Very good article. Mikito Ichikawa brushed briefly with the heart of darkness amidst the labyrinth of laws constructed purely for the purpose of profit. The lawmakers construct arcane patent laws to entice the wealthy to engage in battles of business, the lawyers fill their days with briefcases full of nonsensical posturing, the manufacturers butt heads as giants scrambling about upon a fragile workforce, and the developers, such as Ichikawa, are left to fulfill nearly thankless roles as almost unheard stage hands.
The whole world is a grand theater for those who can afford it, and a potentially deadly crossfire of good and bad intentions paving the way to hell for everyone else. Nonetheless, I think what Ichikawa did was right, and I hope he feels that he did the right thing, even if only at the time.
@CHET_SWINGLINE That's Takahiro Myamoto, not Shigeru Miyamoto. The point was that game development has absolutely no regulations, unions, or anything to ensure fairness in the workplace, which has sometimes led to instances of vile misconduct in the workplace.
@Kirk You're lucky to be in the UK. Us Americans are truly screwed. We are part of a mass experiment right now, with Monsanto and the like expanding the prevalence of GMO's and the successors of biocides such as DDT. In particular, the biggest culprits are:
The synthetic chemical glyphosate of Roundup, which the WHO has deemed cancer causing, yet it is sold in millions of stores like Home Depot, and is applied liberally to all major conventionally grown crops; bio-genetically inserted BT (which is normally alright as a light spray bacterial insecticide, but strengthens pests when applied through GMO); antibiotic applications in animal feed, which goes down the food chain to humans, eventually causing immunity to antibiotics when they may be needed, preventing future treatments for powerful infections; at least 80% of all food in the USA is now produced factory style, destroying small farms and businesses, and utterly destroying the health of the soil and microscopic mycelium neural networks; the pesticide market has exploded, whipping millions of people into frenzies to nuke their entire properties with pesticides, destroying the delicate mycelium which regulates plant growth, thus contributing to even more soil erosion and death; these factors combined, along with weather phenomena such as the naturally caused plains and forest fires of the American midwest being strengthened due to climate change, is going to cause more land destruction than the Dust Bowl event we had in the 1930s; and an all out assault on the legal system is currently being conducted to try to prevent any labeling of any dangerous chemicals, GMO's, or poisoned food processes.
Awareness of local and organic products is growing, though, and Fair Trade, instead of Free Trade, is becoming a necessity to counter the destructive and wasteful tendencies of the USA's current agricultural market. The coming battles will determine whether the USA destroys the world's agricultural systems or not.
(Sorry for wall of text and off topic, just that the issue you bring up hits home for me.)
That isolation room torture method reminds me of what the US Military does to anyone they deem an "enemy"... Like at Guantanamo Bay Prison. Basically just a way to destroy anyone who gets in their way.
Considering Nintendo has been a part of the red light district before (they used to own love hotels), I find it hard to believe that Nintendo has had absolutely zero dealings with the Yakuza. Not to mention, Hanafuda cards have a long history of being used for gambling, just like many other card games. That was back during the Yamauchi era, however, so perhaps that involvement has mostly been severed. A single touch is all it takes, though. They can't 100% leave.
The company in question being redacted here is probably one of Nintendo's major competitors from 20 years ago... So who would that be? It was 1995-2000... So it's either Sony or Sega. Sony has way more hands dipping into various pots, so I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the way, the Yakuza got involved.
However, Sega's claim to fame is arcade cabinets: that's what they started off doing as Service Games (SeGa) for US Military bases, including those in Japan, back in the 1960s. Considering the lengths the brother of the kidnapped sister went to send an arcade oriented message, perhaps Sega is the more likely company in question here. Let us not forget Sega's horrid management policies; perhaps this was just one example of the horrendous things that truly happened to bring down Sega.
It's good that they decided to go through Indiegogo's support team to provide everyone with refunds, because they're not obligated to provide refunds if an Indiegogo project fails. There will probably be some people who have issues, which could get messy for those who contributed $100s toward the project.
This project was doomed from the start. The high pricing is the most glaring issue, of course. On the other hand, though, you can't succeed with a modern console platform fielding just games like Shovel Knight, Freedom Planet, and Shantae. Good games they all are, but PC offers much cheaper and more convenient ways of acquiring them.
If they're truly dead set on going all in with 2D gaming, they have to set themselves apart from the competition somehow. SNK did that successfully with the Neo-Geo due to it's arcade-perfect ports and arcade quality exclusives, which the 3D consoles at the time were not so well-suited for. (Except the Sega Saturn, arguably.) This console would similarly need to find some niche that no one else provides- simply providing retro style games is not enough.
In theory, I would love to see this succeed. In reality, $2 million is nowhere near enough to follow through on such a grand promise. Sorry, but it just isn't. They're going to have tons of issues along the way, we've been through this with other devices on crowd funding. You need an infrastructure in place to make this work, and $2 million isn't enough. Do the research yourself, even if they had $20 million, this would still be a difficult venture.
Another thing to note about this particular campaign, is that it is being funded by Indiegogo, not Kick starter. They don't function the same way. If a project fails to fund, no one gets their money back on Indiegogo. In Kickstarter, everyone immediately gets refunded when that happens. There are even less safeguards in place to ensure creators follow through on their projects, though I suppose the trust involved would need to be greater just to donate in the first place. Yes, I used the word "donate" instead of "pledge", because that is closer to how giving money works on Indiegogo compared to Kickstarter.
Comments 7
Re: How Star Wars Helped Nintendo Defeat One Of Sega's Most Ludicrous Patents
Very good article. Mikito Ichikawa brushed briefly with the heart of darkness amidst the labyrinth of laws constructed purely for the purpose of profit. The lawmakers construct arcane patent laws to entice the wealthy to engage in battles of business, the lawyers fill their days with briefcases full of nonsensical posturing, the manufacturers butt heads as giants scrambling about upon a fragile workforce, and the developers, such as Ichikawa, are left to fulfill nearly thankless roles as almost unheard stage hands.
The whole world is a grand theater for those who can afford it, and a potentially deadly crossfire of good and bad intentions paving the way to hell for everyone else. Nonetheless, I think what Ichikawa did was right, and I hope he feels that he did the right thing, even if only at the time.
Re: Book Review: The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Volume 2
@CHET_SWINGLINE That's Takahiro Myamoto, not Shigeru Miyamoto. The point was that game development has absolutely no regulations, unions, or anything to ensure fairness in the workplace, which has sometimes led to instances of vile misconduct in the workplace.
Re: Rumour: Leading Japanese Game Company Kidnapped Dev's Sister To Stop Them From Working With Nintendo
@tcaud Nice find! I had been wondering why the video game industry in Japan has had almost zero effective union representation for all this time...
Re: Rumour: Leading Japanese Game Company Kidnapped Dev's Sister To Stop Them From Working With Nintendo
@Kirk You're lucky to be in the UK. Us Americans are truly screwed. We are part of a mass experiment right now, with Monsanto and the like expanding the prevalence of GMO's and the successors of biocides such as DDT. In particular, the biggest culprits are:
The synthetic chemical glyphosate of Roundup, which the WHO has deemed cancer causing, yet it is sold in millions of stores like Home Depot, and is applied liberally to all major conventionally grown crops; bio-genetically inserted BT (which is normally alright as a light spray bacterial insecticide, but strengthens pests when applied through GMO); antibiotic applications in animal feed, which goes down the food chain to humans, eventually causing immunity to antibiotics when they may be needed, preventing future treatments for powerful infections; at least 80% of all food in the USA is now produced factory style, destroying small farms and businesses, and utterly destroying the health of the soil and microscopic mycelium neural networks; the pesticide market has exploded, whipping millions of people into frenzies to nuke their entire properties with pesticides, destroying the delicate mycelium which regulates plant growth, thus contributing to even more soil erosion and death; these factors combined, along with weather phenomena such as the naturally caused plains and forest fires of the American midwest being strengthened due to climate change, is going to cause more land destruction than the Dust Bowl event we had in the 1930s; and an all out assault on the legal system is currently being conducted to try to prevent any labeling of any dangerous chemicals, GMO's, or poisoned food processes.
Awareness of local and organic products is growing, though, and Fair Trade, instead of Free Trade, is becoming a necessity to counter the destructive and wasteful tendencies of the USA's current agricultural market. The coming battles will determine whether the USA destroys the world's agricultural systems or not.
(Sorry for wall of text and off topic, just that the issue you bring up hits home for me.)
Re: Rumour: Leading Japanese Game Company Kidnapped Dev's Sister To Stop Them From Working With Nintendo
That isolation room torture method reminds me of what the US Military does to anyone they deem an "enemy"... Like at Guantanamo Bay Prison. Basically just a way to destroy anyone who gets in their way.
Considering Nintendo has been a part of the red light district before (they used to own love hotels), I find it hard to believe that Nintendo has had absolutely zero dealings with the Yakuza. Not to mention, Hanafuda cards have a long history of being used for gambling, just like many other card games. That was back during the Yamauchi era, however, so perhaps that involvement has mostly been severed. A single touch is all it takes, though. They can't 100% leave.
The company in question being redacted here is probably one of Nintendo's major competitors from 20 years ago... So who would that be? It was 1995-2000... So it's either Sony or Sega. Sony has way more hands dipping into various pots, so I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the way, the Yakuza got involved.
However, Sega's claim to fame is arcade cabinets: that's what they started off doing as Service Games (SeGa) for US Military bases, including those in Japan, back in the 1960s. Considering the lengths the brother of the kidnapped sister went to send an arcade oriented message, perhaps Sega is the more likely company in question here. Let us not forget Sega's horrid management policies; perhaps this was just one example of the horrendous things that truly happened to bring down Sega.
Re: Retro VGS Crowdfunding Campaign "Dead In The Water" But Work Will Continue
It's good that they decided to go through Indiegogo's support team to provide everyone with refunds, because they're not obligated to provide refunds if an Indiegogo project fails. There will probably be some people who have issues, which could get messy for those who contributed $100s toward the project.
This project was doomed from the start. The high pricing is the most glaring issue, of course. On the other hand, though, you can't succeed with a modern console platform fielding just games like Shovel Knight, Freedom Planet, and Shantae. Good games they all are, but PC offers much cheaper and more convenient ways of acquiring them.
If they're truly dead set on going all in with 2D gaming, they have to set themselves apart from the competition somehow. SNK did that successfully with the Neo-Geo due to it's arcade-perfect ports and arcade quality exclusives, which the 3D consoles at the time were not so well-suited for. (Except the Sega Saturn, arguably.) This console would similarly need to find some niche that no one else provides- simply providing retro style games is not enough.
Re: The Retro VGS Wants To Revive The Glory Days Of Cartridge-Based Home Consoles
In theory, I would love to see this succeed. In reality, $2 million is nowhere near enough to follow through on such a grand promise. Sorry, but it just isn't. They're going to have tons of issues along the way, we've been through this with other devices on crowd funding. You need an infrastructure in place to make this work, and $2 million isn't enough. Do the research yourself, even if they had $20 million, this would still be a difficult venture.
Another thing to note about this particular campaign, is that it is being funded by Indiegogo, not Kick starter. They don't function the same way. If a project fails to fund, no one gets their money back on Indiegogo. In Kickstarter, everyone immediately gets refunded when that happens. There are even less safeguards in place to ensure creators follow through on their projects, though I suppose the trust involved would need to be greater just to donate in the first place. Yes, I used the word "donate" instead of "pledge", because that is closer to how giving money works on Indiegogo compared to Kickstarter.