Topic: Miyamoto on GTA, plus Will Wright and Hideo Kojima on Miyamoto

[Gamefreak]

Over at Gamespy, they've got a couple of interviews going on, which can be found right here.
Or if you are lazy...
Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto
Interview with Hideo Kojima
Interview with Will Wright
EDIT: I forgot this one: Interview with Miyamoto, Dyack, and Kojima

Miyamoto has looked at GTA, and he thinks the overall concept, especially the freedom you have in the city, is very well done. He thinks that it is selling well because of the gameplay, and not the graphics. In fact, he seems happy that a game with not so great graphics, as he puts it (and I agree), is selling so well in a time where everyone seems to care about what is supposedly cutting edge. When asked about moral issues of GTA, he says that people shouldn't make games just to piss off people like parents, but at the same time games like GTA shouldn't be considered bad just because a few people don't like it. When asked about him working on adult-oriented games, he says he is interested in working with other people on adult games (like he did with Eternal Darkness and is doing with MGS: The Twin Snakes), but at the same time there is still a lot of things that can be done in the for all ages department.

Moving on to Kojima, it turns out his favorite system is not the PS2, GCN, or Xbox, but actually the GBA. He especially likes the fact that when you make GBA games, the development team is small and like a family. When asked about Miyamoto, he says that he respects him more than anyone and is not quite sure if he deserves to be able to work with him in MGS: The Twin Snakes.

Will Wright seems to know Miyamoto a good bit more than anyone would think. He spent a week with him in Japan when they first met, and his 16 year old anime-lovin' daughter went to Kyoto and went sightseeing and bike-riding with Miyamoto's son and daughter (17 and 24). Wright and his daughter have also been playing Wind Waker lately. There's also a few tidbits about the new GBA Sims...  

[PIAC]

i just read all 3 interveiws, very very interesting

makes me wish that all the top game designers could work togeather on a super be all end all game of some description, ohwell

[Gamefreak]

Well it did happen before...well for RPG's anyway Remember Chrono Trigger was created by the "dream team". But hey, it was probably the best RPG ever...

[mouse_clicker]

I believe Miyamoto and Will Wright became friends when Miyamoto first played SimCity when it was first released. He loved it so much he asked Will Wright if he'd make a version of it for the NES, which he did. After that they became very good friends.

I completely agree with Miyamoto's opinion on GTA, though, and I think it'll come as a shock to fanboys who think he'd hate it. I kinda disagree that it sells because of the gameplay, though- no doubt it's an extremely fun game to play, a real gem in the business, but I think it sells mainly because of the content. People want to seem like they're breaking rules, to be rebelious, and what better way to do just that than buy a game like GTA. Good thing the game's really good, anyway.

[Gamefreak]

BMX XXX broke the rules even more...and sold a whopping 50,000 or so... No, all the kids in my school ran out and bought Vice City because it was fun as heck. As for SimCity, there was one on NES? I thought the only Nintendo version was on the SNES.

[mouse_clicker]

Yeah, good point about BMX XXX. I still think image had a large part to do about GTA 3's popularity, though.

Hmm... I could've sworn there was an NES release of SimCity, but I could be wrong. In any case, it's there because Miyamoto really liked it.

[Gamefreak]

Well according to Gamespot's database, I just found out that there was no Simcity for NES.

Anyway, I missed another interview, it is a with Mr. Dyack, Mr. Miyamoto, and Mr. Kojima. I will update the original topic with it. In it Miyamoto says that the reason he couldn't show Mario (and other games) at E3 was because they were focusing on connectivity titles. But he said don't worry, EAD is hard at work on traditional games, including new Mario and Donkey Kong games...

[Grey Ninja]

I agree with Mouse Clicker.  GTA sells based on the "cool" factor of owning the game, and the violence second.  It does have its moments, but the overall package is too distasteful for me to stomach.  My own perception of the game is quite similar to Denis Dyack's.  It's not all that bad of a game on its own, but it's taking the industry in the totally wrong direction.

BMX XXX didn't sell because the gameplay was matched by better games, such as Dave Mirra's BMX 2, or THPS, and the titties didn't look good.

DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball sold because the titties looked good.

[Gamefreak]

But why did GTA become "cool" in the first place? Because of the great gameplay - you were free to do whatever you want in a huge city. That's what sold the game initially. It wasn't until after kids started buying it like crazy did all the bad press come in, and of course after that, it sold even more.

But the only reason it sold in the first place was because it was a great game. If it had the same concept but was just plain crappy, it wouldn't have sold well.

As for DOAX, the reason that is selling at all is because it is made and marketed for the sex-deprived high school/college boy-pervert. It's like Baywatch or something. GTA on the other hand, isn't marketed as that sort of product, it's the same type of game as GTA has always been, except in 3D. DMA/Rockstar North didn't make GTA for porn-watching kids, unlike what Tecmo did with DOAX...

[Grey Ninja]

I'm not disputing that GameFreak.  The gameplay was something completely new and innovative when first introduced.  It sold for that reason.  But it became massively big because of the violence and generally the stuff about the game I find distasteful.

[Gamefreak]

Completely new and innovative? Not at all. The gameplay was exactly the same as GTA2, and the new 3D look was taken directly from Midtown Madness and Driver for PC. It wasn't new at all, or innovative.  

[Grey Ninja]

I meant GTA1.    GTA3 was vastly superior as it was in 3D, and still worked.

[Gamefreak]

But GTA1 sold like crap. Anyway...

[Grey Ninja]

You know what?  You are right... maybe there is something more to the "gameplay isn't what sells the game" argument about GTA3.    It took 3 games for it to become "cool".

[Termin8Anakin]

There is no doubt that GTA3 sold because of the content.
Seriously, when I was in school last year, I go on the bus every day and all I hear are the kids talking about how cool GTA3 is because you can kill so many people, steal so many cars and do so much other illiegal stuff. Not that it's bad cause games after all provide something for us to do that we couldn't do in real life, but what I'm getting at is that the kids, if they can't burn the game, will onyl say that it's an innovative game, and there's so much freedom to do stuff so that they can get their parents to buy it for them.

Of course, not all kids have to do this, as some parents will buy their kids anything just to keep them happy.  

[ThePerm]

meh, the game plays similar to a cross between zelda and metal gear..the aiming and shooting is taken strait from mgs and the fist and bat beating is remicent of sword fighting in zelda(though less refined) and stealing a car can be compared to getting on a horse in zelda.  

[VideoGamerX]

I really enjoyed reading those interviews, especially Will Wright's and Miyamoto's.

The first thing I want to attend to is Gamefreak's comment about SimCity not being on the NES. Surely you know that Mouse_Clicker meant the Super Nintendo. SimCity was best on the Super Nintendo and anyone who played it probably loved that game (especially if you were a sim freak way back when sims were still being born). It was jam packed full of Nintendo-isms. The game had a very heavy Nintendo theme to it on the Super Nintendo (including the Mario statue that warded off raids of the King Koopa monster that would rise up in Godzilla-esque fashion). SimCity continued to appear on gaming consoles until SimCity 3000, I believe. With the rise of computer gaming and the ease and creative freedom of the PC, simulation games lost their strong point on consoles and weren't as marketable (my reasoning as to why we don't see many Sim games on consoles).

Maybe it's just me, but this one quote from Shigeru really stood out and has me thinking about the direction of the Mario series:

Quote
One thing that has hurt the Mario games ... Taking them into 3D, while it has expanded the worlds, has shrunk the user base. By going into 3D the games have become more complicated. Before that, the Mario games were the type of thing that anybody could pick up and play very easily. By going into the 3D world, we have limited who that game is accessible to.

Anyone else think this might be a hint of Mario returning to side-scrolling action? I mean, obviously, the technology has been refined enough that side-scrolling games could make a big return, especially 3D side-scrollers like what we saw in the Adventure mode of Smash Brothers: Melee. If I could have an interview with Miyamoto, I'd specifically like to ask him what his thoughts are on that type of game.

Personally, I think it was designed around the Super Mario Brothers platforming concept. Look how well the Mushroom Kingdom stage turned out with deep beautiful backgrounds that show off the 3D technology well. The side-scrolling gameplay was perfect in my opinion and made the Adventure mode one of my favorite parts of the game.

[Oldskool]

Hello! I'm new here!! This is my first post!

That feels odd coming from Miyamoto. But at least he is sticking up for the ISDA's cause, who are trying to defend videogames from Parents, stupid Republican-backed groups, and Joe Lieberman!!!

[Gamefreak]

But Miyamoto is also against games like BMX XXX, which were made just to push boundaries and make people mad. He said game makers need to be careful about their content and think about the consequences, but at the same time games shouldn't be ruined for everyone just because one or two people don't like them. So he's not really on any one side. He's saying designers need to learn, and parents/gov't need to learn too.

But he's safe over in Japan, where there aren't any crazy Senators running around in support of genrecide. OK, that was bad...

[KirbySStar]

Uh hello!  Joe Lieberman is a Democrat.  What's this Republican crap?  Anyway interesting read.  I like Miyamoto's stance on it.  Kojima's got some wacky ideas there.  Imagine just beating a game and then you press eject or open the lid and suddenly the game isn't there anymore.  A cheap game that dissolves after you beat it would be really freaky.  I heard a while back that the text in the manuals for Eternal Darkness would disapear if you left it in the open air for too long so that you'd look at it and then come back and be all like WOAH!  Anyway that never happened with my copy.  Big disappointment.  Did it happen for any of yours?  A very intersting read indeed.

[Hostile Creation]

I read Miyamoto and Wright and basically agree.  Miyamoto is a cool dude.

[Mario]

Maybe, just maybe, Miyamoto likes GTA3 because its a really good game. Sorry fanboys but you have to admit, GTA3 is a pretty damn good game.

[Gamefreak]

No one says it isn't. I have GTA3 for PC and I love randomly starting it up and driving around. The same reason I liked Midtown Madness a few years ago...

[ShockingAlberto]

Quote
Originally posted by: KirbySStar
Uh hello!  Joe Lieberman is a Democrat.  What's this Republican crap?

That's why he said "and Joe Lieberman".  Plus, Lieberman is an exception.  Most democrats are not for censorship.  Most Republican leaders are.  It's simply the way the platforms are drawn.  I'm completely against video game censorship, anyway.  That's what ratings are for!

"Joe Lieberman...for people who want to vote for Bush, but don't think he's Jewish enough," - John Stewart

-- ShockingAlberto  

[Syl]

great interviews.  Im actually verry surprised that *Everyone* that meets miyamoto treats him like "O my god! its miyamoto! I'm so lucky!) ( http://www.penny-arcade.com/fuckme.gif ).  And they all seem to agree with what he says for the most part.  Miyamoto knows how to make a good game.  For that, I am glad. =).

Im not that surprised that he enjoyed/played GTA III, he DOES have 2 children, ones 17, ones 24.  They most likely have the system to begin with.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if miyamoto owns a playstation and xbox, he seems to critique games that he play's, thats probably why he wanted to hook up with Hideo about MGS so much.  Miyamoto knows a good game when he plays one.  

I remember Simcity for SNES, good game, lol.  it did have a heavy nintendo influence, i actually believe it was published by nintendo and not Maxim.

Miyamoto seems to enjoy collaborating with game devolopers he "deems worthy" i guess would be the word..  And ive yet to see this backfire.  
(Chrono trigger's team was Square, Enix and DBZ artist, right.  Its seriously one of the best RPG's of all time.  And i love my copy of it for SNES.  -I also just picked up "Secret of Mana" for snes yesterday, it seems to be very similar.)