Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-104.51.53.50-20150415225527/@comment-220.255.4.23-20150423032103

I think depending on how things are handled, adding US girls might actually exacerbate any so-called anti-US sentiment amongst players.

Case 1: US girls are added and are given noticably superior stats or at least superior equipment.

Needless to say, the USN supporters would be very pleased, while the ones that don't would grumble, and the ones who don't care either way would just be happy to have some more good shipgirls in the fleet. But this itself will not be the problem. The real issue will not be with the shipgirls themselves but would instead be the players; there will enough trolls and people who simply can't read the bloody mood among the pro-USN folks to make every one of them look bad (just like there will be similar black sheep in every community). Expect these jackasses to go around trumpeting how good their US girls are and how bad everyone else is and that anyone who is fond of a non-USN shipgirl is either a noob or a weeaboo/Nazi-lover, etc etc... You get the idea.

Naturally this will ignite flamewars between them and the pro-IJN/Kriegsmarine/Regia Marina people. The thing is such childish behaviour will also alienate them from the neutral players who just want to enjoy KanColle as it is. The neutrals will end up either distancing themselves from the pro-US faction or, if riled enough, come to side the anti-US side instead.

Case 2: US girls are added. For game balance reasons, they are given excellent equipment while their stats that, while good, would place them among the existing upper-tier shipgirls, but not above. In other words, like Prinz Eugen.

Imho, this is the best way to go. And will the pro-US players take to this arrangement? Imho, the sensible ones will, yes. But once again, there will be those who, out of a misplaced nationalism, complain that Kadokawa deliberately make the US shipgirls weaker because of "anti-US, right-winged sentiments". Why yes, blame everything, including efforts to balance a game, on anti-US sentiments, right. Flimsy as it is, expect these people to use this as their proof of Kadokawa's supposed ultra-nationalist inclinations, and expect them also to be loud, persistent and annoying.

Frankly speaking, Case 2 is less likely to incite the so-called anti-US sentiment among pro-IJN/KM/RM and neutral players. Still it won't leave a good impression on the pro-USN folks, especially if they let their complaining get out of hand.

Just my 2 cents. Personally I don't mind having US girls as special "guest stars", which is what every other non-IJN shipgirl is. In fact making them rare and LSC or event exclusive shall make them stand out even more. That said, I feel the Royal Marine should at least come before them, considering Britain's relatively closer ties to Japan prior the war.