How did Konami do this?

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Pokun
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Pokun »

Fisher wrote:
93143 wrote:who played all those games
I can only think in kids, unemployed people and people who don't need or don't want to work so much.
Yeah mostly kids, students (that weren't cramming for an entrance exam) and housewives I think.

Companies that use their employers a lot are called "black companies" in Japan. It seems there are still a lot of them, but it isn't as bad now as it used to be. In my company we can even leave at 17:00 as long as we don't have any unfinished things to do. If you have a deadline coming however you end up staying late a lot, and you don't get paid for overtime usually (you can get extra days off as compensation, but you have to apply for it).
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Sumez
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Sumez »

Jesus christ, remember how awesome Konami used to be?
Just from the list nesrocks posted in the original post, the following games I would rate somehwere between good, great and timeless classic. If there is any of these games you have never played, get going:
nesrocks wrote: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
The Simpsons
Sunset Riders
Thunder Cross II
Vendetta
Detana!! Twinbee
Xexex
Yume Penguin Monogatari
Lagrange Point
Crisis Force
The Lone Ranger
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
Tiny Toon Adventures
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Super Castlevania IV
Operation C
Cave Noire
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Nemesis II
And that's excluding the ports of course. Worth mentioning in that context is that the two ports for PC Engine (Gradius and Salamander, done inhouse at Konami) are actually improvements over the arcade originals!
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Bregalad
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Bregalad »

On the other hand though, the working conditions at Konami seems beyond awful. Don't know if that was already the case by 1991 - probably not as I can't imagine empolyees which are basically slaves doing a work of so high quality.
Oziphantom
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Oziphantom »

Back then there was no internet, TV had 3~4 channels that were rubbish, books were expensive. VHS tapes also expensive. You had to stand in a line at a bank while they were open ( they closed at 4pm) and fill in a slip to get money out, so when you ran out of money that was it you just had to go home. No ATMs. So you would have a lot of free time to yourself and not much else to do..
Pokun
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Pokun »

In Japan you still have to go and stand in line to the bank to pay bills and stuff. In fact most paperwork requires you to go to various offices and takes a lot of time in general. There are ATMs though.
In Sweden you can do most things from home using internet services, but the few times you really need to go to a bank is a pain, and most bank offices don't even handle cash anymore.
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Bregalad
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Bregalad »

Oziphantom wrote:Back then there was no internet [...] So you would have a lot of free time to yourself and not much else to do..
What are you talking about ? There obviously was (and there still is) lots of great things to do before without computers or internet, and all the time people spend on the net today would be spent doing other interesting things IRL. Also, my remark was : Since people are expected to work 60 hours per day, how can they have the time to play games at all ? Whether there is internet or not does not change this question - since people had no free time it does not matter whether they'd get bored in their free time without internet.

Students are just as much expected to spend their "free time" studying, not to mention many also have side jobs (according to mangas/animes at least) to earn some cash, so their problem would be the same as full grown adults. Remember, if my understanding is correct this japanese system works entierely out of social pressure rather than an actual, formal obligation. They have to work 40 hours per week, but if they don't do at least 60 everyone else in their company will call them a pussy with all the nasty consequences this have for their carreer. It would be the same for students. Also, the same for holydays - technically employees are granted some holydays as this is a legal obligation, but in practice if they use them, they're called pussies and might loose their job or similar. Even if their job is not at danger in a country where honor is your #1 concern you don't want anybody else to call you a pussy, period. I might have misunderstood the system but that's what I understood.

So this leaves only retired people and young childern with time to play games, but many games are not appropriate for young children.
tepples
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by tepples »

HR might autocorrect "a pussy" to "not a team player". With that out of the way:

A longer work week might also help explain the association of popular E and E10+ rated product identities (such as Mario and Sonic) with Japanese developers and the association of popular M rated product identities (such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto) with North American and European developers.

Pokun raised an issue entirely unrelated to Konami's prolific video game output. I replied about cashless society in another topic.
Pokun
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Pokun »

I know people who are high school students and they definitely have a lot of more time than I do, and my workplace isn't even a "black company" (by Japanese standards, in Sweden it would be questionable). Third grade high school students are the exception, they often have to quit their club activities and stuff to focus on their university entrance exam. It probably also depends on the person a lot. People who are very serious might never play games and always study even from a young age, other people focus on sports or club activities and have little time for that reason. But those kinds of people might be less interested in games anyway. Also I think when you have less free time, you get good at not wasting your free time you do have.

Yes the system works by social pressure and unwritten rules. The law says you shouldn't need to work more than 8 hours a day and you have right to 10 days of paid holiday a year, but in practice this is usually much less depending on the workplace. At my place we can use up all 10 days as long as you don't use them all in a row (saying this makes most Swedish people drop their jaw in disbelief, having 4 weeks in a row is normal in Sweden). Especially if you, like me, seldom take days off and never is sick. The boss just can't complain when I do need to take a day or two off.
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Bregalad
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Bregalad »

Pokun wrote: At my place we can use up all 10 days as long as you don't use them all in a row [...] Especially if you, like me, seldom take days off and never is sick. The boss just can't complain when I do need to take a day or two off.
Wow... what a nightmare it sounds. This is probably actually hurting the economy, as people will be significantly more efficient after a week of vacation, and probably comes with new fresh ideas. Without vacations people probably will just become semi-depressed and be terribly inneficient at work.
Pokun
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Re: How did Konami do this?

Post by Pokun »

Personally I don't have much trouble with it so far as I'm in good health. In fact one reason I wanted to work in Japan is because Sweden is a bit too soft (for example we have 10 weeks of summer vacation in school, enough to forget everything you've learned), I wanted to experience some danger and adventure. Besides as I said many times, my company is very white by Japanese standards and Japanese standards aren't as black as they used to be.

Most of my co-workers are considerably older than me, and must therefore have been around when everything was black, and almost all of them are fans of video games like Mario or Dragon Quest, and some of them still play games. So they must have had time to play these games at some point.
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