Living in the age of the internet means that autoethnography is both increasing in importance as a research method (and also as simple personal reflection) and increasing in difficulty due to other cultures being readily available at the push of a button.
I want to take a look at the gaming genre of JRPGs, and see how much of the Japanese culture influences the game. Specifically I want to ask the question, “Does the game reflect Japanese socio-political issues that were prominent at the game’s launch?” This question will involve a bit of digging, as Japanese politics isn’t something that we hear much about in Australia. The only example in recent memory would be the brawl in the Japanese parliament when a bill to end the military pacifism enforced on them since the end of WWII was being signed- in to be debated.
The only game I have ever played which could be considered a JRPG would be Pokémon, which can arguably be said to have become accepted so much by Anglo/American culture that it’s not really considered foreign any more. I’m curious to see how other JRPG’s compare to roaming a strange country as a monster-collecting 10-year-old.
The group task that I’m currently working on has introduced me to the wonderful world of live-streaming, and so I had planned to try that out… Before I found out that the NBN had only just started being laid down in my area, and my current speeds are slower than a good number of developing African nations. (Thanks Telstra) So, it may be easier for me to simply record myself playing through games such as Devil May Cry 4, which is apparently a very challenging JRPG.
Digital Asia 