Something can be good entertainment without being profound or intellectual. The truth is the masses tend to like easily palatable things.
I never meant to say that intellectual content isn't good.
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Kojima: Death Stranding Had Stronger Criticism in the US, Possibly Because It Flies Above Shooters
- Thread starter Shakerovic
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I never meant to say that intellectual content isn't good.
No way! Hating Kojima is what we do now, we're almost enjoying our anger.
But seriously criticism should be given when it's due and this case and many, many others to come it is justified.
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and the averages show that the US isn't particularly different than elsewhere
It was obnoxious and pretty clearly deliberate, not awkwardly phrased. When he stops offering so many, I bet we'll stop making threads about them.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Death Stranding. The imagery is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the exposition will go over a typical player's head. There's also Sam's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Kino Strand literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just "fun"- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Death Stranding truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the subtlety in the relevance of the catchphrase "Make America Whole Again," which itself is a cryptic reference to Donald Trump's rallying "MAGA". I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Hideo Kojima's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂
And yes, by the way, i DO have a BT tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎
And yes, by the way, i DO have a BT tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎
The dude has a terrible translator. If this is truly an instance of miscommunication, then this is the third or fourth time a mistranslation has made him seem like he's saying stupid things.
I'm enjoying the game, but I think the bigger issue is that, while Death Stranding isn't an action / stealth game, it still has action and stealth components - and both of those are significantly worse than they were in the games Kojima has directed before. Irrespective of where the audience for that stuff is, they're going to be disappointed.
And I say this as someone who thinks the core delivery / walking side of Death Stranding is excellent.
And I say this as someone who thinks the core delivery / walking side of Death Stranding is excellent.
Averages never tell a complete story. Would you argue that there's no poverty in a country based on the average income? Or that a mild climate year round is the same thing as having brutal winters and summers? The extremely polarized response to Death Stranding in US media is interesting, and does tell a story. I'm not sure it's as simplistic as Hideo would like to think, but he's not entirely crazy for thinking there's a cultural explanation. The fact that it Is literally a commentary on America as a plot device in a divided country doubtless plays a role.
I'm enjoying Death Stranding a great deal, in part because I'm not in a hurry to achieve specific objectives. I'm enjoying the nuance of the journey itself, and appreciating the not-especially subtle messaging regarding both ecology and divisiveness.
I doubt this is a severe mistranslation. I'm sure that he's saying something like Call of Duty-ish games are rather low brow, while his aspirations for Death Stranding were to be high brow. The phrasing of some of the language in his tweets and interviews in general just tends to give people space to hate him even more since he doesn't speak precisely.
I understand that aspiring to be high brow or high art is extremely offensive to the gaming community at large so I'm not surprised that people hate his comment. I can't help but wish we were better than that, even though I know we never will be.
Oh come on, if it's not a mistranslation, then he just made a REALLY bad take and people are calling him out on it. People aren't hating his comment for no reason or out of spite nor because gamers hate aspirations for high brow or high art. The game received rave reviews in NA as well, with the average being in line with other regions, and there are plenty of non-shooters and indie games that score very highly here as well
Pretty sure the response is polarized elsewhere as well, with Australia giving the game a lower score on average
Yes, I literally just said that it's probably not a mistranslation. I don't think we generated 30 pages of vitriol because he didn't correctly assess regional review trends.
Ah yes, all the high brow stuff like Quiet's outfit and interactive tiddy shots in MGS3. Malick and Lynch are dying out of jealousy to Kojima's genius this very second.
It that context it sounds like I'm defending Kojima, but I was referring to people defending Kojima's logic as idiotic.
I know and I'm saying, if it's that's the case, then it's just folk calling him out for making a bad take rather than taking offense at the idea of someone trying to make high art with games
Of course not, we got 30 pages because a big beloved developer that released a somewhat mixed game twice in a row is trying to paint a certain region as being too into shooters to get his game when that region scored his game in line with the other regions. Have another big name in the industry say something similar and they'd probably get the same response
You're absolutely correct. Walking through vast open, empty worlds doing fedex quests is nothing at all like the typical AAA game. And when you aren't doing that, you're watching a massive amount of cutscenes. Riveting stuff.
I think of it less as 'traversal' and more of 'logistics'. The part of the game where you're constantly stumbling and tipping over is actually pretty short, you get equipment to mitigate that pretty quickly. The interesting part for me becomes how to accomplish my tasks on a larger scale and more efficiently. For example to build roads I've been hijacking trucks and stealing ceramics from the game's equivalent of bandits. And roads make deliveries incredibly easy. Yet while there is no challenge in riding my trike on a highway for a minute and a half and getting a free Legend of Legend rank, it's still satisfying because I busted my ass to build that highway.
There can still be grueling stretches of land, for sure - BTs complicate any situation and are a real hassle even if they aren't terribly dangerous. But even without enemies the patch of road I'm trying to build next is in an area with constant equipment-degrading rainfall and almost comically rough terrain. I'm going to need to get thousands of kilograms of materials over it, sure I could just manhandle it over, but the game just gave me some new equipment that should handle the situation with ease.
I find this interesting and fun. I don't know if challenging is the word for it, even on hard mode. But I could certainly see how it's not everyone's idea of fun.
Its a message in what the AAA space focuses on and what expectations there are fairly or unfairly. When ppl say what do you do in a AAA game the answer is 99.9% combat of some kind
So, he wasn't aspired to create a high art before he started working on DS?
IncredibleI can't believe you guys would say Kojima has an ego.
Would a man with an ego have a wall full of celebrity selfies at an art gallery for his game?
"Americans" aren't a race, and clearly the commentary wasn't painting everyone in the category with the same brush. So no, it's not even remotely racism. Nor is it particularly insightful or graceful acceptance of criticism, admittedly, but it's not racism.
Bit of gymnastics going on here, Kojima's statement is about general US media's inability to grasp his ideas ("Flies above"), dismissing genuine criticism because his perspective is the only right one, then making sweeping statements about taste. Not sure how forum posters making this distinction is reinforcing his indictment, they're opposed.
....fmv is a gimmick? Maybe the story isn't interesting to some people? Maybe, it didn't click with them in the first few hours.
Fair enough, but 30 pages wrong? Seems a bit much.
I'd like to move to Kojima-stan if it weren't for the endless parades.
I can't believe you guys would say Kojima has an ego.
Would a man with an ego have a wall full of celebrity selfies at an art gallery for his game?
Oh my God lol
Never been a big fan of Kojima's and this doesn't make me more interested in his games. I want to give it a fair shot but man Kojima can't get out of his own way on this.
The guy was literally fired from his job and had all his meaningful creations taken from him when all these people came out to work with him. It obviously means a lot to him and that's why he put it up, but sure let's start a dog pile on him instead for daring to be happy about it.I can't believe you guys would say Kojima has an ego.
Would a man with an ego have a wall full of celebrity selfies at an art gallery for his game?
Every thread with Kojima or Death Stranding or anything related will be like this, people have turned on him for some reason these past few years.
I hear what you are saying but here's another take: game is not boring and plenty of people do like it.
Still going, eh. The celebrity wall isn't peaked Kojima madness Era, this is:
Is there more than this scene? Nicolas Winding Refn (his 3D scan is a lead in Destra but acted by someone else) used to be good but he ain´t coming back out of his own ass. No wonder that Amazon canned the show after S01. I could barely get through the pilot. Modern Kojima is a better director than modern Refn... Yeah.
Is there more than this scene? Nicolas Winding Refn (his 3D scan is a lead in Destra but acted by someone else) used to be good but he ain´t coming back out of his own ass. No wonder that Amazon canned the show after S01. I could barely get through the pilot. Modern Kojima is a better director than modern Refn... Yeah.
As has been previously stated in this thread... Of the bottom ten reviews on metacritic, only one of them was written by an American (it was the Giant Bomb review). So, it isn't like the American media represents the extreme negative either. This entire narrative is nonsense.
Uh huh.
Wasn't there a study or something that showed that narrative games are better received in the EU? It's weirdly said by Kojima, but even further I think a similar breakdown showed that sales tend to skew first person in the US and third person in EU. Though I've long since lost that source