This week we have gotten around to talking about a topic that anybody can agree on: entertainment. While it’s enjoyable (for the most part) writing about mainstream news on things such as politics and the economy, it's nice to deviate a bit. The sites on this week’s platter are Joystiq, a site that covers the video game industry in general, with information from Japan, the U.S., and Europe, but the focus here will be the Japanese video game industry. The second site that’s been picked out is entitled Yummy Celebrities, which is an Asian celebrity website with up-to-date news on virtually all Asian entertainers, and the focus will be on the Korean celebrity news that it features.
Joystiq, while not specifically being a Japanese video game industry site, has a great amount of information on the Japanese video game industry. The main page of the site has a search function, and typing in “Japan” and searching the Joystiq database gives readers all the information they could ever want on today’s Japanese game industry.
As most video game aficionados know, the Japanese and American video game markets are not alike, as Japanese and American gamers have different tastes and preferences. One of the great things about Joystiq is that the writers of the news articles on the site are aware of the differences, and they don’t fail to make light of this when writing their stories. For instance, the Japanese have historically not been very receptive to gaming products made outside of Japan, as Microsoft and its Xbox 360 game console have not had much success in Japan. A couple articles comment on the “rare” success of some Xbox 360 games, such as the game Blue Dragon. The article explains that while the Xbox 360 system has been struggling in the region, this game for the system in particular has been a runaway success, with many people buying the game in a bundle along with the Xbox 360 system, therefore making the game a seller of the system. The article, written by Joystiq blogger Jonti Davies, is very well written and stylized, flowing in a way that you would not see in a more formal news article where information is given in brief increments. A similar Xbox 360 Japan success story on the site was on the game Gears of War, which unlike Blue Dragon was made with American audiences in mind, and features run-and-gun gameplay and copious amounts of blood and gore which usually do not appeal to the Japanese. Apparently the game has done well enough to sell out in the country, and it was highly rated by the top Japanese video game magazine, something that is a bit surprising.
On the flip side, the site features an article by James Ransom-Wiley that explains that the trade in-value of a Nintendo DS Lite, a small portable system made by Nintendo, a Japanese company, is a full 1,800 yen more than the trade in-value Microsoft Xbox 360, which is a stand-alone console that costs more to buy and has much more technology incorporated into it.
Stories of this sort expose how Joystiq is great source of information for people who know very little about the Japanese video game industry. With the site being blog-like in nature, comments are welcomed, and the site gives readers the option to easily email articles to friends, and to see who has linked to specific articles. The articles on the site are adorned with pictures and video clips, making the site quite visually appealing. The site uses a blue theme, and it fits the site quite nicely. A fair amount of advertisements exist, but thankfully they are well placed on the pages. Most of the advertising is for video game related items, such as games and accessories, while others are for travel, movies, and AOL links.
Yummycelebrities.com, as has been aforementioned, is a site that is about all Asian celebrities. The front page features a thorough list of Asian celebrities, along with individual categories for Korean celebrities, Indian celebrities, etc. but the site appears to be very Korean-oriented, with the vast majority of the main page featuring stories that concern Koreans. The site also has a few articles on western celebrities, but there is only a small amount of them. Although the site is done in a blog style that is not much different from the one we are doing for this class or from Joystiq, the site features a good amount of news stories at its disposal, written in a traditional news style.
The most striking aspect of the site that will garner attention of most viewers is how graphically appealing the site is. Every article the site has features at least one large picture, and some stories even feature videos. The site features a simplistic white and pink style, but the well-done placement of the stories on the site combined with the fact that advertising has been kept to a minimum (the only advertising on the site are a few ads from Google for celebrity photos, ringtones, etc.) makes the site very maneuverable. The aforementioned list of celebrities is something that would come in very handy to somebody who is interested in one particular celebrity, as each link for individual celebrities features complete biographies on the celebrities, complete with dates of birth to information on the star’s rise to stardom. These links to individual celebrities also feature the latest news stories on the particular stars toward the bottom of the pages, along with picture and video sections.
The Korean celebrity news section features a wealth of articles going back several days, as the site features a copious selection of backlogged news stories. However, where Yummy Celebrities falls a bit short is in the length of its articles and in spelling and grammar. For instance, a story on Korean pop artist Rain, who injured his left elbow performing in Hong Kong, features two very large pictures, but the actual article is very short. Furthermore, the story features some grammatical errors, such as, “Rain was unlucky to injured his arm on his 2nd concert” and “Rain’s spokesmen later told the press that Rain’s twisted his elbow.” Another article, which reports the death of Korean actress Jung Da-bin, has a grammatical error in the title of the article, with it stating, “Korean Actress Jeong Da-bin died at 27” instead of “dead at 27.” Note the two differing spellings of the actress’s name that are used in this article. These grammatical errors don’t necessarily detract from the information that is being provided, but when the articles are so small in size, these errors do stand out a bit more.
Jung Da-bin 
Rain
With this being a blog-styled website, the site does make it easy for readers to contribute their opinions, and every article features a way for people to contribute. Readers are able to comment on stories and talk amongst themselves on the particular story at hand.
Both sites are great at doing what they do, and that is gathering information on forms of entertainment. Because Joystiq does such a good job getting news stories from Japan, the site could look into creating an entire part of the website devoted to Japanese game industry news in English. Everything else on Joystiq is well done, so it easily earns a rating of nine out of ten. Yummy Celebrities is a very entertaining website that would please anybody wanting information on Asian celebrities, but the fact that the articles can be a bit short and have spelling and grammatical errors detracts from the experience of the site as a whole. Still, the up to date coverage and the good amount of videos and pictures make it a great site. Yummy Celebrities gets an eight out of ten.
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