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

Damn, I'm gonna move to Japan. 6'1 decent looking white guy gonna slay all that japanese minge.

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Jtibh

Banned
So because he comes out with an actual statement that isn't meant to actually pick a side? He stated a fact. Trump is building a wall. Some would argue the factual nature of that, let's just say he's trying really hard. Brexit same thing. He stated a fact without giving a real opinion about anything. He didn't say Trump is wrong for building the wall.
No you are right.
Yes he didnt pick sides .
But you can see how ones getting attacked for an innocent statement and i dont think he should do this kinda stuff .
We saw over the years how peoples carriers got destroyed for the smallest things.
We lived through meetoo gamergate etc.
A man in his possition who is worshipped by millions and for the right reason should never make a political statement cuz it will just divide his followers.
Cancel culture is real. Shitty reviews for political reasons are real.
Who knows when this will come back to him to hunt him in the future. Maybe his next game will be judged based on his statements and not his work.


Bottom line i dont want the game industry to follow hollywood. We dont want developers to please the sjw sector and make lesser games with no controversial content just to get the metascores that pays their wages.
Just look at cyberpunk. And its not even out yet.
 

DryPancakes

Banned
Also having politics as a background or as a storytelling device is not the same as making a statememnt about modern day politics pointing fingers at specific groups or pushing agendas; war is bad, that's not political that's just common sense, and is a common topic to explore, same as corrupted capitalism resulting in corporations taking over the world, most of the time that's not really a message, it's just a cool setting for a a story to take place in. In this case division and connection is a standard plot device idea, pretty much MGSV if you trhink about it, division by language and all that.

I honeslty don't think Kojima thinks that deep about the messages and just wants to make a cool hollywood-like plot with intereesting themes and settings. politically adjacent themes happen to be interesting ideas to explore, not necessarily for their substance but for their storytelling potential.

But hey, whatever.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Th funniest part is that this game is getting included in the OK Boomer meme.

Kojima is Gen X but old enough that people are just giving him the Ok Boomer.

Now Kojima is Boomer games.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 

H4ze

Member
lol, some here are gettint triggered way to hard about this... xD

I really want to play Death Stranding and can't wait for Friday.
 

HeresJohnny

Member
No you are right.
Yes he didnt pick sides .
But you can see how ones getting attacked for an innocent statement and i dont think he should do this kinda stuff .
We saw over the years how peoples carriers got destroyed for the smallest things.
We lived through meetoo gamergate etc.
A man in his possition who is worshipped by millions and for the right reason should never make a political statement cuz it will just divide his followers.
Cancel culture is real. Shitty reviews for political reasons are real.
Who knows when this will come back to him to hunt him in the future. Maybe his next game will be judged based on his statements and not his work.


Bottom line i dont want the game industry to follow hollywood. We dont want developers to please the sjw sector and make lesser games with no controversial content just to get the metascores that pays their wages.
Just look at cyberpunk. And its not even out yet.
I tend to agree with this. I think he understands more about American politics than most Japanese people, but I also think this was just Kojima trying to appear more clever than he is. He likes to run his mouth, even when he should be focusing everything on making a game and in this case ended up looking ignorant because he threw rocks from his glass house.
 

HeresJohnny

Member
Gaijins are treated way better than immigrants are in the states I'll tell you that for sure. I've been to Japan a few times, my brother lives there. Gaijin hunters exist and it's not as bad as it sounds. Some people want to befriend Gaijins because of social status, or to learn English. However this can be taken to the extreme where people will date you in Japan only for those purposes.

Also, come on, "wrong side this time"? Really Johnny?
That’s likely because there aren’t very many of them. Japan only has a couple hundred thousand immigrants out of a population of 127 million or so — less than 2%; and that’s considered a major improvement in recent years from what it was. Gaijin is short for the more formal and far less derisive Gaikokujin, which is what the government and media use to reference foreigners. Gaijin might be attractive to some in Japan in the same way they view American pop culture in some other respects, but most agree the term is neutral at best and often negative.

And yes, a dude finger wagging other countries for building walls or being exclusionary is on the wrong side when his own country engages in quite similar behavior that he conveniently forgets to mention. If he had referenced Japan in his statement I’d have taken less of an issue with it.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
No you are right.
Yes he didnt pick sides .
But you can see how ones getting attacked for an innocent statement and i dont think he should do this kinda stuff .
We saw over the years how peoples carriers got destroyed for the smallest things.
We lived through meetoo gamergate etc.
A man in his possition who is worshipped by millions and for the right reason should never make a political statement cuz it will just divide his followers.
Cancel culture is real. Shitty reviews for political reasons are real.
Who knows when this will come back to him to hunt him in the future. Maybe his next game will be judged based on his statements and not his work.


Bottom line i dont want the game industry to follow hollywood. We dont want developers to please the sjw sector and make lesser games with no controversial content just to get the metascores that pays their wages.
Just look at cyberpunk. And its not even out yet.
Heh, he waited until after the reviews were out to say it. IQ 200?

I agree politics should stay out of games, I don't know that his statement was inherently political. Partisanship tends to be the pre-requisite for a political comment. At least in pretty much all previous instances this has been the case. I don't think Kojima is partisan at all. He says people are building walls and only thinking about themselves. This is a fact. Those who are angry about this comment should maybe look inward as to why they feel that way.
That’s likely because there aren’t very many of them. Japan only has a couple hundred thousand immigrants out of a population of 127 million or so — less than 2%; and that’s considered a major improvement in recent years from what it was. Gaijin is short for the more formal and far less derisive Gaikokujin, which is what the government and media use to reference foreigners. Gaijin might be attractive to some in Japan in the same way they view American pop culture in some other respects, but most agree the term is neutral at best and often negative.

And yes, a dude finger wagging other countries for building walls or being exclusionary is on the wrong side when his own country engages in quite similar behavior that he conveniently forgets to mention. If he had referenced Japan in his statement I’d have taken less of an issue with it.
He's not finger wagging though!

He's just stating facts. Trump is building a wall and in that he is only thinking of the US on a global scale. This is not him condemning this, he just stating what is true. With Brexit, Britain is trying to leave the EU, trying to separate themselves. Im not nearly as knowledgeable about Brexit so I hesitate to comment on it further but the closing off of connection is simply true. The game is meant to help people think about connection in general, it's not saying whether we should or we shouldn't do it.
 
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A fence? Even worse. What is that suppose to do?
have you gone near a military base? There's a fence. Yes they could have free open terrain, but the fence with cameras is quite effective.
I don't see how that's any different now.
Two things, we now have welfare, the ER, etc Also the minimum wage was meant to be a living wage from the start, all this low skill labor has depressed wages. In many cases illegal migrants are probably paid even below the minimum wage. It's like someone that wants to sell themselves into slavery, allowing such exploitation is not good.
Regarding "illegal immigration", I would ask you this. Is it ILLEGAL immigration that is the issue, or immigration in general? What if we were to ramp up our resources at entry points so that more immigrants could be processed, and in the end the total number of immigrants coming in legally was roughly on par with those currently coming in legally + illegally. Would you be OK with that? (I ask that generally of those who argue against illegal immigration)
Is not that they can be processed, is that they need to know english, they need to know some of our history, and ideally they should also have some level of education to provide for high skill labor.
Learning basic English is a requirement to become a citizen. It's right there on the website.
This

As for the game, probably something got lost in translation or Kojima hasn't had time to get properly informed about the recent political landscape and is acting as a low information commentator.
 

FMXVII

Member
Kojima is a master of promoting his own monetary gain.

Fame and infamy are mere side effects.

Death Stranding × A Sucker Born Every Minute:

A Study of Duplicity Framed in Duality.
 
I'm not a hater, but I've didn't need Kojima-san to make me a walking simulator: Postman Pat on my beloved ZX Spectrum did that years and years ago... Thanks ;)

I wanted to continue being ironic and dunking on the game but yeah, the idea that Kojima-san didn't have to make a walking simulator hit me right in the feels. It shouldn't have been like this.
 

Jtibh

Banned
Heh, he waited until after the reviews were out to say it. IQ 200?

I agree politics should stay out of games, I don't know that his statement was inherently political. Partisanship tends to be the pre-requisite for a political comment. At least in pretty much all previous instances this has been the case. I don't think Kojima is partisan at all. He says people are building walls and only thinking about themselves. This is a fact. Those who are angry about this comment should maybe look inward as to why they feel that way.

He's not finger wagging though!

He's just stating facts. Trump is building a wall and in that he is only thinking of the US on a global scale. This is not him condemning this, he just stating what is true. With Brexit, Britain is trying to leave the EU, trying to separate themselves. Im not nearly as knowledgeable about Brexit so I hesitate to comment on it further but the closing off of connection is simply true. The game is meant to help people think about connection in general, it's not saying whether we should or we shouldn't do it.

Food for thought.

There is a little thing called wexit. The left calls it redneckxit go figure.
Where alberta saskatchewan manitoba maybe part of bc want to separate from rest of canada. The reasons for that you should google as its just too elaborate to write it all down.
Everyone is soo hung up on brexit and trump they are unaware of whats happening elsewhere.
I know there are issues in south america i know there are other countries in the EU who want to exit or seperate be independent like catalan
 
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Here in Poland a lot of Ukrainians seek work and they are usually nice, assimilating people who work hard. I have absolutely nothing against them and they are just like polish people but in the early 90s economy(so ruined by east and their own corrupted goverment) .
The small problem arises when there are 1 million people from foreign country, working twice as much for less money. It creates a problem for local economy and typical company will prefer to hire foreigners than local people who will want to earn more obviously. But it is still not too bad and all is good still unlike like what we hear happens in Germany. My friends who live there say that some of islamic immigrants do not want to assimilate at all and force their horrible ways of living upon everyone else and well... rape everyone.
There are both sides of a coin and it's a broad topic which is too easy to generalize and go by rumors.

That said -Kojima bases his feelings more on overall cruelty of the world and huge rise of lonely people in Japan.

I can respect this; there's truth to it in terms of what mass immigration can do to wages and hiring opportunities for the local citizens. That kind of stuff has to be managed, you can't have uncontrolled immigration.

At the same time, lots of immigrants are coming to these new countries because their old ones got messed up. Not every problem that caused it was due to foreign actions (whether government, military or corporate), but at least some of them were, some of the big ones in particular. People are naturally going to turn their attention to those who they think need to make some kind of amends for doing them wrong, that's just human nature.

The more people you have in the resource pool to pick from, the more competition. And the more freely available those people are in terms of wages that can be paid, the more likely they'll be hired. Up to a limit, of course, but for blue-collar and some lower-position white-collar jobs it's a reality.

But this is where putting in the investments to those same countries that were messed up by our (I'm American) governments, banks, countries etc. comes in. Help them recover, genuinely recover, so they can be self-sufficient and have the infrastructure and resources to tend to their people. If you do that, you won't HAVE mass migrant influxes to begin with, but it also means we have to be honest about our roles in creating the conditions in a lot of these destabilized countries in the first place. If that can't be done, you're just going to have more migrants, vast majority of whom are by and large well-meaning and good-hearted people just like yourself or me, coming in because if they try living where they're coming from, chances are they're going to die. And that's WITH considering many of them trying to make the most with what they've got available locally (if they're even allowed to use most of it legally).

Also the whole thing about fearing bad migrants will bring crime...well, vast majority of immigration policies are generally very tight. From what I know when some of these migrants get to these countries they have them stay at camps set up specifically for them, and I can imagine some bad shit happens there. But it's generally isolated to those camps, and (I would think) the troublemakers are sent back where they came from. Granted, if you're dealing with some who are genuinely bad, they'll probably find ways to slip into general population, but how is that any different than a native non-foreigner doing the same?

In fact, how is keeping out all immigrants simply because some bad apples will inevitably try to get in, any different than a society that has an ethnically homogeneous population? In those cases, you still have criminals, you still have rapists, you still have thieves and murderers, drug dealers, drug addicts, pedophiles etc. That shit is universal (unfortunately) in terms of who can develop those bad tastes and habits, they don't care what your skin color is. And while everyone here is just thinking of blue-collar crime, they never seem to focus on the rampant white-collar crime that tends to happen as well, or certain crime statistics that are suppressed in order to keep certain narratives going. Just look at how quickly many of the same people complaining about migrants here have forgotten about the criminals that almost fucked up the world's economy BIG TIME a decade ago (well, they kinda did anyway, just to a lesser degree than it could've been). Why don't these people have more a focus on the people actually at the root of the problems that cause things like mass migration, but choose to take out their anger on migrants (again, most of whom are good, but you'll always have a few bad apples because that's just reality), especially those with a different complexion to them?

Because it's the infinitely easier way for them to rationalize their own frustrations, I'd assume. But it doesn't accomplish anything the big picture.
 

Dunki

Member
Bingo. This is what my argument stems from. He criticizes the West but his own country is exceptionally insular.
HE used it as a great example how it separates the people. He is not talking about his politics in the end but the emotion that came with Trump. You do not have this with ABE. The Country is not splitt and separated in Japan because of ABE.
 

Yoda

Member
Sounds like a marketing freebie to me, I highly doubt it's seriously influenced by DJT/current american politics.
 
How dare he touch immigration issues while Japanese folk sitting on a comfy bubble rejecting %99.999 legal residency/Citizenships.

My boi(homie) married a hot lovely Japanese lady..immigration services don't give a flying @#$% he still a stranger and barely has any paper work to advance eventually path to citizenship..they coming back to live state side anyways.
 
How dare he touch immigration issues while Japanese folk sitting on a comfy bubble rejecting %99.999 legal residency/Citizenships.

My boi(homie) married a hot lovely Japanese lady..immigration services don't give a flying @#$% he still a stranger and barely has any paper work to advance eventually path to citizenship..they coming back to live state side anyways.
757315.jpg
 

Wink

Member
Once there was an explosion

A bang which gave birth to politics in games

And then came the next explosion (on NeoGAF)
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Fuck man isnt gaijin hunter some chick who wants to fuck big white cock lol?

I was in japan i was treated with such a huge respect i felt bad about it.
And yes many many times girls randomly came to me to take some pics and took off. Was hoping for some pussy as i cant even describe you how gorgeous japanese women are but oh well.

Maybe some of them are still flicking the bean to my pic. At least i like to think😎
Bingo! Im black and i got similar treatment. The sushi chef at a restaurant gave me a free meal because they thought i was famous. No joke
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Bingo. This is what my argument stems from. He criticizes the West but his own country is exceptionally insular.
First of all, this is in the past. Currently Japan is very open to foreigners coming to work in the labor industry. Part of this is because of the birthrate is low and the aging population needs able bodies. Regardless the current sentiment in Japan is much different than what youre describing here.
 

Jtibh

Banned
Bingo! Im black and i got similar treatment. The sushi chef at a restaurant gave me a free meal because they thought i was famous. No joke
Awesome.
But i bet you didnt bone either haha.
Yes that country is something. Its like entering another dimension.
Have you ever seen hookers cleaning the street while they are on downtime?
Only in japan.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Awesome.
But i bet you didnt bone either haha.
Yes that country is something. Its like entering another dimension.
Have you ever seen hookers cleaning the street while they are on downtime?
Only in japan.

I did not. It was honestly such a culture shock and I was there for 2 weeks. I didn't really frequent Akihabara...I get the feeling my story might have been a bit different if I did go there. I did have a fantastic time at Club Harlem out there. Its a hip hop club in Shibuya. Lots of completely plastered folks of all ages. I got friendly with this Russian girl I met there. We kept up for a bit on instagram but that was over a year ago now. I wanna go back.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
kojima also stated that his game is about.

3D-printers
Drones unmanned
ground breaking AI

def make an article about that.
 

Jtibh

Banned
I did not. It was honestly such a culture shock and I was there for 2 weeks. I didn't really frequent Akihabara...I get the feeling my story might have been a bit different if I did go there. I did have a fantastic time at Club Harlem out there. Its a hip hop club in Shibuya. Lots of completely plastered folks of all ages. I got friendly with this Russian girl I met there. We kept up for a bit on instagram but that was over a year ago now. I wanna go back.
Do it as long as you are single.
I want and will go back but i was told i cant go by myself.
Lets just say the second time i went and with company, my excitement was ........too obvious haha
 

Breakage

Member
The thing is how is Death Stranding going to connect players with opposing political views in a way that is unique? Phantasy Star Online was no doubt connecting and encouraging collaboration among people on different ends of the political spectrum all the way back in 2000. All online games with a co-op element bring people with different views together.

What is Death Stranding doing to bring people together in a way that no other online game does? From what I've seen it's not doing anything special. The idea that, for example, an Antifa-supporting girl and a MAGA hat-wearing guy will come together and embrace over Death Stranding because it's Death Stranding is nothing but wishful thinking on Kojima's part.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
The thing is how is Death Stranding going to connect players with opposing political views in a way that is unique? Phantasy Star Online was no doubt connecting and encouraging collaboration among people on different ends of the political spectrum all the way back in 2000. All online games with a co-op element bring people with different views together.

What is Death Stranding doing to bring people together in a way that no other online game does? From what I've seen it's not doing anything special. The idea that, for example, an Antifa-supporting girl and a MAGA hat-wearing guy will come together and embrace over Death Stranding because it's Death Stranding is nothing but wishful thinking on Kojima's part.

I think people are taking statements way too literal. That is the nature of extremes in the current climate we live in.

It's all about planting the seeds, hence, building bridges. Now whether people cross those bridges together, while the goal, does not always transpire. But the seeds are there, waiting to be fertilized.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
The thing is how is Death Stranding going to connect players with opposing political views in a way that is unique? Phantasy Star Online was no doubt connecting and encouraging collaboration among people on different ends of the political spectrum all the way back in 2000. All online games with a co-op element bring people with different views together.

What is Death Stranding doing to bring people together in a way that no other online game does? From what I've seen it's not doing anything special. The idea that, for example, an Antifa-supporting girl and a MAGA hat-wearing guy will come together and embrace over Death Stranding because it's Death Stranding is nothing but wishful thinking on Kojima's part.

I don't think this is the goal at all. Kojima say he wants people to THINK about connection, not to necessarily bring people together. Its a broad statement that is left open-ended. It's meant for the individual player to interpret and take from it what they will.

Your reaction to it is symptomatic of a closed mind, and for that, you may not get much from the game at all in terms of it's message.
 
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