Much like every great rock star, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is on tour. We caught up with the man responsible for creating Mario, Donkey Kong and the family friendly Nintendo Wii this past week in San Francisco – just one of his many stops in the Western hemisphere in support of his latest release, Wii Music for the Nintendo Wii. Upon entering his hotel room, we were greeted by the man himself, slapping down a rhythm on his Wii-remote-turned-bass-guitar to a K.K. Slider favorite. Sitting down for our interview, our first question related not only to Wii Music, but also to his greatest measure of success as the king of casual gaming.
How is the wife-o-meter doing these days?
"Off the charts," says Miyamoto, laughing. Before the Nintendo Wii launch, Miyamoto famously revealed he measures the potential popularity of his work by his wife's reaction, a.k.a. the wife-o-meter.
"Unfortunately, Wii Music only recently launched in Japan, and I've been overseas promoting it in other markets ever since, so we haven't had a chance to play Wii Music together," said Miyamoto. "In fact, she's been doing very well. She's continuing to increase her scores in virus buster (Brain Age), but she's also playing the Professor Layton games."
Being both a family man and a game designer presents a special challenge to someone like Shigeru Miyamoto. The relationship between parents and video games tends to prove volatile at times, so how does someone who makes games maintain control in his own home?
"Well, like a lot of parents, of course, I've set rules for my kids in regards to playing video games," Miyamoto explains. "Number one, if the weather is nice then go play outside. And number two, you can't play any video games until you've finished your homework. And the third rule, which was really the foundation for all of it was that the game systems we had weren't their systems, they were my systems, and I was lending them out. I would tell them, 'If you're not doing your homework then I'm not going to lend you to this anymore.'"
By no means a militant, Miyamoto chuckles to himself while recalling some of his more lax moments.
"I also would kind of form an alliance with my kids. For example, they'd be playing a video game like Zelda and my wife would say, 'Hey, it's time for you kids to stop playing and take your bath.' If I knew that where they were in the game had no save points and so I would say, 'No, no, no, let them play a little longer and then they can go take their bath!'"
Video game violence is a major concern for parents, and Miyamoto is no exception to the rule. At a recent promotional event for Wii Music in London, the designer said, "I am concerned that many developers focus just on excessive violence in order to stimulate people's minds." When asked about these comments, he sought to make a clarification.
"It wasn't my intent to criticize anyone," says Miyamoto. "My concern is that if all people do is rely on violence as the only means of exciting people or bringing them entertainment then that I think is not good. Or if all that they're focused on is escalating violence as a form of escalating the level of entertainment then that's not good either. I think that because there are many different ways to entertain people and bring them joy, we should use all the tools that are available to us, rather than just focusing exclusively on one means of entertainment."
Much like how Wii Music encourages players to experiment with improvisation and to tap into the creative nether of their minds, Shigeru Miyamoto looks to encourage his fellow designers to do the same so your kids have a wider variety of games to play.
