Parappa's Matsuura: Games Don't Need To Emphasize War, Negativity

Author: by Staff

Talking as part of an in-depth new Gamasutra opinion piece, Parappa The Rapper co-creator Masaya Matsuura has suggested that, if the game biz continues to focus on games that "employ physical attacks" and war-like scenarios, then the future isn't that bright. NanaOn-Sha's Matsuura, who tends to work with bright, cartoon-like visuals and is generally credited as the 'inventor' of the music game with 1996's Parappa The Rapper, is currently working on Major Minor's Majestic March for the Wii alongside Parappa artist Rodney Alan Greenblat. As part of his impassioned editorial, Matsuura explains: "Naturally, it is not an easy matter to simply divide human emotions into positive and negative. In our adult world, there are a vast number of things that obstruct our ability to gain positive emergence with each other. We often are faced with negative emergence when placed in circumstances that expose our inferiority or inequality, and this brings about stress. War is an extreme example of where these negative thoughts can lead. I think it's regrettable that we are flooded with games that promote these negative emergences. It may be one of the most straightforward ways to design a game. But I don't think the future is bright for this industry if we continue to focus on games that motivate the player by using gameplay that employs physical attacks as a way of establishing levels of superiority and inequality. I've said this many times before, but in the future - be it a hundred years or a thousand - children will study 21st century history and the video game boom will be a part of that. But what if it's written like this: "Back then, video games consisted mainly of people and monsters killing each other, similar to the gladiators of ancient Rome, and were a way to experience and enjoy violent behavior on the TV screen." - Wikipedia, 3008 A.D. This is not a history that I want to be associated with. I can understand that the energy of youth can evoke aggressive emotions. However, when I was an amateur musician back in the 80s, I played in a punk band where we wanted to scream our defiance to society, but I soon came to recognize the emptiness of this attitude. I only had to look at the wonderfully polished work of respected artists to realize this. For those of us who have been in this industry for a while, what can we do to stop our fresh young talents from being misled?" In the full Gamasutra opinion piece on the subject, Matsuura goes on to suggest some possible solutions based around positive, shared experiences, also commenting on the evolution of the music game genre that he helped to birth.