BioShock’s Ken Levine on the American Gamer

GameDaily has conducted an interview with Irrational Games’ Ken Levine about how the “American gamer” has changed over the years. Of course, there’s some talk about BioShock to go with it:

Q: When making Bioshock, does appealing to that global audience play into how you make the game?

A: People try to do that. I remember working on a game where they said, (Put a Korean character into it!) As if that was going to open up the Korean market, which is primarily based around one game: Starcraft. And they certainly didn’t think, (Oh, that guy’s a Korean, they’re going to love this.) It was a total accident. That’s what going to happen if an American game breaks out in Japan. It’ll be sort of an accident. And I think trying to go for that is folly, because cultures are complicated, and I’m not smart enough to go, (Which level, what weapon can I introduce in BioShock that can make the Japanese fall in love with it?)