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Shigeru Miyamoto, The Walt Disney of Our Time
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun May 25, 2008 03:39 PM
from the thirty-years-of-fun dept.
from the thirty-years-of-fun dept.
circletimessquare writes "The New York Times has a gushing portrait of Shigeru Miyamoto. His creative successes have spanned almost 30 years, from Donkey Kong, to Mario (as well known as Mickey Mouse around the world, the story notes), to Zelda, to the Wii, and now to Wii Fit — which according to some initial rumors is selling out across the globe in its debut. The article has some gems of insight into the man's thinking, including that his iconic characters are an afterthought. Gameplay comes first, and the characters are designed around that. Additionally, his fame and finances and ego are refreshingly modest for someone of his high regard and creative stature: 'despite being royalty at Nintendo and a cult figure, he almost comes across as just another salaryman (though a particularly creative and happy one) with a wife and two school-age children at home near Kyoto. He is not tabloid fodder, and he seems to maintain a relatively nondescript lifestyle.'"
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You know what that means! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You know what that means! (Score:5, Informative)
It's an urban legend that Walt Disney became increasingly interested in cryogenics in his later years, requested to be frozen when he died, and was frozen after he died.
All three parts are untrue. It's impossible to rule out that Walt Disney had even heard of cryogenics, but there's certainly no proof he did, let alone that he became obsessed with the idea. He was, in fact, cremated, the polar opposite of being frozen, if there is one!
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Too creative to be "super-rich"? (Score:3, Funny)
That darn Yamauchi took all Miyamoto's money to the top of a steel girded ramp and started throwing barrels down at Miyamoto!
If that is the case... (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe not the best comparison (Score:5, Insightful)
A creative force to be reckoned with, to be sure. However, not a terribly ethical individual on the other hand.
I can easily see how the analogy works, though I'm not quite sure I'd like to be compared to Walt Disney....
Why not (Score:5, Insightful)
Characters vs Gameplay (Score:5, Interesting)
It fits in nicely with the reason the Wii works -- it's about gameplay, and everything else is secondary.
Wrong Hayao Miyazaki already owns that title. (Score:4, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki [wikipedia.org]
Also do yourself a huge favor and see Grave of Fireflies by Isao Takahata. It's a Studio Ghibli film by Miyasaki's long time friend and partner. Its incredible, especially since its based on a real story.
Learn about Isao Takahata here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahata_Isao [wikipedia.org]
Re:Japanese not creative? (Score:5, Insightful)
Umm... how many Japanese people do you know?
I haven't noticed any lack of creativity. They do seem a bit more preoccupied with consensus and protocol, which gives the appearance of a lack of spontaneity, but don't let that fool you the way it fooled the American automotive industry, or the semiconductor world, or the consumer electronics world (or the anime world...).
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Re:Japanese not creative? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Depends which ones you watch? (Score:5, Informative)
Still, there are tons of great anime that are really creative. Death Note springs to mind. I can't think of anything else where the suspense was that strong, or where the characters were that intelligent.
I know some will say that 'anything popular is crap', but Bleach & Naruto have very engaging stories, too (the manga, not the crappy Naruto filler). I admit, those two are getting a little long in the tooth, but at the outset, they were on the top of their game.
And once you get into lesser-known series (say, Hikaru no Go, Kekkaishi, Rental Magica, REC, Hayate no Gotoku, Dennou Coil, Code-E, Bamboo Blade, or Akagi) you'll find that there's a lot more to be had than robots, sentai and tentacle porn.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've seen some good writing, and a smart section or two, but Death Note towers above most series in that category. It's simply and absolutely phenomenal how the author can keep up that level of engagement.
If you find any, let me know, too! Even just with an OT comment as an AC to some random, recent comment. I'd love to find more anime like Death Note in terms of intelligence (or
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Re:Japanese not creative? (Score:5, Insightful)
However, if the situation in the US is remotely like that in the UK, I doubt that it was this "creativity" that let them take over the car industry. While they may have released some interesting cars over the years, the ones that brought them success in the UK were hardly radical or interesting.
No, let me rephrase that; they *were* radical in that (unlike most British cars of the 1970s) they included nice stuff like car radios as standard, were good value for money, and most notably were reliable. (Okay, so the early ones rusted badly in the UK climate, but so did a lot of cars at that time, and they seemed to get round that quite quickly).
But interesting in terms of design and appearance mass-market Japanese cars of the 1970s-1990s certainly weren't. In fact, I daresay that it's many of those cars that gave them a reliable-but-unimaginative reputation.
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Re:Japanese not creative? (Score:5, Insightful)
What is clear that many countries, particularly in Asia, are really good at teaching children to pass tests, while other countries, such as the US, tended to have a much less goal oriented, less standardized, curriculum which could be argued to foster creativity. A reasonable intelligent and creative person could get through the social hazing project we called school, perhaps get through college, and then get on with the American past time or creating wealth. of course this left some people without an education, which is why we are now obsessed with tests. Make sure that every students is educated to same remedial level, just like the rest of the world. And before commenting on who smart the immigrants you meet on the street are, remember that those are the best of the best.
In any case, the issue with american car makers is not one of intelligence or creativity, but one of arrogance. It was basically assumed that chauvinism would prevail and that people, in a free market that uses competition to fuel innovation no less, choose an inferior more expensive product. The arrogance cost the automakers thier bussinesses, and the American Taxpayers untold millions in a bailout.
The sad thing is that much of what the japanese did, at least to some degree, was to apply US technology. The US auto manufacturers would not invest in applying the technology. The US manufacturers would not plan for the rainy day. They felt the US government would take care of them with protectionist measures and bailouts, just like now. Back in 2000 it was written that oil prices were going to plummet due to oversupply, even though growth in India and Japan made it clear that the competition for the commodity was at best going to keep prices stable, and more than likely cause modest growth. So they continued to count on legislative loopholes and other sweetheart deals and continued to produce cars that now has us with only two, and perhaps one, viable auto maker.
Which is to nothing is simple. In the US we turn out all sorts of people, many who are innovative and creative. If one limits the sample to college prep school, we produce test takers to rival anyone in the world. We are a vibrant enough country with the best integration skills so we can attract the best talent. Which is good, because after about the third generation, it seems taht the ability of an US person to be innovative in the marketplace sags. Which is why our car industry is kaput. The hungry bugger nipping at our toes simply has more to gain, so works harder to get it. Most of us eat and have a reasonable place to stay no matter how lazy we are.
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Re:Japanese not creative? (Score:5, Insightful)
My old officemate from Singapore, who only lived here (Japan) 3 years as opposed to my 7, figured it out, I think.
Historically, Japan has had a highly connected, functioning, modern economy for much longer than most places. Even though they were technologically backward when the West came chugging in, socially, they may have been better developed. This might explain why they were able to retool and thrive even as the world political landscape changed in the late 1800s. It was a matter of acquiring new physical tools, not new values (there were some radical changes in values as well--but not to the extent that, say, Papua New Guinea faces).
Because of this, part of the culture is an understanding that you are just a cog in a machine. The downside to that is that I find that people are generally incompetent, by my standards. BUT, get them in their field, and they are often stunning. They know absolutely everything about it, and it consumes their mental life. I mean, if they care. The mean is just kinda plodding along, same as anywhere.
So, whereas we conceptualize creativity as a trait which will manifest itself everywhere, it may be that the Japanese simply focus on one single thing. This would explain a lot, like how a nation where seemingly no one knows how an internal combustion engine works, even conceptually, can be the unchallenged master of the world automotive industry...
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Re:Japanese not creative? (Score:5, Insightful)
That is exactly what a lot of Asian economies seem to actually want. It seems they fear they will lose their work ethic if they outsource the "real work" to cheaper nations, and thus they keep their currencies artificially low and do not help boost local consumption. The US instead outsources a lot of the detailed work, turning us into marketers and lawyers instead of actual "producers". Whether this is a good thing or not depends on what you want to achieve. It has killed our manufacturing base and is eating into programming and hands-on tech jobs, but also gives us lots of shinny cheap trinkets and fat cars.
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However, it is evident that if it were possible for Barrack to shatter that stereotype, conditions would have to be such that the stereotype had the unfortunate circumstance of also being true.
So it's actually a pretty condescending thing to say about blacks that they would need some public figure to "dispel"
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
When the Japanese first learned about RPGs, they saw it associated mainly with roguelike games, due to a lack of proper tabletop RPGs exposure. What they only took about that was the fact that you're a guy inside a dungeon looting treasure and killing monsters... Which was exactly what the American idealization of what an RPG was tried to avoid. The Japanese built on that concept and completely strayed away from what an RPG truly means. T
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Re:The decay of time (Score:5, Insightful)
Starting with the N64/Playstation era, games have become much, MUCH easier, as a whole. Realistic save features, in-game tutorials, and more coherent hints at how to accomplish certain tasks make these newer games easier, to name a few reasons. Basically, a game doesn't have to be impossible anymore to give the player a decent amount of time with the game. Also, companies realized more people will be satisfied with a game when they can actually beat it.
True, some old games were not tough-as-nails difficult (especially from the SNES era, like Super Mario World, as you mentioned -- they started getting easier, already, then), but many of them were. These games have already lost their appeal, mostly. The more accessible games have not, but the younger generation of gamers are not as turned on by these games as they are newer games.
I think the original poster has a point that in 50 years people will not want to play these games. Some people will, but not the mainstream. Games will probably be similar to other media, like music and (as the OP alluded to) movies. For instance, I like music from when my parents were kids, but not much before that. There are a lot of people who are into classical music, and silent films, and old media, but these people are very niche. In 50 years, there will be people who enjoy playing Pacman, Super Mario World, and Grand Theft Auto IV, but this will not be mainstream taste among gamers.
As a side note, I will add my prediction that games like GTA IV and Guitar Hero will probably be even less recognized than Pacman or Mario games, in the distant future. The GTA series is very much a reflection of modern pop-culture, and thus, I would argue, has more of a time-stamp on it. Pong, Pacman, Space Invaders, Zelda, and Spore, for example, will age better, as the concepts behind them do not bear such a time-stamp.
This is one reason Miyamoto is reasonably heralded as such a genius. Not only is he responsible for resurrecting the industry, as well as ushering it into the mainstream, but the concepts he creates are enduring. They are not to be bogged down by ties to what is now modern and soon to be outmoded. His ideas are quite timeless, although clearly the technology that delivers them is not.
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Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sid Meier
Will Wright
John Carmack
John Romero
Richard Garriot
Satoshi Tajiri
Hideo Kojima
Hironobu Sakaguchi
Peter Molyneux (Who I consider the Uwe Boll of gaming)
In terms of brand power and overall sales I'd say Tajiri (Pokemon) and Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts) are perhaps on par. They aren't nearly as 'iconic' though.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)