Mario creator and gaming legend Shigeru Miyamoto has weighed in on how much is too much for playing video games. Speaking to NPR, Miyamoto said playing video games a lot is not a bad thing, but only playing video games might not be the most advisable thing to do.
“I always say, if it’s really nice outside, you should go play outside,” he said.
He gives this advice to regular gamers and game designers, too. Getting out into the real world can help a person get more personal experience, which can then be funneled into other parts of their life, he said.
“If it’s a nice day, you know, go experience outside, because really, I think there’s an important factor that it’s your personal experience. Then when it links with the experience you’re having with this virtual entertainment, that’s when the joy, the fun factor, really explodes exponentially,” Miyamoto said. “And so I think it’s really important to get a lot of different life experiences for both the people who are creating the games as well as people who are playing the games so they can really be able to fully enjoy the whole experience.”
Also in the interview, Miyamoto discussed the inevitable future where he leaves Nintendo and the company continues on without him. Miyamoto doesn’t expect much to change when he’s gone.
“It’s probably going to be the same. There’s, you know, people on the executive team, creators within the company, and also people who create Mario, they all have this sense of what it means to be Nintendo,” Miyamoto said. “And so it’s not like there’s a lot of different opinions that go back and forth. Everyone has an understanding, this kind of shared understanding, of what it is to be Nintendo. And so even when there’s new ideas that come up, there’s always the fact that it’s a new idea, but also the fact that, is it a new idea that really has the essence of Nintendo or not? And I think that’s something that, you know–we have this incredible shared vision, almost a little scary shared vision, about this. So I think there won’t–it’s not going to change.”
Miyamoto’s latest project at Nintendo is Super Nintendo World, a theme park attraction that just opened at Universal’s Hollywood location and is coming to the Orlando park in the future. He is also a producer on the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which arrives in April.
Miyamoto was also recently asked when fans can expect the next mainline Mario game. “We’re always working on Mario,” he said. “So when we get to a time where we can share information, we’ll certainly do so.”
For more, check out GameSpot’s own interview with Miyamoto.
