etc. This is just a guess though.
Sickkiee
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
Japan607 Posts
April 02 2012 22:16 GMT
#15
On March 31 2012 04:05 Jitensha wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 29 2012 19:58 Sickkiee wrote:
Ummmm, there's a semi-decent gaming mindset in Japan... but it's more based towards Street Fighter/Tekken/Soul Caliber etc. Mainly arcade based games; and hell most nerds or 'Otaku's are focused on anime, hentai and AKB48. T_T

Maybe at a few LAN's you might find a small community but I've never really stumbled upon one, and I've lived there for ~5years as an exchange student and avid SC:BW/SC2 player.



Aw, okay :< Do you play SC2 on the SEA server then? If not, is the ping terribad to whatever server you do play on?

Show nested quote +
On March 30 2012 01:42 fanta[Rn] wrote:
Cool, from what I gathered my dorm is close to yokohama. We should definitely meet up some time. Ill probably just stick to the ocassional quakelive game. Id like to spend more time exploring the city and socialize. Thought of joining a uni club too.


Yeah, we should! Do you know which station you'll be closest to? I'll most probably be at Hiyoshi.

Also, uni clubs are awesome if you have the time :> Great way to get away from the easily made lump of exchange students too. Go tennis-saa if your interest is mainly in socializing and drinking XD


The ping isn't TOO bad, it's still a lot better than what Australians get to their own SEA servers. :D
Lifes too short to be small.
JapaneseSC2
Profile Joined April 2012
60 Posts
April 03 2012 00:17 GMT
#16
Very well ^^
Here is the community site:http://starcraft2.jpcommunity.com/sc2/
There you can find list of live stream links, forums and a lot of other staff (every thing in Japanese though)!

This is esports square where you can play PC games on beastly PCs will and on a cool gear:http://e-sports-square.com/#top

And you tube channel:http://www.youtube.com/user/YamatoStarcraft?feature=mhee

By the way almost every one here plays on NA servers.^^
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