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https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/shigeru-miyamoto-wants-to-create-a-kinder-world>
"In 1977, Shigeru Miyamoto joined Nintendo, a company then known for
selling toys, playing cards, and trivial novelties. Miyamoto was
twenty-four, fresh out of art school. His employer, inspired by the
success of a California company named Atari, was hoping to expand into
video games. Miyamoto began tinkering with a story about a carpenter, a
damsel in distress, and a giant ape. The result, Donkey Kong, débuted in
1981. Four years later, Miyamoto had turned the carpenter into a
plumber; Mario, and the Super Mario Bros. franchise, had arrived. But
Miyamoto wanted more. Tired of linear, side-scrolling mechanics, he
yearned to conjure the open world and carefree adventures of his
childhood in Sonobe, a town just west of Kyoto. In 1986, Nintendo
released The Legend of Zelda.
By 1993, when the journalist David Sheff published “Game Over: How
Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and
Enslaved Your Children,” Miyamoto was widely considered the most
important video-game designer in history. Although he benefits from the
fact that most games are made by sprawling teams, which require a
figurehead to whom players can attribute credit (or blame), he remains a
nearly legendary figure. His games have sold hundreds of millions of
copies; he played a major role in designing the Wii; he’s as much
Nintendo’s mascot as the characters he’s created. (Rumors that he might
retire have had an immediate effect on the company’s stock price.) But
though he’s become famous, the idea that Miyamoto is doing much
“zapping” is laughable. For one thing, he’s always shunned the shooting
games that now dominate the medium. His aim, which he pursues with a
strict, almost fanatical devotion, is to elicit joy."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
