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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorhook" data-source="post: 6315378" data-attributes="member: 58401">I realize Scrivener already PM'd you about this, but for anyone else in the thread who isn't aware: [sblock=Economics lesson]Basically, unemployment rates are hard tricky to measure, because there's a few different ways you can count them. Typically, unemployment rates only reflect people who are actively looking for a job but don't have one; this can result in numbers that are a lot lower than expected. Students, for example, might be training to improve their hiring chances, but they typically won't be considered unemployed. At the end of the day, discussions of unemployment rates boil down to discussions about counting, which can be politically-loaded if someone wants the numbers to reflect a particular perspective.[/sblock] I agree, and this is the point that I had been bringing up in the original thread.OTOH, this forked thread has brought up some great examples of Asian markets embracing western-style fantasy. I wonder if this isn't similar to western fascination over samurais, ninjas, and kung-fu: examples of these elements abound in western media (to the point where some elements, such as ninjas, have essentially been naturalized into western vocabulary and culture), but are still usually framed in western terms. I imagine that Korean fans of MedievalEuro-style fantasy knights and wizards likewise frame their objects of fascination in a culturally-Korean perspective.The point about Japan being a longtime (if silent) consumer of D&D is pretty interesting. Not coincidentally, for many years Japan was considered the only first-world country in Asia. Even less coincidentally, Japan also had a very close economic and military relationship with the United States in the decades following WWII. I'm wondering now if this connection isn't related to the popularity of D&D among American soldiers. (Many soldiers seem to be gamers; outside of war, soldiers on deployment seem to have a lot of downtime without a lot to occupy themselves--no women, no liquor, and nowhere to go.)</blockquote>

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