Hi Tom.
Historically I can see the logic of that, sinse as in the case of pizza,
America had a lot of immigrants turning up with their own culture and ideas,
however going in the other direction, ie, american exports to other places,
it often seems that american companies, add agencies etc don't take into
account that people in other countries do not always use the same language
or have the same standards as the us.
Take hollywood films for instance.
Some years ago, I remember a huge controversy over a second world war film
about the enigma machine which was used to crack the german radio code.
The problem was where as in reality this had been done at the naval base in
portsmouth (england), the Hollywood directors decided to relocate it to I
believe los angeles and thus make it entirely American centered.
Needless to say, the people who actually did! work on the code were
extremely irritated at this, and it lead to a huge law sute.
my point however, is that the concern of the directors here, ---- much as
with harry potter, was only to make something American, not with the actual
historical content of the film.
It would be like someone over here making a film about the entry of the
japanese into the second world war, but having Liverpool bombed instead of
pearl harbour, or making a film about the battle of getisberg set in
London, --- -completely crazy!
However my problem is the same process doesn't go on in reverse, American
programs are not rebranded to appeal to audiences in other countries,
neither are american products changed.
I have for instance seen adverts over here talking about something being
"too good for Geeks" which is a very Us expression, or using terms like
"sleep overs" (I saw a recent wii title advertized in this way), which again
are neither particularly British expressions, nor really concepts over here.
Yet, American advertizers automatically assume that Britain is exactly like
the states, and so do no rebranding or markiting at all.
Over here, it's quite accepted that some things take place in America, ----
much the same way watching an Anime series automatically implies that it
takes place in japan.
Take the simpsons. Frequently there are jokes on the simpsons about
celebrities or ideas that are totally unknown over here, in fact I've often
found myself utterly confused at some of the jokes.
Take for instance the point where Homer works for Scorpio the james bond
villain. Homer says his ambition is to own the dallis cowboys, and at the
episode he ends up owning the Denver Bronco's.
I'm not even sure which sport these two teams play, much less their track
record which would be necessary to understand the joke.
do we see head master Skinner, care taker willy, and Mo owning a pub? heck
no! such a thing would be ridiculous.
I think this is my main problem and the reason I talkedabout Americans
forgetting about the rest of the world.
Imports into the states are most often reclassified, redistributed and
redubbed as American, ---- even down to established historical fact, where
as exports from the states simply assume the rest of the world is exactly
the same, ---- which actually seems a product of the imports, sinse if
Americans are used to only uUs centric things and language, more people will
assume that the rest of the world is exactly the same.
Btw, this isn't intended as a wrant against America or as an attack on
anyone in particular. Heck, this list, ---- and the accessible games
community in general is extremely diverse in terms of nationality, I'm just
trying to highlight something of a social trend in this case which I've
noticed.
Also, i'm not implying that everything American is automatically bad, or
worse than everything British.
I've said before that the Us seems to have a generally much better atitude
to disability than over here, ---- and I actually really enjoy the simpsons.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
---
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