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Perfect World International: Localization of the Blademaster
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
The good folks over at Perfect World International have provided us with this visual representation of some of the ways that their game is being localized from the Chinese version to a North American version.
Not all Chinese people like American food, and not all Americans like Chinese food. You can probably find more Americans that like Panda Express (Americanized Chinese Cuisine) than Americans that like genuine Chinese food.
This is a simple analogy to the approach we took with our concept art for Perfect World International.
Some of the differences between these characters are extremely subtle, while others are quite obvious. One thing that we put a strong emphasis both in China and the United States is that these characters need to be representative of each country’s respective culture.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Well, I'm a woman and I don't like the US version of it.
Doubt I will be drawn by this game the way it's going.
Runes of Magic is very nice though
Interesting article. I don't like how they compared the female and male versions of the class (I would have perfered that they did both sexes) but this might have just been a look at the concept art (I know it really isn't concept art, but I can't think of the proper name). Personally I think that the "China" version just looks more ba, but that's just my opinion.
I wished it had gone a little more indepth, but mayber that will be a future article.
I also believe the comparison of those two pictures loses alot because they are two different gender pieces? Because the article is largely dicusing armor style (and to a lesser extent mood and tone) a male vs. male or female vs. female comparison would have been more meaningful.
That said, i'm a North American (Canada) player and I much prefer the male version of the blademaster to represent the heavily armored melee dps class. It would be interesting to see how many others on this forum feel the same way?
... transmitted on 100% recycled electrons ...
First of all I like skin. And I'm man enough to admit it. But that sword is a bit too wimpy. And why not stay with the Asian ethnic look? If they know anything about western guys the would know we think Asian woman are hot.
They did not do their research.
Take Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – so beautiful it's not even funny.
At least they are trying... There are a lot of things they could do to make this game "fit" into our western culture, but you have to give them time to get it adjusted. I personally think this game isn't bad at the moment. I just wish they'd make the controls more customizable.
Sorcereo's Arts! http://sorcereo.deviantart.com/
I wouldn't base game play or experience off the pics or else your missing out. If you don't like the way the armour looks then you simply find a outfit that you like since Perfect World also allows you to have clothes as well as armour. I'm female and keep several different outfits in my inventory just for the times when I decide I want a different look.
oh yeah, and it's about time we see some more PWI articles on here.
I will say one thing about this MMO, it has, by a large margin, the best character design in the genre. If you can't design a character with their tools.. I don't think I have seen any two characters that look alike in the game. If it is your whim, you can actually create a pretty horrid looking character or an especially beautiful one.
The women's armor covers far less than the male armor. Many of the players choose to buy item shop clothes. You can have both item shop clothes and game armor on at the same time and choose a check box on which to display on screen.
There are two drawbacks to this game. The item shop is the most expensive in the business. To give you an example, there are special battle pets that you can spend upward of $300, that provide distinct advantages in pvp. Mounts start at $20 and up.
As to pvp, there is not any. They have introduced a new type of player conflict, wvp(wealth vs player). How you do against other players depends on how much you spend on your character. Skill is a minor attribute in this environment.
Despite that, the game is still fun to play, but if you intend to play it seriously, expect to layout some serious cash.
It is true that the item shop is expensive but I disagree that you have to layout serious cash in order to play a serious character in this game. Unlike most MMO's item shop currency, PWI gold can be bought with ingame coins simply by using the gold auction. Many players use the gold auction house and buy gold through other means (prepaid cards, cash, ect) to buy PWI gold for the item shop. Also, some players will buy from other player's shops. So you really don't have to spend any real life money to play this game at all to enjoy the game or play a serious character. I do believe in supporting a good game so from time to time I purchase a prepatd card.
Well if you are going to participate in the territory wars, a cash layout is your only alternative. Gold charms are not cheap and are necessary, you need good equipment, again nice armor and weapons cost 1 million per item in in game gold which translates to about $10 each. You need a mount, they start at $10 and go up.
If you are a venomancer, a battlepet is a definite need, there is a lot of cash layout there.
So yeah, if you want to participate in the pvp to hold territory, serious cash is your only alternative.
As a example a faction of 60 plus players attacked one of 25 players all of similar levels and the 25 player faction won because they just played defense with most players using charms. Charms make the TW a joke. Pvp is a joke.
If you enjoy pve this game is recommended, there are tons of quests and lots of fun. If pvp is your desire, expect to spend real cash.
Am I to believe some significant difference exists between PWI and PWanywhere else in the world because PWI has a new promo picture? Guest Writer must be a Perfect World International marketer and a pretty desperate one at that.
Let’s be honest, as a game PW is second rate.
Skills are so limited (in number) a non Veno player is just button mashing the same 2/3 low mana cost skills at every level. Anything more and the mana is gone and you need to stop doing anything to recover (or use a charm).
Effective builds are limited; either HP for a slow grind 6/8 hits per kill or glass cannon for at best a 3 hit kill (Jones Blessing).
It’s easy to permanently gimp your build in the low levels (you need to pay the cash shop to fix it).
The costumes are pathetic, look at Sword of the New World for comparison with a recently released game.
And as already has been said; TW is dominated by high levels (those that have been grinding, not necessarily skilled players) armed with charms. If you’re lower level (50+) your cannon fodder. TW pays well, so the winners tend to be next weeks winners. The losers need to pay for new charms with real money or grind gold.
It has a cash shop with obscene prices sucking kids into massive bills; I assume making up for the hordes of non paying players.
PW is designed to make money out of players who haven’t bothered to check out any other games.
Oh, and the pictures are in no way ‘Anime’ of any sort. Anime is animation.
I am a U.S. Citizen and I would sooner play the first character than the later. In fact I never play female characters anyways. I almost exclusively play melee characters with big armor sets and weapons. I find the rationalization for this change in asthetic quite odd to be honest.
*Sigh* thats not the female blademaster in PWI. One, if you notice on her head, she has blue who-knows-whats coming out of her head (we think its fins but we don't know yet). She is an example of the Assassian class which has yet to be released, and her race is Tideborn (again, yet to be released). They are meant to manuaver and take down enemies fast. On a seperate note, thats not a sword shes holding either, it's a dagger. However, that does not mean that the female blademasters in PWI have armor the cover everywhere, but neither does that in the PW-CN (Chinese version) or PW-MY (mylasian servers). They all use the same armor sets...
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