D
Deleted_171835
Guest
OP
Due to the nature of the game's multi-player system, particularly with the PSP and 3DS, when playing with others, you will almost invariably be playing with someone you know—more often than not, a friend. Most people seem to get their introduction to the game from the people around them. "My boss talked me into playing [Monster Hunter 3rd]" says Ryouhei, a 24 year-old clerk who would spend hours after work huddled together with his co-workers. "It's fun to work together with friends towards a mutual goal."
Part of why the game is more popular in Japan probably has once again to do with the sociological aspects of the game's multi-player. In Japan, playing multi-player Monster Hunter is a form of social interaction. You're not playing to get better equipment, you're playing to have fun and to socialize with the people you're playing with.
Like it or not, gaming is still largely viewed as a solitary pastime with interactions between people only occurring over the internet (You won't find groups of friends sitting around a table in a restaurant or fast food joint playing hand-held video games together in many other countries outside of Japan). This, and the fact that most of the Monster Hunter games for hand-held consoles released outside of Japan have been for the PSP, a console that gets half of its sales numbers from Japan alone, is a formula for trouble.
http://kotaku.com/5980436/why-monster-hunter-is-so-popular-in-japan-and-struggles-everywhere-else
In addition to the fact that the game lends well to local play, I would argue that a large part of it has to do with the lack of proper online functionality and the steep learning curve. The lack of voice-chat and other online social features really kills the appeal of Monster Hunter in the West. Even worse is that when most people try Monster Hunter in single-player, the lack of a proper tutorial (Tri somewhat fixed this) and the steep learning curve really turns players off. Hopefully Capcom can fix some of these issues with the release of 3 Ultimate and hopefully 4 in the West.