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Why Does the Gaming Community Love Hideo Kojima So Much?

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Why Does the Gaming Community Love Hideo Kojima So Much? Why Does The Gaming Community Love Hideo Kojima So Much? (http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/author/lm_watson/) by Doc Watson (http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/author/lm_watson/) on February 17, 2016 ὑ Contents Full Article (http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/why-does-the-gaming-community-love-hideo-kojima-so-much/#content-anchor) Share Me... 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(http://www.tumblr.com/share/link?url=http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/why-does-the-gaming-community-love- hideo-kojima-so-much/) (http://www.digg.com/submit?url=http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/why-does-the- gaming-community-love-hideo-kojima-so-much/) (mailto:? subject=Why%20Does%20The%20Gaming%20Community%20Love%20Hideo%20Kojima%20So%20Much? &body=%20http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/why-does-the-gaming-community-love-hideo-kojima-so-much/) There are very few individuals that direct and develop video games that most of us can mention by name. A few will immediately think of Peter Molyneaux, lord and master of the hype train and getting slightly too excited about his games to the point of promising things that don’t actually exist. More still will mention John Romero, the godfather of the first person shooter who got slightly too egotistical, released Daikatana to dismally low reviews, and is only now returning to the genre that made him a part of the video game pantheon. What about the almighty Shigeru Miyamoto, the godfather of Mario and the stalward of a generation? A couple may even mention Tim Schafer and his spotty track record with finances and putting way too much faith on people continuing to fund his Kickstarter campaigns. These names are immediately recognizable because of what they have added to the medium. Love them or hate them, they have made a mark on what we know as video games today that cannot be denied, and have cemented their place in history, for good or for ill. Another name that is rocketing even closer to the Valhalla of video game legends, if he wasn’t already there, is Hideo Kojima. Kojima had already carved himself a healthy spot in the hearts of most video game enthusiasts by crafting the Metal Gear series, but as of late he has become Konami’s worst nightmare with the debacle that surrounded the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Regardless of his release by Konami, he got picked up by Sony Computer Entertainment and was given the keys to a fully independent Kojima Productions, ready to tackle his next project, whatever it may be. Everyone already knows what they want from him though: the potential, previously cancelled but never forgotten video game that wasn’t, Silent Hills. No expectations were made or imposed by anyone. There is still a glimmer of hope that maybe when all of the Konami stuff blew over that Kojima could hit up Norman Reedus and Guillermo Del Toro and pump some more coal into the hype train. Then Kojima hit up Norman Reedus, followed by hints at a potential meeting with fellow Silent Hills collaborator, Guillermo Del Toro. This promptly threw the contents of a Chilean mine into the hype train, and Twitter damn near had an aneurysm. (http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/HYPETRAINWOOWOO.jpg) It fascinates me how a creator like Kojima comes to be so revered by the community. To fully understand the impact that Kojima has on the video game community, we have to look at his history. Kojima has always been a creator that pushed boundaries, ever since his early days as a developer. In an interview with Retro Gamer, it is said that he was dissatisfied with his programming on the MSX system because the colour palette was too restrictive for his liking. His gameplay ideas were also initially snubbed by Konami executives, despite some of these ideas – genre blending in a traditional video game, multiple endings, etc. – being mainstays of video game development to this day. He pushed enough boundaries and got enough success to create Snatcher in 1988. Despite having to remove a large section of the story out to due time constraints – a situation that sounds eerily familiar – the game was praised for its mold-breaking qualities, and its audacity to push the boundaries of what a video game could do. Kojima, however, was never satisfied. He realized the potential that video games had over any other medium that had come before it, and that was the notion of interactivity. Kojima had always had aspirations to become a film director, and his love of film and the techniques that they use are littered throughout his games. An interview with Kikizo in 2009 (http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/hideo-kojima-interview-2009-p1.asp) highlights his drive to make games more interactive and more immersive. With this in mind, the level of detail placed in the Metal Gear Solid series is better understood. In Metal Gear Solid alone, he had the intention of creating the best game that the PlayStation had ever seen, and hired weapons experts, trained professionals, the best composers, the best programmers and spared no expense to make the apotheosis of immersion in a video game; a game that was interactive, engrossing and placed the player in an experience where their actions moved an engaging narrative forward. This boldness and thirst for innovation launched his career. With Metal Gear Solid V, however, it was also what had doomed it. Back in 1995, video games needed to make a scene. It was a brand new medium, with brand new technology and the impact of these new products superseded the financial expectations. Not so twenty years on, where Kojima’s desire to create the perfect game ran him afoul of Konami’s accountants. Reports vary on the exact nature of Kojima’s departure from Konami, but it isn’t hard to imagine Kojima spending slightly too much money for Konami to just let slide. In a video game climate where games are becoming more and more expensive to make, and the larger returns are necessitated by higher and higher budgets, the maths simply did not add up, and Kojima and his visionary mind had to go. (./Why Does The Gaming Community Love Hideo Kojima So Much_ _ GamersFTW_files/MGS_screen_psx__1443554397_2.24.93.255.jpg) It is a critical juncture where the publisher’s demands inhibit the vision of the developer, when all the publisher sees is a product. Yet to most, video games are not merely products. They are oftentimes labors of love, and the ones that stand out are the ones that throw caution to the wind and create something amazing, consequences be damned. It’s a romantic vision, I know, but it is a sentiment that is reflected in game quality, and shown when publishers rush games to meet their own demand schedules. Kojima is the poster child of this sentiment: he is a developer that demands a blank check to create a game that blows people’s minds. And blow peoples minds he has done, on five separate occasions, with each numbered entry into the Metal Gear Solid franchise – Ground Zeroes perhaps not withstanding. To me, this budget-be-damned tact is a tad irresponsible. Games cost money, and money does not simply come from nothing. Is Kojima an exception to this rule? Certainly not, and I hope to God that Kojima Productions does not go the way of Double Fine Studios, where they are forced to come back to the consumers for the money they need to finish their products time and time again. It is also equally interesting to witness the double standard of some gamers gnashing their teeth at the increased price of games, while simultaneously admonishing developers and publishers for trying to earn more money. You get what you pay for in a video game, in nine out of ten cases, and the adage of “voting with your wallet” legitimately works if done on a large enough scale. Games are expensive, and money is king. If one can make a stellar video game without it costing the contents of a Cayman Islands trust fund, surely that must be a better option than spending money one does not have. (http://www.gamersftw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The_Never- ending_hallway__1455703761_210.54.34.16.jpg) Does this gripe diminish Kojima’s legacy? The fan response to P.T. and Metal Gear Solid V answers that question firmly. Hideo Kojima stands as something of an anti-establishment icon in the video game industry. Where the risk- averse industry demands things to be done in a certain way, Kojima does it another. When games tend to follow a certain happy status quo, Kojima is happy to punch a hole through it and try something new. He is one of the gamers: a man that cannot stand to see the same stuff over and over again, and is always looking for new experiences.
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