The localization of Japanese video games in Taiwan

Abstract

The aim of this research lies in the study of how Japanese console videos games have been re-territorialized into Taiwan in Taiwanese context. Since making its debut in 1970s, video game industry has developed into a multi-billion dollar business in which Japanese console and game developers have been the pioneers. Academic studies on video games, however, had been largely focusing on the physical and mental affection of video game playing, and it is until recent years that video game has begun to be analyzed as a cultural product. Looking to fill the research space of how video games have been consumed and received under different geographical and social contexts, this research examine show Taiwanese, the former colonial subjects of Japan, localize Japanese console video games through measures during the process of production, re-production, circulation, and consumption in the context of Taiwanese society. Attention has been particularly paid to Taipei City Mall, where gamer gatherings of a Japanese video game had been regularly held. Through intensive participatory observation on the gathering and in-depth case studies on a few selected personalities, the author will show how a Japanese cultural good is being re-territorialized under an alien social context. The thesis then argues a new paradigm, in which the individual desire is considered as equally important with other mediation factors, should be adopted in conceptualizing the migration of a cultural good.