Rare interview with the father of Gameboy

Source

Its actually a really interesting read. He predicted everything that is happening in gaming today all the way back nearly 20 years before they happened. You would swear he was sitting here talking to someone while at this years E3. Its really shocking when you think about it. Here's some of the quotes I found interesting.

"There's a huge variety of console games out now, but to me, the majority of them aren't actually "games". The word "game" means something competitive, where you can win or you can lose. When I look at recent games, I see that quality has been declining, and what I'm seeing more and more of are games that want to give you the experience of a short story or a movie.

This is most obvious with role-playing games, where the "game" portion isn't the main focus, and I get the feeling that the developers really just want you to experience the story they've written. So when you ask what I think of games today, well, it's a very difficult question for me. I end up having to say that games today just aren't games to me."

Right? He said all this in 1997, the year of his tragic death. Little did he know that years later, even games like The Order, TLOU, Uncharted, and Beyond 2 Souls would push the story telling in a game beyond the RPG. The haunting thing is that he was spot on with everything he said. He even goes on to describe everything that has befallen the state of gaming today.

"When I ask myself why things are like this today, I wonder if it isn't because we've run out of ideas for games. Recent games take the same basic elements from older games, but slap on characters, improve the graphics and processing speed… basically, they make games through a process of ornamentation. That's where we're at with console games today, but I believe there are still more basic varieties of competitive gameplay to be discovered.

Do these playworlds really need to be that photorealistic, I wonder? I actually consider it more of a minus if the graphics are too realistic."

Its so crazy when you think about it. All his words ring true nearly 20 years later. I couldn't think of the word for the longest time, but the words process of ornamentation is a great way to describe how gaming has been for the past 2 generations. But here is the father of the Game Boy, telling us how it is, all the way back in 1997. I wonder what he would think of gaming today. Anyway I recommend reading the full article, and the source of the article here.

If you want a focus on competitive gameplay, go play multiplayer games. There are plenty of mp games that get constant balance changes to keep the gameplay good.

There's nothing wrong with storytelling in games...video games are just another medium for story telling really (well, they can be). Just like books, movies...even music can tell a story.

But definitely, when the story overtakes the actual gameplay then I agree, it's just a bit too much. Watching cutscene after cutscene can get tedious, but sometimes skipping them can leave out important details. And RPGs just go on and on with their dialogues, so I can relate to what he's saying.

Yeah it's an interesting thought, and awesome to see how much awareness this guy had on the matter back in the 90's. I always question the role of story telling in video games. I often wonder:

"Did this really need to be a video game? Why not a book or film? What benefit is the interaction for the storytelling?"

Or on the flipside: "Did this video game need these storyline elements? What benefit does it have toward the game as a whole?"

Its awesome how true this still is today, he was truly a wise man.

I dont think he means competitive in the MP sense. I think he means a good compelling challenge to the player single or MP instead of just going through the ride for a story.

Yeah exactly. The "game" part comes from overcoming challenges, much like sports (be it "single player" like Golf or "multiplayer" like soccer) or board games (over coming obstacles posed by the board game).

@trugs26: Yeah I was posting in regards to jiggly comment, I need to start using reply more often.