Time Tests Miyamoto with Ten Questions

Time magazine interviews Nintendo genius Shigeru Miyamoto for the magazine and the website's podcast.

In an interview with Time magazine, Mario creator and industry veteran Shigeru Miyamoto was asked a series of reader questions on its Ten Questions podcast. Eighteen reader questions have been transcribed for the Time website, 10 of which will be featured in the upcoming issue. Some samples include:

Will Chung, TAIPEI: Do you think the success of the Wii--an interactive system that emphasizes physical activity--will change the gaming culture?

Miyamoto: I hope that in 10 years people will look back and see both the Wii and Nintendo DS [a handheld system] as devices that helped redefine what a video game is--if you can even call it a video game.

Lucas Ross, SHOREVIEW, MINN.: What one game has revolutionized the industry?

Miyamoto: Space Invaders. Before I saw it, I was never particularly interested in video games and certainly never thought I would make video games.

William Abeel, FREEHOLD, N.J.: What advice do you have for aspiring video-game designers?

Miyamoto: The most important thing is to create--when I was young, I made comics and puppets. Then take those creations and show them to people so you get feedback. Whether it is positive feedback or even if they make fun of it, repeating that process is a good thing for being prepared to make games.

Casey Jamieson, Huntington, Vermont: What did you aspire to as a child, or as a young adult?

Miyamoto: When I first entered Nintendo they weren't even making video games, I joined [the company] thinking that I was going to do product planning. Shortly after, Space Invaders came out and I thought that might be something I might want to do. Actually, when I was younger I wanted to be a puppeteer.

Sean Rhodes, AURORA, COLO.: What do you say to the gamers who accuse Nintendo of catering to the casual gamer and not the hard-core gamer?

Miyamoto: At E3 [a gaming trade show], I was a little concerned about defining people as a hard-core gamer vs. a casual gamer. But there are hard-core gamers who play a lot of casual games. Nintendo's focus is to break down the barriers between those two groups and consider everyone just gamers.