View Full Version : Players from Russia or Japan?
Hello All,
are there any Russian or Japanese players on this forum? There is a guy with a nickname "Akula", but he states he's writing from the USA.
It would be interesting to read something written by a Japanese history buff/Distant Guns future fan; the language barrier is very difficult to cross, as we all base mostly on English sources.
NormKoger
15 May 06, 09:50
It would be interesting to read something written by a Japanese history buff/Distant Guns future fan; the language barrier is very difficult to cross, as we all base mostly on English sources.
It would be interesting to see more from our Japanese friends. I tried and failed to get any sense of the Japanese popular sentiment or interest in the war. The language barrier is formidable. Unless you can handle Japanese, there doesn't even seem to be any good way to search for Japanese resources.
I have a much easier time with Russian. When I was in graduate school, using the Greek alphabet on a daily basis (physicists tend to become quite familiar with the Greek alphabet), I found it easy to learn Cyrillic. If you take even a few minutes with a Russian-English dictionary, you may be surprised at how easy it is to read technical Russian. Among other things, the Russians have a tendency to assimilate commonly used foreign technical terms as they find them. Quite a bit of my RJW resources are Russian, including my primary resources on the hardware.
There may be differences in the way the two cultures use the internet as well. I find helpful Russians everywhere I look. But my only insight into the Japanese side of things has come from the occasional American or British expat, living in Japan. It's strange. You'd think the Japanese would be at least as common on-line as the Russians.
It would be interesting to see more from our Japanese friends. I tried and failed to get any sense of the Japanese popular sentiment or interest in the war.
Well, I don't know anything about the Japanese. At the University once I had a semester of history of Japan class with a Japanese PhD, who came to Poland to study the Kashubians, one of Polish ethnic groups. He was a very nice guy with good sense of humor, yet he was not interested in the military history.
Perhaps the Japanese want to forget about the militarism?
During my so far only visit to Potsdam, Germany, I went to a used book store, to look for something interesting. However, the owner told me that he didn't have any military history books; as he said, he didn't want to have such books in his store. (Of course, in other store I have found a few such books, so it is not a common policy).
When you look through the history faculties of the German Universities, you will find only one "Professuer fuer Militaergeschichte".
Well, actually I am from Russia. I'm very interested in naval sims in general and this game is promising to be particularly interesting. I am not a history buff, may be just by coincidence the novels "Tsushima" by A. Novikov-Priboi and "Port-Arthur" by A. Stepanov were two great books that I found in my grandfather's library when I was a child. So I am familiar with this period and I know there are many people in Russia who eagerly await the release of this game, because this topic is really unexplored by game industry.
I even started a thread in one of the russian naval&aviation forums here:
http://forum.sukhoi.ru/showthread.php?p=750805#post750805
and comments mostly say "When will it be released?", "Can't wait to play this game", etc.
Well, actually I am from Russia. I'm very interested in naval sims in general and this game is promising to be particularly interesting. I am not a history buff, may be just by coincidence the novels "Tsushima" by A. Novikov-Priboi and "Port-Arthur" by A. Stepanov were two great books that I found in my grandfather's library when I was a child. So I am familiar with this period and I know there are many people in Russia who eagerly await the release of this game, because this topic is really unexplored by game industry.
I even started a thread in one of the russian naval&aviation forums here:
http://forum.sukhoi.ru/showthread.php?p=750805#post750805
and comments mostly say "When will it be released?", "Can't wait to play this game", etc.
Glad to hear; So we can expect feedback from the East as well. How is it with the Russo-Japanese War in Russia? Does it sparkle some interest? Are there any new books published?
I would also be interested to know some Russian online bookstore; I have to learn Russian, and I would be glad to learn while reading something interesting.
I am sure that being an American stationed in Japan isn't what you are looking for :crosseye: . My dealings with the Japanese have brought me to the conclusion that there is an active wargamer base here in the land of the rising sun. Most tend not to advertise their interests in "conflict simulations" though. Japan is still living in the wake of the effects of WWII.
Ben
NormKoger
18 May 06, 23:05
My dealings with the Japanese have brought me to the conclusion that there is an active wargamer base here in the land of the rising sun. Most tend not to advertise their interests in "conflict simulations" though. Japan is still living in the wake of the effects of WWII.
Ben
They're sure in stealth mode on the web. I swear I've run into at least 10 times as many Croatian wargamers out here as I have Japanese.
Don Maddox
18 May 06, 23:15
They're sure in stealth mode on the web. I swear I've run into at least 10 times as many Croatian wargamers out here as I have Japanese.
I can't say I've run into any either. It's too bad, because they would probably be fascinating people to game with.
Glad to hear; So we can expect feedback from the East as well. How is it with the Russo-Japanese War in Russia? Does it sparkle some interest? Are there any new books published?
I would also be interested to know some Russian online bookstore; I have to learn Russian, and I would be glad to learn while reading something interesting.
I think the interest here in Russia is pretty high. Look here (http://www.ozon.ru/?context=all_search_list&searchstring=%f0%f3%f1%f1%ea%ee-%ff%ef%ee%ed%f1%ea%e0%ff+%e2%ee%e9%ed%e0), these are the results for "russo-japanese war" query I launched on one of the most popular russian online bookstores. And take note of their date of publishing: mostly 2004-2005.
Also, if you speak russian (or can read at least) I would reccomend visiting www.tsushima.org.ru There's an extensive online library full of articles and documents available to download. Community is also great, so you may wish to visit forums, even if you post in english, this won't be a problem I think.
Thank you very much, Crazer!
Ah, there is also a great page http://militera.lib.ru/
It's been a while since I last visited this wonderful page.
I can't say I've run into any either. It's too bad, because they would probably be fascinating people to game with.
Really?
If you frequent VASL anytime, there are often 3 or 4 Japanese regulars who play ASL. There are also a few Japanese Miniatures Wargaming group webpages. You can't forget the Japanese wargaming journals that are published. "Fire in the Sky" is a great example of a Japanese wargame brought to US Markets.
I also see some Japanese PC wargames on the shelves of stores like Deo Deo or Fuji Grand.
Ben
NormKoger
19 May 06, 11:15
Also, if you speak russian (or can read at least) I would reccomend visiting www.tsushima.org.ru There's an extensive online library full of articles and documents available to download. Community is also great, so you may wish to visit forums, even if you post in english, this won't be a problem I think.
I just bookmarked the site. It looks like a place I will be visiting again. There are some interesting things there. Unfortunately, I also ran into a few broken links when I tried to look at Denisov's article on mine warfare at Port Arthur.
I can read Russian, but have to work at it. Babelfish works pretty well on the site. I find it works best to have two windows open, one with the Babelfish "translated" version, and another directly on the site. When I find something that doesn't make sense, I flip over to the Russian version to figure out what's actually being said.
On another note: I noticed higher resolution versions of a couple of old posters, including one I'm currently using in the game (originally found a few years back in a US Library of Congress page that no longer exists):
http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/pr_images/shell_21.jpg
I've noticed more and more of these old posters appearing on Russian sites lately, and I always search for one in particular that I would really like to find. My favorite Russian RJW poster is this one:
http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/pr_images/shell_19.jpg
This poster seems to me to capture the feeling of the period perfectly. But the only image I have ever found was years ago, a very low resolution scan. And I can't even find that now. I would very much like a high resolution, color image of this poster. Have you seen one anywhere on any of the Russian RJW sites?
Bloodstar
19 May 06, 19:21
They're sure in stealth mode on the web. I swear I've run into at least 10 times as many Croatian wargamers out here as I have Japanese.
If you make some fake previews like... new game on NINTENDO - called Russo-Japanese War... you will get attention of Japanese players ;)
I've met some Japanese in Hannover fair and made a joke there as I asked one of them "How is our Emperor Hirohito?" :D He only laughed...
One real anecdote from E3... I heard this from one guy who worked at JVC LA Studio... well they went to E3 - a dozen of them and went to Nintendo booth and their president asked receptionist "Can I speak with Mr. Nintendo?" :clown: They just looked themselves "we got a problem here"...
Back to the point - there are Japanese players but just as I said it's not that its cultural thing or social phenomena like some other for them to get easy entry...
Would like to meet some Japanese historian or wargamers...
Mario
This poster seems to me to capture the feeling of the period perfectly. But the only image I have ever found was years ago, a very low resolution scan. And I can't even find that now. I would very much like a high resolution, color image of this poster. Have you seen one anywhere on any of the Russian RJW sites?
Hmmm, this one seems to be particularly hard to find. I only found a small color copy of this image, but I don't think it will suit your needs. However, I'll try to do more research on this.
NormKoger
22 May 06, 08:48
Hmmm, this one seems to be particularly hard to find. I only found a small color copy of this image, but I don't think it sill suit your needs. However, I'll try to do more research on this.
Thanks. I was hoping that perhaps a native Russian speaker would have an easier time finding it. Search engines keep getting better. They do a fair job these days of presenting hits on similar (but different) spellings. But they still do not do a very good job of crossing dissimilar language barriers. Perhaps when they do, we'll find our mysteriously absent Japanese friends were out there all along after all :)
The one you found has a bit more detail in the central area than the one I originally found. The original, apparently downloaded about 5 years ago (according the the file date on my system)...
http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/pr_images/rjwposter1.jpg
From the colors, these images appear to have been scanned by different folks. That's good, because it implies that there is more than one copy of this thing out there somewhere.
Bullethead
24 May 06, 01:08
I've been doing MMP online WW2 flightsims for over 11 years, from Air Warrior to War Birds and now Aces High. These games have always had a fairly strong Japanese contingent in the player base. And these guys are more into the role-playing aspect than the game-winning aspect, so could be considered more dedicated than the bulk of the US and Euro players.
However, the Japanese guys are hard to notice. First off, there's the time zone problem, so they mostly fly when most US and Euro players are in bed. Second, few of them ever post in any of the official or favored unofficial forums. I must assume they've got their own Japanese forums somewhere, which they don't advertise. And third, if you happen to be flying at the same time they are, they're almost always talking to each other in Japanese on a private channel, so you don't often communicate with them in the game. Thus, about the only way to tell they're around is to fly at Japanese prime time and look for mobs of non-uber Japanese planes, which few US or Euro players fly because of their lack of performance.
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