GDC 2001: Masaya Matsuura's "What Are The Cultural Borderlines Of Games?"

This session from late Thursday was another highlight of the conference, as pioneering Parappa The Rapper and Um Jammer Lammy designer, Masaya Matsuura, spoke, ostensibly on the cultural borderlines of games, but actually straying surreally into all kinds of angles on his unique game design philosophy.

Mr. Matsuura, sporting a fetching dyed-blonde haircut, and flanked by an interpreter from Sony of America, began his one-hour speech by expressing his surprise that he was picked for this particular seminar. "Why me?", he opined -- he considered that he is a not a scholar, and he also doesn't consider marketing factors when making his games.

Certainly, it's true that Matsuura's groundbreaking music-action games haven't been quite as popular outside Japan, but he very much follows his own muse when it comes to making games with unique, twitch-related music gameplay, and doesn't look at what people 'want' from titles in a way that necessarily touches on cultural boundaries -- his designs are based more on his personal tastes.

But because he comes to the industry from a very different direction -- as a musician -- and has devised very fresh ways of combining music and gameplay to make new gameplay experiences, his opinions are definitely worth listening to, and come as a breath of fresh air compared to many battle-hardened veterans of the frag-gibbing FPS scene.

Mr. Matsuura first touched on the great possibilities of cellphones in Japan, where he felt they're much more accepted as a part of society, although currently the cheap OS and narrow bandwidth issues prevent much more than very basic games. Because many people commute in Japan, they have time to play games on such phones, whereas this is less of the case outside Japan.

He went on to talk about the emerging technology of Playstation 2 and Xbox meaning that people felt obliged to do much more complex titles, and thus the more simple, repetitive, twitch-based games (which his game design philosophy often hinges on, and, as he goes on to explain, are much more of a universal medium) are often relegated to handhelds. He gave the example of the Wonderswan Color game he and his Nana On-Sha company has just completed, Rhyme Rider Kerokiran, and which he gave five copies away of at the end of the session to lucky, lucky pundits (plus a Vib Ribbon figurine, limited to 50 in the world, which had the fanboys salivating something awful.)

Although he's definitely very interested in seeing the much more movie-like experiences that the next generation of consoles can provide, Mr. Matsuura's focus was on games that didn't really differentiate children and adults -- universally attractive titles, since he considers that everyone's the same inside, both kids and grown-ups. These game, for him, seem to be those which focus on non-violent, character-filled action with innovative gameplay that doesn't simply involve bopping the nearest character over the head.

He went on to talk about his disquiet with the concept of violence and harm in games, especially now the barrier between games and reality is slowly decreasing, and pointed to an anecdote from his office as an example. He had bought an AIBO (Sony's high-end robot dog) for the Nana On-Sha offices, and received a complaint from a graphics artist that someone had been abusing it. The AIBO was programmed to be attracted to the color pink, and he found out a coder had attached a pink ball to its body with string, ensuring that (much like the donkey and the carrot), it went round and round in circles forever. The graphics artist considered this abuse, and cruel. But then, it was an artificial intelligence, so the concept of cruel shouldn't really exist -- or should it? This is indeed a good example of how these boundaries will begin to blur.

Finally, more information was also given on the forthcoming products from Mr.Matsuura and his company -- a music-based WAP game was shown in the video at the end of the session, and he confirmed that Parappa The Rapper 2 for Playstation 2 is due some time this summer, and the Parappa TV show airs for the first time in Japan on April 14. He had brought a video of work in progress on the PS2 version of Parappa, but Sony wouldn't let him show it, so instead he showed a comical look at the Nana On-Sha offices, complete with subtitles and fast-forwarding effects, as he took his staff unawares and showcased them during the working day. One gem for rabid fans in this video was the appearance of a graphical screen with a large audience from Stage 8, presumably from Parappa 2 on PS2, and also a musical tidbit with the unmistakable noise of Chop-Chop Master Onion. But then who were you expecting, Superman? Hopefully, Mr. Matsuura will continue to thrill us all for years to come with his very individual take on games and how they should brighten our lives, and this talk, although certainly on the surreal side, enchanted the audience greatly.