Someone asked about his definition of content -----------------
I just have one question. How is “content” different from narrative, in this piece?
Content is the value and experience the customer gets.
Narrative is more about *how* the game is emitted.
For example, early Star Trek’s “narrative” would be the sci-fi settings and lore. But the true content, the experience in the customer’s mind, was a naval experience not unlike Horatio Hornblower.
Like with Metroid, the ‘narrative’ could be the lore or mythology of the game. But the true ‘content’ of what is going on in the customer’s mind is something closer to the movie of Alien or Aliens.
My entire goal with that type of post of “Mario and his Content” was to move the magnifying glass away from the game and more towards the customer’s mind and imagination as that is where I believe where the magic occurs. I am trying to figure out why some games made us feel ‘awe’ while other games do not. Mario is as familiar a series than any other, so why not start there?
------------ I call bullshit if he thinks those other Marios did not offer this external experience for the player.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
