Whats with all the Japanese?

Im a lvl 60 guy and nearly everytime i summon a guy they're Japanese. Not that i have any problem with that or anything, im just curious, i know its huge over there but i still think its strange that 90% of my my summons are Japanese. Whats up with that?

Also like to mention that i had the most pleasant invasion today, if there is such a thing, because so far in Darks Souls invaders haven't exactly used 'fair' tactics, they're always trying something cheap instead of fighting one on one, but this guy was the first decent guy i got invaded by. I was in the painted picture world, cant think of the name, and as i opened the door to that 'phalanx' type enemy (loads of blobs with shields and spears), i got invaded. Im pretty bad at PVP, i dont play the game for that, so i hate when this happens because it usually means a trip back to the bonfire. Anyway this guy seen me, ran by into the yard and beckoned me on. Here we go i thought, another guy trying to lure me out to fight beside an enemy but this guy ran over to the other door, the locked on that creates a shortcut to the bonfire and beckoned again. hmmm is this guy really that decent that he would allow me to open the shortcut door before commencing our fight? Well that was the case, i ran over and he allowed me to open the door and once we got out into a quiet area he bowed and we had our fight, which was actually very good and lasted a bit but he eventually won.
I sent him a message of respect and as i was sitting at the bonfire he appeared beside me and bowed. Nice guy and yeah, he was Japanese. Later i got help to defeat the boss and he was also Japanese, so yeah, whats up with that?

(sorry for long post)

Mine are japanese too, live in EU. But I am not complaining. They are the best players to have.

Also I play the asian version of Demon Souls only; it's still very busy and fun.

Well if you play in EU, when you play a lot of japanese players always seem to play at the same time for some reason.. Just because there's not that many EU players around I guess. Not as popular over here as in Japan and America.

Serious_Much wrote:Well if you play in EU, when you play a lot of japanese players always seem to play at the same time for some reason.. Just because there's not that many EU players around I guess. Not as popular over here as in Japan and America.

Very true! I bought all 3 versions of Demon Souls. The Atlus (US version) and JapanStudio (Asian version) were the most fun and busy.

Although there's a lot of cheap fighters, there are people who are honest and fight fair, some of them even japanese.
when im up to pvp i watch the other olayers step before to make sure i dont get backstabbed by bowing, but i do bow before fighting and if i think i havent been fair and get invaded by the same guy, i wont use estus or backstab and will allow him to use humanity

I get a lot of Koreans. It's cool, but a bit annoying because the lag is very noticeable.

When i played Demons Souls it was really quiet, only seen a summon sign once and got invaded twice, but then again that was a few weeks ago, the game is 3 years old whereas its a different story with Darks Souls of course since its a more recent game.
But yeah, not complaining, every japanese guy i summoned was brilliant help and always showed me treasure i missed, lead the way and even bow when i use estus for them, things like that. I also send the guys a msg saying thanks over psn.

As for pvp, i hope guys didnt assume i meant all people who invade use cheap tactics or anything like that. I realize the Souls community is mostly decent guys who treat pvp with a lot of respect and play fair, ive just been unlucky by being invaded by the more annoying guys who play Souls.

Never noticed lag when i summoned guys, but noticed it a lot of times when i was invaded where hits were registering seconds later and i was being backstabbed even when guys were in front of me.

i seem to run into complete douche bag asians and then really cool ones. the douche ones lag worse then any other players ive encountered and just wail with a great sword or bkga taking full advantage of the lag. it can get so bad that they are not visible for multiple seconds at a time, and very often dont show up right away when they invade(they will just appear in front of me spamming r1 with above mentioned weapons).

then theres the asian players who are some of the most creative players i end up fighting. sometimes they lag too, but they are usually more aware of it(or just dont abuse it). i will notice them not backstab me if they notice the lag is really bad. some of the most fun ive had is with these players. like there were a couple times(may have been the same person i forget) where we both had crossbows and instead of using our other weapons we ended up having a crossbow/black firebomb fight(in the burg) that was tons of fun. thats my one problem with the community, they care way more about winning then actually having fun playing.

FruitPunchNinja wrote:thats my one problem with the community, they care way more about winning then actually having fun playing.

That is whats wrong with nearly all online games these days, guys take it way too serious and forget the whole point of gaming... to have fun! These type of guys kinda ruin it for others.

When you think about it, the souls games are made for guys who love to get immersed in a game and have a good time opposed to guys who play to win, be the best, get the most points etc.. because one thing is guaranteed; you will die, alot. So its strange to see guys who will use any cheap tactics to win in a game like this, its not really their environment.

I was playing a few hours ago and noticed that i didnt bump into any Japanese guys. Japan is 8 hours ahead, so since most gamers play from the evening into the night, im kinda the opposite, i play mostly during the day, well with Dark Souls anyway, and thats kinda the peak time where guys would be gaming over there. So kinda solves that mystery.

But still, like most games you'd think there'd be a system where it would try to put you with gamers in your own region before the longer distanced regions, to prevent lag and whatnot.

Also, just like to point out why i try not to play Dark Souls at night. I know this game aint a Horror game, but playing this game with headphones on at night time, by yourself in a dark room while the house is real quiet just makes this game a little too.... tense, and the last thing Dark Souls needs increasing is the tension.

well the thing is, the foreign players who you play with went out of their way to purchase the English version of dark souls. im fairly certain thats how it works, correct me if im wrong. the ps3 does not have region lock but there are different versions of each game with different servers if i remember correctly. also, yes the time of day plays a huge role.

FruitPunchNinja wrote:well the thing is, the foreign players who you play with went out of their way to purchase the English version of dark souls. im fairly certain thats how it works, correct me if im wrong. the ps3 does not have region lock but there are different versions of each game with different servers if i remember correctly. also, yes the time of day plays a huge role.

I never even thought of region lock, but i guess it doesnt matter since, you're right, the ps3 is region free. But i meant server wise, usually games make servers within your region priority.

I dont really understand why foreign players would go out of their way to play the English version, what do you mean by that? Because arent all the versions the same and released at the same time, except i think it was released earlier in Japan.

P2P. No servers. Everyone plays with everyone else.

And its probably when you're on. Certain times are more heavily populated by specific time zones.

oh really? my bad, could of sworn thats how it worked. :roll:

Thats how it worked in demons. You were just off a game.

I get tons of peole from the UK and for some odd reason alot of people from ohio.

I hate those people from Ohio. They are the dirtiest players of all.







Just kidding. Just figured no one ever complains about a specific state or region within a country.

i was reading a radio interview with the creator of dks yesterday, and he mentioned about how the online matchmaking has this system where it looks for people with the best connections and that are near you(wouldnt have guessed that :roll:) .I was complaining on here the other day cause i had a 4hr session in the burg where 80% of my opponents were lagging so much that there was no ignoring it or using some strategy(trying to account for lag and visualize where they actually are ext) it was just flashes of them appearing all over the place( i noticed they seem to just run around unlocked to take advantage of the lag) my only way to deal with this is to just spam pyro. im thinking that the EU/US dks community is shrinking which is causing me/us to get paired with players that dont have good connections due to there just not being enough people online. i think me playing very late at night might play a role. I hope they go back to dedicated servers for the next game, i think the franchise has become popular enough that it wouldnt put a dent in the online activity. it would just improve the quality imo.

I have no idea if I get japanese partners. But when I invade, I get some PSN's that are japanese, but english characters. I also get stuff like "billybob23894274589302" ya know? Or other cool ones, but I usually get pretty american names.

Maybe it's because the Northwest looks a lot like Dark Souls when it comes to gloominess and the forest. That's one reason I love Dark Souls. Reminds me of home. I can look out the window and see Dark Souls scenery, or I can play Dark Souls and see Washington State Scenery. Love it. Maybe there's just more people in the Northwest playing Dark Souls.

That, and I'm on the same time zone as California.

I have noticed a couple times that I have gotten names like "JohnSmith" when summoning and I'll check their profile after beating the boss (maybe sending a thank you note), and they will list Japanese as their language. I like to think that they are trying to use as anglo sounding of a name as possible to confuse us.

Reminds me of the Southpark dodgeball episode where the Chinese team imitates the US accent: "I will just use my credit card".

^Lolsauce. It's like us using feux japanese names. Raizakagata or something something something

Exactly, I struggle to even think of a name, but maybe my next PSN account will be "Ichiro Toyota"

bmurn wrote:Exactly, I struggle to even think of a name, but maybe my next PSN account will be "Ichiro Toyota"

Hahahaha! or Hitachi Sony.

with the prevalance of anime fans in the u.s there are a good number of i.d's like that, people have even just used game titles... plus most japanese have a basic understanding of english (or can use a translation tool) so... names don't mean much...

FruitPunchNinja wrote:i was reading a radio interview with the creator of dks yesterday, and he mentioned about how the online matchmaking has this system where it looks for people with the best connections and that are near you(wouldnt have guessed that :roll:) .I was complaining on here the other day cause i had a 4hr session in the burg where 80% of my opponents were lagging so much that there was no ignoring it or using some strategy(trying to account for lag and visualize where they actually are ext) it was just flashes of them appearing all over the place( i noticed they seem to just run around unlocked to take advantage of the lag) my only way to deal with this is to just spam pyro. im thinking that the EU/US dks community is shrinking which is causing me/us to get paired with players that dont have good connections due to there just not being enough people online. i think me playing very late at night might play a role. I hope they go back to dedicated servers for the next game, i think the franchise has become popular enough that it wouldnt put a dent in the online activity. it would just improve the quality imo.

Strange, because I live in EU, NAT type 1 (direct internet connection with ps3) and the guys who give me the most lag are Americans. I can connect perfectly with Japanese, no lag. Weird.
You're right about the EU US comm. shrinking. I have all 3 versions of Demon Souls and take a good guess which one is still busy with mainly pvp but also coop? Yup....the asian (JapanStudio) version. ;d So I think Dark Souls will eventually too go that way.

But indeed, they need dedicated servers next time. But Bandai Scamco chose the cheap way out. Too bad with such a brilliant game.