Person
Hideo Kojima
Play & Sport
Digital CultureWho is Hideo Kojima in the Agency editorial?
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer and director, known for the Metal Gear series and for Death Stranding. Issue.23 names him twice in one paragraph of the author's prose about the term Homo Ludens: the author first saw it in a game by Kojima, and the paragraph ends with Kojima's description of the Homo Ludens.
In short
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer and director, creator of the Metal Gear series. In the Agency editorial he appears only in Issue.23, in the paragraph on the term Homo Ludens. The author writes that he saw the term for the first time in a game by Hideo Kojima, for the second time in papers by Vilém Flusser and for the third time in the 1938 book by Johan Huizinga, where it was coined. The paragraph ends: "According to Hideo Kojima, the Homo Ludens are those who play to unite people, to create culture and to shape the world around them." The edition does not say which game it was.
Key facts
- Who is Hideo Kojima?
- A Japanese video game designer and director, known as the creator of the Metal Gear series and the director of Death Stranding.
- Where does the Agency editorial name Hideo Kojima?
- In Issue.23, twice in one paragraph of the author's prose about the term Homo Ludens. The game is not named.
- What does Issue.23 say he says about the Homo Ludens?
- That they "are those who play to unite people, to create culture and to shape the world around them".
Who is Hideo Kojima?
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer and director, born in 1963. He is known as the creator of the Metal Gear series and as the director of Death Stranding. These facts come from outside the edition and are marked for verification.
How does Hideo Kojima appear in Issue.23?
Issue.23 presents two ideas, the Homo Universalis and the Homo Ludens. About the second, the author writes that he saw it for the first time in a game by Hideo Kojima, then in research papers by the Czech-Brazilian professor Vilém Flusser, and then in the book by Johan Huizinga, written in 1938, where the term was first coined. After summing up Huizinga's thesis that play is a fundamental aspect of human culture, the paragraph ends: "According to Hideo Kojima, the Homo Ludens are those who play to unite people, to create culture and to shape the world around them." The edition does not name the game and does not mention Kojima again.
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.