Touch 4 Tech

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What is French-Touch.tech

categories: misc

Authors: Oberron , Rezpe , Rezpe & Oberron , sebas ,

What is the french way ?

We know some old cliches: the accent, the cuisine, the glamour (as shown in the french bashing documentary). It is an abstract concept that is difficult to describe. We can start perhaps to grasp this concept by listing some well known french actors in the world.

In the dance music industry, the french touch is a very influencial EDM (Euro Dance Music) type of music, known for

its characteristics which include disco samples, robotic vocals and heavy filter and phaser effects.

Those were very successful in the 90’s but now they are showing their aging.

In the videogame industry, Ubisoft is a well established brands with a very unique graphical and story-telling style. They are the creators of series like Assasin’s Creed or Far Cry, that were very original at the time and put Ubisoft in the list of AAA games developper. However, they have not innovated since then, which can be seen in the opinion of some gamers.

I guess you start to see the pattern. Same can be said about the nuclear energy in France, the education system with the Grandes Ecoles, the french traditional cuisine, … Even the french luxury brands are surviving not thanks to traditional customers but asian people who are discovering the brand now.

So it is interesting to understand why this is happening in the french industry. I think the main reason this happens relies on the way french cultivate excellence. They do not nurture creativity or motivate people. Instead, they rely on a very strict and rigurous selection system that provides almost all the ressources to a few in the top. Every school or system is ranked and the top 10 almost get all ressources. This means that the cost of not being in the top is REALLY high and explains why change is not permitted once you are in the top. This can be applied to almost any field in France.

So how does France renew itself then ? Well, outside of this ranking system, there are many people who have been left out or have chosen not to be part of it. France has one of the most creative startup systems in the world (and if they are not in the France they are somewhere else). Ebay founder is french for instance. The french indie game ecosystem is very powerful winning regularly prizes on worldwide events.

So what are they waiting for to be well known ? They need the big players to give them the opportunity which can only happen if they disappear or consumers switch massively to the new products. Agar.io started as a prototype and has now millions of players wordwide. Dofus started as a pet project of two french guys and they have now television series and more videogames.

And so the cycle starts again.

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