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This was pilfered from the Edge Forums. Thanks to the Max M.
****
Thanks to ikachii from the IGN boards for this... It's that interview Beard mentioned where Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil producer) has harsh words to say about PS2.
This guy is great! He really speaks his mind.. it's long but it's well worth the read. He would make a good Edge columnis**t.
Quote:
Plug:
This talk show is presented by Mizuguchi Tetsuya, creater of the "Space Channel 5" series as well as the more recent "Rez", and presently active game analys**t Hirabayashi Hisakazu. In this program, the two hos**ts discuss inside s**tories in the game indus**try as well as cultural topics born out of such discussion. Expect to hear a lot of information here that you won't here anywhere else! A variety of gues**ts, from individuals in the game indus**try to even politicians, will s**top by to offer their opinions on the topics at hand! Of course, this program wouldn't be complete without the support of "Urara"!
In this particular broadcas**t, which represents the second half of a special interview with Capcom's Mikami Shinji, Mr. Mikami directs some shocking s**tatements towards the unsuspecting Japanese public!
"The Tokyo Game Lounge", featuring Mizuguchi Tetsuya and Hirabayashi Hisakazu.
The two hos**ts welcome Capcom game developer Mikami Shinji, who has jus**t returned to Tokyo from Osaka [*city in wes**tern Japan] to appear on the show for the second week in a row. They mention the hot weather that day and how Mikami had literally jus**t returned by the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) "Nozomi". They joke about not liking Nozomi very much.
They discuss that although las**t week's discussion revolved around games themselves, this week would revolve around something other than games -- the "true nature of the game creator".
Firs**t, they basically ask Mikami how he's doing recently, what's going through his mind recently. Mikami pauses for a moment and says "Nihonjin wa ahou ka tte". [*"I've been thinking that maybe the Japanese are pretty s**tupid." I almos**t laughed out loud when I heard this.]
His example of this "s**tupidity" is that after Japan los**t in the World Cup, they proceeded to mimic David Beckam's [*English soccer player] hairs**tyle and began supporting South Korea. [*I found this equally amusing.] He mentions that there are at leas**t three people in his office that have this hairs**tyle, and critizes them [*in a very Japanese-s**tyle joking manner, called "tsukkomi"] for denying that they're trying to look like foreigners.
They joke a bit more about Beckam and talk about soccer a little more. The hos**ts ask if Mikami went the World Cup, etc. [*He said he went to the Japan/Brazil match.]
In fact, they proceed to talk about nothing but soccer for about 2 min. Mikami praises Brazil in particular and makes an amusing joke about the "rigid efficiency" of the German soccer team. [*For a game developer, Mikami apparantly has a great sense of humor.]
This is when they return to the "Nihonjin wa ahou ya na" ("Japanese are s**tupid") motif -- and Mikami's firs**t example is the popularity of Kingdom Hearts.
Mikami says, in no soft or implicit terms, that he finds the popularity of a game like Kingdom Hearts both surprising and ridiculous. Despite Disney being for women and kids [*as he says], the game found itself both targeted and successful with an adult market.
He then brings up his own Biohazard remake, which came out the las**t week of March slightly before Kingdom Hearts. He comments on an episode he has when he was watching people's reaction to Kingdom Hearts as it was being displayed on a s**tore monitor. He saw a pair of girls look intensely at the game, eventually walk by it, then pause and be like "Actually, I want this..." Mikami's reaction to this is like "What!? What are you, s**tupid?!"
[*Judging from his accent, Mikami appears to be from Kansai, which would explain in part his great sense of humor (Japanese from Kansai are famous for this).]
As a follow-up example to this, he brings up a secretary working in his own office. She also made a lot of noise about how much she wanted Kingdom Hearts, and eventually bought a copy. Mikami said to her: "Why the hell did you buy that game? I bet you don't even know the difference between Pooh and Goofy." :lol
Mikami then talks about a guy who keeps a Winnie the Pooh bank near his desk area. To prove that the girl didn't even know who or what Pooh [*called "kuma (bear) no Puu" in Japan] originally was, they altered the ears, eyes etc. of the Pooh bank with a magic marker. Sure enough, the girl had no idea that it was a even a little different from the original Pooh. Finally, despite the Pooh looking downright retarded by that point, the secretary finally said, "This Pooh -- isn't it a bit -- different...?" This delayed reaction caused Mikami to think "Why the hell is this girl buying a Disney-based game...?" [*meaning she had no real basic idea of what the characters really looked liked]
It's here that Mikami enters a discussion about the PlayStation 2, and about how well it's selling.
In particular, Mikami comments on the sales of the "Ocean Blue" PS2 [*limited edition blue PS1 2; I'm sure you guys know about it}
In a recent trip to a Yodobashi Camera [*Japanese electronics chain] las**t Saturday to purchase a replacement hair dryer, Mikami decided to s**top by the games section before going home. Upon doing so, he was surprised at how low the pile of "white boxes" [containing the blue PS2] was. His reaction was "Damn, these are selling more than the software!"
One of the hos**ts offers that these sales are possibly attributed to individuals owning multiple PS2s, but Mikami theorizes that the PS2 easily breaking is the reason forces people to replace the machine -- Mikami uses his own PS2, for which the loading process is slow, as an example. He goes so far as to say that this is a calculated move on the part of Sony -- having sales genereated from purchases of new sys**tems to replace defective machines [*Note: In Japan, nobody ever gets anything fixed when it's broken. They jus**t replace it.] This is the real reason for the skyrocketing sales of the PS2, says Mikami.
He also cites the PS1 as an example as well, saying that he had to buy a replacement when the firs**t bus**ted while playing "Super Robot Taisen." He also says Walkmans and PCs are the same -- firs**t one breaks after 2 years, forcing you to buy a new one.
"It's obvious that these things are being made to break. Why do consumers continue to be quiet?! It's more or less illegal when you think about it!" he rants.
But...consumers continue to buy them...and here comes the next part of Mikami's rant...
One of the hos**ts notes that the software itself isn't selling all that well, and that a lot of people jus**t buy the PS2 for the "wow" [RE: "It's the in-thing right now"] factor. Mikami says this is so characteris**tic of [only] the Japanese -- people buy it because everyone else has it. "Gets me angry jus**t thinking about it" he says. "You're not all elementary school children anymore, right?! Have some individuality!!"
Mikami speculates that this is because the Japanese are like an "agricultural society" of sorts, in that they are interdependent and require cus**toms, regularity etc. He juxtaposes this agains**t a "cas**tle-based peoples" in which everyone is solely concerned with their own territory, their own rules. To use a real-life example, he mentions an experience he had working with a foreigner [*Mikami uses the word "gaijin" here, which is generally considered a derogatory term for a foreigner. Still, this lack of PC is why I think this guy is cool, anyway...] , in which when doing scheduling, the foreigner arbitrarily announced that he would be vacationing on a particular day. Mikami was like "We're discussing scheduling here. Who the hell are you to already s**tate that you'll be taking a vacation?"
All three -- Mikami, the two hos**ts -- concur that "white" individuals in particular have a propensity for doing this (England comes up). Mikami concedes though that perhaps the Japanese work too much.
The next four minutes are spent talking and joking about Japanese work habits -- primarily about how although the Japanese perform a multitude of different tasks in their respective jobs, a lot of it is really unnecessary.
Mikami is asked if there's anything else that p*sses him off recently [*I laughed here.] He mentions taxes, and how sh*tty TV is recently, particularly how even news programs are produced with the priority put on increasing viewership rather than jus**t getting to the point and giving the news. [*Major Japanese TV network NHK takes a verbal beating from Mikami in this part.]
Mikami then discusses the societal and family pressures put on children nowadays, commenting on how these among other factors have resulted in several crimes by young individuals. Some people blame games, he says, but games are completely irrelevant -- someone that can kill someone else has that potential in them to begin with. [*He uses here an amusing metaphor involving the ability of some people to regulaly enjoy "misoshiru" (Japanese soybean soup)]. Parents are avoiding the real problem by blaming games -- it's nonsense, he says.
After discussing the growing inability of Japanese (youth in particular) of solving problems on their own, one of the hos**ts asks Mikami that in creating a game, is there some kind of special process in which the problems facing production of the game are properly identified and addressed before going about making it.
To which Mikami answers: There's always a meeting held to discuss such problems. These meetings have two possible patterns. One: nobody has any idea what the hell the "problems" are. Two: For some miraculous reason, there are no problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, the second pattern never seems to occur. [*Pause for translator laughter.]
He does mention that in the process, particularly when looking to "break the mold" in creating a game, that there are a lot of cases in which risk rears itself. In this case, the game is frequently scrapped altogether.
The three discuss the difference between the "game creator" (the indivudual with the vision and idea behind the game) and the "game des**troyer" (the individual that will emphasize risk firs**t), and how it is important for the former to push forward to make the latter realize the potential of that vision. The latter group (planners, etc.) are often extremely negative and pessismis**tic about the potential success of a game -- *once* in a while there is a agreement of opinion from the outset, but...
There's been a lot of cases up to this point, it's discussed, that a game incorporating a new novel ideal that's expected to become a hit never quite takes off -- in that way, it becomes hard to predict exactly what will go over well and what won't. Mikami offers: "Still, I think there's some cases in which one can definitely say 'This game won't sell'. Like a game in which you eat sh*t, for example." [*Translator laughter]
There's also cases when game planners want to do a game that, although people may have been thinking about it, no one's brought it to the table. However, these games often fail due to failure in executing them properly. The example used here is a game based on rugby -- although it's likely someone's thought of it, and although it actually hasn't been done yet -- is there really any interes**ting way to execute a game based on rugby?
Sometimes it's impossible to execute a certain novel idea in an interes**ting kind of way -- "including a game based on eating sh*t", one of the hos**ts jokes.
Mikami's las**t episode [*this connects with the above] involves one with a Mr. Sugimura from Flagship [*Software?]. Both moved to collaborate with each other on a game during the making of Biohazard 2. Around that time, Mikami received a letter from Sugimura saying "Success is not something achieved outright. It's the result of persis**tence and hard work". Mikami was apparantly very impressed by these words, believing that Sugimura had the proper idea of that games were about [*well at leas**t, Mikami held the same belief about game making that Sugimura]. With this, Mikami decided that he wanted to work with Sugimura. When they firs**t went drinking together [*typical Japanese cus**tom among business associates], Sugimura all of a sudden asked Mikami and his associates, "Would you eat the sh*t of a girl you love?" To which Mikami reacted "What...?" Sugimura was like "Your level is too low! You need to reset your way of thinking! I want you to resign tomorrow!" Reminisces Mikami "Although I more or less unders**tood what he wanted to say, I think his example was a bit extreme..."
The two hos**ts wrap up, thanking Mikami for making the trip from Osaka and ask him to come again.
****
Personally. I thought that was quite an interes**ting read.
Thoughts?
****
Thanks to ikachii from the IGN boards for this... It's that interview Beard mentioned where Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil producer) has harsh words to say about PS2.
This guy is great! He really speaks his mind.. it's long but it's well worth the read. He would make a good Edge columnis**t.
Quote:
Plug:
This talk show is presented by Mizuguchi Tetsuya, creater of the "Space Channel 5" series as well as the more recent "Rez", and presently active game analys**t Hirabayashi Hisakazu. In this program, the two hos**ts discuss inside s**tories in the game indus**try as well as cultural topics born out of such discussion. Expect to hear a lot of information here that you won't here anywhere else! A variety of gues**ts, from individuals in the game indus**try to even politicians, will s**top by to offer their opinions on the topics at hand! Of course, this program wouldn't be complete without the support of "Urara"!
In this particular broadcas**t, which represents the second half of a special interview with Capcom's Mikami Shinji, Mr. Mikami directs some shocking s**tatements towards the unsuspecting Japanese public!
"The Tokyo Game Lounge", featuring Mizuguchi Tetsuya and Hirabayashi Hisakazu.
The two hos**ts welcome Capcom game developer Mikami Shinji, who has jus**t returned to Tokyo from Osaka [*city in wes**tern Japan] to appear on the show for the second week in a row. They mention the hot weather that day and how Mikami had literally jus**t returned by the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) "Nozomi". They joke about not liking Nozomi very much.
They discuss that although las**t week's discussion revolved around games themselves, this week would revolve around something other than games -- the "true nature of the game creator".
Firs**t, they basically ask Mikami how he's doing recently, what's going through his mind recently. Mikami pauses for a moment and says "Nihonjin wa ahou ka tte". [*"I've been thinking that maybe the Japanese are pretty s**tupid." I almos**t laughed out loud when I heard this.]
His example of this "s**tupidity" is that after Japan los**t in the World Cup, they proceeded to mimic David Beckam's [*English soccer player] hairs**tyle and began supporting South Korea. [*I found this equally amusing.] He mentions that there are at leas**t three people in his office that have this hairs**tyle, and critizes them [*in a very Japanese-s**tyle joking manner, called "tsukkomi"] for denying that they're trying to look like foreigners.
They joke a bit more about Beckam and talk about soccer a little more. The hos**ts ask if Mikami went the World Cup, etc. [*He said he went to the Japan/Brazil match.]
In fact, they proceed to talk about nothing but soccer for about 2 min. Mikami praises Brazil in particular and makes an amusing joke about the "rigid efficiency" of the German soccer team. [*For a game developer, Mikami apparantly has a great sense of humor.]
This is when they return to the "Nihonjin wa ahou ya na" ("Japanese are s**tupid") motif -- and Mikami's firs**t example is the popularity of Kingdom Hearts.
Mikami says, in no soft or implicit terms, that he finds the popularity of a game like Kingdom Hearts both surprising and ridiculous. Despite Disney being for women and kids [*as he says], the game found itself both targeted and successful with an adult market.
He then brings up his own Biohazard remake, which came out the las**t week of March slightly before Kingdom Hearts. He comments on an episode he has when he was watching people's reaction to Kingdom Hearts as it was being displayed on a s**tore monitor. He saw a pair of girls look intensely at the game, eventually walk by it, then pause and be like "Actually, I want this..." Mikami's reaction to this is like "What!? What are you, s**tupid?!"
[*Judging from his accent, Mikami appears to be from Kansai, which would explain in part his great sense of humor (Japanese from Kansai are famous for this).]
As a follow-up example to this, he brings up a secretary working in his own office. She also made a lot of noise about how much she wanted Kingdom Hearts, and eventually bought a copy. Mikami said to her: "Why the hell did you buy that game? I bet you don't even know the difference between Pooh and Goofy." :lol
Mikami then talks about a guy who keeps a Winnie the Pooh bank near his desk area. To prove that the girl didn't even know who or what Pooh [*called "kuma (bear) no Puu" in Japan] originally was, they altered the ears, eyes etc. of the Pooh bank with a magic marker. Sure enough, the girl had no idea that it was a even a little different from the original Pooh. Finally, despite the Pooh looking downright retarded by that point, the secretary finally said, "This Pooh -- isn't it a bit -- different...?" This delayed reaction caused Mikami to think "Why the hell is this girl buying a Disney-based game...?" [*meaning she had no real basic idea of what the characters really looked liked]
It's here that Mikami enters a discussion about the PlayStation 2, and about how well it's selling.
In particular, Mikami comments on the sales of the "Ocean Blue" PS2 [*limited edition blue PS1 2; I'm sure you guys know about it}
In a recent trip to a Yodobashi Camera [*Japanese electronics chain] las**t Saturday to purchase a replacement hair dryer, Mikami decided to s**top by the games section before going home. Upon doing so, he was surprised at how low the pile of "white boxes" [containing the blue PS2] was. His reaction was "Damn, these are selling more than the software!"
One of the hos**ts offers that these sales are possibly attributed to individuals owning multiple PS2s, but Mikami theorizes that the PS2 easily breaking is the reason forces people to replace the machine -- Mikami uses his own PS2, for which the loading process is slow, as an example. He goes so far as to say that this is a calculated move on the part of Sony -- having sales genereated from purchases of new sys**tems to replace defective machines [*Note: In Japan, nobody ever gets anything fixed when it's broken. They jus**t replace it.] This is the real reason for the skyrocketing sales of the PS2, says Mikami.
He also cites the PS1 as an example as well, saying that he had to buy a replacement when the firs**t bus**ted while playing "Super Robot Taisen." He also says Walkmans and PCs are the same -- firs**t one breaks after 2 years, forcing you to buy a new one.
"It's obvious that these things are being made to break. Why do consumers continue to be quiet?! It's more or less illegal when you think about it!" he rants.
But...consumers continue to buy them...and here comes the next part of Mikami's rant...
One of the hos**ts notes that the software itself isn't selling all that well, and that a lot of people jus**t buy the PS2 for the "wow" [RE: "It's the in-thing right now"] factor. Mikami says this is so characteris**tic of [only] the Japanese -- people buy it because everyone else has it. "Gets me angry jus**t thinking about it" he says. "You're not all elementary school children anymore, right?! Have some individuality!!"
Mikami speculates that this is because the Japanese are like an "agricultural society" of sorts, in that they are interdependent and require cus**toms, regularity etc. He juxtaposes this agains**t a "cas**tle-based peoples" in which everyone is solely concerned with their own territory, their own rules. To use a real-life example, he mentions an experience he had working with a foreigner [*Mikami uses the word "gaijin" here, which is generally considered a derogatory term for a foreigner. Still, this lack of PC is why I think this guy is cool, anyway...] , in which when doing scheduling, the foreigner arbitrarily announced that he would be vacationing on a particular day. Mikami was like "We're discussing scheduling here. Who the hell are you to already s**tate that you'll be taking a vacation?"
All three -- Mikami, the two hos**ts -- concur that "white" individuals in particular have a propensity for doing this (England comes up). Mikami concedes though that perhaps the Japanese work too much.
The next four minutes are spent talking and joking about Japanese work habits -- primarily about how although the Japanese perform a multitude of different tasks in their respective jobs, a lot of it is really unnecessary.
Mikami is asked if there's anything else that p*sses him off recently [*I laughed here.] He mentions taxes, and how sh*tty TV is recently, particularly how even news programs are produced with the priority put on increasing viewership rather than jus**t getting to the point and giving the news. [*Major Japanese TV network NHK takes a verbal beating from Mikami in this part.]
Mikami then discusses the societal and family pressures put on children nowadays, commenting on how these among other factors have resulted in several crimes by young individuals. Some people blame games, he says, but games are completely irrelevant -- someone that can kill someone else has that potential in them to begin with. [*He uses here an amusing metaphor involving the ability of some people to regulaly enjoy "misoshiru" (Japanese soybean soup)]. Parents are avoiding the real problem by blaming games -- it's nonsense, he says.
After discussing the growing inability of Japanese (youth in particular) of solving problems on their own, one of the hos**ts asks Mikami that in creating a game, is there some kind of special process in which the problems facing production of the game are properly identified and addressed before going about making it.
To which Mikami answers: There's always a meeting held to discuss such problems. These meetings have two possible patterns. One: nobody has any idea what the hell the "problems" are. Two: For some miraculous reason, there are no problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, the second pattern never seems to occur. [*Pause for translator laughter.]
He does mention that in the process, particularly when looking to "break the mold" in creating a game, that there are a lot of cases in which risk rears itself. In this case, the game is frequently scrapped altogether.
The three discuss the difference between the "game creator" (the indivudual with the vision and idea behind the game) and the "game des**troyer" (the individual that will emphasize risk firs**t), and how it is important for the former to push forward to make the latter realize the potential of that vision. The latter group (planners, etc.) are often extremely negative and pessismis**tic about the potential success of a game -- *once* in a while there is a agreement of opinion from the outset, but...
There's been a lot of cases up to this point, it's discussed, that a game incorporating a new novel ideal that's expected to become a hit never quite takes off -- in that way, it becomes hard to predict exactly what will go over well and what won't. Mikami offers: "Still, I think there's some cases in which one can definitely say 'This game won't sell'. Like a game in which you eat sh*t, for example." [*Translator laughter]
There's also cases when game planners want to do a game that, although people may have been thinking about it, no one's brought it to the table. However, these games often fail due to failure in executing them properly. The example used here is a game based on rugby -- although it's likely someone's thought of it, and although it actually hasn't been done yet -- is there really any interes**ting way to execute a game based on rugby?
Sometimes it's impossible to execute a certain novel idea in an interes**ting kind of way -- "including a game based on eating sh*t", one of the hos**ts jokes.
Mikami's las**t episode [*this connects with the above] involves one with a Mr. Sugimura from Flagship [*Software?]. Both moved to collaborate with each other on a game during the making of Biohazard 2. Around that time, Mikami received a letter from Sugimura saying "Success is not something achieved outright. It's the result of persis**tence and hard work". Mikami was apparantly very impressed by these words, believing that Sugimura had the proper idea of that games were about [*well at leas**t, Mikami held the same belief about game making that Sugimura]. With this, Mikami decided that he wanted to work with Sugimura. When they firs**t went drinking together [*typical Japanese cus**tom among business associates], Sugimura all of a sudden asked Mikami and his associates, "Would you eat the sh*t of a girl you love?" To which Mikami reacted "What...?" Sugimura was like "Your level is too low! You need to reset your way of thinking! I want you to resign tomorrow!" Reminisces Mikami "Although I more or less unders**tood what he wanted to say, I think his example was a bit extreme..."
The two hos**ts wrap up, thanking Mikami for making the trip from Osaka and ask him to come again.
****
Personally. I thought that was quite an interes**ting read.
Thoughts?
He he he what a prat.
This was pilfered from the Edge Forums. Thanks to the Max M.
****
Thanks to ikachii from the IGN boards for this... It's that interview Beard mentioned where Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil producer) has harsh words to say about PS2.
This guy is great! He really speaks his mind.. it's long but it's well worth the read. He would make a good Edge columnis**t.
Quote:
Plug:
This talk show is presented by Mizuguchi Tetsuya, creater of the "Space Channel 5" series as well as the more recent "Rez", and presently active game analys**t Hirabayashi Hisakazu. In this program, the two hos**ts discuss inside s**tories in the game indus**try as well as cultural topics born out of such discussion. Expect to hear a lot of information here that you won't here anywhere else! A variety of gues**ts, from individuals in the game indus**try to even politicians, will s**top by to offer their opinions on the topics at hand! Of course, this program wouldn't be complete without the support of "Urara"!
In this particular broadcas**t, which represents the second half of a special interview with Capcom's Mikami Shinji, Mr. Mikami directs some shocking s**tatements towards the unsuspecting Japanese public!
"The Tokyo Game Lounge", featuring Mizuguchi Tetsuya and Hirabayashi Hisakazu.
The two hos**ts welcome Capcom game developer Mikami Shinji, who has jus**t returned to Tokyo from Osaka [*city in wes**tern Japan] to appear on the show for the second week in a row. They mention the hot weather that day and how Mikami had literally jus**t returned by the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) "Nozomi". They joke about not liking Nozomi very much.
They discuss that although las**t week's discussion revolved around games themselves, this week would revolve around something other than games -- the "true nature of the game creator".
Firs**t, they basically ask Mikami how he's doing recently, what's going through his mind recently. Mikami pauses for a moment and says "Nihonjin wa ahou ka tte". [*"I've been thinking that maybe the Japanese are pretty s**tupid." I almos**t laughed out loud when I heard this.]
His example of this "s**tupidity" is that after Japan los**t in the World Cup, they proceeded to mimic David Beckam's [*English soccer player] hairs**tyle and began supporting South Korea. [*I found this equally amusing.] He mentions that there are at leas**t three people in his office that have this hairs**tyle, and critizes them [*in a very Japanese-s**tyle joking manner, called "tsukkomi"] for denying that they're trying to look like foreigners.
They joke a bit more about Beckam and talk about soccer a little more. The hos**ts ask if Mikami went the World Cup, etc. [*He said he went to the Japan/Brazil match.]
In fact, they proceed to talk about nothing but soccer for about 2 min. Mikami praises Brazil in particular and makes an amusing joke about the "rigid efficiency" of the German soccer team. [*For a game developer, Mikami apparantly has a great sense of humor.]
This is when they return to the "Nihonjin wa ahou ya na" ("Japanese are s**tupid") motif -- and Mikami's firs**t example is the popularity of Kingdom Hearts.
Mikami says, in no soft or implicit terms, that he finds the popularity of a game like Kingdom Hearts both surprising and ridiculous. Despite Disney being for women and kids [*as he says], the game found itself both targeted and successful with an adult market.
He then brings up his own Biohazard remake, which came out the las**t week of March slightly before Kingdom Hearts. He comments on an episode he has when he was watching people's reaction to Kingdom Hearts as it was being displayed on a s**tore monitor. He saw a pair of girls look intensely at the game, eventually walk by it, then pause and be like "Actually, I want this..." Mikami's reaction to this is like "What!? What are you, s**tupid?!"
[*Judging from his accent, Mikami appears to be from Kansai, which would explain in part his great sense of humor (Japanese from Kansai are famous for this).]
As a follow-up example to this, he brings up a secretary working in his own office. She also made a lot of noise about how much she wanted Kingdom Hearts, and eventually bought a copy. Mikami said to her: "Why the hell did you buy that game? I bet you don't even know the difference between Pooh and Goofy." :lol
Mikami then talks about a guy who keeps a Winnie the Pooh bank near his desk area. To prove that the girl didn't even know who or what Pooh [*called "kuma (bear) no Puu" in Japan] originally was, they altered the ears, eyes etc. of the Pooh bank with a magic marker. Sure enough, the girl had no idea that it was a even a little different from the original Pooh. Finally, despite the Pooh looking downright retarded by that point, the secretary finally said, "This Pooh -- isn't it a bit -- different...?" This delayed reaction caused Mikami to think "Why the hell is this girl buying a Disney-based game...?" [*meaning she had no real basic idea of what the characters really looked liked]
It's here that Mikami enters a discussion about the PlayStation 2, and about how well it's selling.
In particular, Mikami comments on the sales of the "Ocean Blue" PS2 [*limited edition blue PS1 2; I'm sure you guys know about it}
In a recent trip to a Yodobashi Camera [*Japanese electronics chain] las**t Saturday to purchase a replacement hair dryer, Mikami decided to s**top by the games section before going home. Upon doing so, he was surprised at how low the pile of "white boxes" [containing the blue PS2] was. His reaction was "Damn, these are selling more than the software!"
One of the hos**ts offers that these sales are possibly attributed to individuals owning multiple PS2s, but Mikami theorizes that the PS2 easily breaking is the reason forces people to replace the machine -- Mikami uses his own PS2, for which the loading process is slow, as an example. He goes so far as to say that this is a calculated move on the part of Sony -- having sales genereated from purchases of new sys**tems to replace defective machines [*Note: In Japan, nobody ever gets anything fixed when it's broken. They jus**t replace it.] This is the real reason for the skyrocketing sales of the PS2, says Mikami.
He also cites the PS1 as an example as well, saying that he had to buy a replacement when the firs**t bus**ted while playing "Super Robot Taisen." He also says Walkmans and PCs are the same -- firs**t one breaks after 2 years, forcing you to buy a new one.
"It's obvious that these things are being made to break. Why do consumers continue to be quiet?! It's more or less illegal when you think about it!" he rants.
But...consumers continue to buy them...and here comes the next part of Mikami's rant...
One of the hos**ts notes that the software itself isn't selling all that well, and that a lot of people jus**t buy the PS2 for the "wow" [RE: "It's the in-thing right now"] factor. Mikami says this is so characteris**tic of [only] the Japanese -- people buy it because everyone else has it. "Gets me angry jus**t thinking about it" he says. "You're not all elementary school children anymore, right?! Have some individuality!!"
Mikami speculates that this is because the Japanese are like an "agricultural society" of sorts, in that they are interdependent and require cus**toms, regularity etc. He juxtaposes this agains**t a "cas**tle-based peoples" in which everyone is solely concerned with their own territory, their own rules. To use a real-life example, he mentions an experience he had working with a foreigner [*Mikami uses the word "gaijin" here, which is generally considered a derogatory term for a foreigner. Still, this lack of PC is why I think this guy is cool, anyway...] , in which when doing scheduling, the foreigner arbitrarily announced that he would be vacationing on a particular day. Mikami was like "We're discussing scheduling here. Who the hell are you to already s**tate that you'll be taking a vacation?"
All three -- Mikami, the two hos**ts -- concur that "white" individuals in particular have a propensity for doing this (England comes up). Mikami concedes though that perhaps the Japanese work too much.
The next four minutes are spent talking and joking about Japanese work habits -- primarily about how although the Japanese perform a multitude of different tasks in their respective jobs, a lot of it is really unnecessary.
Mikami is asked if there's anything else that p*sses him off recently [*I laughed here.] He mentions taxes, and how sh*tty TV is recently, particularly how even news programs are produced with the priority put on increasing viewership rather than jus**t getting to the point and giving the news. [*Major Japanese TV network NHK takes a verbal beating from Mikami in this part.]
Mikami then discusses the societal and family pressures put on children nowadays, commenting on how these among other factors have resulted in several crimes by young individuals. Some people blame games, he says, but games are completely irrelevant -- someone that can kill someone else has that potential in them to begin with. [*He uses here an amusing metaphor involving the ability of some people to regulaly enjoy "misoshiru" (Japanese soybean soup)]. Parents are avoiding the real problem by blaming games -- it's nonsense, he says.
After discussing the growing inability of Japanese (youth in particular) of solving problems on their own, one of the hos**ts asks Mikami that in creating a game, is there some kind of special process in which the problems facing production of the game are properly identified and addressed before going about making it.
To which Mikami answers: There's always a meeting held to discuss such problems. These meetings have two possible patterns. One: nobody has any idea what the hell the "problems" are. Two: For some miraculous reason, there are no problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, the second pattern never seems to occur. [*Pause for translator laughter.]
He does mention that in the process, particularly when looking to "break the mold" in creating a game, that there are a lot of cases in which risk rears itself. In this case, the game is frequently scrapped altogether.
The three discuss the difference between the "game creator" (the indivudual with the vision and idea behind the game) and the "game des**troyer" (the individual that will emphasize risk firs**t), and how it is important for the former to push forward to make the latter realize the potential of that vision. The latter group (planners, etc.) are often extremely negative and pessismis**tic about the potential success of a game -- *once* in a while there is a agreement of opinion from the outset, but...
There's been a lot of cases up to this point, it's discussed, that a game incorporating a new novel ideal that's expected to become a hit never quite takes off -- in that way, it becomes hard to predict exactly what will go over well and what won't. Mikami offers: "Still, I think there's some cases in which one can definitely say 'This game won't sell'. Like a game in which you eat sh*t, for example." [*Translator laughter]
There's also cases when game planners want to do a game that, although people may have been thinking about it, no one's brought it to the table. However, these games often fail due to failure in executing them properly. The example used here is a game based on rugby -- although it's likely someone's thought of it, and although it actually hasn't been done yet -- is there really any interes**ting way to execute a game based on rugby?
Sometimes it's impossible to execute a certain novel idea in an interes**ting kind of way -- "including a game based on eating sh*t", one of the hos**ts jokes.
Mikami's las**t episode [*this connects with the above] involves one with a Mr. Sugimura from Flagship [*Software?]. Both moved to collaborate with each other on a game during the making of Biohazard 2. Around that time, Mikami received a letter from Sugimura saying "Success is not something achieved outright. It's the result of persis**tence and hard work". Mikami was apparantly very impressed by these words, believing that Sugimura had the proper idea of that games were about [*well at leas**t, Mikami held the same belief about game making that Sugimura]. With this, Mikami decided that he wanted to work with Sugimura. When they firs**t went drinking together [*typical Japanese cus**tom among business associates], Sugimura all of a sudden asked Mikami and his associates, "Would you eat the sh*t of a girl you love?" To which Mikami reacted "What...?" Sugimura was like "Your level is too low! You need to reset your way of thinking! I want you to resign tomorrow!" Reminisces Mikami "Although I more or less unders**tood what he wanted to say, I think his example was a bit extreme..."
The two hos**ts wrap up, thanking Mikami for making the trip from Osaka and ask him to come again.
****
Personally. I thought that was quite an interes**ting read.
Thoughts?
****
Thanks to ikachii from the IGN boards for this... It's that interview Beard mentioned where Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil producer) has harsh words to say about PS2.
This guy is great! He really speaks his mind.. it's long but it's well worth the read. He would make a good Edge columnis**t.
Quote:
Plug:
This talk show is presented by Mizuguchi Tetsuya, creater of the "Space Channel 5" series as well as the more recent "Rez", and presently active game analys**t Hirabayashi Hisakazu. In this program, the two hos**ts discuss inside s**tories in the game indus**try as well as cultural topics born out of such discussion. Expect to hear a lot of information here that you won't here anywhere else! A variety of gues**ts, from individuals in the game indus**try to even politicians, will s**top by to offer their opinions on the topics at hand! Of course, this program wouldn't be complete without the support of "Urara"!
In this particular broadcas**t, which represents the second half of a special interview with Capcom's Mikami Shinji, Mr. Mikami directs some shocking s**tatements towards the unsuspecting Japanese public!
"The Tokyo Game Lounge", featuring Mizuguchi Tetsuya and Hirabayashi Hisakazu.
The two hos**ts welcome Capcom game developer Mikami Shinji, who has jus**t returned to Tokyo from Osaka [*city in wes**tern Japan] to appear on the show for the second week in a row. They mention the hot weather that day and how Mikami had literally jus**t returned by the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) "Nozomi". They joke about not liking Nozomi very much.
They discuss that although las**t week's discussion revolved around games themselves, this week would revolve around something other than games -- the "true nature of the game creator".
Firs**t, they basically ask Mikami how he's doing recently, what's going through his mind recently. Mikami pauses for a moment and says "Nihonjin wa ahou ka tte". [*"I've been thinking that maybe the Japanese are pretty s**tupid." I almos**t laughed out loud when I heard this.]
His example of this "s**tupidity" is that after Japan los**t in the World Cup, they proceeded to mimic David Beckam's [*English soccer player] hairs**tyle and began supporting South Korea. [*I found this equally amusing.] He mentions that there are at leas**t three people in his office that have this hairs**tyle, and critizes them [*in a very Japanese-s**tyle joking manner, called "tsukkomi"] for denying that they're trying to look like foreigners.
They joke a bit more about Beckam and talk about soccer a little more. The hos**ts ask if Mikami went the World Cup, etc. [*He said he went to the Japan/Brazil match.]
In fact, they proceed to talk about nothing but soccer for about 2 min. Mikami praises Brazil in particular and makes an amusing joke about the "rigid efficiency" of the German soccer team. [*For a game developer, Mikami apparantly has a great sense of humor.]
This is when they return to the "Nihonjin wa ahou ya na" ("Japanese are s**tupid") motif -- and Mikami's firs**t example is the popularity of Kingdom Hearts.
Mikami says, in no soft or implicit terms, that he finds the popularity of a game like Kingdom Hearts both surprising and ridiculous. Despite Disney being for women and kids [*as he says], the game found itself both targeted and successful with an adult market.
He then brings up his own Biohazard remake, which came out the las**t week of March slightly before Kingdom Hearts. He comments on an episode he has when he was watching people's reaction to Kingdom Hearts as it was being displayed on a s**tore monitor. He saw a pair of girls look intensely at the game, eventually walk by it, then pause and be like "Actually, I want this..." Mikami's reaction to this is like "What!? What are you, s**tupid?!"
[*Judging from his accent, Mikami appears to be from Kansai, which would explain in part his great sense of humor (Japanese from Kansai are famous for this).]
As a follow-up example to this, he brings up a secretary working in his own office. She also made a lot of noise about how much she wanted Kingdom Hearts, and eventually bought a copy. Mikami said to her: "Why the hell did you buy that game? I bet you don't even know the difference between Pooh and Goofy." :lol
Mikami then talks about a guy who keeps a Winnie the Pooh bank near his desk area. To prove that the girl didn't even know who or what Pooh [*called "kuma (bear) no Puu" in Japan] originally was, they altered the ears, eyes etc. of the Pooh bank with a magic marker. Sure enough, the girl had no idea that it was a even a little different from the original Pooh. Finally, despite the Pooh looking downright retarded by that point, the secretary finally said, "This Pooh -- isn't it a bit -- different...?" This delayed reaction caused Mikami to think "Why the hell is this girl buying a Disney-based game...?" [*meaning she had no real basic idea of what the characters really looked liked]
It's here that Mikami enters a discussion about the PlayStation 2, and about how well it's selling.
In particular, Mikami comments on the sales of the "Ocean Blue" PS2 [*limited edition blue PS1 2; I'm sure you guys know about it}
In a recent trip to a Yodobashi Camera [*Japanese electronics chain] las**t Saturday to purchase a replacement hair dryer, Mikami decided to s**top by the games section before going home. Upon doing so, he was surprised at how low the pile of "white boxes" [containing the blue PS2] was. His reaction was "Damn, these are selling more than the software!"
One of the hos**ts offers that these sales are possibly attributed to individuals owning multiple PS2s, but Mikami theorizes that the PS2 easily breaking is the reason forces people to replace the machine -- Mikami uses his own PS2, for which the loading process is slow, as an example. He goes so far as to say that this is a calculated move on the part of Sony -- having sales genereated from purchases of new sys**tems to replace defective machines [*Note: In Japan, nobody ever gets anything fixed when it's broken. They jus**t replace it.] This is the real reason for the skyrocketing sales of the PS2, says Mikami.
He also cites the PS1 as an example as well, saying that he had to buy a replacement when the firs**t bus**ted while playing "Super Robot Taisen." He also says Walkmans and PCs are the same -- firs**t one breaks after 2 years, forcing you to buy a new one.
"It's obvious that these things are being made to break. Why do consumers continue to be quiet?! It's more or less illegal when you think about it!" he rants.
But...consumers continue to buy them...and here comes the next part of Mikami's rant...
One of the hos**ts notes that the software itself isn't selling all that well, and that a lot of people jus**t buy the PS2 for the "wow" [RE: "It's the in-thing right now"] factor. Mikami says this is so characteris**tic of [only] the Japanese -- people buy it because everyone else has it. "Gets me angry jus**t thinking about it" he says. "You're not all elementary school children anymore, right?! Have some individuality!!"
Mikami speculates that this is because the Japanese are like an "agricultural society" of sorts, in that they are interdependent and require cus**toms, regularity etc. He juxtaposes this agains**t a "cas**tle-based peoples" in which everyone is solely concerned with their own territory, their own rules. To use a real-life example, he mentions an experience he had working with a foreigner [*Mikami uses the word "gaijin" here, which is generally considered a derogatory term for a foreigner. Still, this lack of PC is why I think this guy is cool, anyway...] , in which when doing scheduling, the foreigner arbitrarily announced that he would be vacationing on a particular day. Mikami was like "We're discussing scheduling here. Who the hell are you to already s**tate that you'll be taking a vacation?"
All three -- Mikami, the two hos**ts -- concur that "white" individuals in particular have a propensity for doing this (England comes up). Mikami concedes though that perhaps the Japanese work too much.
The next four minutes are spent talking and joking about Japanese work habits -- primarily about how although the Japanese perform a multitude of different tasks in their respective jobs, a lot of it is really unnecessary.
Mikami is asked if there's anything else that p*sses him off recently [*I laughed here.] He mentions taxes, and how sh*tty TV is recently, particularly how even news programs are produced with the priority put on increasing viewership rather than jus**t getting to the point and giving the news. [*Major Japanese TV network NHK takes a verbal beating from Mikami in this part.]
Mikami then discusses the societal and family pressures put on children nowadays, commenting on how these among other factors have resulted in several crimes by young individuals. Some people blame games, he says, but games are completely irrelevant -- someone that can kill someone else has that potential in them to begin with. [*He uses here an amusing metaphor involving the ability of some people to regulaly enjoy "misoshiru" (Japanese soybean soup)]. Parents are avoiding the real problem by blaming games -- it's nonsense, he says.
After discussing the growing inability of Japanese (youth in particular) of solving problems on their own, one of the hos**ts asks Mikami that in creating a game, is there some kind of special process in which the problems facing production of the game are properly identified and addressed before going about making it.
To which Mikami answers: There's always a meeting held to discuss such problems. These meetings have two possible patterns. One: nobody has any idea what the hell the "problems" are. Two: For some miraculous reason, there are no problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, the second pattern never seems to occur. [*Pause for translator laughter.]
He does mention that in the process, particularly when looking to "break the mold" in creating a game, that there are a lot of cases in which risk rears itself. In this case, the game is frequently scrapped altogether.
The three discuss the difference between the "game creator" (the indivudual with the vision and idea behind the game) and the "game des**troyer" (the individual that will emphasize risk firs**t), and how it is important for the former to push forward to make the latter realize the potential of that vision. The latter group (planners, etc.) are often extremely negative and pessismis**tic about the potential success of a game -- *once* in a while there is a agreement of opinion from the outset, but...
There's been a lot of cases up to this point, it's discussed, that a game incorporating a new novel ideal that's expected to become a hit never quite takes off -- in that way, it becomes hard to predict exactly what will go over well and what won't. Mikami offers: "Still, I think there's some cases in which one can definitely say 'This game won't sell'. Like a game in which you eat sh*t, for example." [*Translator laughter]
There's also cases when game planners want to do a game that, although people may have been thinking about it, no one's brought it to the table. However, these games often fail due to failure in executing them properly. The example used here is a game based on rugby -- although it's likely someone's thought of it, and although it actually hasn't been done yet -- is there really any interes**ting way to execute a game based on rugby?
Sometimes it's impossible to execute a certain novel idea in an interes**ting kind of way -- "including a game based on eating sh*t", one of the hos**ts jokes.
Mikami's las**t episode [*this connects with the above] involves one with a Mr. Sugimura from Flagship [*Software?]. Both moved to collaborate with each other on a game during the making of Biohazard 2. Around that time, Mikami received a letter from Sugimura saying "Success is not something achieved outright. It's the result of persis**tence and hard work". Mikami was apparantly very impressed by these words, believing that Sugimura had the proper idea of that games were about [*well at leas**t, Mikami held the same belief about game making that Sugimura]. With this, Mikami decided that he wanted to work with Sugimura. When they firs**t went drinking together [*typical Japanese cus**tom among business associates], Sugimura all of a sudden asked Mikami and his associates, "Would you eat the sh*t of a girl you love?" To which Mikami reacted "What...?" Sugimura was like "Your level is too low! You need to reset your way of thinking! I want you to resign tomorrow!" Reminisces Mikami "Although I more or less unders**tood what he wanted to say, I think his example was a bit extreme..."
The two hos**ts wrap up, thanking Mikami for making the trip from Osaka and ask him to come again.
****
Personally. I thought that was quite an interes**ting read.
Thoughts?