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Drakengard and Nier director Yoko Taro reckons his generation of game leads is full of "oddballs" and "selfish people" – his words, not mine – qualities he says could make for better leaders.
The Nier: Automata lead was asked about how important likeability is for a game director in a three-way conversation between himself, Astral Chain director and Nier: Automata senior game designer Takahisa Taura, and the indie developers behind a brand-new anime action game called Homura Hive, hosted by Automaton.
"Directors from Yoko-san's generation probably never even spare as much as a thought to sentiments like 'I need to be liked,'" Taura jokes, although Yoko pretty much agrees with the sentiment.
"Our generation of directors is full of selfish people," Yoko replies. "We were a bunch of oddballs who entered the industry back when games weren't mainstream like they are now, so there are a lot of weirdos among us. Myself included. Of course, it's better to be liked than disliked."
The action game maestro then explains what he sees as a paradox in game dev: "people who can't do that are often the ones better suited to being directors. To put it very roughly, if you had to choose between the game and your staff, the kind of person who chooses the game is better suited to being a director." It sounds like Yoko is more so talking about being firm when it comes to making decisions about a game's direction, even if some people on the team have different opinions – rather than advocating for choosing the game over his staff's wellbeing or anything. "That doesn't mean poor communication is acceptable," he adds.
"That's why relationships sometimes end up not being very friendly," Yoko continues. "For younger developers today, I think it's better if you can work together happily and enjoy making the game."
