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Posted on 07/11/2025 2:16:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Where my certified freaks at?
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NieR creator Yoko Taro in his trademark Emil mask from the games (Image credit: Yoko Taro) If there were to ever be a mascot for the videogame industry weirdos (endearing), it'd most certainly be Nier creator Yoko Taro. He's built a brand around being a little eccentric, almost always seen sporting his Emil mask and making games that somehow perfectly straddle being a little horny, devastating, and thought-provoking all at once. Hell, he even did a whole GDC presentation in 2014 titled "Making Weird Games for Weird People". He knows, I know, we all know.
It's no surprise, then, that during a recent Q&A he held over on X, someone asked him if there were a lot of strange folk knocking around in the industry. As reported by Automaton Media, Taro replied to say that, at least from his experience, there sure aren't as many as there used to be.
"I've been in the game industry for 30 years, and it seems like there are fewer 'weirdos' out there," he said (via a machine translation). "I am not sure if this is just a phenomenon in my observation, or if the game industry has become like that, or if the whole world has become like that."
Fallout and Skyrim show us that talented developers make great games when you leave them alone I do think Taro is a tiny bit right in that there are less weird videogames coming out, but I think that's mostly only true when it comes to larger budget games. After all, anyone with Unity and a dream can conjure up all manner of peculiar little experiences and chuck them on itch.io or go through the process (and payment) of trying to get it up on Steam.
But I also can't help but shake the feeling that there's an air of larger developers playing things a lot safer these days. A lot of sequels, remakes, and remasters. Stuff that people probably already like and are willing to dive into on brand recognition alone. I imagine it's a lot harder these days to even pitch something kinda strange to a publisher, let alone get them to fund it.
I also have to wonder if the bar for who or what is considered weird has also simply been raised over the years. I was branded a little freak for watching anime back in England in 2007, and now I'm a freak if I haven't seen the latest episode of My Cat Turned into a 4,000-Year-Old Demon Enchantress or whatever's popping off right now. Times change, and I certainly feel like the last decade or so has seen people's definition of 'weird' evolve dramatically.
Not that I'd mind if the industry saw an uprising of Yoko Taro-likes, mind you. If there's anything I love, it's a weird-ass videogame, and maybe it's time for some brave soldiers to capture Taro's attention with something delightfully quirky to play.
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My impression is that a lot of the “weird” people making video games weren’t actually writing any software, doing computer graphics, ray-tracing, things like that.
They were figuring out how to sneak political, ideological, and lifestyle messaging into video games, in ways designed to normalize aberrant and dangerous behaviors, that wouldn’t be detected by parents or other guardians.
Example: Sweet Baby Inc.
I want another reboot of Asteroids gosh darnit....with the tech they have now...especially with virtual reality goggles or even without...the first person shooter diplays and sound effects would be super...wump wump wump and in dolby atmos would be real cool!
He wears a mask eh?
I know a lot of game developers face threats and stuff when they go out. The rest of the world is like that - and there are plenty of weirdos on both sides of the screen.
Kojimas vision is highly entertaining and unique. There are many great artists embedded in the video game community.
I totally dig this. Big time, old school gamer who cut her teeth on the likes of Leisure Suit Larry and classic point and click games. There were some hilarious, creepy, amazing games back then.
Now it’s just boring.
A guy named Yoko? I always thought Yoko was a woman’s name as in you know who!
The last computer game was Release 1 of “Myst.”
The last one I played was Metroid. Maybe some solitaire or Tetris after that.
And woke like crazy.
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