A case for better localization

This is an interesting study: it seems that, when faced by people that we know are of a different culture, our mirror neurons become less active. Basically, your brain makes it harder on you to learn from people you know aren't part of your culture. The impact this has on games may be a factor in why some games do not go over well in different countries than the country in which the game was made, especially foreign countries that have a high level of xenophobia. If it is harder for a Japanese person to learn from a game where the tutorial is being taught by an obvious American, then the chance for a disconnect could be greater. As always, the two core game design principles are:

1. Never make the player feel weak.
2. Never make the player feel dumb.

Both these rules can be translated as "always make the player feel powerful and smart." Games are fantasies, and the bulk of humanity prefers to fantasize about being in more control over their lives. Sure, you can have instances where the player is overwhelmed by the opposition, but you can still create an environment where the player knows he is overmatched, but still thinks his avatar is powerful, and has the potential of becoming even more powerful as time goes on, whether through pure player skill, or through in-game mechanisms like character growth and such.

In any case, if the player can't learn to control the game because his mirror neurons refuse to learn from a tutor who obviously does not come from his culture, then the player may start feeling stupid. Which then leads to him putting down the game and telling his friends not to bother with it, either, which is exactly the opposite of what you want your players to do.

Hope that made sense. I'm a little fuzzy today: my wife, the slave driver ;-), is having me read the new Harry Potter out loud to her until late at night. Like most of America, with this book I think the main drive behind rushing to finish it isn't so much that we're curious about what happens to Harry (which is a big factor, admittedly) but that we want to finish it before somebody starts spoiling the ending for us before we're done. So, until I finish reading this 800 page monster, I'm going to be a little sleepy.