Neotokyo: Oscar Yasser Noriega’s Blog (Akira)

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Japan is….

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on May 20, 2008

in Japan

. 2 Comments

Hiroyuki Nishimura There’s a great piece on Wired Magazine written by Lisa Katayama about one of the most fascinating Web 2.0 personalities in Japan.

His name is Hiroyuki Nishimura, and you should read the article to know more about what he does. In short, he’s the guy behind 2ch.net and the video site Nico Nico Douga, Japan’s answer to Youtube.

Update and correction: According to Joi Ito, “Japan is an unhappy culture. The people are lonely and depressed, and the Internet is a release valve.”

This was Joi’s opinion about Hiroyuki and his projects, so this whole definition of Japan’s culture was actually from Joi and not Hiroyuki at all. So, perhaps, that’s why Nico Nico Douga and 2ch are very successful in Japan?

Anyways, I think this is probably the most accurate definition of many Japanese people I know.

(Photo by Joi Ito)

Atomix Magazine, issue #100

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on May 9, 2008

in Atomix and My companies

. 1 Comment

Even tough I’m in Japan, I am so happy to say that one of our printed magazines just reached it’s issue #100.

It’s been a long road since I started this company with a bunch of friends, -ups and downs like any other company and many problems in the beggining- but in the end the satisfaction to reach this point after 100 months of work is amazing.

Our editor in chief, Lorenzo Grajales, just posted the cover of the issue in his blog. The cover features a really neat metallic-finished paper and the artwork was made by famous illustrator/artist Hector Sevilla who did the artwork for the cover of Konami’s Lunar Knights.

Congrats to our team of editors, designers, and everyone at the office, and to all who have contributed with Atomix in any way or form. Thank you all.

Sam Houser: “Fuck Casual Gamers”

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on May 6, 2008

in Videogame Industry

. 0 Comments

The other day I was reading this note in Kotaku where Sam Houser (President, co-founder and visionary behind he GTA franchise) said “Fuck Casual gamers”.

Grand Theft Auto is unquestionable a successful franchise, just look at the hype the game generated in traditional media, videogame outlets and so. Sam’s argument is interesting, but I guess it leaves more questions than answers. I’ll quote him “Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking…We’re hopefully going to prove that there’s also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies”.

He’s got a point in a way, but to be honest with you this comment is kinda scary coming from him, an individual whose power and influence in the videogame industry is huge.

To me, “a groundbraking title” doesn’t mean it has to be for hardcore gamers, nor that it has to have next gen graphics. Wii Fit, Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Flow are a bunch of cool games, groundbraking in many ways and without a label that reads “this game is only for casual gamers”. Casual Gamer: what is the meaning of that? how many hours do you have to play to be a casual gamer? or a hardcore gamer? IF you buy only one title per month, are you a casual gamer? GTA4 can’t be played by a casual gamer? Let’s say an “average joe” who plays Madden all day long decides he wants to play GTA4, does he becomes a hardcore gamer for that?.

I don’t get it, and I don’t know who is behind all this shit “creating” labels for gamers in this industry.

Games should be consider a an entertainment form like movies or television without all this crap. It’s clear that there are games for everyone and every taste, but to say that your game is only for hardcore gamers -nowadays-, it feels ridiculous and retarded.

All this makes me wonder something else, does game companies have to spend 100 million USD to build a game that CAN be considered “ground braking”?.

gtasomalia

Ping Mag interviews Yoshitaka Amano

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on May 4, 2008

in Design, Japan and Videogames

. 1 Comment

One of my favorite blogs about Japan (design, pop culture and so) is doing an interview with famous illustrator/artist Yoshitaka Amano. The piece is worth reading for any hardcore fans of Final Fantasy’s beautiful artwork. I had the chance to interview him before for our magazine and I have to say that I was impressed about how cool and simple this guy is. I remember that the Square Enix people were also kind enough to give me a signed art book from him, I wonder where that book is?.It’s also a surprise for me that one of his studios (or his main studio perhaps?) is located in Moto Azabu which is really near from my house in Tokyo, like, I can even walk there. I should go and say hello soon.

Amano

The sad state of the videogame journalism.

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on January 22, 2008

in Business and Videogames

. 3 Comments

Today I was reading a very good post from my old friend Sam Kennedy, editor in chief of 1up.com. In his post, he touches very sensible subjects about journalism integrity after the terrible events from videogame website Gamespot.After being in the publishing business for 10 years (doing videogame, technology and music magazines), I can say that we are facing a very interesting phase in terms of how companies will handle the balance between editorial content and advertisement. Some people say this is not new, but the reality is different and it really makes me wonder about the future of traditional media like us and like many other media outlets. Many gaming blogs don’t even bother to put a score to a game anymore, instead of, they just focus on writing general reviews about the games. Is this the future of game reviews? did we come to the point where scores doesn’t mean anything to the users?. I think only time will tell..

Crazy Talented People

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on December 14, 2007

in Business, My companies, New Business and Technology

. 1 Comment

This is the kind of stuff that Seiichi Saito and Daito Manabe do when they have some free time. These guys are real geniuses, and they happened to be my partners in a small new venture I’m starting in Mexico. I’ll post more stuff about this soon.

The one about Fafi (and why Twitter saved me)

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on December 13, 2007

in Personal, Social Networking and Web 2.0

. 1 Comment

Fafi’s Tools Originally uploaded by akirareikoThe story begins as I was reading my RSS feeds after a terrible week being sick at home. My doctor said I had a “light case” of laryngitis, even tough I felt terribly bad. Most of the week for me was taking pills, eating a lot, and having industrial amounts of liquids. I really felt isolated. The only connection I had with the outside world was my Blackberry which was very useful to stay on bed and reply some urgent emails and phone calls.On thursday night I began checking Twitter often again, and I saw that some people were talking about Fafi, one of my most favorite painters/graffiti artist ever.Some friends are always saying to me that social networks and web apps like Twitter are just a waste of time.One of my partners (at the publishing company) says that he works 2 more hours per day because he doesn’t use Myspace, Flickr, Facebook and many others. I agree he has one strong point if we go down to the numbers: it’s true, if you spend 2 hours per day on these websites you are probably wasting 2 hours of your precious work-time. But what if you need to track down what your friends or business partners are doing? what if these persons are not in your same city or country? What if these persons are not really aware of their mail boxes?. In my case, I have some contacts and friends that are more aware of the comments on their blogs, their Facebook profiles or Twitter rather than their cellphones or emails. That’s my case, and I’m not saying it’s always like this for everyone.Twitter totally saved me and opened the door to something I wasn’t expecting. I was part of the conversation in my network of contacts and that helped me to be aware that Fafi was coming to Mexico City. This is a simple example of how being part of the conversation can sometimes give you the opportunity to do something that was not on your schedule, and this totally applies to the business world as well.

Photoset from my last vacation trip to Tokyo

Published

Oscar Yasser Noriega

on October 21, 2007

in Personal, Photography and Travel

. 1 Comment

While I was in Japan for vacations (not the last trip, but before), I took some photos at some random places, including one crazy party called “Tokyo Decadance”. The party itself is something really huge even outside of Japan, the party is organized by a French guy who happened to be a friend of a friend, weird. I was staying at Asuka’s flat which was really comfortable, the opportunity to enjoy the Tokyo lifestyle like this is a little bit strange since I usually stay on hotels while I’m there. One of the coolest things is that she lives really near to Tokyo Tower, so basically everyday I walked around the area and I had a great view of the tower. She also was kind enough to borrow me her bicycle so I could wonder around town. I had a great time while I was there.