Need help: Scientific paper about japanese games

Hello everyone

I’m new in this forum, so sorry if I didn’t post this correctly. Anyway I need to write a scientific paper for Japanese Studies and since I’m a JRPG fan I wanted to write something about Japanese video games. For quite some time I wasn’t sure about what exactly I should write, until I saw that great “American Kirby is Hardcore” article at TV Tropes. It surprised me a lot and I found it really fascinating. I now want to write something about localization practices of Japanese games in the West (mainly NA), the changes that are made and what this can tell us about stereotypes of Japanese and Western gamers that exist in the consciousness of game makers, companies that are responsible for localizations and the gaming scene in general.

Personally I love TV Tropes and trust it more (at least when it comes to a subject like this) than quite a few authors of scientific books. However rules are rules, so I’m going to need more scientifically accepted source material. That’s why I wanted to ask if anyone of you knows a good book about subjects like: localization of video games, localization of Japanese products in the West, or at least localization in general; maybe something about Woolseyism or censorship of Japanese games, since in addition to changing the box art, that’s part of the localization too; maybe some useable sources about things like the main character switch in “Nier” or the westernization of one of the main characters in the Persona series, the overdone censorship in Breath of Fire IV, the frequent censorship of alcohol, at least in older Japanese games, or the gain in popularity of some games, like Final Fantasy VI, because of Woolseyism. As long as they are trustworthy, Internet sources are fine too, but books would of course be best.

To be honest I’m in the bad situation, that I’m a huge nerd who knows quite a lot about this subject (though probably not enough to write a scientific paper), but has trouble finding enough usable source material, partly because I’m living in a tiny country in Europe, where most people think “Pacman”, when they hear video games and partly because there generally is such a small amount of reliable source material, when it comes to video games. That’s why I would be REALLY happy if any kind troper could help me out.

Thanks a lot!

PS: I’m not a native speaker, so sorry if my English is a bit weird.

edited 23rd Mar '11 5:43:58 AM by Runebearer

I'd put this in the Video Games or Anime & Manga forums, rather than the Writer's Block one (or ask a mod to move it). You're probably more likely to get a response there.