Kojima: Video Games Industry "was Full of Dropouts"

Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima, had to struggle against prejudice when he entered the video games industry in the 1980s. "I would lie at parties. I told people I worked for a financial firm..." he points out. This was largely due to the fact that the games industry was seen - possibly with some basis in fact according to Mr Kojima - as low class.

In a recent interview, he points out that, "Some were in a band and had released a record but it hadn't sold well. Others were struggling artists who wanted their own manga series. The industry was full of dropouts, people who felt like games offered them another chance. I met many people in that same situation; we bonded together through that in some sense.

"But there wasn't a negative spirit with it at all. At Konami there was this feeling amongst us all that games were somehow important to the future. We believed in the future of the medium and that drove us to create the best possible work."

The great man was not to be put off though, "Right from the start I believed I was creating art. I felt like the world was waiting to see what video games could be, what they could become. It was a huge incentive to do my best, to show them."

Nowadays of course, people who work in finance lie and say that they work in videogames.

Source: The Guardian