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Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding is a reaction to 'Trump and Brexit'

Sakura

Member
Japanese virtue signaling is hilarious considering their 99% homogenous land is literally impentrable by the laws they have created and the most extreme of antimmigrant policies. My home country of Canada allows 300,000 legal immigrants in a year, of which 90% are of non-european origin.. every single year. If those numbers arrived in Japan for just 3 years, Kojima would be wearing a MJGA hat and praising Kayne, while developing a new tower defense border wall simulator.
I don't think Kojima is advocating for immigration. Canada's 300,000 number is also a very recent number. Expect Canadian's to become increasingly anti immigration in the coming years.
The difficulty in immigrating to Japan is also overexaggerated. If you have a bachelor's it's pretty easy to get in.
 
Can you describe what’s so great about borders exactly?

Oh and as for individualism. I’m sure it’s great if you happen to be born healthy in a western middle class family, but pretend for a second that you’re born with aids in a third world country. Not so great, is it?
A border is a dividing line of laws and ideologies, it gives a country the status of sovereignty and the ability to control the flow of what and who to let in. It allows for a country to even exist.

What kind of question is this?
 

Breakage

Member
He gets into this exact issue a bit.

"We may be connected through the internet more than ever, but what's happening is that people are attacking each other because we're so connected," he tells gaming report Steffan Powell. That connection, according to Kojima, is why Death Stranding seeks to push people to think about connection.”

It would be even more interesting than I think it is, if it tackles the subject of connection as a whole, both positive and negative.
From the reviews I've read and seen so far, there has been no suggestion that connection could a bad thing in DS. The main objective of the game seems to be “reconnect America”.
I also wonder who the real-life analogues of the Homo Demens are supposed to be.
 
Pakistani over here, I don't get it :p

Likely the fact that Japan has recently advocated that they intend to open their country after the Rugby world cup to greater levels of immigration from other countries world wide and Japan particularly has a high list of applicants of people from Pakistan wanting to move to Japan as they already have Canada and many other countries globally. Canada is likely to boom in terms of immigration and I can see problems forming there as they have in the UK and have been established for some time.

More onto my own point.

I am greatly saddened by Kojima-san's comments here. Whilst I cannot comment on President Trump and his actions as I myself am a British native and citizen, the United States is currently doing very well economically, despite the hatred and wish to bring President Trump down and replace him with a communist/socialist democrat. I don't know anything about the circumstances of his Presidency, only that the United States are currently doing very well and he had the bollocks to stand up to global leaders and make the un-popular decisions such as pulling out of the Paris Agreement.

What saddens me more as an advocate of the sadly bastardised 'Brexit' that has been twisted and manipulated into a political and social storm is that the reason I voted for Brexit personally was because I don't agree with the requirements of being in the EU, I don't approve of all their decisions and I certainly would not have looked to join had we actually been given the choice.

A fact the rest of the world probably does not know is that the peoples of the United Kingdom never actually voted to join what we currently refer to as the European Union. My grandma, god rest her soul, passed away three weeks ago now but as a fountain of knowledge I asked her about the vote in 1975 on the European Communities Membership and she very told me that the politicians of the time very clearly stated that this was a trade deal agreement, it was not about politics. Enoch Powell, a man hated by many but quite brilliant in his own right said that the whole point of the EEA was to eventually become a political project to rule over the European nations and how right he was about that particular point.

I don't comment on Japanese national affairs and I don't make projects to make political points to Japan, so I would hope that Kojima grants Britain the same respects. I voted for Parliamentary sovereignty and the ability to decide our nations future for itself and to prevent further destruction of Europe from a continent of rich, established and varied nations, into a thread of federal countries. Brexit isn't about putting up walls and stopping people from being a part of Britain, it's about opening up our horizons to the whole world and not just the immediate nations around us. We live in a global market with a global outreach and it's never been easier to do that than in the 21st century. Appreciated, we have a trade surplus and the EU very much needs the UK more than we need them, not only for trade but also as one of the biggest contributors to the EU in monetary terms, of which a giant gaping black hole should be left for the EU to fill.

I'm going to buy and likely enjoy Death Stranding, but please don't take an issue close to me and many people in the country right now and tell me that your creative vision is simply a knee jerk reaction to political on-goings. I don't play games to get into politics, I play them for exactly the opposite reasons. To try and forget that the UK is currently a fucking laughing stock, that trust in politicians is probably less than it has ever been and that the self serving back stabbing, lying expense claiming bastards have been fucking the general public for years and will continue to do so. They take powers lent to them by the peoples they represent and use them to represent themselves and they can't agree on most subjects and couldn't run a piss up in a brewery. I don't really want to be reminded of that when I'm playing a game to escape from the real world and forget about it for a change.

Can you describe what’s so great about borders exactly?

Oh and as for individualism. I’m sure it’s great if you happen to be born healthy in a western middle class family, but pretend for a second that you’re born with aids in a third world country. Not so great, is it?

Borders are necessary for social security and also to ensure we don't over saturate talent, labour and numbers so that social services become unsustainable. They also allow for nations to add where necessary to skills they lack strategically and prevent unwanted individuals such as criminals with severe convictions from being allowed to enter the country.

My question here is, why are the situations like the one you're describing still happening? The United Kingdom alone gives billions of pounds to African nations every year and African nationals living in the United Kingdom send money home to their families regularly. In 2017 alone, we gave Africa £13.9 billion pounds. Where the fuck is this money going? Im well aware of where Mugabe spent it but Africa is struggling with it's own political issues that it needs to get through and this is only the most common example of third world countries that we can provide an example of. From the mass amount of money donated to Africa from the 80's to the modern day, it should not be in the state that it currently is. It could and should be far better place for the people that live there but it's a long way from being able to be that continent with political issues of it's own. Though the EU currently have their own hands in that business.

You are mistaking individualism (rights of the individual as something that should be respected) for isolationism (which is the belief that countries should be completely isolated from each other).

Kind of ironic given that Japan boomed under their isolationist policies isn't it? They didn't have another boom like that until the bubble economy.
 
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Woodchipper

Member
A border is a dividing line of laws and ideologies, it gives a country the status of sovereignty and the ability to control the flow of what and who to let in. It allows for a country to even exist.

What kind of question is this?
You don’t understand. What’s so great about having different countries?

What if we all lived under the same laws and looked out for one another? Would that be horrible?
 

FranXico

Member
What if we all lived under the same laws and looked out for one another? Would that be horrible?
Depends on which laws, to begin with. Would you agree to living under Sharia?

Nobody here disagrees to countries co-existing in peace and mutual cooperation, of course. But even in peace, the reality is that cultures are different and differences need to be respected.
 
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Woodchipper

Member
You are mistaking individualism (rights of the individual as something that should be respected) for isolationism (which is the belief that countries should be completely isolated from each other).
None of those is what I meant. Individualism to me is basically caring about yourself instead of caring about what’s best for everyone.
 
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You don’t understand. What’s so great about having different countries?

What if we all lived under the same laws and looked out for one another? Would that be horrible?
We have countries because no one can agree on anything let alone laws, how to enforce them, to what degree or what they even are.

What do you think would happen if you moved the entire population of Syria to North Dakota? It would be under Sharia law and at war with itself and everyone else within a month.

None of those is what I meant. Individualism to me is basically caring about yourself instead of caring about what’s best for everyone.
You can do this within the confines of your own country for your own people.
 
You don’t understand. What’s so great about having different countries?

What if we all lived under the same laws and looked out for one another? Would that be horrible?

We affectionately refer to that as communism and your idea of a utopia like that would be wonderful would it not be tearing itself apart because of the same disagreements the world has now over race, religion, wealth, gender, biological sex and so on. A common law system is great but it doesn't suit every country in the world because what may benefit one, may not necessarily benefit another. What you also have to remember for example is that the UK law same is based on Judeo Christian philosophies whereas the middle east for example build a lot of their law around Islam and Sharia.

Not only that but the world has developed culture because you have different countries. Different architecture, different ideas, different languages, different cuisine, different ways of thinking, different art, different philosophies, different currencies etc.

Remove all the barriers of countries and you're one step away from the ideal and perfect world and what a shite world it would be to live in where everything is exactly the same right the way around the globe. You remove the human cultural factor and make every human being a carbon copy of each other.

Also, the idea of looking out for each other is called NATO. There are other systems that are supposed to work like that such as the European Union and the United States of America. While the US of A has been very successful thus far, NATO and the EU certainly haven't been and you'll never get all 195 countries to stand up for each other. You couldn't even get the French to invade Germany when Germany invaded Poland, even though it would have prevented most of WWII and Germany barely had any troops to defend itself because they were busy invading Poland.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
His Metal Gear games were reactions to US military might as well. Imo he is better at digging into American issues than most American companies. His outsider status helps.

Dude is a well read globally conscious guy. Very interested in seeing a take on modern alienation from someone not obsessed with Trump’s twitter.
 

Tesseract

Banned
Can you describe what’s so great about borders exactly?

Oh and as for individualism. I’m sure it’s great if you happen to be born healthy in a western middle class family, but pretend for a second that you’re born with aids in a third world country. Not so great, is it?

identity politics is just as bad, so is differentiation by class

borders are great because we can control who we let into our society

we're tribal creatures that like walls between ourselves and the other, and that will never change
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Can you describe what’s so great about borders exactly?
since you don't believe in borders can i have your house? unless you are dead set on the bougeious comforts of your walled palace, you should be willing to share with the rest of us. thanks in advance ill DM you my address you can just mail me your keys.

i promise i won't do anything unsavory! or invite any of my friends to stay! might make a few copies of the key tho...
 
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GenericUser

Member
Oh great, trump and the brits in my videogames...

giphy.gif
 

highrider

Banned
Wow I sure want to play your already divisive "game" now, what a better way to promote unification than to throw political divisiveness into the mix by taking sides against Trump trying to protect the sovereignty our nation and Brexit trying to do the same for theirs.

A true genius folks...

snoop.png

Yeah, and somewhat ironic coming from a resident of a very intentional homogeneous population. There’s nothing wrong with wanting your own national identity, unless you’re white. There’s nothing wrong with immigration that’s controlled, but immigrants should embrace the new country as well. We don’t need immigrants that don’t give a fuck about your culture, language or social structures. There’s also a big opportunity cost that the home country loses when working age men and women leave. They aren’t there to help fix the problems that have them leaving in the first place. Because then it’s no longer a country, it’s just a place where people are being born to leave any way they can because the problems are evidently not something they can fix. But it all comes down to skin in the game. Why take on the huge challenge when you can fuck off for a better/easier life. All of my coworkers are Central American immigrants or on work visas, they are good dudes and very high character for the most part, but they have zero attachment to America as a nation, they are here to make money and support their families. I unapologetically want the best and the brightest that actually want to be American. It’s pretty much what every country does, try immigrating to Canada or Mexico and see for yourself. Flooding America with cheap labor has not been a good thing. It hurts the working class deeply. It’s not the immigrants taking our jerbs, but you devalue labor and trades. In the 90s as an automotive painter I could fairly easily make over 100k a year as did a typical auto body guy. Over the course of 10 years that’s become very difficult to do. It’s rare I ever see someone from America in my business now. Employers love them because they work hard and work cheap.

So for me personally, it’s not some slow burn or conspiracy theory. It’s had a huge impact on trades, and it’s echoed in every trade guy I know. Low skill labor now is pretty much entirely done by illegals and work visa guys. Remember when teenagers worked? I do.
 

ROMhack

Member
Article title is clickbait.

Kojima goes even further into the global state of affairs, referencing political issues in both the US and the UK: "President Trump right now is building a wall. Then you have Brexit, where the UK is trying to leave, there are lots of walls and people thinking only about themselves in the world." In Death Stranding, Norman Reedus' Sam Porter Bridges seeks to save the world by delivering packages to remote locations, traversing rocky terrain and fending off those attempting to steal his wares. "The era of today is about individualism," Kojima suggests in the interview - it's clear that Death Stranding is an attempt to reject that.

Will have to double-check but it doesn't seem so.

Also, MGS has always been very political, often discussing globalisation, patriotism, etc.
 
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Tesseract

Banned
can someone clarify, did kojima say 'the era of today is about individualism'

if so he's drifting way outta touch, god help us all
 
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ROMhack

Member
can someone clarify, did kojima say 'the era of today is about individualism'

if so he's drifting way outta touch, god help us all

Will have to check myself but the ending of MGS2 is suggsts his views on politics, media and individualism:




My reading is that he was saying people are too easily led astray and should seek to make their own world, through personal choice. The game prefaces this through the theme of networked media (controlled by 'the patriots') designed to construct a viewpoint of the world that is only a small part of the whole picture. I can totally see Kojima sticking to the same line through Norman in DS who from the trailers is seemingly seeking to create a better world, despite the hardships and higher forces, and things that attack him etc.

I also tihink Kojima's games have a strong humanistic essence to them. His entire rationale behind Snake was to ask what happens when somebody is created to serve a (military) purpose and then to consider whether they can break from their genomic destiny, which is further why The Selfish Gene was an inspirational text for MGS2.

Anyway, it's probably not a direct reference to Trump or Brexit but rather a reflection on the politics of the day.
 
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Tesseract

Banned
Will have to check myself but the ending of MGS2 is pretty obvious about his views on politics, media and individualism:




My reading was that he was saying people are too easily led astray and should seek to make their own world, through personal choice.

The game prefaces it through use of media designed to construct a viewpoint of the world that is only a small part of the whole picture. I can see him enlarging that through Norman in DS who is seemingly seeking to create a better world, despite the hardships and higher forces, etc.


yeah, that's why i find this quote so shocking

gonna run with what mhk said, must be a terrible translation
 
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Jon Neu

Banned
Knowing that even though I'm lonely, there are other people like me

He's literally paraphrasing Shinji Ikari. That's the message he's trying to convey; that people are alone furthing away from each other because human interactions are scary and it's easier to be alone, to be an individual instead of blending with society.

The divisiveness thing is more of his own, influenced by seeing how the societies around the world seem to have this tendency to be more and more divisive. Japanese culture it's against individualism and all about the force and the prevalence of the group, so it's normal for him to think that way.

But bringing Trump & Brexit as examples only works to make note of the two biggest examples of how a country is divided between people in favour and people against it.
 

Piku_Ringo

Banned
:messenger_tears_of_joy:

You’re welcome. I just think Kojima’s perspective here, agree or disagree. is a bit more nuanced and interesting than developer #163528283 piling propaganda in their game, top to bottom.

We haven’t seen anything like that Death Stranding, and I think it deserves more credit than it’s getting in this thread. The article itself also alludes to a more nuanced portrayal.

I hope I can play Day 1 too. The most fascinating game of the year, undoubtedly, and sharing it with others feels so tonally pitch perfect.
Will playing the game Day 1 be considered overtime if you work for places like, UPS, Uber, PapaJohns though?
 
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