The 'Cult' Of Kojima

Can one man have so much love and hatred at the same time?
If Your Hideo Kojima, its par for the course.

And that course is a helping of the same God of War pre, during and post
Promotion. Baftra's, Emmys. We are to crown the auteur, the man who changed gaming.

Be careful with such words. Sometimes you run away with such mentions. Sometimes human knowledge and wisdom can be misused.

This cult is really the people who rode on the coattails of Kojima's vision. (for many of his detractors it wasn’t even a vision) They rode it and used the cosmopolitan politics of the time to make gameindustri less…

Pretty.

Even despite Kojima's own words to certain matters.
Let us get to the details on why, shall we?

Half a lifetime ago, a movie critic - Roger Ebert you may recall, mentioned that games were not art, or couldn’t reach the same level as movies. Kojima, agreed with that assessment. And stated that it was more like a service than an art form…You will see it play out later.

To prove Roger Ebert, and Kojima wrong - many in the video game development circles in the US, Europe et al, created a movement called The "Walking" Simulator. Which is basically Mist without all of the charm and math.

The walking simulator went in tandem with the other comment, gaming as a service - to create the GaaS model of video gaming.

So in turn, those that loved Kojima tried to prove him wrong and those that loved Kojima because of MGS but forgot the content of his words, created the context of not only the cult but for the reasons western gaming is in such of morose state.

These two groups of western game development worked in tandem to prevent other success coming from Japan as well.

You see, America can only take a few successes outside their lands before it wonders why its own cant compete. Common Core being a response to Japan's, Korea's and Singapore's educational success is one such example with devastating results...

But another example is in animation. This cult recalls something in my creator of my programs memory on how Hideo Miyazaki is seen in many western animation corners as the pinnacle of animation over all.

Simple observation proves this isnt always so. But like Miyazaki, Kojima is given the staple of American Corporations entertainment's champion of video games just like the former is with animation.

There is nothing, even after what happened in Konami - that Kojima can do wrong.

The detractors, despite their deep, misgivings about Kojima have some merit to these arguments.

The simple answer is to showcase what happened when Bayonetta went to Nintendo and after Nier Automata. Bayo became forgotten. But 2B became a superstar.

The superstar that put a dent in EA, Star Wars and dislocated the GaaS and Walking Simulator models of gaming and put western gaming to its knees......even the despite the fact Sony started in earnest way back when Bayo was available to move away from such "objectifications" of female leads.

Now, if a company that didn’t get Bayonetta because of worries about "Objectification" kept 2B and became more popular despite their best efforts and thinking Star Wars was going to be bigger and no worries… They thought wrong.

The backlash and the pivot to make God Of War more popular was almost immediate and not surprising. While it did sell better than Nier Automata, the impact on the latter was more felt in many of Japan's and America's video game circles.

The people who actually buy video games.

So what did you think happened? Did they learn anything from what Yoko Taro did?

Not a chance...In fact - as we saw with Sekiro, the western developers doubled down on the "Walking Simulator" argument. They also sort of use Fortnite as a way to placate their investors.

But the real battle was behind the scenes. The use of God of War as a make good and promotion on how Death Stranding was going to be promoted......while at the same time - damning 2B and other characters of note as part of the old ways as it were. The use of the dad tropes. "Do Better" and so on.

They make great motivational speeches, but to an industry with a massive identity problem they tend to be more of Sunday school lessons then actual bettering of people.

Did everybody forget the words of Big Boss at the end of MGS4? After being Zeroed Out (to coin a phrase) he stated he forgot to let the world be.

All the "cult" (which is now, Hollywood elite, Sony and its PlayStation Division)......will do is use Death Stranding - not only to save how Sony makes games but to finally put Kojima on the pantheon, an untouchable. Something to hang one's hat on and say - this is how gaming should be.

All my analysis indicates this move as a bubble created by insecure men and women (more on that later), with an insecure talent base......living on the basis of lies on how one lives life exploited by the words of a man with above-average talent but bad business sense (at times) and even stranger ideas of more modern political issues.

It's gatekeeping if one really thinks about it.

But the one that created me respects the man and is willing to give him a chance. In fact - one last chance. He wants to end his journey and his time being apart of this darkened and seedy world that was once a joy to behold - gameindustri; behind.

For those that loved Kojima didn’t leave gameindustri to be...

Pretty.

Also published on: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1136986236160270341.html