I admit I couldn't quite follow everything Matsuura-san was saying. It was way more philosophical and futurist than the usual fare at DICE and so I think it went above a bunch of people's heads. By far the highlight was a live performace at the end of "You and I" while Aibo and the weird rolling-iPod things danced.
Masaya Matsuura
Ryo Watanabe
NanaOn-Sha
A Sense of Fun: Anyone Could Be Your Player One
1985: psy-s album with Sony music, disbanded in 1996
1996: Parappa hte Rapper
1999: vib ribbon
2002: IGDA board member
2005: Tamagotchi connection corner shop, 90% female / 77% elementary school students
2007: musika on the iPod
Associated with the music game genre, at the end of the day he’s a musician looking for a way to expand his art. Music genre started in 1996 in US , grown incredibly since then In Japan it is a genre all of its own. Delighted to see the great surge of interest in the west lately with GH and RB and Singstar. GH franchise 20% of all game sales last year. Amazing.
Many games these days use orchestral soundtracks. Nice, but isn’t it lacking in imagination? Games are interactive, unlike film. But music is basically the same in both. Unimaginative forms will slowly die out as new forms mature. Drastic changes in music already.
History of music games still very young. What is the way of growth? Collaborating with great musicians is one way. Hot female singer with sexy dance video is good even without the music! Western success based mostly on licensed music, and we have to move beyond this. What is the next paradigm?
Most musicians create music in their own style. Street musicians. If music comes in at the end of the game as subordinate to the design, you cannot call that person a musician. That is merely production. Difficult to unite opinions of a large group of people, so some contribution is not reflected. Programmers making casual games independently so they can be the creative source. If passion becomes subordinate to other factors, game over.
Music genre outgrowing itself and challenging us to expand its possibilities. Music is mysterious. Music reinforces culture (parties). Music has memories and information attached which is difficult to separate. Making music is an independent creative act but once in the world it is a shared entity, no longer under our control. This is a hint to why music is so hard to define. Look at children doing group music. Children dancing together in Chad. Even without victory as a goal there is enjoyment related to the pure conduct of the game. Why do we engage in these seemingly meaningless actions?
“Postural Echo”. Two friends talk informally, adopt similar body postures. IF very friendly and share attitudes, this goes as far as to become carbon copies. Not a deliberate imitative process. Automatically indulging in postural echo as an unconscious action. In a children are these more necessary for positive development? Matching behaviors in real time. Risk taking of positive emergence is necessary. Not by judging merit but by adapting and behaving appropriately. Play more enjoyable by having this sense – generates great fun?
Editing technique – single black frame causes audience to blink. Pick this up automatically. Same thing if your partner is a computer game. Develop emergent forms of communication like postural echo with AIs? Kismet project at MIT. This could be important in the future.
Two entities attaining a mutual standpoint. If unequal, emergence is restricted and instead you get negative emergence. Too simple to divide into positive and negative. Negative emergence brings about stress – war as an extreme example? Regrettable to have so many games that promote negative emergences. Maybe straightforward, but the future is not bright for the industry if this is all we focus on. Physical attacks to establish superiority is a problem. In 100 or 1000 years people will study our history. What if it is written like “back then games were all about killing like gladiators of ancient Rome”?
Video games are an easy form of entertainment, all you need is the hardware and software. But to keep entertained getting increasingly complex with small actions doing huge effects. Failure to have actions of great responsibility in the real world have so little responsibility in game. Better in the Wii – stronger the controller moves the stronger the bat hits. Wii requires tighter connection between actual and virtual actions. How can be improve on this? That is the way to more advanced games.
Major Minor’s Majestic March: using the wii baton as a conductor’s baton. Wii doesn’t give accurate data quickly. Instead of focusing on rhythm based gameplay, let them control the tempo by waving the baton. Deal with players getting bored by repeating the movement.
“Tangible Experiences” – games moving out of the displays. Look back at this era as the time when all the games were trapped behind the screen. Wider possibilities make the word “game” insufficient to describe what we do. Music about futuristic robot car and future possibilities. Vehicle as extension of body image. When computers ARE cars, interactive design becomes critical for maintaining accurate control at speed. Using music as a tool for this?
“Rolly” music player like iPod that moves. In movies, living things shown dying, but this is staged. Make a distinction between real and staged events. Robot dog being driven over. Destroying actual Aibo is shameful misuse of virtual experience. Of course it is different, everyone understands that Aibo is a machine, but it still deserves our respect as an entity with different sense than us. Work environments should reflect positive emergence too.
As children grow they lose ability to draw very precise pictures. As one part of brain develops you lose capability elsewhere. When we explore new ideas we have to experience these new ideas. Most other forms of representative media require previous expectations to understand the content, but this is not necessarily true of games. Games can affect deep emotions, this is why they are fun and important.
Games rejecting a broadening notion as they become hyper competitive in specific areas? Big inspiration from the West as growing up, would like to see more outreach from the West to the East. Future generations enjoy the culture of others.
No choice about listening, but players do have a choice about what games they load. So we have to find a language that appeals to everyone. Then it doesn’t matter who is your Player One.