We're Too Dumb

Yeah, TheRegister has some goofy stuff sometimes but I still visit every dah. :) This story about TombRaider4 being too difficult for us dumb Americans was especially entertaining. Also the part about Japanese people not wanting to think about death:

Tomb Raider IV is to be released in a simpler US format for American kids with ten-minute attention spans. The British version of the game has been deemed too difficult by its manufacturer Eidos and so it has made the puzzles easier to solve.  ... according to an Eidos representative, research has shown that Americans only play computer games for brief periods before going off to watch the TV. If they haven't solved a puzzle within this limited time span, interest in the game drops off. ... . In Japan Lara will suffer penalties rather than get killed off as she would in the British version. Why? Because the Japanese never want to die during a game. She will also change the way she dispatches the bad guys because of the deeply-held fear of dying a "dishonourable death".