[HN Gopher] Yamauchi No.10 Family Office
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Yamauchi No.10 Family Office
        
       Author : cmod
       Score  : 718 points
       Date   : 2021-04-14 05:17 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (y-n10.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (y-n10.com)
        
       | aikah wrote:
       | It's nice and creative, and that's what matters, people remember
       | these web experience, that's why Flash was popular back then, it
       | was all about impact, when today, the great majority of websites
       | slap the exact same (bootstrap/material) layout, the same
       | typography, down to the same "allegra" illustrations and nobody
       | remember any of these...
       | 
       | But it's definitely not the craziest website I've ever seen.
        
         | always_left wrote:
         | What would be one more crazy? Curious.
        
           | spicybright wrote:
           | Here's one of my favorites: https://www.cameronsworld.net/
        
           | kome wrote:
           | I think the most creative and intelligent designs I ever saw,
           | they disappeared with flash.
        
           | sellyme wrote:
           | It's not the type of "crazy" you're looking for, but as far
           | as craziest websites, Time Cube was a strong contender.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | The submitted title was baitily editorialized. We've changed
         | the title now.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26803737
        
       | bruce343434 wrote:
       | What is the song called? I checked the networking inspector, but
       | it didn't show anything. It seems "engine.js" is making xhttp
       | requests and building an audio buffer - but it's all obfuscated.
       | This shit is stuck in my head now, and I need an offline version
       | of it.
        
         | curiousgal wrote:
         | https://y-n10.com/assets/sound/bgm.mp3
        
         | aasasd wrote:
         | It's similar in spirit and sound to Space Ponch, who are also
         | Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8maoqr4E5k
         | 
         | (But doesn't seem to be related.)
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Craziest ever? Not really cmod ;)
       | 
       | Update title to Yamauchi No.10 Family Office crazy website or
       | something
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We've changed the title now. Submitted title was "The Craziest
         | Website You Ever Did See". It's a good submission (especially
         | because it's not correlated with anything else! https://hn.algo
         | lia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...) but:
         | 
         | " _Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or
         | linkbait; don 't editorialize._"
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
           | pomian wrote:
           | We realize why. But, I wonder what would make it a more
           | attractive title, because it truly is worth seeing. Amazing!
           | Indeed.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Across all submissions, HN has to push back against the
             | escalation of all the various sites that are truly worth
             | seeing to different subsets of readers.
             | 
             | The goal is to help readers figure out whether they're
             | interested not to "one crazy trick" or "you won't believe
             | #7" them into clicking through.
        
             | npongratz wrote:
             | Just speaking for myself, but "Yamauchi No.10 Family
             | Office" is a perfectly attractive title, and the intrigue
             | of the title is the _entire_ reason I clicked it. (And I 'm
             | glad I did!)
             | 
             | I would have ignored it, hid it, and probably flagged the
             | submission without looking at the site if I had seen "The
             | Craziest Website You Ever Did See" or some other hyperbolic
             | clickbait bullshit.
             | 
             | The less marketing, the better.
        
         | cmod wrote:
         | It's tricky because "Yamaguchi No.10 Family Office" is //such//
         | a beautiful understatement for what this is.
        
           | smcl wrote:
           | "Yamaguchi No.10 Family Office" is actually so mysterious I
           | just knew I had to click it. But I agree it's really
           | understated and that kinda makes it even better :D
        
       | chrisco255 wrote:
       | Besides being a beautiful website, I was rather touched by their
       | call to action:
       | 
       | "Seeking stability only clouds your soul. Fear of failing only
       | kills the seeds of innovation. We must create a more exciting
       | future where people feel free to dream and leap into a world of
       | possibilities. We must create a freer future where people are
       | eager to truly live."
       | 
       | It's hard not to love Nintendo.
       | 
       | Also TLDR for those that didn't scroll through the whole thing,
       | this family wants to use their wealth to fund business ventures
       | in Japan. For those unfamiliar, Japan has had a so-called "Great
       | Stagnation" since the 90s. Population has declined, GDP growth is
       | slow and puttering, and some are saying that Japan has lost the
       | edge it had in the 80s.
       | 
       | This sounds like the Yamauchi family's attempt to bootstrap and
       | create an ecosystem of ventures to reinvigorate entrepreneurship
       | in Japan and their way of giving back.
        
         | blueblisters wrote:
         | It's so rare to hear about Japanese startups - either becoming
         | successful within Japan or outside. Are other mature East Asian
         | countries going through a similar phase?
        
           | graderjs wrote:
           | Korea has many startups.
           | 
           | There's rumors of a startup scene in China. /S
           | 
           | Greater China has lots: HK (tho not a country in itself, but
           | a special region of China) has some. Republic of China Taiwan
           | has lots.
           | 
           | Singapore has a huge amount.
           | 
           | There's also a lot of people doing more "craft based" or
           | "small business" startups in all those areas, such as cafes,
           | organic or urban farms, manufacturing of various kinds.
           | 
           | Tho that is not the same as VC funded tech startups, some of
           | these things do go that way. There's _lots_ of delivery and
           | gig economy startups. Lots of payment startups. Much of the
           | innovation in social and payment that occurred in the last 6
           | years has been lifted out of East Asia and copied by startups
           | everywhere.
           | 
           | A good resource for "out of the Anglosaxon / SV" bubble is
           | TechInAsia.
           | 
           | https://www.techinasia.com/
           | 
           | The interesting thing about reading startup perspectives in
           | Asia, is they are very aware of what happens in SV. An
           | awareness that doesn't, unless you are an analyst at one of
           | the big international VCs, go both ways.
           | 
           | Also interesting to note the culture in these places around
           | entrepreneurship, it's very normal for people to consider
           | having their own business. HK has one of the highest "company
           | per capita" rates in the world, tho surely some of that is
           | due to its special economic statuses. I don't know as much
           | about other East Asian cultures, but ethnic Chinese culture
           | is very "entrepreneurial", as in, many people have shops and
           | businesses of various kinds. At least to me it seems to be an
           | acceptable or desirable thing to do at a higher rate than the
           | traditional Anglosaxon culture I also spent a lot of time in.
        
             | presentation wrote:
             | My impression in Japan is that startups have traditionally
             | considered incredibly risky and is a liability in getting
             | loans and future job prospects with established companies -
             | but that's also changing as the generations shift.
        
               | graderjs wrote:
               | I actually don't know that much about Japan. It's the one
               | place I didn't talk about in East Asia as you can see.
               | 
               | That's not entirely true, I guess there's other countries
               | in East Asia: let's not forget Mongolia, and Tibet and
               | Northern Korea.
               | 
               | I bet there'd be lots of startups in Mongolia tho I have
               | no idea. Tibet have no idea, tho would love to go. NK I
               | guess there would not be so much because I assume the
               | government would control them, but honestly, I have zero
               | idea right now about startups there.
               | 
               | Interesting to know more about startups in Japan. Apart
               | from LINE/Naver (which I guess is in fact Korean), that
               | Japanese clothing startup (the guy is Elon's friend and
               | will go to space), the older one like Softbank, and many
               | cafes and small (for lack of better word, not sure it
               | applies in Japan), but, "hipster" businesses (things like
               | fashion boutiques, designer household goods and design
               | agencies) I have no idea about startups in Japan, as you
               | can probably tell. Would love to know more.
        
               | Clewza313 wrote:
               | ...you do realize Tibet has been a part of China since
               | 1950, yes?
        
               | graderjs wrote:
               | I didn't!
        
           | mmhsieh wrote:
           | I spent extensive time there. The way a Japanese investor
           | explained it to me is that they don't really need Uber
           | because the public transportation is so good, and they don't
           | really need Doordash because any combini two minutes' walk
           | away can provide a good meal to you any time of day or night.
           | Their startups are of a different nature.
        
             | Clewza313 wrote:
             | The Japanese will also explain to you that they can't
             | digest bread because their intestines are longer or import
             | skis because Japanese snow is different.
             | 
             | The real reason Uber hasn't taken off in Japan is that
             | restrictive legislation and a large taxi lobby (which is
             | also responsible for a near-total lack of public transport
             | at night) means UberX is impossible. DoorDash was not in
             | Japan because local player Demae and Uber beat them to the
             | punch, but the market is growing fast and they're joining
             | the fray.
        
           | golemiprague wrote:
           | There are not too many start ups but they seems to have a lot
           | of small companies working under an umbrella of a bigger
           | company. It is a different arrangement in which the wealth is
           | distributed as well as the management graph, I am not sure it
           | is worst than the American system where one Bezos or
           | Zuckerberg eat everybody's lunch. Japan just has its own
           | ways, it is like taking a mind altering drug, how reality
           | could be if certain things were tweeked differently.
        
           | busterarm wrote:
           | I met a pair of Japanese startups that operate out of New
           | York while I was working out of some WeWorks there.
           | 
           | When I say Japanese startups: their market was Japan, their
           | employees were all Japanese and they kept Japanese business
           | hours.
           | 
           | I never got a good reason why they were in NY.
        
           | throwaway2037 wrote:
           | Are you unfamiliar with Rakuten? It's like Amazon for Japan.
           | Some people might also consider Softbank (the mobile phone
           | division) and SBI Securities (its securities division, under
           | 'Strategic Business Innovator Group'). How about Line? It's
           | the biggest mobile chat app in Japan.
           | 
           | Other people can comment more on this one: The number of
           | small start-up game studios must be astonishing. Japan seems
           | to have an endless appetite for video games! For publishing,
           | they will team-up with a major, like Sony.
        
         | raelmiu wrote:
         | I agree. This synergy between the design and the message really
         | appealed to me.
        
         | piokoch wrote:
         | "Besides being a beautiful website".
         | 
         | I think my beauty standards are terribly outdated since the
         | last thing I would say about that website is that it is
         | beautiful. Let me list my concerns:
         | 
         | 1. It plays sound in the background 2. It is horrible
         | cluttered, the only missing thing are those '90 animated
         | torches and blinking text (but those moving blocks are even
         | more annoying, what is an achievement in itself) 3. It is
         | totally unreadable. Grey text on the black background, text is
         | shifted, so reading requires keeping ones head bent over to the
         | right. I can't imagine that someone with bad eyesight would be
         | able to read the text.
         | 
         | Fun fact: the designer know that this sucks so there is some
         | "switcher" that let you make text straight. One more fun thing:
         | this switcher in barely visible for me when page loads, since
         | "view" text is displayed on top of yellow "3D castle" on the
         | left that cast grey shades, that are almost the same as grey
         | color used for text.
         | 
         | 4. You can't mark text, it is somehow blocked, so if you want
         | to copy paste something (for instance to translate), it is not
         | possible. No idea what could be the purpose for doing this.
         | 
         | 5. Ctrl F for searching does not work, found text is not
         | highlighted
         | 
         | If this is "innovation" and "creativity" and the way to
         | "improve society" that this website keep chanting in every
         | sentence I would say, thanks a lot for your corpo PR talk, you
         | make into HN top page, good job, but better go back to making
         | money and please leave society alone (and don't go into website
         | building business, pleassssse).
        
           | chrisco255 wrote:
           | If you open the menu you can switch to the boring
           | straightline view.
        
             | lupire wrote:
             | This goes beyond cute pixel art.
             | 
             | Reading text without straining your neck muscles and
             | pinching nerves is boring now?
        
           | jhrmnn wrote:
           | Isn't it clear that the website is to be taken as a piece of
           | art besides also having some information content?
        
           | throwaway69123 wrote:
           | Your love art galleries, full of over priced posters
        
         | Atreiden wrote:
         | We need to get past using GDP as a measure of success, quality
         | of life, etc. Its a measure of gross product, which includes
         | negative externalities.
         | 
         | A company pollutes a nearby river and manages to avoid
         | responsibility, so public funds are required to clean it up.
         | The money the company made by polluting, as well as the cost of
         | cleanup, both contribute positively to GDP.
         | 
         | GDP can in some ways be thought of as a measure of conversion
         | of natural resources into monetary capital. Given the declining
         | state of the environment and unsustainability of many
         | commercial practices, we're at a point where we should start
         | considering this a negative.
         | 
         | We need a new measure that factors in negative externalities
         | and utilization of finite natural capital.
        
           | runeks wrote:
           | > GDP can in some ways be thought of as a measure of
           | conversion of natural resources into monetary capital.
           | 
           | How so?
           | 
           | When I pay my accountant to do my taxes, it adds to GDP. How
           | is this " _conversion of natural resources into monetary
           | capital_ "?
        
             | criddell wrote:
             | If I pay you $1 trillion to write a song and you pay me $1
             | trillion to draw a picture, we have just increased the GDP
             | by $2 trillion yet nobody is better off.
        
               | pram wrote:
               | Well now you have a song and they have a picture.
        
               | xyzzyz wrote:
               | You would never do it, though, because you'd owe whole
               | bunch of money to the government.
        
               | criddell wrote:
               | If we do this under our respective businesses and our net
               | profits are both $0, what money would be owed?
        
           | dtwest wrote:
           | The issue is that success and quality of life are subjective.
           | While it would be great to measure them the same way we
           | measure GDP, I do not think it is possible to do so without
           | using many different metrics.
           | 
           | You are correct that GDP is being misused if people suggest
           | it is a measure of success or quality of life. GDP is what it
           | is, a measure of economic activity (any economic activity,
           | more than just conversion of natural resources into monetary
           | capital). That makes it only one piece of a very complicated
           | puzzle. Many practitioners who use GDP understand it for what
           | it is, but some don't and that is dangerous.
           | 
           | I'd be interested to hear if you or anyone else has
           | suggestions of what we could use instead. It is a very
           | difficult problem to solve, but one that has the potential
           | for improving the world significantly.
        
             | clairity wrote:
             | > "You are correct that GDP is being misused if people
             | suggest it is a measure of success or quality of life. GDP
             | is what it is, a measure of economic activity (any economic
             | activity, more than just conversion of natural resources
             | into monetary capital)."
             | 
             | gdp (and gnp before that) has been trumped up and misused
             | by the mediopolitical machine for decades, so this has
             | (unfortunately) become a distinction without a real
             | difference.
             | 
             | rather than a resource-oriented view (stuff getting turned
             | into money) as the gp posited, i'd suggest that economic
             | activity should be viewed as the total (levered) labor
             | production of the population instead. this makes it more
             | about the flows rather than the stocks, a dynamic measure
             | rather than a static one. it also centers the discussion
             | around the attribute we centrally value and should be
             | focused on, productive activity, not merely any economic
             | activity, which can be entirely unproductive, as we see
             | with more and more capital concentrating without productive
             | purpose.
             | 
             | no matter what, you'd still need to discriminate and
             | discount activity caused by negative externalities, as the
             | gp astutely pointed out. but that could be a simple as
             | adding a minus sign in front of that activity, as the term
             | itself suggests.
        
           | pokot0 wrote:
           | This! Thank you for writing this diwn so clearly!
        
           | ttul wrote:
           | If externalities were properly accounted for in GDP, it would
           | not be growing so rapidly. That would be a start.
        
         | Clewza313 wrote:
         | > We must create a more exciting future where people feel free
         | to dream and leap into a world of possibilities.
         | 
         | Unfortunately this is standard marketing pablum for Japanese
         | companies, with "future" ( _mirai_ ) and "dream" ( _yume_ )
         | both being particularly common tropes. Alan Booth talks about
         | this back in 1995 in _Looking for the Lost_ :
         | 
         | > I passed through the pavilion's Dream Tunnel into the World
         | of Dream and from there to the Parades of Dream and Play. ...
         | Technology, specifically the technology of Mitsui, Toshiba, and
         | the rest beyond his wildest, yes, dreams, can help you fly
         | again. "Love, love, love!" sings a choir as we file out of the
         | pavilion. "You can reach the sky, if you only try!"
         | 
         | https://books.google.com/books?id=Lh4jEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT312
        
           | chrisco255 wrote:
           | It might be a trope but coming from Nintendo it means a lot
           | more. Can't say how many wonderful memories I've had
           | exploring the worlds that Nintendo has dreamed up.
        
             | bobthechef wrote:
             | Those were...games...
        
               | farrelmahaztra wrote:
               | In childhood especially, the line between the virtual and
               | the real is flimsier than you think.
        
               | rchaud wrote:
               | Nintendo for some reason appears to have this effect on
               | the generation that grew up w/ Super Mario World, Legend
               | of Zelda and Donkey Kong.
               | 
               | I played these games at friends' houses back then and
               | didn't see the appeal. Games like Need for Speed, Mortal
               | Kombat or Goldeneye 007 felt more real, less 'kiddie'
               | oriented. But these games aren't really spoken of much
               | these days, while Nintendo originals definitely are.
        
               | bobthepanda wrote:
               | Time doesn't treat all franchises equally.
               | 
               | Need For Speed is considered to be in decline. Mortal
               | Kombat's making was a bit controversial with the whole
               | "make employees watch graphic executions to nail the
               | art", now that in 2021 the focus is less on kids watching
               | violence and more about not abusing employees. https://ww
               | w.nintendolife.com/news/2019/05/one_mortal_kombat_...
               | 
               | Mario more or less has inspired the same kind of nice
               | fuzzy feeling and polish that is the series' mainstay.
               | Breath of the Wild reimagined Zelda into an explorable
               | open world to rave reviews.
        
               | Loughla wrote:
               | Please explain your statement. I don't understand what
               | you mean and would like to.
        
               | Karunamon wrote:
               | What's your point? Those memories are no less real.
        
               | bsanr2 wrote:
               | Games made to take advantage of hardware innovations that
               | were then built upon. Nintendo has had a direct hand in
               | the implementation of new (or newly low-cost)
               | technologies that have then gone on to serve as the basis
               | for more widespread innovations. Ex. They placed a cheap
               | infrared camera in their Wiimote to enable controller
               | tracking (which means that that tech got into the hands
               | of millions of users). An engineering student reversed
               | this, using that camera to track LEDs placed on a pair of
               | glasses to achieve cheap headtracking.(1) This was then
               | used as the basis for the tech in Microsoft's Kinect(2),
               | which served as the basis for the tracking technologies
               | we see in modern XR setups. That's just one example of
               | many.
               | 
               | 1: https://youtu.be/Jd3-eiid-Uw
               | 
               | 2: https://www.wired.com/2011/05/johnny-lee-kinect-
               | hacking/
        
               | nine_k wrote:
               | It's like saying that Alice in Wonderland or Wind in the
               | Willows are mere... books...
               | 
               | Games are an art form, completely on par with books,
               | paintings, or movies. I'd say they are one of the most
               | important art forms of our times.
        
               | misterkrabs wrote:
               | I used to believe that games were an art form - but I
               | just can't get behind them being completely on par with
               | books, etc.
               | 
               | The writing is often so terrible... I wish I could think
               | of a single video game that touched me like The Brothers
               | Karamazov or Les Miserables.
        
               | agloeregrets wrote:
               | Most games seek to entertain rather than to provoke. They
               | are the Harry Potters and James Bonds of the world. Go a
               | bit deeper and you find what you are looking for though.
               | A hard limit of games is the fact that books let your
               | reading experience be entirely visually unique to you. A
               | character looks a certain way to you, their actions have
               | your own interpretation.
               | 
               | For me, Firewatch was a stunning call to action about
               | avoiding the problems in your life. Beyond direct
               | narrative, there is the silent story seen in games that
               | is rarely seen in books. The implied bits, the attention
               | to detail, the care and love to the craft. For example,
               | there are bits of the Zelda franchise that trends a hair
               | into Jack Kerouac's ending of On The Road. The little
               | moments where you can feel and realize the breath
               | experience of those you interact with, the people you
               | save and those who save you. In that moment you can feel
               | that book-like internal narrative defining all that could
               | have been or might have been. Zelda Wind Waker is
               | exceptionally notable in this space. Majora's Mask
               | defined it.
        
               | chucky_z wrote:
               | Try Outer Wilds (not Outer Worlds). There's a lot of
               | games that are more vehicles of storytelling rather than
               | what is a traditional videogames.
        
               | kwhitefoot wrote:
               | > The writing is often so terrible
               | 
               | This is also true of the vast majority of books ever
               | written.
        
               | nine_k wrote:
               | But most books are terrible, too! If we want to pick
               | masterpieces, then you will easily come up with a bunch,
               | from Loom and Star Control II all the way to Disco
               | Elysium.
               | 
               | But masterpieces are few. For each cartridge full of
               | second-rate mindless 8-bit games there is a pack of books
               | by Barbara Cartland, or whatnot.
        
               | RosanaAnaDana wrote:
               | Battletoads
        
               | TheRealNGenius wrote:
               | lol you probably enjoy it when textbooks tell you the
               | proof is left up to the reader
        
             | legerdemain wrote:
             | Yes! Nintendo helps us hold on to the _yume_ in our
             | _kokoro_! Look to the _mirai_ for that _hikari_ at the end
             | of the tunnel!
             | 
             | In other words, I'm sure you have fond memories of playing
             | a bunch of Nintendo videogames, but if you think that to
             | climb out of economic stagnation, we just need to believe
             | in ourselves, that's just a bunch of mealy-mouthed _wahoo!_
        
           | phaedrus441 wrote:
           | Thanks for inadvertently introducing me to Alan Booth. Just
           | picked up a copy of "The Roads to Sata" because of this
           | comment!
        
             | zwayhowder wrote:
             | Me too, and I thought the combination of trains I had to
             | use for the same trip was tough work :( I am really looking
             | forward to reading that.
        
             | Clewza313 wrote:
             | You won't regret it! It's a shame he only wrote those two
             | books before his untimely death from cancer.
        
         | hnlmorg wrote:
         | I love Nintendo as much as the next guy but they're hypocrites
         | when they come to comments like the above because they're
         | second only to Disney with regards to how aggressively they
         | chase after their IP. So many fun indie projects have been
         | taken down because of Nintendo. And we're not even talking
         | about commercial games but stuff kids have thrown together as
         | tribute to Nintendo and have put online. YouTube reviews,
         | Twitch streams, etc all need prior agreement from Nintendo
         | otherwise they'll come after you (and if you're lucky, they'll
         | just take a share of your advertising revenue).
         | 
         | Nintendo have a massive fan base but they sure don't allow
         | those fans to get creative.
         | 
         | Sega, by contrast, are the complete opposite and not only allow
         | fan projects to exists but even allow them to operate
         | commercially on a small scale.
         | 
         | edit: this comment is generating a lot more interest than I'd
         | expected from my throwaway remarks and as a result a lot of the
         | replies have missed the point of what I was complaining about.
         | So I'll take some time now to expand on them a little more:
         | 
         | - this isn't just a "Japanese thing", Nintendo of America are
         | just as bad. They issue hundreds of DMCA takedowns.
         | 
         | - this isn't a typical gaming thing either. I'm not going to
         | pretend that all other companies are angelic but Nintendo seem
         | uniquely proactive with chasing after their fan base even when
         | those fans are just recording themselves playing games. Which
         | leads me onto my 3rd point:
         | 
         | - Nintendo are not just trying to protect their IP. Nintendo
         | offer a partner program that costs to be a part of and if
         | you're not on there than your YouTube and Twitch channels can
         | get DMCA'ed if they feature Nintendo games. Even retro gamers
         | playing titles released 30+ years ago have been targeted. So
         | this is often less about protecting IP and more about profiting
         | on retro gamers hobby channels.
         | 
         | Nintendo's actions with the rest of the gaming community is
         | quite unlike anything other gaming studios do. And I say this
         | as someone actively involved in the retro gaming and streaming
         | community. So many of my friends have ended up putting all of
         | Nintendo's first party games on a "no play list" for their
         | Twitch channels because of this. They've never had an issue
         | with any other studio and they certainly don't run their
         | channels for profit either (very few retro games on Twitch make
         | money from their hobby). It's also hard to see how someone
         | streaming a play through of a Nintendo game harms Nintendo as a
         | company or their IP.
         | 
         | And to be clear, I do still like Nintendo in the general sense.
         | I might not agree with how they treat their fans (particularly
         | the retro gamers, streamers, reviewers on YT) but I do still
         | enjoy their games. I just know better than to stream myself
         | playing them. I guess that makes me a little hypocritical
         | too.... :)
        
           | JackFr wrote:
           | > So this is often less about protecting IP and more about
           | profiting on retro gamers hobby channels.
           | 
           | I doubt Nintendo's bottom line is affected at all by this
           | "revenue stream". It is all about keeping the value of their
           | IP high.
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | They are literally saying make your own IP and here is money
           | to do it in your own company that they just passively invest
           | in with no relation to Nintendo as a parent company.
           | 
           | They're saying grow the fuck up, and acknowledging that since
           | that's _so_ hard for an entire generation they've inspired,
           | they are trying to inspire these adult-children _again_ with
           | venture capital to create new things.
           | 
           | That's the opposite of hypocrisy. Pursuing their own property
           | rights to keep their property valuable? Sell them some shares
           | and they'll make sure you have that expectation with your IP
           | too.
        
             | hnlmorg wrote:
             | How does going after Twitch streamers playing retro games
             | fall into any of what you've said? Because Nintendo have
             | targeted them.
             | 
             | How does YouTube reviewers fall into that category? Because
             | Nintendo have targeted them too.
             | 
             | You don't realise just how far reaching Nintendo's lawyers
             | are and thus just assume it's the usual case of "They're
             | stealing from us!" (to quote Pirates of Silicon Valley).
        
               | vmception wrote:
               | Ah okay, yes I'm aware they do that and they should call
               | off the hounds. This isn't the thread for that. It is
               | very easy to compartmentalize these things, just like the
               | other people making real money and wealth in this world
               | do. This is a private equity firm from a securities
               | trader. Nintendo was their tech play where they also got
               | to premine all the shares. Its cute you and others have
               | been inspired by that alpha generating bet. That was a
               | complete thought.
        
               | hnlmorg wrote:
               | > _This isn't the thread for that._
               | 
               | The discussion organically lead to my point (I don't just
               | go around moaning about Nintendo for giggles in any old
               | thread) and it's not as if HN doesn't already have a long
               | and rich history of conversations going off topic.
               | 
               | I also don't see why authority you have to tell me which
               | topics are off topic on this discussion board. If you're
               | not interested in a tangent then fold it and move on.
               | It's what I do :)
        
           | chrisco255 wrote:
           | Yeah, I get that. I feel like the trademark and copyright
           | system is set up that way where lawyers are incentivized to
           | defend IP. Some consider it a must, to protect those IPs.
           | 
           | At any rate, I would love to see something like a
           | decentralized Disney or Nintendo spring up in the world. Like
           | a decentralized universe of open source characters that
           | people could interact with and riff on. Something like what
           | happens with memes like Pepe already, but more
           | Disney/Nintendo-esque. I wonder if that couldn't be organized
           | with a DAO for the community to contribute to and fund the
           | artists that build the characters and universe. Anyways,
           | random thoughts.
        
             | onethought wrote:
             | But isn't it the strict control of brand and image that
             | make those characters so enjoyed. If you let anyone do
             | anything they can change/misrepresent the brand in an
             | irreversible way... just like Pepe...
        
               | barneygale wrote:
               | Those characters are enjoyed because of the strength of
               | the games that feature them. Nintendo's recent abuse of
               | DMCA is only hurting that legacy. As the grandparent
               | pointed out, Sega are nowhere near this litigious.
        
               | onethought wrote:
               | Yes, and segas Characters are no where near as
               | strong/popular. It almost strengthens my point
        
               | hnlmorg wrote:
               | I have no issue with companies shutting down content that
               | could be seen as harming their image. But the vast
               | majority of fan content is complimentary. For example, do
               | you think a Twitch stream of a retro game is somehow
               | harming or misrepresenting Nintendo's brand?
        
               | NateEag wrote:
               | Nintendo is historically HUGE on being family-friendly
               | and controlling their image.
               | 
               | Streamers telling raunchy jokes, dressing sexily and/or
               | swearing while playing a Mario game probably _does_ hurt
               | Nintendo 's brand, at least in their eyes.
               | 
               | There's a reason Smash Brothers Ultimate's online mode
               | only has voice chat in private rooms through a smartphone
               | app.
        
               | chrisco255 wrote:
               | I don't think so. Pepe is still quite hilarious for meme
               | material. I can ignore bad actors with an open IP and
               | still enjoy the good stuff.
               | 
               | And meanwhile, I think stuff like fan art, fan fiction,
               | spin offs, etc could maybe create an even more vibrant
               | ecosystem than a Disney or Nintendo ever could.
               | 
               | I mean, look at the ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
               | That was an open source ecosystem of stories and legends
               | that different people contributed to and built on over
               | long periods of time. It could easily happen today.
               | 
               | Open Source Disney, Open Source Marvel, Open Source
               | Nintendo
               | 
               | I think the time is right for such a thing to happen.
        
               | hnlmorg wrote:
               | The interesting thing there is that Disney made their
               | money by reselling public domain content:
               | - The Little Mermaid       - The Jungle Book       -
               | Tarzan       - Cinderella       - A Christmas Carol
               | - Fantasia       - Pinocchio       - Alice in Wonderland
               | - Beauty and the Beast       - Aladin       - Heracles
               | 
               | etc
               | 
               | All folk tails or public domain stories. Even Tangled and
               | Frozen have taken heavily from other stories. And I'm
               | certain there's more I've forgotten.
               | 
               | Likewise Marvel has borrowed a lot from Norse mythology
               | with Thor's story arcs.
               | 
               | I've never really followed comic book fandom that closely
               | so I can't comment on what pre-Disney Marvel were like to
               | their fans. But with regards to Disney, it always left a
               | bad taste in my mouth just how aggressively Disney were
               | to protect their IP from harmless fans when Disney
               | themselves owe their millions to ripping off other
               | peoples stories.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | foxhop wrote:
               | Did you know Superhero is a trademaked term held by the
               | duo Marvel (now Disney) and DC.
               | 
               | That said they have never tried to test that trademark in
               | the courts.
               | 
               | I thought about putting another term into the public
               | domain, something like uberheros/ultraheros and then
               | allowing artists, writers, and other creatives to define
               | their characters as such, and while also in the public
               | domain, allow remixing and reinterpretation of the
               | archetypes and stories.
               | 
               | I think the easiest way to start this would be to setup a
               | git repo to describe how it works and what it means to
               | place one of your characters or stories into the public
               | domain. Then build a community and tools to help people
               | and teams do so.
        
           | philliphaydon wrote:
           | I don't think this is unique to Nintendo though. I feel like
           | it's a Japan Culture thing. There's a kick start project for
           | Street Fighter history where a studio backed out of doing an
           | interview due to it not being sanctioned by Capcom. When ever
           | I need to work with companies in Japan, it's a struggle of
           | bureaucracy and politics.
        
             | astrange wrote:
             | Japan has strict IP laws with no concept of fair use, so
             | you do need to get permission for a lot of things. That's
             | part of why entertainment journalism like games/music is
             | super bland there.
             | 
             | (Of course there's also a big unofficial fanart for profit
             | community, which some companies tolerate because it gets
             | them an artist pipeline.)
        
               | hnlmorg wrote:
               | Nintendo of America are just as aggressive and, as I've
               | mentioned before, other Japanese games studios aren't
               | nearly as proactive in shutting down fan content. Sega,
               | for example, practically endorse it.
               | 
               | As someone who's actively involved in the retro gaming
               | community on Twitch, there is a very stark difference
               | between Nintendo and almost every other studio.
        
               | astrange wrote:
               | The studios' US branches are usually nicer than the Japan
               | ones; Nintendo is the rare US branch that's just as mean.
               | 
               | Sega and Capcom will try to get you permabanned if you're
               | Japanese and do a monetized stream of their games without
               | permission: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/202
               | 0-08-06/hololiv...
               | 
               | And Atlus Japan won't give out streaming permissions even
               | though Atlus US doesn't care at all.
        
               | hnlmorg wrote:
               | Granted I'm talking from a western perspective but what
               | you've described is precisely my point.
        
             | hnlmorg wrote:
             | I don't think it's a uniquely Japanese thing but there's
             | definitely a culture there. However my point is Nintendo
             | aren't just passively refusing to work with fans, they're
             | pro-actively shutting down fan projects, Twitch streams and
             | YouTube review channels in ways that other Japanese studios
             | are not. It's also not just Nintendo of Japan doing it,
             | their American company also behaves the same.
             | 
             | https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/nintendo_issues_m
             | a...
             | 
             | https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/11/twitch_streamers_
             | b...
             | 
             | I have friends who stream retro games via Twitch and the
             | only they've ever had infractions from Twitch is when
             | Nintendo have reported them for playing a retro Nintendo
             | game without Nintendo's consent.
             | 
             | There's also bunch of YouTube videos from disgruntled
             | reviewers moaning about how they've been treated by
             | Nintendo, which I can't find right now.
             | 
             | So this isn't something I've just made up. It's a common
             | gripe with the retro gaming and streaming community.
        
             | TulliusCicero wrote:
             | On the other hand, Sega is known for being much, much
             | friendlier with fan projects.
             | 
             | Sometimes Sega even hires the developers, as was the case
             | with Christian Whitehead, who did some Sonic ports for
             | them, and then went on to make the critically acclaimed
             | _Sonic Mania_.
        
               | philliphaydon wrote:
               | Yeah, I have 2 sega books that sega gave the console
               | designs for! It's so cool!
        
         | Black101 wrote:
         | > Besides being a beautiful website
         | 
         | And at first glance, it appears to work fine even with
         | javascript disabled.
        
           | playpause wrote:
           | What do you mean by 'at first glance'? With JS disabled I
           | just get an empty black page.
        
             | Black101 wrote:
             | oops... you are right, my JS was accidentally left enabled
        
         | bobthechef wrote:
         | Sounds like your typical reheated, cluster-of-blandly-positive
         | and vague feel-good marketing. Not sure what exactly you're so
         | enamored with, or what you're projecting here.
         | 
         | (Also the phrase "giving back" implies you've been doing
         | something unjust. You only give back after you've taken. But
         | all just business practice is about fair exchange, so there's
         | nothing to "give back".)
        
           | prewett wrote:
           | That's a pretty zero-sum outlook on giving back. Another way
           | of looking at it is that people invested in us before we had
           | any potential (parents and teachers, at the very least), the
           | Yamauchi family wants to do the same for others. They are
           | giving because they received, not because they've taken.
        
         | kspacewalk2 wrote:
         | >This sounds like the Yamauchi family's attempt to bootstrap
         | and create an ecosystem of ventures to reinvigorate
         | entrepreneurship in Japan and their way of giving back.
         | 
         | And it also sounds like their attempt to make more money. Let's
         | just not lose sight of reality amidst all the fluff.
        
         | graderjs wrote:
         | Sometimes the comments make you happy you read them. Yours did!
         | Thank you! :) ;p
        
         | throwaway2037 wrote:
         | As a non-native who has lived in Japan for many years, but then
         | moved to another country in Asia... I disagree with the regular
         | stream of negative English language news about Japan. It is
         | still a wonderful culture, people, and country.
         | 
         | And ignore the "GDP" stuff. You will read the same about Italy
         | in English language newspapers. And (South) Korea. Both are
         | also beautiful countries with great food and very high quality
         | of life.
         | 
         | I look at overall GDP less than GDP-per capita. The best metric
         | in my mind is historical median salary. This gives a great idea
         | of how middle class people live. As long as it holds steady and
         | inflation is zero, then quality of life does not decline. The
         | truth is that Japan has microscopic growth (~1% per year)
         | combined with annual population decline of ~0.5% per year.
         | Those two together should mean quality of life is still
         | increasing a little bit each year. And, yes, each year that I
         | return to Tokyo, I feel it is still improving.
        
           | nine_k wrote:
           | I happen to know a few Italians, and unfortunately cannot
           | agree about the quality of life. Likely it's way better than
           | in places like Congo -- no wonder! But compared to more
           | northern Europe and the US, the difference is rather stark.
           | Look at the unemployment figures, for instance.
           | 
           | Still, of course, great people, great culture, great
           | potential.
           | 
           | Same with Japan: wonderful culture, nice people, but the
           | problems are real. And somehow, I suppose, they are rooted in
           | the same great culture as the nice things :-/
        
             | pokot0 wrote:
             | Lower classes in Italy are not as much penalized as in the
             | US.
             | 
             | Eviction takes YEARS and it's just impossible in some
             | situations (kids in the house), healthcare is free for all,
             | personal debt is not as aggressive as here, unpaid debt is
             | a nightmare to go afer.
             | 
             | So unemployment figures are not really that important to
             | gauge quality of life. We had many scandals where people
             | just didn't want to get hired and do small works off the
             | books instead because life was just better like that.
             | 
             | You can be broke and still have a wonderful life in Italy.
             | If you are smart and you want to get rich: much easier in
             | the US.
             | 
             | Also about your Italian friends: Italian love to complain!
             | If you ask them, they'll tell you. They will complain about
             | everything all day with you. And then leave and go drink a
             | nice aperitivo with their friends and enjoy the evening.
             | It's very different from the US style of projecting an
             | idyllic image of your life when you are with others, and
             | then go home and drink whiskey until you forget you are
             | alive. (Source: Italian living in US for 10 years)
        
               | throwaway0a5e wrote:
               | >people just didn't want to get hired and do small works
               | off the books instead because life was just better like
               | that.
               | 
               | The blue collar industries have issues hiring junior
               | people for exactly this reason in many of the HCOL parts
               | of the US. Nobody in their right mind wants to suffer
               | through a couple years as a lube and tire tech when you
               | can work when you can get paid more fixing people's cars
               | under the table.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | bsanr2 wrote:
               | Too-high GDP seems to result in a de facto aristocracy
               | which claws as much of the wealth as possible to
               | themselves, an issue which becomes more intractable over
               | time re: Piketty. At both the macro and micro scale,
               | quality of life seems to peak at the upper middle class,
               | where there's just enough wealth that the imperative to
               | keep everyone happy takes precedence (vs the imperative
               | to stay at the top or keep everyone from starving on
               | either side).
               | 
               | I know that Italy isn't perfect, but the Italian-style
               | post-Imperial "chill-out" seems to work well in a lot of
               | ways. I'm an American with no Italian heritage, but I was
               | born there and I think I might have imprinted a bit. I
               | hope to go back someday.
        
               | captainredbeard wrote:
               | > where there's just enough wealth that the imperative to
               | keep everyone happy takes precedence (vs the imperative
               | to stay at the top or keep everyone from starving on
               | either side)
               | 
               | Maybe
        
             | throwaway2037 wrote:
             | Sorry to nitpick, but I am a regular listener to Deutsche
             | Welle (dw.com). They have a nice weekly show called DW
             | Africa. More info here: https://www.dw.com/en/top-
             | stories/africa/s-12756
             | 
             | Are you aware there are two countries that are casually
             | referred to as "Congo" by non-Africans? (Hello Africans! We
             | hear you loud and clear!) Sorry, this is a real issue for
             | me. I am so tired of Western (and East Asian!) media using
             | the broad label "African" to sweep 50 countries under the
             | rug that have very diverse development histories.
             | 
             | To be clear: (1) Democratic Republic of the Congo has GDP
             | per capita below 1000 USD per year and is one of the least
             | developed countries in the world -- affected by unfortunate
             | tropical diseases and civil war. (2) Republic of the Congo
             | is doing much better! Neighbors, but a GDP per capita that
             | is 2.5 times of DRC.
             | 
             | If you are aware of all of this, ignore this post. If not,
             | please kindly educate yourself before posting about the so-
             | called sad lives of people from "Congo" -- a place that has
             | not existed for more than 75 years!
        
               | philtar wrote:
               | This is easily one of my top 10 favorite HN posts.
               | 
               | Interesting, informative, and polite. (Last one is super
               | important)
        
               | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
               | >Democratic Republic of the Congo has GDP per capita
               | below 1000 USD per year and is one of the least developed
               | countries in the world -- affected by unfortunate
               | tropical diseases and civil war. (2) Republic of the
               | Congo
               | 
               | Reminds me of the heuristic, the more modifiers a
               | country's name has, the more likely it is to have
               | economic or political issues. See for example, Democratic
               | Peoples Republic of Korea vs Republic of Korea.
        
               | nine_k wrote:
               | I do. I also remember that both were war-torn; a colossal
               | war ("African WWI", as some call it) happened in 1996-97,
               | with some civil wars after that.
               | 
               | Both DRC ($420 per capita) and RoC ($390 per capita) are
               | not well-off, compared to more fortunate countriers
               | relatively nearby, like Nigeria ($2140 per capita), to
               | say nothing if e.g.Botswana ($7k per capita).
               | 
               | Italy, for scale, got $31630 per capita in 2020, nearly
               | 80 times that of RoC.
        
             | V-2 wrote:
             | Italy is a country of great contrasts. Northern Italy (such
             | as Milan) is definitely on par with "more northern Europe".
        
           | pokot0 wrote:
           | As an Italian living in US for 10 years now, I definitely
           | agree. Growth means nothing to 99.9% of the population. But
           | that very same people have not realized it yet, and all push
           | for the needs of 0.01%.
        
           | chrisco255 wrote:
           | The GDP growth and sense that Japan is falling behind is what
           | the family claims is their motivating factor.
        
           | theptip wrote:
           | > I look at overall GDP less than GDP-per capita.
           | 
           | As you should. But a quick search suggests GDP/capita is
           | below where it was in 95, and only exceeded it for a short
           | period around 2010:
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/search?q=japan+gdp+per+capita&oq=japa.
           | ..
           | 
           | I'm not sure that the numbers support the narrative you're
           | putting forth here; population decline is not offsetting the
           | lack of overall GDP growth, and the GPT/capita numbers are
           | essentially flat.
           | 
           | I think it's entirely possible for both "It is still a
           | wonderful culture, people, and country." and "three decades
           | of economic stagnation" to be true.
        
             | kbenson wrote:
             | > the GPT/capita numbers are essentially flat
             | 
             | We haven't quite reached this level of AI dystopia yet.
             | Give it a few years. ;)
        
           | aikinai wrote:
           | Your point is orthogonal to the stagnation issue. Yes, Japan
           | is still a wonderful place to live, the best in the world I'd
           | personally say. But it is most certainly stagnating. There's
           | enough momentum, cultural advantage, and existing wealth to
           | continue to carry it forward for quite a while, but the
           | energy and ambition is gone. That's what GP was describing
           | and that's what the Yamauchi family is targeting.
           | 
           | I also love the gesture, but it obviously won't do much on
           | the grand scale. Not even the massive 2011 disaster was
           | enough to light the fire again.
        
             | throwaway2037 wrote:
             | Thank you for your honest reply.
             | 
             | Here is a thought experiment about growth: What if Google
             | never grew again, but maintained the same revenues and
             | profits going forward? To be clear: Their stock price would
             | crash because portfolio theory teaches us that stock price
             | is an indication of future earnings growth. This is what
             | Japan looks like in my mind: Very rich and developed by
             | global standards, but mostly economically stagnant.
             | 
             | "Not even the massive 2011 disaster was enough to light the
             | fire again." Zero trolling: Are you aware of the special
             | tax for reconstruction in Japan? (I pay it.) It runs for 40
             | or 50 years and will collect billions (USD) to rebuild and
             | reinvigorate the affected regions. I went on a road trip
             | through Iwate prefecture 2.5 years ago. They are
             | rebuilding. Yes, most places feel like eerie "potemkin
             | villages", but I am confident they can rebuild.
        
               | kaesar14 wrote:
               | Well in your thought experiment, Google choosing to shift
               | priorities away from growth towards stability could
               | ultimately lead to being dethroned as other companies
               | seek to undercut them through competition.
        
               | aikinai wrote:
               | I completely agree with your first point; that's a good
               | analogy. Japan is very successful and stable, but shows
               | no signs of future growth potential.
               | 
               | I wasn't talking about rebuilding after the disaster; I
               | know they're doing that (and I also pay the tax). I was
               | talking about lighting the fire of ambition and
               | innovation in Japan again. At the time I had hope that
               | the scale of the disaster and impact on the nation's
               | psyche might be enough to awaken the spirit again like
               | the Meiji Restoration or the Economic Miracle. However,
               | all that happened is they committed to rebuilding and
               | turned off a lot of the lights.
        
           | mlyle wrote:
           | > It is still a wonderful culture, people, and country.
           | 
           | Of course it is. But that doesn't make the problems less
           | real.
           | 
           | The demographic pressure cooker is still cooking-- a greater
           | and greater proportion of national resources go to support an
           | ever increasing fraction of the old, and stopping this is
           | impossible at this point. Prospects for dating and marriage
           | are collapsing for a large chunk of the populace. Government
           | debt is increasing as a share of GDP and with the change in
           | the dependency ratio and declining populace default looks
           | increasingly likely in the long term.
        
         | lupire wrote:
         | It's the Japanese version of "changing the world with
         | disruptive incredible journeys".
        
         | bsanr2 wrote:
         | They're pulling an Eden of the East, with Banjo as Mr. Outside.
         | Neat.
        
       | glandium wrote:
       | Pixelated Kanjis in isometric 3d are really hard to read.
       | Thankfully the English text is not pixelated.
        
       | mgerullis wrote:
       | From a frontend devs perspective this actually is pretty crazy. I
       | was going through the markup for 5 minutes and could barely tell
       | what is what and how stuff is rendered. Chapeau!
        
         | anonu wrote:
         | Was hoping to see a bit more discussion on the tech on HN...
        
         | gervwyk wrote:
         | Same here. Although digging in a bit there is some really cool
         | css tricks in here. Any idea who the developer is?
        
           | prawn wrote:
           | Mount Inc:
           | https://twitter.com/mount_inc/status/1381805222679379969
        
           | mgerullis wrote:
           | Sadly no. What I do however found interesting was the client-
           | side redirect to https as well as the usage of jQuery. And
           | the fact that a lot of text is in SVG
        
       | throwaway2037 wrote:
       | "The Web is dead. Long live the Web!"
       | 
       | This website is so magical. It gives me a child-like feeling of
       | true discovery.
       | 
       | The first website I ever visited was SGI.com. I saw it advertised
       | in a computer magazine, but I didn't have access to the Internet.
       | By chance, a few months later, I learned the central branch of my
       | city library had _one_ PC with dial-up. You had to reserve it.
       | The waiting list was long. I still remember staring at the blank
       | grey browser window, carefully pecking  "www.sgi.com" into the
       | location bar. Then... waiting, and waiting, and waiting(!) for
       | all the graphics to load. SGI's homepage was full of these
       | beautiful pre-rendered three-dimensional graphics. It was worth
       | the wait!
        
       | cmod wrote:
       | For those interested, dev agency is Mount Inc. [0]
       | 
       | Some behinds the scenes production stuff on their Twitter feed.
       | [1]
       | 
       | [0]: https://mount.jp/
       | 
       | [1]: https://twitter.com/mount_inc/status/1381805222679379969
        
         | throwaway2037 wrote:
         | Genuinely curious: How did you figure it out?
        
           | hkmurakami wrote:
           | It went a little viral in Japan Twitterverse.
        
         | robenkleene wrote:
         | The Yamauchi reminds me of Bruno Simon's personal site
         | (https://bruno-simon.com/), who coincidentally has a (paid)
         | Three.js course (https://threejs-journey.xyz/). Might
         | interesting for people interested it learning how to make these
         | kinds of things.
        
           | rchaud wrote:
           | That Bruno website is the first thing I thought of when I saw
           | the isometric design. Gotta say, Bruno did it right. I
           | expected to be able to drive my little car around the website
           | to read about the family's vision for the future!
        
         | hkmurakami wrote:
         | From the web studio on a separate tweet thread:
         | 
         | "a little bit of behind the scenes
         | 
         | We build a custom modeling and layout/placement tool. We use
         | the modeling tool to build the object models and the
         | animations.
         | 
         | The animations are build pixel by pixel and frame by frame,
         | then placed using the layout tool.
         | 
         | 274 original model objects "
         | 
         | https://mobile.twitter.com/mount_inc/status/1381892567457882...
        
       | raverbashing wrote:
       | For those who don't know, a Family Office is "a privately held
       | company that handles investment management and wealth management
       | for a wealthy family, generally one with over $100 million in
       | investable assets" (as per Wikipedia) relating to the Nintendo
       | Founder family
        
         | redis_mlc wrote:
         | Family offices are controversial at the moment in the US
         | because they can be as large as a hedge fund, yet have no
         | regulation.
         | 
         | There was a recent meltdown at Archegos that cost institutions
         | several billion dollars involving a family office:
         | 
         | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-markets-blocktrades-r...
         | 
         | They're also a good gig if you're a CPA and one of your clients
         | becomes a whale, which means you can work that one account and
         | don't need to service 1,000+ little accounts annually.
         | 
         | (My CPA/EA got "difficult", so I dumped her and just do it
         | myself now. Cheaper, faster and less headaches.)
        
       | entropyie wrote:
       | As I face into another day of tedious Jira wrangling, this really
       | lifted my spirits! The music really makes the difference. I was
       | also struck by the quote regarding stability and innovation.
       | FWIW, very little CPU overhead on ThinkPad X280 with FireFox.
        
         | pm90 wrote:
         | It comforts me to know that I'm not the only one who feels this
         | way about their work- "tedious JIRA wrangling". Ugh, I
         | empathize deeply with that statement.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | nperez wrote:
       | I got into programming for the fun of it, and it's become easier
       | and easier to forget that as it's become more of a job. This was
       | a much needed reminder! No doubt this must have been a joy to
       | build
        
       | sublimefire wrote:
       | Not sure about anyone of you but in my case the experience is
       | terrible. Initial load 3.7 secs, then additional assets were
       | downloaded +7secs. And this all just to show the button "Enter"
       | which was unresponsive. After waiting for a couple more seconds
       | background appeared. At this point I've spent 10 seconds on a
       | site.
       | 
       | FYI I'm on 16'mbp so there is more than enough processing power.
       | Maybe it is because of 11MB the website needs for the button to
       | start working (delivered via 114 requests), but on the other hand
       | my network throughput is around 100mb.
       | 
       | edit: Network monitor says that each of png tiles (~300B) took
       | 11sec on average to receive.
       | 
       | edit: Still can reproduce this but the loading time fluctuates
       | 3-11secs. I'm on FFv87. Maybe I'm too far from the CDN server.
        
         | nabakin wrote:
         | On my phone, loading the website is instant, loading the button
         | to enter takes 2 seconds or less, and actually entering the
         | scene is instant.
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | I'm on Android running the latest beta of Firefox and after an
         | initial black screen for a second or two, the website operates
         | quite smoothly.
         | 
         | I have seen quite a few comments from people on Macbooks that
         | have a terrible experience with the website, though, so maybe
         | the problem is related to that? It could be that the GPU isn't
         | great at rendering the specific code path this website hits, or
         | that the network card hits some kind of edge case with the way
         | this website deals with its assets, or something entirely
         | different.
         | 
         | It could also just be that the richer dev crowd generally buys
         | Macbooks and the numbers are overstated, of course.
        
           | foxhop wrote:
           | I also had a good user experience on Android and Firefox.
        
         | drcongo wrote:
         | 16"MBP here too, in Safari - it was surprisingly fast for me.
        
         | least wrote:
         | Experience was pretty bad and i had to reload several times for
         | the assets to even load. I'm willing to give it a pass
         | considering it's not exactly meant to be a high traffic website
         | that a lot of people are meant to use every day though I could
         | understand someone instantly closing off of it.
         | 
         | It's whimsical and interesting which is certainly the message
         | they were going for considering the intent of the website
         | itself and resulted in more discussion about its mission than
         | it would normally earn on social media, I think. Talking about
         | the good ol' days of Japan's economic dominance and how it was
         | perceived as a creative powerhouse on a bland corporate website
         | would probably fail to deliver its message.
        
       | fergie wrote:
       | This ascetic was very hot around 2000-2001 in the design
       | department at the big dotcom where I worked.
        
       | doersino wrote:
       | Pretty, but 10 seconds of scrolling turned my phone into a space
       | heater.
        
       | romanovcode wrote:
       | Nothing happens when I click "Enter ->".
        
       | tomklein wrote:
       | This is the level of creativity I needed this morning.
        
         | rambojazz wrote:
         | Unfortunately at the great expenses of usability.
        
           | developer93 wrote:
           | you can turn the crazy off in the menu & get the serious
           | website
        
             | eh9 wrote:
             | IDK if it's intentional, but the background creates a moire
             | pattern while scrolling. I found the flashing from it
             | jarring.
        
       | dejj wrote:
       | First click reminded me of Summer Wars[1] (Japanese: samauozu)
       | immediately! The music video[2] nicely retains the opening
       | effect.
       | 
       | [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Wars
       | 
       | [2]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cZuj-uTvdYc
        
         | maxwelljoslyn wrote:
         | Thank you for reminding me what this movie is called. Saw it
         | years ago and forgot.
        
         | toyg wrote:
         | Thanks for the link, this looks awesome. I'm trying to catch up
         | with the best anime in the period 2002-2018, and this just made
         | the list.
        
       | ryanjodonnell wrote:
       | This site is epic
        
       | mgerullis wrote:
       | That's interesting, my 2015 MbP had glitchy sound, stutter and
       | fans spun right up while my iPhone 7 deals just fine with it.
        
         | neartheplain wrote:
         | My first-gen iPhone SE also renders/plays it smoothly.
        
         | tomglynch wrote:
         | Same. MBP mid 2014, chrome, very stuttery.
        
         | vmception wrote:
         | What about Safari?
        
           | mgerullis wrote:
           | A tad better but still yanky. Not trying to discredit the
           | incredible artwork though...
        
         | pomian wrote:
         | Android Moto g - website works great, no heat, no stutter. You
         | can zoom in and watch the motion of the cubes. Is it random
         | motion?
        
       | intrasight wrote:
       | I get a blank page. Uses Flash?
        
       | Nazzareno wrote:
       | Mobile version is even better, with a fantastic background music
       | (any guess on which is the song? Can't shazam it)
        
         | mzs wrote:
         | No tags in the MP3, likely created for the site but I too wish
         | I knew the artist(s):
         | 
         | https://y-n10.com/assets/sound/bgm.mp3
         | 
         | edit: Ji Tian  Jian Er  Kenji Yoshida selected works:
         | http://dajistudio.com/
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/mount_inc/status/1381805231479005186
        
         | aasasd wrote:
         | The music is similar in spirit and sound to Space Ponch, who
         | are also Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8maoqr4E5k
        
       | onlyfortoday2 wrote:
       | horrible website
        
       | hermitsings wrote:
       | Tech? How'd they make this?
        
         | MoodyMoon wrote:
         | Text on the website is a combination of SVGs and real
         | characters which are then transformed using CSS. Assets are
         | from /assets/doodles.json which contains information on how
         | they can displayed and animated on a canvas through WebGL using
         | a custom engine from /assets/js/engine.min.js.
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | Im guessing WebGL or HTML Canvas + JavaScript.
        
         | Benjamin_Dobell wrote:
         | It's WebGL. Doesn't look like any library/engine I'm familiar
         | with, quite likely custom.
         | 
         | If you're interested in more detail, you can run spector.JS on
         | the site to capture the render calls of a frame.
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | It's from Nintendo, wouldn't be surprised if they hired some
           | of their creative team and developers to work on it.
        
       | xtiansimon wrote:
       | " If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of
       | Giants."
       | 
       | It's like the 1990s all over again
        
       | rorykoehler wrote:
       | Clicking "Enter" doesn't work for me on MacOS on Firefox. Google
       | Tag Manager is the only script that is being blocked though
       | disabling (loaded more google stuff and) it didn't help.
        
         | wst_ wrote:
         | Works fine for me on the same setup.
        
       | a94d5dc743 wrote:
       | What a load of corporate-speak bullcrap in a geek-attractive
       | wrapper!
        
       | bashwizard wrote:
       | Reminds me of the type of websites I and a lot of people used to
       | create in flash in the early 2000.
        
         | yarcob wrote:
         | Except this website actually works and sound is default off and
         | you can switch to a more accesible view :)
         | 
         | Still, I kinda miss the creativity of the early web.
        
           | abraae wrote:
           | I mainly saw this style in large retailers wanting to deliver
           | a cool experience to their customers and candidates.
           | 
           | Difficult, fraught projects battling with flash and
           | unrealistic customer expectations.
           | 
           | Once live, never touched until entirely replaced by some new
           | hotness.
        
           | fireattack wrote:
           | Sound is default on here (it does need some time to load,
           | though).
        
       | monkeydust wrote:
       | Love it. If i ever get enough wealth to setup a family office I
       | would want it to be as crazy/fun as this. Kudos for having the
       | ability to toggle from crazy to normal views also.
        
       | ksec wrote:
       | Attention: It nearly flipping fried my CPU.
       | 
       | But awesome site.
       | 
       | Tested On both Safari and Chrome on macOS. 100% CPU usage when
       | scrolling.
       | 
       | Edit: On WOW, from the comments I decide to try it on my iPhone
       | 11. _Ultra_ Smooth Rendering with Music ( which wasn 't even
       | playing on my Mac ). And my phone isn't even warm after a minutes
       | of playing around. Amazing
       | 
       | Which makes me wonder. Why?
        
         | pm90 wrote:
         | Are you powering a large monitor? I would guess the graphics
         | doesn't scale well with screen size.
        
         | aikah wrote:
         | It was pretty smooth actually, and I'm on a Intel N5000 with 4
         | gigs of RAM. Not sure it uses WebGL or CSS, but the
         | performances are rather good.
        
         | throwaway2037 wrote:
         | Woah, you are right! I just checked my Chrome task manager
         | (Shift+Esc on Linux). It is never less than 50% CPU at top of
         | page in 3D mode. If I scroll, it jumps to > 100% CPU! The tab
         | is using 250MB of RAM. And to think I am working on a
         | ridiculously over-powered workstation w/ 3.8 GHz cores & 4K
         | screens!
        
           | kizer wrote:
           | All the bloat of the many abstraction layers. Also maybe
           | (some of) the rendering is happening in the CPU; didn't check
           | to see how they did it.
        
         | fireattack wrote:
         | It must be something Mac specific.
         | 
         | It runs very smoothly on Chrome + Windows with a dated
         | computer.
        
           | ksec wrote:
           | Yes, interesting all the comments suggest it is Mac specific
           | and not browser specific. Tested again on Firefox Mac, same
           | thing. Very strange.
        
             | jeroenhd wrote:
             | Perhaps this has highlighted a problem in the Metal render
             | backend? Firefox generally sticks to the OpenGL standard
             | (using ANGLE as a workaround where only DirectX is
             | available on Windows) whereas Apple has their own APIs.
             | 
             | For example, Firefox seems to make use of the more
             | proprietary Core Animation API got certain tender tasks,
             | which no other OS needs special code for. If the Core
             | Animation API or the code calling it has a bottleneck,
             | you'll only see this problem on macOS.
             | 
             | It could also be a consequence of the way Apple optimises
             | their laptops. On my phone and laptop, the websites hammers
             | one single core (about 87% CPU usage on my laptop here).
             | Apple has optimised their CPU power curves (on Intel, at
             | least) to turbo high and turbo quickly, making actions like
             | loading a website and opening an app nice and snappy. The
             | design of the laptops doesn't allow these high turbo speeds
             | for more than a few seconds, so CPU performance drops after
             | a few seconds. For most use cases that's fine, but I can
             | see a website like this running into that problem. Same
             | thing is happening on Chrome, which is snappier for me but
             | also more CPU intensive.
             | 
             | Edit: actually, after trying Firefox on my hackintosh
             | (7700k, gtx1080), it's more likely to be hardware related.
             | I have no trouble whatsoever with the website on any
             | browser on my desktop, even the outdated copy of Safari
             | works fine.
        
         | ComodoHacker wrote:
         | It hogs my latest Firefox into being almost totally
         | unresponsive. It takes minutes after closing a tab to recover.
        
           | foxhop wrote:
           | Worked amazing on Firefox for Android.
        
         | thitcanh wrote:
         | It's kinda ridiculous that this happens. It's not like it's
         | graphic intensive. Why would it warm up any GPU of this decade?
        
           | bruce343434 wrote:
           | the power of javascript
        
       | ForOldHack wrote:
       | Wow! New home page. OMG. When will they make this a minecraft
       | plug-in viewer.
       | 
       | ( I saw Godzilla! )
        
       | m1117 wrote:
       | Gorgeous website, but freezes my browser :/
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Just saw this before bed. Geezus. Bringing the early 2000s web
       | design experience vibes.
       | 
       | Website of the family of the founder of Nintendo. Of course it's
       | like this. Ha
        
         | Clewza313 wrote:
         | Family _office_ , as in the wealth managers responsible for the
         | Nintendo family fortune:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_office
         | 
         | Hiroshi Yamauchi (previous CEO) alone had a net worth of around
         | $8 billion at peak:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_Yamauchi
         | 
         | Which is why the CxOs are all ex-Goldman Sachs, Nomura,
         | Deutsche, etc.
        
       | mplanchard wrote:
       | I know this is not a particularly useful comment, but I love this
       | so much. The attention to detail is incredible, the art is
       | lovely, the song is so nice. I love the sentiment in the
       | statement and philosophy. It reminds of katamary damacy. The more
       | I look at it, the more impressed I am.
       | 
       | Re: the detail, occasionally, the little blocks will randomly run
       | into each other. When they do, they roll /over/ each other!
       | 
       | Re: performance, I've got no problems running it in FF on ubuntu.
        
         | forgot-my-pw wrote:
         | It runs on my phone, very impressive!
        
       | jbverschoor wrote:
       | Damn catchy song!
        
       | offtop5 wrote:
       | Does anyone have any links to any of the projects they're funding
       | right now. I'd love to see some small indie Japanese games
        
       | busymom0 wrote:
       | Within a few seconds of loading, Safari gave me a warning: "This
       | webpage is using significant memory. Closing it may improve the
       | responsiveness of your Mac."
       | 
       | Cool site still.
        
         | jamiek88 wrote:
         | And yet it worked perfectly on my iPad Pro.
         | 
         | Can't wait to get an M1 Mac.
        
           | furyg3 wrote:
           | 40-45% of one core on my M1 MBP, 20-40% GPU.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-04-14 23:01 UTC)