Miyamoto has lost it.

[Erik Aston]

Smash_Brother said:

I'm irked by the tendencies of some people in any "creative" field to fellate themselves by calling themselves "artists". It's that kind of needless ego-inflating that needs to die.

Miyamoto doesn't fall into this category. From everything I've seen and heard, the man is humble like a monk and I'm sure is quite happy with "game designer" and the level of respect he has brought to the title.

 

I think I love you.

(My rule has become that if you can't even reach, say, 20 or 30 million people with your art, you aren't an artist worth listening to. Usually this leaves only people who do not self-identify as artists, including Miyamoto.)

Miyamoto is an artist no more than he is an inventor of new technology. Technology is one element of what he does--he has recently introduced the world to motion controls, you may have heard--but new technology is not his goal.

The gaming market has been backwards for a long time. It has been running towards the ideals of technology and art. To Miyamoto, these are likely just background factors. His goal is some job or utility the product performs, but figuring out how to perform a unique job with many different factors, including art, is difficult. Instead, game designers usually make the job the background factor, in the form of an established genre, and make some abstract idea of "art" the goal.

Miyamoto does not approach things linearly. He has said that his definition of an "idea" is one solution which solves multiple problems. You will find most of the great "art" in his games not only are classic designs visually, but they provide the context and explain the goals to the player in efficient ways, and utilize technology in ways no one else thought of. And after doing all that, his games are best known for creating or popularizing whole new types of play, for which all those other things were mere foundation.

You cannot understand the job that Wii Music performs, even when it is spelled out for you by "crazy" Miyamoto, if you don't understand where he is starting from and where he is headed. Many haters are starting at their comprehension of the jobs which past music games have performed, and facing the goal of "art," and correctly surmise that Miyamoto is going the other direction. They are confused how Miyamoto can think that removing complexity and challenge moves the game towards art. But art has already been assumed for Miyamoto. Art is just a physical expression of the philosophy behind the game, and Miyamoto has moved past that, through design, and to the utility of the game.

In contrast, the highest regarded "art" games, like Bioshock or MGS, assume some existing job, and eventually move past art to make commentary about some existing philosophy, instead of making a unique philosophy and corresponding art the starting point of the game. They are treading an existing path and trying to go the furthest. Miyamoto is choosing a destination that has never been reached before. Whether he gets there on his first attempt is no longer the point.