The End of the Japanese Autere Game Director is Over.

Found this fun little article:

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/era-jap...ame-designers/

Do you agree or disagree?

It just dawned on me that the title of this thread is a bit redundant... Make sure you get sleep kids.

"The End of the Japanese Auteur Game Director is Over"? So, if the "End" is over, does that mean that the time of the auteur is just beginning? So many interpretations of that statement. Fascinating.


Dangit, Wolf, you had to notice.


Personally, I disagree. In the AAA space, perhaps. But Kojima could easily form his own team and fund it on Kickstarter. The entry level for indie developers is so low right now that it is incredibly easy for a big name star to get to work, even if they can't do it at the AAA level.

Which I'm actually ok with, because I think the AAA market is heading for a crash anyway.

He's right as far as AAA titles go. Games are more expensive to make than ever because consumers are attracted to what has the best marketing so companies spend, spend, spend to get the number one spot, and therefore can afford less risks, and less risk means less original titles since, again, they're riskier than just making a sequel of your last big hit. The Japanese game market has been in a rut for a while now, too. They also don't have the same sway over here like they used to have back in the late nineties.

I think that is kind of the point of the article though, that the End is over and over the end...er I mean to say that the major creators leaving their former companies will lead many of them to collapse. Granted, I don't feel many of these game designers have done much since going Indie, but that may have something to do with the Indie scene working very differently in Japan than the West. It's actually pretty difficult to get your game released out there without the help of one of the big companies from what I've heard.

I doubt Kojima will play ball with a big company again since he's been lamenting the game industry for a few years now. He'll easily form a new company but may have issues finding work if he doesn't go Kickstarter and even then, we've yet to see the real pay off of the Kickstarter scene for some of the creators. For all we know, Kojima may go mobile just to pay his bills.

Every dog has it's day, and once creative and passionate folks can very well lose that passion and creativity. 10 years ago it were the glory days of all those folks named in the article, now it's Miyazaki of FromSoft studio's for example. And he too will one day "fall" and be surpassed by someone fresh.

Never mind, there's always Peter Molyneux. I wonder what John Romero's up to these days.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Never mind, there's always Peter Molyneux.

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In his next game you can build a tree, and that tree can grow up to kill your family if you treat it poorly, or you can opt to leaf it alone. You can also marry the tree, but the sidequest involved has you go out on a limb. Then if you plant a seed you can have a huge forest or something. Then the game will be released and it turns out you can plant one tree in a designed space of three squares. Peter starts to laugh as his pile of money grows more and more.

I actually commented on that article, mostly that it's poorly-timed coming off of Bloodbourne's smash success, which is entirely attributed by Souls fans to the fact that it was directed by Miyazaki, who also happens to have become the President of From Software in the time he was developing the game. Gran Turismo 7 is also rumored to be coming sooner than expected, with Yamauchi being the ultimate auteur - blowing millions of Sony's dollars so that the sitching on the leather of a Ferrari steering wheel is up to his standards. You can't say the era of Japanese auteurs is over when these games are among the highest selling and most anticipated games today.

That said, it has raised a conversation about what's the best way to make a work of art. High quality games require big teams and low risk. Design-by-committee has become more or less the norm and industry leaders like Naughty Dog pride themselves on having no hierarchy structure. This seems to be the Western design philosophy but personally, I would say it's the reason why last generation didn't have as many masterpieces or as much diversity as previous generations did. True works of art require a compelling creative vision and I think it's a lot harder to do that in a democracy than it is in a dictatorship. Ironically, however, Konami and Kojima's split doesn't have any real implications on this discussion.