Mizuguchi: Games can "change the world", will become "sense-o-rama"
Speaking at TEDxTokyo over the weekend, Rez and Child of Eden creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi said games can "change the world", and predicted games will move in a more "sensorial" direction.
After demonstrating Child of Eden, Mizuguchi spoke of gaming's "very strong potential" as a new media to effect positive change in the world.
"Games can change negative to positive," he said.
"When you play a game, from some disaster or someone's attack on you, you have to change - better, better, all the time."
Calling this the "power of the game", Mizuguchi said game designers around the world are making connections with the real world.
"Using this potential, I believe we can change the world," he said.
The designer highlighted increased resolution, inputs, and vibration as interesting developments, and added that gamers "will not be able to find the difference between real and artificial images soon".
"Movies you can touch. Maybe you can join the TV show. Of course. it's all possible. It's soon all possible," he said.
Adding that games will soon turn into "interactive 'something'. … sensorial something", Mizuguchi drew an analogy between gaming and the practices of traditional Japanese dye makers, who chose names for colours based on a complete sensorial picture of a dye - taste and feel - rather than just its appearance.
"When the senses cross over, it evokes emotion and stimulates your imagination," he said. "In the near future all games will be like a sense-o-rama."
On a personal note, the designer said he'd taken many new approaches to gaming in the twenty years of his career, trying to incorporate music interactively, and aiming to "make people feel fun, feel good, feel high" and to make them smile "and maybe feel hope and happiness".
Watch the whole presentation below. TEDxTokyo is an independent event based on the TED formula.
Child of Eden releases on Xbox 360 in June, with a PlayStation 3 version to follow.
Thanks, GoNintendo.
