i posted this at major nelson.com about my possible theory behind this.
I'm guessing the strict regions are something to do with the fact that it is a trivia game. Now i don't know for sure since I haven't played the demo yet, but you can't expect a trivia game to do well in other countries other than the ones selected. Most questions in trivia games are surrounding pop culture and events that Americans, Canadians, and British know about. If you think a guy in China is going to be able to tell you the name of Fraiser's dog, then you would be wrong.
Again I am assuming that is the way the game goes and what kind of questions are asked. Just like most of us Americans don't know much about what is important to people in other countries, I highly doubt they know things that is common knowledge to us.
Such as:
Who stars in the MTV show Punk'd
Where did Michael Jordan finish his career
Who led the Confederate army in the Civil War
im guessing the game has questions along those lines.....and people outside of the selected regions arent going to have a clue on most of them. Just my 2 cents
...........then i got this reply.............
Eddie (it's his dad's dog though not Frasier's)
Ashton Kutcher
dunno much about basketball but I'll guess Chicago Bulls
General Lee
How good was that considering I'm from the Netherlands?
.............so i wrote this...................
not bad....all is good but the Michael Jordan question. And I would consider the Netherlands in that group of regions that would know most pop culture that you would find in trivia games, Austrailia too. But my point was that you really do have limited knoweledge about what happens in other countries if you are an average every day kind of person. I'll be honest with you.....I live no more than 1.5 hours from the Canadian border and I couln't name one Prime Minister in the history of that Country.
My room mate didn't even know about the cyclone in Myanmar the other day until I told him. That is all I'm saying. I wouldn't know anything about China that I didn't learn from a Jackie Chan movie......so who is to say that somebody in China should know how long the Mississippi River is (I actually stole that question from a screenshot on xbox.com.)
That was my point, I wasn't sticking up for microsoft by making this game available for a few select people, I was just trying to say that maybe that could have been one of the reasons they decided to do this.
..............and somebody else wrote this.....................
Some of the questions from the last 2 rounds:
1. In dollars, what is the average NBA player's salary?
2. When did the U.S. Supreme Court hand down the Miranda decision requiring police to inform arrested citizens of their rights?
3. When did 80,000 people rush to California in search of gold?
Now, are you really telling me that, say, Italians, aren't going to be at a severe disadvantage?
Wait for Europe-specific questions; you're not going to have much fun playing on these questions.
--------------------
i know that is alot of text to look at. but if you read through all of that, you shouls see some valid points to my theory.
ok so you are close to the uk i will give you that.....but since there seems to be a "can only play with people in the same country as you" feature on this game.....maybe it isnt worth the hassle of releasing to ireland since it is a fairly small area and if sales are low (which im sure they would be), then who are you going to play with.
maybe that is the bigger question. why cant canadians play against americans and if you find an answer to that, which im sure is along the lines of my theory, then maybe you will find a legit reason why you cant downlaod this game
.......i dont know what to tell you bro, it sucks but seriously dont worry about it.....the game seems to me to be pretty dumb and once the arcade gamers have the online achievements, there will not be any community for this game anyway.
I don't think most people (even Americans) will know the answer to most of these questions. So far, I have only known one - the number of letters in the Greek alphabet (for some reason I still remembered that from 6th grade).
It seems the game is designed more around the wagering than the wit.
bulldogash95 wrote:Those outside of the three countries it has been released in may not know alot of the answers.... but it sure would be great to have the choice. Isnt it up to those of us that pay to decide whether or not we want to buy it? Rather than have it denied to us outright? Us Australians miss out on alot on xbox ie almost everything Americans get in their marketplace and now we are being denied access to arcade games too?
I've never understood why they do this. There are some Japanese games that look like they would be fun to play (retail games). Wished I could play them here in America. I'd also like to give that Cricket game a try, but can't play it here, at least without getting a second Xbox 360.
With this game, I can understood why they wouldn't release it in a non-English speaking country, but otherwise it should be available. The questions repeat enough that even if you didn't know the answers, if you play it enough, you will learn them. Plus, this game is more about wagering. You can get all the questions wrong and still win.
Panthera onca wrote: bulldogash95 wrote:Those outside of the three countries it has been released in may not know alot of the answers.... but it sure would be great to have the choice. Isnt it up to those of us that pay to decide whether or not we want to buy it? Rather than have it denied to us outright? Us Australians miss out on alot on xbox ie almost everything Americans get in their marketplace and now we are being denied access to arcade games too? I've never understood why they do this. There are some Japanese games that look like they would be fun to play (retail games). Wished I could play them here in America. I'd also like to give that Cricket game a try, but can't play it here, at least without getting a second Xbox 360. With this game, I can understood why they wouldn't release it in a non-English speaking country, but otherwise it should be available. The questions repeat enough that even if you didn't know the answers, if you play it enough, you will learn them. Plus, this game is more about wagering. You can get all the questions wrong and still win.