The third 01Net Article is up. I’m really enjoying these articles because of it gives us something to talk about in a slow news month. It is also amazing to watch certain Nintendo fans become unhinged over some articles on the Internet. If it is so wrong, then why all the commotion?
The article starts off with a clarification to say that the ‘tone down the 3DS’ does not mean a new 3DS without the 3d, but to not spotlight the 3d output. That is extremely disappointing. As long as any Nintendo handheld has 3d output, I will never buy it. I will not pay for such an expensive feature I will never use.
It was too much to hope for a removal of 3d output. Remember that Nintendo has a sick, sick obsession with 3d. They’ll never give it up. They’d rather destroy the company before they stop their 3d obsession. Remember the investor who asked Iwata that, “Maybe the 3DS not selling shows that 3d output was the wrong way to go?” and Iwata having a cow? It was a good question to ask. But Iwata filibustered an answer by implying anyone who suggests it is the 3d output that is harming the sales is stupid and that the situation is much more complicated. In other words, the question hit a nerve. The sick, sick 3d obsession in Nintendo is their religion, it is the reason why they go to work everyday. The Wii U is nothing more than Nintendo taking control of a display screen so they can transfer to 3d output a generation or two later (since TVs won’t go there). Mark my words.
But let us talk about the article itself.
The ‘Game God’ was originally a PR and marketing move. The source is unhappy that the ‘Game God’ mythology has become real to Nintendo and believes it is hurting innovation and preventing good products. That is the summary of what this 01net article is about.
The source is voicing displeasure at something I’ve been saying for years now. I am sick to death of the ‘Game God’ mythology. I believe the ‘Game God’ mythology has been the most destructive thing ever to occur to gaming. All these young people, who don’t want to get a real job, now forgo learning programming or marketing or sales in order to learn about video games. They want to ’embrace their creativity’. So all these young people throw themselves at the Video Game Industry and get grind up in the machine.
The origin of making games for one’s creativity and not making games to make customers comes entirely from the ‘Game God Mythology’. “Miyamoto embraced his creativity and put his personality into the game, therefore, we should do the same.” And none of that is true. Shigeru Miyamoto is not a genius. The true genius is Hiroshi Yamauchi who no one wants to mention because he does ‘business’ which is supposed to be bad or something. Gunpei Yokoi did more for the company than someone like Miyamoto did, but you do not see him mentioned and not even by Nintendo. Why? He’s deceased so he can’t give interviews to the press. It is all PR and marketing. The Game God isn’t real, folks.
Do you want to be successful in entertainment? You need to know about sales and marketing. You need to know the business side. It is not about making the ‘best made entertainment’. It is about making the ‘best selling entertainment’. This is basic 101 stuff that everyone should know.
But not in gaming. In gaming, the focus is on nonsense like ‘creativity’ and ‘personality’. The only personalities that matter are the customers’ personalities. Video game development is not a process where someone goes to ‘find himself’. It is not about self-satisfaction.
Iwata said this once in the ‘Heart of the Gamer’ speech. This was right before the Wii sales explosion. Note that Iwata no longer says these things. And notice how Nintendo’s fortunes have turned around just as suddenly.
I always assumed the business side of Nintendo did not believe in the ‘Game God mythology’. If they do, then Nintendo is in serious trouble because there will be no check on the creative side’s madness.
Some people are pointing out the source talking about the ‘treasure chest of prototypes’. Nintendo seems more interested in being a laboratory for gameplay instead of a game company. They keep making experiments. But note how none of it is in the game content? The content of the game, which is the substance the player consumes (while the gameplay is HOW the player consumes it), is not added on only as an after-thought.
Let us pretend I made a company called Malstrom Inc. that had an army of writers who put out books. What no one realized is that inside the company, we had a ‘laboratory’ where we experimented with different and new types of writing techniques and experiments in rhetoric. We eventually forget about the purpose of a book. We just take the content of our previous best selling books and put them in a new rhetorical form. WHAT you read doesn’t change but only in HOW you read it.
This is exactly the wrong path Nintendo has been on. Focusing on the ‘how’ in gaming is focusing only on the rhetorical parts. It is irrelevant. What needs to be focused on is the ‘what’ and, even more important, the ‘why’ as in “Why should I even play video games?”
The source sounds frustrated that Nintendo has made this giant stockpile of prototypes which they do not use. But I think it is because Nintendo is more interested in being a gaming laboratory rather than satisfying gamers.