I’ve been a fan of Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki ever since Tecmo Bowl. The Dead or Alive franchise I’ve always considered amazing, and no reasons need to given for the significance of Ninja Gaiden.
I’m a software engineer who originally wanted to be a game developer, so my appreciation runs a little deeper than most. When people go “Wow! How do they do that?” I may actually have a good idea how. But Team Ninja’s products have still always stunned me with their performance.
That aside, whenever I pictured myself being a famous game developer, I always saw myself dressing and acting like Itagaki-san, and I certainly would enjoy what he’s doing in this picture right here:
A god among game developers.
So imagine my surprise when at this year’s E3 he walked right by me, followed by three Japanese men in suits. He was wearing jeans with a dark shirt and sunglasses. Of course.
I immediately turned around to start following him. I wasn’t 100 percent sure it was Itagaki, so I was watching for him to stop so I could take a closer look. Looking down at his feet, I noticed he was wearing cowboy boots. Yeah, it was him. How many other Japanese people were walking around wearing those at E3?
He turned to enter the West Hall through an entrance that had been previously open. Security guards stopped him.
“Back! Get back, sir! This is an exit for the Paris Hilton event!”
I looked behind the guard and saw a mob of people gathered around something I couldn’t smell because the doors were shut.
Itagaki-san and his companions laughed and started to slowly walk off. That was my opportunity to tap one of his associates on the shoulder and ask “Itagaki?”
I was worried that I had pronounced it incorrectly. I hadn’t. “Itagaki? Yeah, Itagaki. Hey, Itagaki”
For some reason, I felt bad for bothering my hero during his busy day, but he turned right around and smiled. I handed my camera to one of his guys and told Itagaki, “You’re my number-one favorite developer. Number one.”
Itagaki cocked his eyebrows behind his sunglasses, and I could see his eyes displaying a look of surprise. “Number one?” he asked. “Really?”
After the picture was snapped, Itagaki-san told the man to take one more, but the guy with my camera looked at the preview and thought it was good enough.
I was full of thanks and watched him walk off. It may of had something to do with the thousands of videogames I had been looking at that day, but I swear that I saw “Quest Complete” appear before my eyes.
As I walked off, with no interest whatsoever in seeing Paris Hilton, I thought about what had happened at the door. It was terribly ironic. I understand that the guard simply didn’t know who he was, but still you’ve got to laugh at the facts: At the largest game convention of the year, we have one of the world’s top game developers trying to get in the door, and he’s stopped by Paris Hilton.
It’s just wrong when you think about it.
