As for the distribution of U.S. game companies and communities: certainly I tend to think of the West Coast as much more tech-heavy than the East (e.g., Silicon Valley, Microsoft in WA), which I’m sure would tend to draw game companies to those locales. I also think the West Coast is more “Japanophilic” than the East, and thus more receptive to Japanese imports, including videogames; unsurprising that fan communities spring up around them, then. [I’m an old enough geek to remember when anime fandom was a predominantly West Coast phenomenon before spreading across the country: CA and then TX had their first few anime cons before the East Coast had one.]

I am at a bit of a loss to explain the relative lack of East Coast gaming communities, though. We’re all a bunch of anti-social rejects, perhaps? ;-P

The most recent team listings for the Cyberprofessional Athletes League http://www.csports.net/(gxrpeiugcx43f0qci5ff2e55)/CPL.aspx show US and Brazillian teams with one CA acronym that I don’t know. Not very representative o.o

World Cyber Games is much more broad.
In 2004, the Netherlands won three gold medals, Korea and the USA won two each, and Germany won one. Brazil, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Bulgaria, France, and Ukraine each got at least one bronze or silver.

Glancing through the history, the U.S., Taiwan, Korea, and the Netherlands look like the strongest contestants. Britain does in fact pull (I think a Bronze) medal at one point, but other then that they’re effectively absent. http://www.worldcybergames.com/tournament/index.asp

.. and I was wrong. 4k.Grubby is from the Netherlands. That said, Madfrog is from Sweden, SK.Sweet, Spirit_Moon, Showtime.Werra and countless other pros are from Korea, SK. There’s a clan or two from the U.S., so it’s pretty strong.

But again, the three main spots for gaming would be Western U.S., Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Nordic countries (Sweden, mostly), and Korea-Taiwan. Brazil has a massive player base, however, and China is also emerging.

Kira, interesting point about the proximity. That certainly might have an impact, like you mentioned, when companies decide where to to locate their American offices. As for the Asian population, I think, as theCurse implies, you might be too quick to assume there’s a link between the two issues - also because, to the best of my knowledge, the majority of the Asian population on the West Coast is Chinese, not Japanese - a dynamic established with waves of immigration in the 19th century.

theCurse, you point out that the cost of living is cheaper in the Midwest. That may well have an impact on company location, but there must also be other elements of Midwestern culture that make gaming such a success there, don’t you think? Or do you think that, since the companies set up shop in the Midwest, the locals turned into gamers? Sort of a chicken and the egg debate…

Smiley Jersey, you’re right about the Nintendo World Store being located on the East Coast (although, you should note that there is no such thing as both the Nintendo World Store and the Pokemon Center; the former actually replaced the latter as of this past spring), but, in my opinion, the store represents just how little gaming energy or innovation is here on the East Coast. Have you been before? I went two months ago, and was very disappointed. The store is directed almost entirely at casual consumers and very young gamers - it lacks any fanboy or adult feel. It’s almost a symbol of the cold consumerism that characterizes the market on this side of the country.

Besides, the issue at hand isn’t that the East Coast is ignored. We’re not going to get more attention until there’s more of us to pay attention to. And, either way, there isn’t really a good or bad in this situation, just an attempt to better understand American gamers.

And Illidan, you’re opening up a whole other can of worms :-) - the geography of European gaming, which I personally understand even less than gaming in the USA, though I’d be really interested if you or anyone else had any thoughts on the topic. I would contest you, however, and say that there is a English gaming community, but that perhaps, since it’s entirely English-speaking, it sometimes gets subsumed in our American gaming culture.

Any Europeans out there? Tell us more!

While gaming *IS* in Europe, it’s not in Spain or England; 4k.Grubby, SK.Madfrog, clan Mouz, etc are all from France, Germany, or the Nordik countries, I think.

But I don’t think concentrations of Asians has anything to do with concentrations of gamers. Stereotyping much?

The reasons some game developers base their operations in the midwest is, I suspect, due to the lower costs of living.

Also, it seems as the years have gone on, that Hollywood is getting more involved with the gaming industry. Just look at all those movie related games. And, the West Coast, I believe, has the highest concentration of Asians in the country, again simply because it’s right across the Pacific. In the same way that Miami (where I live) has probably the highest population of South American and Caribbean hispanics in this country (this does not inclucde Mexicans as they are from Central America).

I do however agree that the industry as a whole would benefit from giving a little more attention to their East Coast consumers. We line their pockets too! :)