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A HIDEO KOJIMA ARTICLE by Mr Biffo

21/10/2015

16 Comments

 
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So, once again, Hideo Kojima coughs, and everyone starts asking what it means.

​Has he left Konami? Has he gone on on holiday? If so, where is he going on holiday, what colour are his swimming trunks, and has he taken enough mosquito repellent with him? Has Konami buried him in concrete and thrown him into the sea?

I don't get it. I mean, the guy is clearly incredibly talented, and he has created some unquestionably singular games, but the cult of personality surrounding him has always baffled me. Why him, and not anyone else? There are plenty of other great developers out there, whose names remain unknown.

What's the curiosity about Kojima, and where did it come from? Maybe we should ask the late Steve Jobs...

JOBS FOR THE BOYS
I watched a documentary the other night about Steve Jobs - The Man In The Machine - which paints a highly unflattering portrait of the former Apple boss. According to the story told by director Alex Gibney, Jobs was driven, controlling, tax dodging, deceitful, possibly criminal, willing to stab friends in the back, and denied he'd spawned his first daughter so that he could dodge the responsibility of fatherhood.

The movie was clearly slanted against him from the outset - nobody is all bad (even Hitler loved his coffee table) - but the reality is that none of us can know Steve Jobs. Even those close to him. I mean, how many of us even know ourselves?

Any documentary - or biographical movie - can only offer the broadest of strokes, edited together for maximum dramatic effect. None of us know the real Steve Jobs, any more than we know who Hideo Kojima is. Or the real Colonel Sanders. Or... I dunno... Mickey Mouse.

And still, upon Jobs' death in 2011, there was a global outpouring of grief. Flowers were laid outside Apple Stores. The man was reduced to inspirational poster quotes. People cried.


Kojima, like Jobs, is deified, worshipped, a cult figure who only has to change his hairstyle to generate headlines. I dare say that were he to drop dead tomorrow, there'd be similar levels of mourning from people who've never met the man.
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MARKETING GURU
​Watching The Man in the Machine, it struck me that Jobs' real genius was marketing. Oh, he was great at spotting gaps in the marketplace, and better still at connecting people with their technology.

But Jobs was best at selling himself. The calculated black polo neck, jeans and white sneakers, the mythmaking about his Buddhist beliefs, the motivational sound bytes... that now iconic black and white image of Jobs touching his chin (eerily similar to the one of Kojima at the top of this piece)... all of it was calculated to make him appear guru-like, someone who could make our lives better.

Likewise the 'Think Different' Apple commercial, which placed the brand (and, by association, Jobs himself) alongside Gandhi, Einstein, Lennon...

​Steve Jobs - the Steve Jobs that the public knew - was as much a corporate mascot as Ronald McDonald or Tony the Tiger. And that's fine. Sort of. Talent only gets you so far. Opportunity, luck, being in the right place at the right time - and making your own versions of those - is half the struggle, if not more. 

​Yet, I find it hard to feel comfortable with the way he's been venerated, when the guy treated his daughter terribly, bent the law, threatened journalists, cancelled all of Apple's charitable projects, and allegedly exploited Chinese workers so badly that many of them killed themselves. Worshiping him to any degree, worshiping Apple and its products, is to fall into a trap designed to squeeze even more money out of us plebs. It's letting them brainwash us.

According to his critics, Jobs merely wanted power, wanted money and success. He wasn't Gandhi or Einstein. Yet now - through the marketing he excelled at in his life in order to sell his company's products and maximise profits - he's now exalted like them.

Kojima is different in that the company he has worked for seemingly doesn't want him to work for them any more. He doesn't appear quite as possessed of the same megalomania and god-complex that Jobs seemed gripped by. Yet Kojima's personal brand has been just as carefully cultivated. "A Hideo Kojima Game" is nothing but a marketing slogan for one man's personal brand.

​It's why his name is known, when others who worked on his games remain anonymous.

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I DEIFY U
​The point at which I started to feel uncomfortable with Kojima's hero worship and celebrity was the way his fans rushed to criticise Konami.

That Kojima was somehow the victim in the situation, forgetting that there are always two sides to every story. Far be it for me to defend a large company against an individual.

But I am suggesting that... we don't know what happened between Kojima and Konami. Any more than we know exactly what was going through Steve Jobs head when he picked out his first polo neck sweater, or pretended he was sterile to avoid paying child maintenance. For all we know, Kojima could've walked into work one day and done a big poo in the canteen, in full view of everyone.

I dunno. As with anything any of us think, this says as much about me as it does about the reality. It just irritates me when I don't think people have earned the right to be venerated. I don't like that we live in a society where we are sold what to believe in. I hate that we - as a nation - must suck up to China's leader to get a new nuclear power station built. No human being deserves a state banquet in their honour any more than any other human being. Least of all one with a human rights record like Xi Jinping.

We live in a world that places more importance on achievements and the powerful than on who we all are. Kids are praised for their spirit, their being, their self - they're told they're good only if they do well at school, or can play the clarinet, or run faster than other kids. 

Kojima's Metal Gear games are great, and millions love them, but they aren't the work of one man - any more than the iPhone was entirely the work of Steve Jobs. Yet both were content to portray themselves as singular visionaries. That, more than anything, makes me want to turn my back on Kojima, and question what exactly it is about him that makes him worthy of such interest and adulation.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
BOYCOTT STAR WARS VII: A NON-MOVEMENT by Mr Biffo
MR BIFFO'S PLAY EXPO DIARY
16 Comments
Paul
21/10/2015 01:26:45 pm

Steve Jobs does not believe you. He is saying “Jimmy Hill”.

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Mr Biffo
21/10/2015 01:30:56 pm

Chinny reck-on.

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Alastair
21/10/2015 01:35:36 pm

Goodness, there are quite a few US tech sites where that would go down like a lead balloon.

But I feel roughly the same, when I read a quote purporting to be Jobs' last words my mind boggled a little as to why anyone thought that was important.

I get why obituaries of someone like Iwata did the rounds, anyone's (well, mostly anyone) death diminishes us and we like to think we'd be as well remembered after we go.

But the pre and post death business of making Jobs more than Jobs just felt a little too like the beatification of someone who hadn't done so much miraculous work during their life as we're told. (I'm Irish Catholic, we're kept informed of those sorts of things).

It's nice to have something recreational like the #FucKonami to throw about I guess, really all I'm thinking is, now that I've played Ground Zeroes, when can I get more if Kojima is going elsewhere.

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Col. Asdasd
21/10/2015 01:44:09 pm

I could not agree more with you, Mr. Biffo. I've never put much stock in auteur theory, I hate the way it negates the efforts of dozens of people and attributes all the success to an individual. If you were to change a handful of the (sadly anonymous) personnel involved in the creation of a multi-million game like MSG V, I guarantee you the result would be unrecognisable. Simply because the extent of the creative agency they wield exceeds the sphere of control an individual producer or overseer can exercise, be it Kojima or anyone else.

I know the counter claim is that auteurism merely denotes a creator whose style can be readily identified across projects they've contributed to, and in such constrained use the theory might have some critical value, but far more often than not I see it deployed in the service of the usual cults of celebrity. Which ironically is the sort of thing such vogueish tastemakers as are attracted to auteruism consider themselves immune.

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lilock3
21/10/2015 01:53:07 pm

If ever there were an individual worthly of all the hero worship he gets, it's Tony the Tiger. Legend.

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Snake
21/10/2015 04:19:19 pm

Indeed there's two sides to every story, but Konami sure likes to make certain neither one is heard. What else do we have to hold onto but our assumptions (inevitably biased towards the heroic underdog vs the big mean company) and a broken heart for no Silent Hills?

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Superbeast 37
21/10/2015 07:24:41 pm

Lifetime sales of every single game in the Metal Gear series combined are about the same as GTA V.

Yeah that's right! One game in the GTA series is a match for every single game sold in another franchise since the dawn of time. Oh and of course I couldn't tell you the name of the guy who was the director of GTA V. I haven't looked up who was behind either of the games but I had one name rammed down my throat by the gaming press and fans for the past year...

Back to the point: sales figures for Metal Gear games are "average" and "unremarkable" for such a hyped up AAA title, let alone one whose creator is treated as a god. I've never cared for the series. I came, I saw...I said "meh" and pulled the disc out.

So yeah good question - why the hype over Kojima?

We see similar disparities with other franchises. The Souls games for example. Look up lists of the top 50 games (on sales figures) in every year a Souls game was released and see where it places. They are mere "also-rans" and yet garner massive attention from the press and what "appears" to be unanimous praise from fans. Hmmm.

I can only assume that certain titles and their developers have loyal followings amongst those with platforms from which to project their voice (media). Also small but enthusiastic fan bases use aggression and hostility to create echo chambers on forums etc.

That's my theory.

As to why we don't actually hear two sides of the story so we can get to the truth of what happened.....

It is 2015 mate, not 1985! Millenials don't bother with all that "check the facts and hear the evidence from both sides" nonsense!

Get back in your DeLorean, make like a tree and leave! Actually wait up! I'm coming with you!

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Kelvin Green link
21/10/2015 08:53:16 pm

It is almost as if some people care about more than sales. Weird.

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Superbeast 37
21/10/2015 09:03:40 pm

Yeah sales don't matter.

I mean what type of deranged person would consider millions upon millions of punters queuing up to slam hard cash down on the counter to be more valid than hot hair emanating from a vocal minority of rabid fanboys on forums or the ravings of journalists fresh out of a "review camp".

The sales figures are clearly an unreliable indicator in comparison.

Coincidentally this article came out on the same day that Razorfist ("The Rageaholic" on you Youtube) released an absolutely electrifying take down of MGS5 and Kojima on his channel. That is a great watch for those with ten minutes to spare.

Granthon R
21/10/2015 09:15:10 pm

...because that's what he said. He said, "sales don't matter." That's exactly what he said. Spot on.

Granthon L
21/10/2015 09:13:04 pm

It's, "make like a tree and get outta here," idiot!

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Col. Asdasd
21/10/2015 10:14:43 pm

Make like a tree and rot away from the inside over several decades

Stay
22/10/2015 12:02:18 am

Make like a tree and bark.

Penyrolewen
21/10/2015 09:41:30 pm

I haven't played any Metal Gear games at all, ever, so I can't comment on their quality personally- but, since when, ever, in any creative sphere, does popularity (sales) automatically correlate with quality? Or are one direction and Bieber worth my time after all? I know, I know, Led Zep sold loads, and the Beatles etc etc- but an awful lot of good music, film, literature, art, whatever, sells nothing. That argument is worthless.

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Alex Darby
21/10/2015 10:39:06 pm

Honestly, I don't get why MGS games are so well loved.

The stories are like GCSE creative writing and (more importantly IMO) the controls are shonky & have been since 1998.

Any game where they spend all that money on cutscenes but can't be arsed to sort out basic control issues that have been in the game for over a decade.

Also, the sheer audacity of Hideo Kojima in taking credit for it all boils my piss; and has done since it said "HIDEO" and pretended to change the input on my TV in that battle against Psycho Mantis in the 1st one. "What a conceited bellend", I thought but I still finished it.

When I got the demo of MGS 2 with that crazy robot game whose name escapes me, I was very surprised to see that none of the issues with interactions had been fixed & worse they had added new stuff which required even more buttons to be held down.

That's when I gave up on it. When MGS ground zeroes was on sale on PSN I bought it just to make sure I wasn't being unfair to it & it still had all the same problems from MGS 2 plus loads of new crap. Honestly. WT actual F?

My honest opinion is that the MGS series are the most overrated games ever. Ever, ever. Still, I'm obvioisly in the minority...

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Kelvin Green link
21/10/2015 11:02:30 pm

Well, no, Halo is the most overrated, obviously.

Reply



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