Hideo Kojima and the Nationalist Slur

It looks as if Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima, might be thinking that the games media is, well, solidly snakey.

Some of the US games press, however, appears to think that Kojima-san is playing the race card.

So, here's how it goes. Hideo Kojima gives an interview to a North American version Edge, the dead tree magazine. Some of this is picked up by video gaming web site, Kotaku, which publishes it.

Okay, remember that the PlayStation 3 is the exclusive platform for the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

MGS 4 is also seen as a huge motivator for those PS2 owners who haven't either moved to Xbox 360 (or Wii) to move to PS3.

So, it's not good for Kojima or Sony when elements of the Edge interview published by Kotaku (keep up!) indicate that Kojima is (at best) underwhelmed by the PlayStation 3: "Apparently the team overestimated what the PlayStation 3 was capable of."

When this is compounded by quoting the Japanese perfectionist expressing, "...disappointment with the latest game in the (MGS) series", you might see why Kojima felt the need to defend himself via the Konami website (it's an MP3 file and it's in Japanese).

The defence is based on the premise that 'Not only was I misquoted, I was then mistranslated and that mistranslation was then mistranslated again and then misquoted' - and that's what the press does.'

"When I'm doing an interview, I answer in Japanese, and I can't control how the writer will interpret that into English... What I say is then translated in English, and the writer then changes that into their own words and writes that. So, right there, the meaning of what I say changes a lot."

He qualifies this rebuttal, however, by swiping his own country's media as well "Things like this often happen with Japanese newspapers. Where they take only the choice quotes. They don't change what you say, but the meaning's different, and the meaning changes."

He then drops a bombshell on everybody who has assumed that the MGS series is entirely created by him, alone, on his todd, "MGS4 isn't exactly my property, so I don't have a total control over it and sometimes I get confused with it."

He then does a little fire fighting, "Some may be disappointed the way I say things, but I do release the game with confidence."

But then Kojima makes a tactical mistake, he attacks America. He maintains that, unlike the culture of modesty and reserve in Japan, "Americans brag". In fact, "Westerners do not have a tradition of modesty".

(Westerners don't have a tradition of modesty? The English do! We're brilliant at modesty we are. Us westerners? Modest as anyone, more modest in fact!)

Kotaku quotes as follows, "Recently I've been thinking about not giving interviews. That's not my job. My job is making games... The next time I interview in America, I will just say 'MGS4 is the best, the end.'"

Mmmm... the Japanese have a reputation for reserve and modesty and the United States has a reputation for arrogant self-promotion?

Kotaku does not like that as a defence, not one bit, goddammit! It returns fire by stating that it was merely picking some quotes from Edge, the source of the interview.

"If you stick your foot in it and screw up, it's always easier to shift the blame, pull the You-Don't-Understand-Us-Japanese card or gloss over important details like, you know, reading..." it retorts, trumping the nationalism card but avoiding the whole quote selection, translation of translation accusation.

We can't see the issue here. Translations do get fractured; the press does cherry pick quotes (we just did); 'genius creators' often do open their mouths and say things they shouldn't; the Japanese do have a reputation for modest reserve; Americans do have a reputation for bragging.

However, as English people (known for our reserve and self-deprecating humour/terrifyingly repressed psychological prisons) we can't wait to see the next episode as this soap opera descends from video gaming scuttlebutt to a major international incident.

^{(Note to non-British readers: some of the above is intended as wry commentary. We know some quiet Americans and at least one very loud and immodest Japanese trio.)}