關於 select foreign key ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

รู้จัก EECi เมืองนวัตกรรมแห่งใหม่ของประเทศไทย / โดย ลงทุนแมน
สหรัฐอเมริกามี ซิลิคอนวัลเลย์ เป็นเมืองเทคโนโลยี
จีนมี เซินเจิ้น ที่เปลี่ยนตัวเองจากอาณาจักรก๊อบปี้ มาเป็นดินแดนนวัตกรรมล้ำสมัย

ทีนี้หลายคนคงถามแล้วเมืองไทย สถานที่นี้อยู่ที่ไหน? ...
Continue ReadingKnow EECi, Thailand's innovative city / by investman
USA has Silicon Valley as a tech city
China has Shenzhen that transforms itself from a photoby approach to a modern innovation land.

Many people may ask now. Where is Thailand?
We must have heard EEC or EC economic development area in the development of 3 provinces in the East, Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao.
Which is one of the Mega projects under Thailand policy 4.0

With a total infrastructure investment of 1.5 trillion baht.
To have both high speed trains, double rail trains, airport and harbor.
To connect travel conveniently and uplift the Thai industry compared to world class.

Which 1 in 3 provinces will exist. One area that is raised to be a city of innovation.
EECi or Eastern Economic Economic Corridor of Innovation is located in Wang Moon Valley, Rayong province.
Area up to 3,454 Rai

How much time does EECi have to be a Silicon Valley of Thailand?
Invest man will tell you about it.
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EECi aims Thailand to move forward to innovative new industries.
To add economic value to long term countries

When it's like this, it's impossible to guess that EECi must be a source of scientists and good engineers.
Let's combine research materials to top up new industries with advanced technologies.
By this innovative city, there are ′′ 6 target industry ′′ that serves differently.

1. Modern agriculture that will change old agriculture completely.
Because you know that Thailand has 6.8 million farming households.
But it's only 8 % income from the total GDP value of 1.68 trillion baht.

From such information, it means indirect meaning that Thai farmers will have less income than other industrial sector. When it's like this, it's a result. The new generation doesn't want to be farmers.

EECi has another mission to innovate modern agriculture research. Modern Farming
To solve this problem by making productivity more but using less people but more quality.

With infrastructure such as Plant Factory (Plant Factory)
It's a technology to help new generation farmers to produce effectiveness.
Because it's a planting system. Shut up or semi-shut system can control the environment
Such as lighting, temperatures and food elements are suitable for plant growth.

Phenomics Greenhouse Technology Farmhouse (Phenomenics Greenhouse) will have equipment to measure the physical characteristics of plants.
Growing in various conditions of how high and growth is.
Then, gather as a database to help select strong plant species.

2. biofuels and biological chemicals
When the produce is much, it has to be sold more expensively.
This area will also serve advanced technology to privatize agricultural produce to increase in value.
One of them is Biorefinery. Biorefinery. A prototype to privatize agricultural produce.
Go to high value products

Which is Dr. Jane Kritthaya, Director EECi from National Science and Technology Development Office of the National Science and Technology Development Office (NCO) ) As the EECi regulatory agency says, ′′ EECi will help make more value for raw materials in the country to go to the world market. From the same time that Thailand sells ′′ tons of rice ′′ can be sold from rice to ′′ gram ′′ at the same time. More value added than ′′

By this prototype biological refinery starts from design, experimenting, agricultural produce.
Comes to the fermentation process, then separates the produce into 2 parts.

It's Non-GMP to produce fuel and biological materials.
And GMP will produce food, cosmetics and supplements.

3. high performance battery and modern transportation
Many people may not know that our country is the world's number 11 big car manufacturer.
But today. Car technology runs further than we think.

The trend of the world will surely occur, is that the combustion engine will gradually go extinct.
And will be replaced by BEV Car

And if we don't want to lose a huge income that will happen in the future.
It has to be Thailand as part of the manufacturing base of electric cars and future cars.
By one of the key structures is ′′ high performance battery production

For that reason, EECi will be a space to mobilize engineers and specialists in public and private sector. Think of how to make Thailand a top largest battery production base of Asia to develop unmanned automotive technology.

4. Automation, Robotics and Smart Electronics
We may have heard often that technology will replace human labor.
To keep industrial costs cheaper and more quality products.

EECi is not overlooked by the creation of robotics and intelligent industrial mechanical machines so that they can support and test the prototype development process, manufacturing products for entrepreneurs.

Make the innovation center sustainable or sustainable Manufacturing Center (SMC) develops people with knowledge.

So far, production line samples so that both small and medium produce sector have experimented with semi-automatic and automatic production processes. Make it suitable for your business or not. To bring information before making a real investment in your business.

5. Aviation and Space
Many people may question whether our country can actually do this?
But the government sector is considered in Thailand
World top manufacturing base and automotive parts
We should also be able to develop future aircraft and aircraft parts too.

When it's like this, EECi will be a gathering of good engineers to develop the aviation industry.
Unmanned aircraft to satellite

6. Medical Devices
From the facts of Thailand, we produce rubber gloves and condoms to the top of the world.

But.. another angle is a weakness.
Each year we import high tech medical devices, 7-8 billion baht per year.

Which if Thailand is a Medical Hub in the eyes of the world.
It's necessary to decrease imports and turn to manufacturers of advanced medical devices, technology.
Which would make EECi have a team to innovate to produce various medical instruments in the area.

Also, in the EECI area, there will be a 3 GeV Energy Level sin Light Generator
Which produces a million times brighter than the daylight.

With this brightness is like a special microscope.
Where we can see all kinds of material molecules on Earth thoroughly.

Interesting is this beam is an important science infrastructure.
Continuing research and development in various industries.

When looking at EECi, the side round must say this could be another turning point of the country.

We're doing all the way to build a higher business and new industries.
To add value to the Thai economic system.

Because if we don't hurry up to do it today.. in the future, we may be a country left behind.
It's hard to run a world that is changing so fast.

In the past, Thai research results invented at laboratory level, there are still limited to developing manufacturing processes to forward to useful users. We have weaknesses that are not invested in infrastructure and mechanism to expand research. And another side can't take much advantage of foreign advanced technology. Because of lack of infrastructure and mechanism to support technology adaptation to Thai context.

In the future, EECi would be an important infrastructure and mechanism of the country to shut down the weaknesses in this matter..
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Follow up to invest manly at
Website - longtunman.com
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References
- www.eeci.or.th/th/home
- Fact Sheet EECi DocumentTranslated

[英文學習] 到底該如何閱讀英文？

Extensive, intensive, or narrow reading? What is skimming and scanning?

英語學習者經常被要求在課堂上以多種方式閱讀。有些學習者被要求開口朗誦，讀出每個單詞。有些學習者則默念於心以理解文本。但默讀時，學習者該略讀其要義還是掃讀關鍵細節？抑或專注於語言功能還是練習閱讀策略？

English learners are often asked to read in diverse ways in the classroom. Some are asked to read orally and sound out each word. Others are told to read silently for comprehension. However, when reading silently, should learners skim for essential meanings or scan for key details? Or should they focus on linguistic features and practice reading strategies?

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Oral Reading

在找到一種閱讀方法之前，讓我們來檢視一下不同的閱讀類型。朗誦需要老師或學生大聲地朗讀，並幫助學生掌握聲韻，幫助他們改進語調、腔調、重音與節奏。默讀則包含精讀、泛讀以及窄式閱讀。

Before we can address these questions and find a suitable reading approach, let’s examine what the different reading types are.

Oral reading involves the teacher or students reading aloud and helps students to develop prosody, improving their intonation, tone, stress, and rhythm. Silent reading consists of intensive, extensive, and narrow reading, amongst others.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Intensive Reading

精讀需要學習者在特定的學習目標與任務中進行精細的閱讀。這通常是課堂上的要求，學生須專注在文法及標示語等細節。同時學生還須辨別關鍵詞彙，並在老師的指導下仔細且反覆地閱讀文本。其目的在於建立語言知識以及對字面意涵、言外之意與修辭關係的理解。閱讀材料通常是少於５００字的文本，因為較長的文本可能導致閱讀時難以關注到所有細節。

Intensive reading refers to reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks. It is typically classroom-based, and students focus on features such as grammar and discourse markers. Students also identify key vocabulary, and text is read carefully and repeatedly with instructor input. The aim is to build language knowledge and understanding of literal meaning, implications, and rhetorical relationships. The materials used are usually shorter texts of 500 words or less at a time because it might be too difficult to focus on so many details with longer texts.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Narrow Reading

窄式閱讀可被視為一種特殊的精讀，它是基於「可理解輸入」此一概念，意即學生閱讀略高於自身語言能力的材料。如此一來，在老師的協助下，學生得以輕鬆地專注於新的語言特徵。在練習窄式閱讀時，教師通常會找同一作者或同一主題的文章。因此，關鍵詞彙與文法結構會重複出現，學生便有更多機會在稍異的文本中看到這些特徵。這是一種非常成功的方法，因為它可以增進學生對文本的理解。

Narrow reading can be classified as a specific type of intensive reading. It is based on the concept of comprehensible input, in which students read materials slightly above their current linguistic abilities. In this way, students can easily focus on new language features with the aid of their teacher. When practicing narrow reading, teachers can find texts by the same author or the same topic. Thus, key vocabulary and grammatical structures repeat themselves, and students get many opportunities to see these features in slightly different contexts. It is a highly successful method because the comprehension of the text is enhanced due to learner familiarity with the author and subject matter.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Extensive Reading, Scanning & Skimming

另一方面，泛讀需要學習者閱讀較長的文章，甚至閱讀整本小說以自娛並發展一般的閱讀技巧。泛讀經常是課外活動，因為老師可能會覺得這無法有效利用課堂時間，或者老師不希望課堂上太過安靜。

泛讀可能需要兩項技能：掃讀與略讀。我們可以掃讀關鍵細節或略讀要義。略讀與掃讀可使讀者大致掌握文本涵意。這並非意味著您在精讀時就不能略讀或掃讀，只是精讀通常專注在學習並理解語言特徵。當代的教育政策格外強調泛讀，因為我們期許學習者可以自主學習，並在課外進行閱讀。就其核心理念而言，泛讀鼓勵語言學習者讀其所愛！

On the other hand, extensive reading involves learners reading longer texts and even complete novels for enjoyment, and it aids learners in developing general reading skills. Extensive reading is usually done outside the classroom because teachers might feel it is not an effective use of class time, or are just uncomfortable with the extended silence.

Scanning and skimming are two skills commonly used in extensive reading. Readers can scan for key details or skim for essential meaning. Reading quickly with skimming and scanning can give readers a global or general understanding of the materials. This does not mean students cannot skim or scan when reading intensively, but typically, intensive reading focuses on learning and understanding linguistic features. Extensive reading is stressed in contemporary education policies, as learners are expected to be autonomous and read outside of class. At its core, extensive reading encourages language learners to read what they like!

★★★★★★★★★★★★

How should you read?

既然您已大致瞭解這幾種閱讀方式，您決定好要使用哪一種了嗎？答案是——您需要視情況而定！若您想進行泛讀，可閱讀更多有趣的新聞。若想精讀，您可以分析段落並與老師以及同學們回答問題。若想使用窄式閱讀，您可以找同一作者的同一主題文章，並專注在語言特徵。有些人甚至想以朗誦的方式來加強韻律或是重複閱讀來增加流暢度。

Now that you have a glimpse of different reading approaches, have you decided which you will use? The "answer" is that you need each for a different situation! You can practice extensive reading when reading for pleasure, or intensive reading when analyzing paragraphs with your teachers and peers. As for narrow reading, you can find articles by the same author on the same topic and focus on language features. Some might even want to practice oral reading to improve prosody or repeated reading to increase fluency.

訓練有素的老師可以傳授您各種不同的閱讀方法與策略，如此您便可自行練習。但即便您知道該怎麼做，您是否有足夠的決心與毅力？您該如何選擇閱讀材料並且積累閱讀策略呢？

A trained teacher can provide you with approaches and strategies for each situation so you can practice them on your own. However, even when you know how to read, do you have the determination and perseverance to read or do so much? How do you select the right materials, and how do you acquire reading strategies?

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Narrow Reading Course

如果您需要這些閱讀技巧與學習方法，也想練習窄式閱讀，那麼王梓沅老師的英文課程可以幫助到您。王梓沅老師將窄式閱讀拓展為窄式學習法，在不同的媒體上關注同一作者的同一主題資料。他的課程還使用「成長心態」與「恆毅力」學習法，傳授學習者如何開始並持之以恆，而後成為自己成功路上的最佳導師！

If you need these reading and learning strategies and want to practice narrow reading, Alexander Wang’s course is the one for you. Alex expands the narrow reading approach into narrow learning, focusing on effective language learning by using materials from the same author, the same theme, but different media. His class also guides students in developing a growth mindset with an emphasis on grit, teaching learners how they can start and sustain their learning.

The class aims to help learners become their own teachers on their English learning journey!

★★★★★★★★★★★★

Check out his class here:

限時折扣，最後倒數 >>> https://bit.ly/34DG64O

推薦該課程的所有收益將捐獻給慈善機構。在收到資金並完成捐贈後，我將會發表一個公告。

All proceeds from the referral of the class will be donated to charity. I will make an announcement when the funds are received and donated.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

References

Gardner, D. (2008). Vocabulary recycling in children's authentic reading materials: A corpus-based investigation of narrow reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(1), 92-122.

Krashen, S. (2004). The case for narrow reading. Language Magazine 3(5):17-19.

MacLeod, M. (2013). Types of Reading. Retrieved April 14, 2020.

★★★★★★★★★★★★

"橫尾先生你傾向於在你的遊戲中有個悲傷的結局（除了《尼爾 自動人形》），這是為什麼呢？

橫尾：我想啊，玩家在遊戲中的旅程中殺了那麼多的敵人，但自己卻迎來了一個Happy Ending，這很奇怪，所以我之前遊戲的主角都有著不幸的結局，我覺得對他們來說有個Happy Ending是不對的。

不過對《尼爾 自動人形》來說，對2B和9S來說，從被給予生命，他們殺了很多人，但也被自己殺了很多，很多次，有著無數次的輪迴。我認為這已經把他們殺死敵人的罪給贖了，幸福結局對他們兩個來說更合適一些。"

【尼爾：自動人形】是好遊戲，2B很可愛～

Talking To Yoko Taro, PlatinumGames' Takahisa Taura, And Composer Keiichi Okabe About Life, Death, And Opportunity

This interview with《Nier: Automata》director Yoko Taro and PlatinumGames' designer Takahisa Taura was first conducted in March of this year. Square Enix then offered gameinformer another chance to talk with Taro again, this time with Keiichi Okabe to speak more about the game's creation, music, and design philosophies and we are taking this opportunity to combine both until-now unpublished interviews together.

At the start of the first interview, Taro Yoko, whose pen name is appropriately Yoko Taro, was surprisingly quiet. He took a gulp from a bottle of Diet Pepsi and looked me straight in the eye to say something. I myself looked to the translator, who laughed at whatever Yoko said. She began "Yoko-san wants you to write about how expensive the food and drinks are here, if you can. He says it's way too much."

[The following interview contains some spoilers for Nier: Automata, including the game's final ending.]

With Nier: Automata, you guys won a Game Developer Conference award. How do you feel about that?

Yoko: We heard it was a user's choice award where the players themselves select the winners, so I'm just really happy that the players have selected our game for winning the award.

How did PlatinumGames and Yoko-san first meet on Nier? Why did you decide on that project versus something like another Drakengard or a new IP as a whole?

Taura: I loved the previous Nier title, I was actually went to Square Enix saying "Please let us create a Nier sequel, because you haven't done anything with it for a long time." At the same time, there was coincidentally Saito-san, the producer for Nier: Automata, talking with Yoko-san that they wanted to do something together. It just so happened that it was the right time, right place and we met for the first time when we started this project.

When you started working on the Automata, did you know what it was going to be? Did you have an idea in your head of what a Nier sequel would look like after the first game?

Yoko: Not at all, I had no ideas for a sequel in mind. When I first heard that we might do a collaboration with PlatinumGames, the image I had of them is that they only create Sci-Fi action games. When I thought of that, I thought of what part of the Nier storyline might fit in with that Sci-Fi action gaming sequence, I selected the themes for Automata because I felt it just fits in with the PlatinumGames style.

PlatinumGames has a reputation for fast, often-challenging action games, but Nier: Automata is a lot easier. Was that intentional to keep it closer to the first Nier or perhaps a consequence of trying to make PlatinumGames action more mainstream?

Taura: That's actually exactly the reason why. Saito-san from Square Enix told us when the project started that, since the original Nier has a lot of female fans and a lot of non-action gamer fans, to make the game as fun and accessible as possible to people who aren't accustomed to playing difficult action games. We always thought of making the game into something that's fun to play for newcomers to the action game field, but also to the more experienced players as well.

One of the usual tropes of PlatinumGames is that, as the game goes on, it tends to escalate more and more to an explosive finale. Nier: Automata kind of messes with that formula a little bit by Ending A being a little bit more subdued and low-key and then goes up again and again until it finishes with endings D and E. Is that something you had to work with Yoko-san about, where the escalation and pacing would best fit the gameplay?

Taura: In terms of like a climax or increasing the difficulty level toward the end, it's not that different from our other titles, or at least we didn't feel like it was that different. The one major difference was that this was the first game that I've at least worked that had the leveling up element in it. So as long as you level up your character, the boss would be easier to defeat, but if you don't, then some of the enemies toward the end of the game would be very difficult. For me, the balancing between the difficulty level of stages and bosses versus the levels the player might be was the difficult part in creating this game.

One thing that we really had it easy with in this game is that Yoko-san's scenario and Okabe-san's music, once it's mixed into the battle, makes a really menial and indifferent battle sequence suddenly becomes this dramatic and grandiose battle with everything at stake, so I felt like that really helped elevate our battle sequences as well. We did have an easy time thanks to that!

With Automata, you started appearing at press conferences and as part of the marketing of the game, whereas previously you never did that. When you appear in public, you have been wearing a mask of Emil from the first Nier title. Why Emil specifically?

Yoko: Hmm. One of the answers I can give is that, and I do have a little more that I want to elaborate on, is that for one Emil in the previous title is just a strong character on its own, so it's more like an iconic image or character for Nier as a series. Another part of the answer is that Emil actually holds a great secret of the part of the Nier world and it's not all revealed with the games I've created so far. I'm not sure if I'll have an opportunity to disclose that secret, but if I do, I might one day create a game that delves more into why it's Emil and why I continue to wear Emil's mask.

I don't know if either of you can speak to this, but the trailers for Nier: Automata were a little misleading. They showed A2, who you play as late in the game, but with short hair, so she looked like 2B. Was that something you decided, to show those scenes but not make it clear who it was?

Yoko: There were trailers like that?

There was one specifically showing A2 fighting Hegel like that.

Yoko: Ahh, yeah. There's no reason! We weren't trying to hide A2 or mislead anyone, it just happened to work out that way.

Taura: We made so many trailers at some point we kind of didn't care what we showed.

Oh, wow, that's going to shock a lot of fans in the Nier community. People really believed in the theory that you were hiding A2 in plain sight the marketing.

Yoko: Haha, but it might not be the correct answer. Like Taura-san said, we made so many trailers that we can't remember them all, so I'm definitely happy to take the credit without remembering why.

Taura: Yeah, let's say we intentionally did that. For the fans. It might be true.

Yoko: But I can say, in one of the trailers is A2 fighting one of the Engels, one of the big robots. She actually has long hair in the trailer, but in the actual game, it's after she cut her, so she would have had shorter hair. That one was actually intentional, because we did not reveal before the game that A2 would cut her hair, so we actually made a scene specifically with long-haired A2 to take that trailer. So that's that shot was kind of a lie.

In the Automata DLC, the CEO of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda, as well as PlatinumGames boss Kenichi Sato, are boss fights. Where did that idea come from and how did you get them to approve it? How did they react when you asked them?

Yoko: Haha, oh yeah.

Taura: The development team went to Square Enix and said "Please let us use him in our game!" Their reaction was initially saying "Uhm, are you sure you want to?"

We were thinking for a while of what we could do with the DLC, because we didn't have a lot of time to develop it, so we wanted to do something fun with it. When we were thinking about it, we saw that Final Fantasy XV used a character model of president Matsuda in one of their marketing assets. When Yoko-san saw that, he reached out and asked if maybe we could use that in the game at Platinum. We said that, if we get the character models, we could definitely use them for something in the game. We reached out to Square Enix and they gave us the model and we were able to use that character model for a boss fight.

If it was just that you were able to fight the CEO of Square Enix, then it would have just been the same as what Final Fantasy XV did, so we had to think of ways to spice that up even more. So we had PlatinumGames' CEO Sato-san appear in the fight as well. We also included background music that arranged their voices, we included their voices in the music, just to add a little bit more and beat out Final Fantasy XV. That BGM track is Matsuda-san and Sato-san's debut single. We didn't even get permission from them, so it's an unofficial debut single, and those are much rarer.

Speaking of crossovers, did you know that Nier fans have been trying get Katsuhiro Harada of Bandai Namco to put 2B in Tekken? Is that something you guys would want to do? [Note: This interview was conducted before 2B was announced as a Soulcalibur guest character.]

Yoko: For us, if we were asked, we would gladly say yes to anything for money. We're open to any kind of opportunities for anything, ever. Even if it's Candy Crush, if they want to use 2B, we will say yes, please go ahead and use her.

Actually, speaking of doing anything for money, you've never created a direct story sequel before, they've all been loosely tied together and many years apart. Saito-san has already said there will be another Nier game, if the characters are popular enough, would you create a direct sequel to Automata or would you change the characters and location again?

Yoko: I haven't thought about it once! Taura-san, where would you want to create a new game?

Taura: Actually, when I brought my concept document to Square Enix about a Nier sequel, I wanted to write a story about that prologue portion in the first Nier game. You know the beginning of the game, where you're kind of in Tokyo, in an area that's more modern? I kind of want to delve into that storyline a little bit more. So if I'm allowed to create a new Nier title, that's what I want to create. But that's just me speaking as a fan of the series, so I don't think that will actually happen officially.

Yoko: When I actually heard about that idea from Taura-san when we first started this project, I felt that it would be very difficult to make a modern recreation of Tokyo because it's the city that we constantly see every day. You just notice differences in the lies that we put in there, so I felt it would be very difficult to do to recreate a city that we know and see so much. But now that I know that PlatinumGames is such a good studio that they most likely will have that power and talent to be able to create that kind of video game world, I think that might be an option. Whether or not we'll do that is a different question, but it is a viable option.

One of the things you said before the release of Drakengard 3 was that you wanted to call it Drakengard 4 and just let people figure out what the theoretical Drakengard 3 was supposed to be. That's similar to what you did with Automata where the game takes place 10,000 years after Nier and people who played the first game were more confused than new players. Was that an intentional idea or something you've wanted to do for a while?

Yoko: It's not that I brought over that idea to Nier: Automata, the greatest reasoning why I did this is because I wanted players who haven't played the original title to enjoy Nier: Automata so you can enjoy the game without knowing anything about the previous game. That's the biggest reason why we took a storyline that's so far in the future that it really didn't have anything to do with the previous title.

A common through-line for Yoko-san's games is flowers: the lunar tear in the Nier series, the flower in Zero's eye in Drakengard 3, is that symbolizing anything in your games or is it just visual imagery you like?

Yoko: Well, I do like flowers in general, but yes, there is a greater meaning to it that I have with these flowers. It's the same as Emil like I talked about earlier, I just haven't revealed it anywhere. There is a meaning, which is why they keep on coming back in my games, but I haven't revealed it anywhere yet.

With the last Nier game, you had said that you built the game on the concept of people being okay with murdering people who are different. With Nier: Automata, the games actually became more fun to play and control and touch, do you think there's a danger in giving people that sense of ease in killing enemies in the narrative?

Yoko: In the previous title, I actually feel like I overdid that a bit. I did want to portray that enemies have a reason to live and a reason to fight on their own as well, but I feel like I forced that idea that I had in my mind a little bit too much on the players. So for Nier: Automata, I did not want to focus on it, I didn't want to impose my feelings and thoughts. I actually feel that it's fine if some people feel it's fun to kill in our games. If that's all that they feel from the game, then it's fine, because its their freedom to feel what they want from the game. To answer your question, I think that it's fine to have that happen.

Taura: I actually have the same answer, too. I feel like if it's fun to fight, that's great as a game designer. But if you feel bad to kill these cute little robots, that's fine with me as well. I feel like different people will have different reactions to the game and they will feel differently when they play the game, so I'm actually happy to create a game that creates those kind of differences within the players as well.

Yoko: That's a really good question for us, because if players felt that it was way too fun to kill these enemies that it started making them feel guilty, that's something we didn't really aim to do. Just as we mentioned earlier, I'm really happy that players were able to take it on their own and experience it on their own, then we didn't just provide something for people to take it as-is on face value. I feel like it's great that the players are now taking the game and experiencing it on their own and trying to figure things out on their own.

There was a time after 2B was revealed that people were asking you about her design on Twitter and you answered that you just like sexy ladies. That quote has become pretty famous and attached to you and a lot of people are reading into it. Is that a thing you still believe, would you ever take the quote back, or would you have ever changed 2B's design?

Yoko: [laughs] Don't straight men like cute girls? Isn't that common knowledge? I didn't realize that was a quote.

A lot of people use you as an example as a developer that just says what is on their mind.

Yoko: Before we released the game, on Twitter, because so many people were sending me 2B fan art, I said that "Send me a zip file of all your erotic fan art!" When I tweeted that out, my number of Twitter followers jump from 20,000 to 60,000 just with that one Tweet. I actually think it's because I did something that's more of a taboo in the western world where I talked about sexuality or gender that openly on Twitter, but that's actually...so, I do know that what I said did not just creative positive buzz and there's some negative buzz around it as well, but I feel like it kind of has to do with the Japanese culture where we're not too strict about gender and sexuality and being more open about talking about those things.

I think it's the same thing as reading manga as an adult, it's a little bit different when you think about it because in Japan that's more common, it's not considered something weird or something outlandish. With that kind of feedback that I get from fans, I just feel like it's the difference in culture between Japan and the rest of the world.

That is something you tend to tackle fairly often. Drakengard 3 was partly about sex and sexuality treated casually within the game's universe, is that something you feel doesn't translate across all regions?

Yoko: I actually don't think [translating across regions] has a lot to do with sexuality. I don't think it would have sold more copies of Drakengard 3 if I took away aspects of sexuality or added more in there. I feel that Nier: Automata sold well because we worked with PlatinumGames, so I don't think that has anything to do with a sexual nature.

For the original Nier, there was a lot of information on the periphery of the game like books with background information and short stories that answer questions raised in the game. Automata even had a stage play predating the game. Do you think it's harder for western fans to grasp the whole stories of these games when there's Japanese-exclusive media about it expanding the lore?

Yoko: Of course we can't localize everything because we have limitations in budget, so it's really difficult to do all of that, but I actually think there really isn't a need to know everything, either. The meaning I have behind Emil's mask or the flowers you asked about, like I said it's not revealed in the game at all or anywhere else yet, but no one really needs to know that to enjoy the game or enjoy the world or enjoy the game. More than gaining knowledge, I want players to cherish the experience they have when playing the game. It's more about that instead of the knowledge they could have for every question. Of course the theatrical stage play was more of like a YoRHa spinoff, but you don't need to know that to enjoy the game. Every piece, like the books and the stage play, is made in a way so that you can enjoy it by yourself, so you don't need that extra knowledge to enjoy it.

It may add a little bit depth to the knowledge that you have, but you don't necessarily need to have it. I do understand the otaku mentality that you want to know everything, you want to have everything answered, you want to collect everything, but I don't see the value in knowing everything. For example, just in real life, you might not know everything about the politics that surrounds the world or even in your own country, and there's really no point in knowing everything that happens in the world. Maybe a lot things, but not everything, right? What's more important is how you interact with people around you, immediately around you, and I think that's the same with video games. You don't really need to know everything that happens in the world to enjoy it.

Of course I do respect the freedom that the players feel as well, so if you do get mad that we can't localize everything in America, or America never gets everything, that's also something to be respected and I do understand the frustrations surrounding that as well.

When Nier: Automata released, it did so in a three-month timeframe that several other big Japanese games came out in the U.S., like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Yakuza 0. A lot of people started heralding those games as a return of Japanese development in the west. What do you think about going from fairly niche games to what some people consider the tip of the spear of modern Japanese development?

Yoko: First and foremost, just to speak about having so many good titles in that timeframe, my thought was "Are you people trying to kill me with this?!" In Japan, Horizon came out first, then it was Nier, then Zelda, and I think in the west, it was Horizon, Zelda, then Nier in North America. So we're literally sandwiched between those two with a two-week window in between each and they were all very similar to us in the futuristic setting. Especially for Zelda, it was one of the titles we copied in the first place, so I really felt like they were trying to kill us at the time.

Personally, not even thinking about Nier: Automata during that time frame, I was running around excited about all the fun-looking games coming as a gamer myself.

Hideki Kamiya [PlatinumGames] has once said that Nier: Automata saved Platinum. Is that something you agree with and how has the relationship been between PlatinumGames and Square Enix?

Yoko: Speaking from my perspective, of course Taura-san will likely know more about it internally at PlatinumGames...Kamiya-san, he's very laid back on Twitter, but when you actually really talk to him, he's a very serious person and very sincere. I guess Nier: Automata did generate sales for them, because I received a direct letter of gratitude from him saying "Thank you very much for creating a great game." I don't even know if we saved them or not in that sense, but just receiving that kind of message from was just very heartwarming and I was just really happy that I was able to provide such a game for them.

Taura: You could make the headline of your article "Yoko Taro Saved PlatinumGames" and that's definitely true.

Yoko: It's a very true headline.

Why do both of you think that Nier: Automata was more successful than Yoko-san's previous games or most other PlatinumGames titles?

Taura: Mainly because PlatinumGames' sensibilities were much better than Yoko Taro's.

Yoko: I actually think it's the Square Enix brand, the name Square Enix gives a more reliable feeling to an otaku type of title. PlatinumGames' strong name being known for making really good action games and I think the combination of the two really helped. This time with Nier: Automata, we sold about 2.5 million copies and the previous title we sold around 500,000. For the last game, we weren't really in the red, but it wasn't exactly a success either. We have these passionate fans that really supported the time from announcement and the series as a whole. Of course for Automata, too, we had a very passionate fan base including the media and including yourself that gave impressions and articles that helped make the game into a success, so I'm just really grateful for the fans and media alike that really supported the title and were passionate about it.

[The remainder of this interview took place a few weeks later with Taro Yoko and Nier: Automata composer Keiichi Okabe. Okabe is also known for his work on both Nier titles, Drakengard 3, Tekken, and contributing some tracks to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Before we started recording, Yoko said it will be okay if I asked Okabe most of the questions and I remarked that I wouldn’t want to make him jealous. He paused for a moment and then said it doesn’t matter because he would get paid either way.]

You two have been working together for a long time, I was curious how much the music composition is tied in with the writing. One of the city themes in Nier: Automata uses similar composition to a track in Nier. Does that come from the writing or the musical identity of the series?

Okabe: Since Yoko-san is I feel the type of person that doesn't want to do the same thing over and over again, even if he did receive praise for what he did previously, I kept that in mind while I was composing music for Nier: Automata. I also wanted to have some kind of connection that you would feel as a player between the previous title and this one, so I used similar tones from previous titles or from the previous game. It might not be exactly the same, but I used some similar types of music lines from the previous title so that you might feel that kind of connection.

But we do have tracks that are arrangements of previous tracks from older titles, but that was mostly for fan service.

I kind of wanted to drill down a little bit this time and get to the core of your philosophy of why and how you make games. If you had to pick a reason to hold up and say "This is why I make video games," what would that be?

Yoko: I feel that video games, amongst all the different entertainment mediums, have the most freedom in what you can do as a creator. For example, in a film, if you are able to control movement, then that's no longer a film in my eyes. In video games, you could have film-like cutscenes and videos, you could have them going on forever as much as you would like as a creator. That kind of freedom to do that is what I really wanted to do and I feel like video games are what provide me that option, even if I never do it.

Is there any kind of message you use games for that you want to convey to your audience or anything you want them to hear from you? Or do you prefer to let them take whatever interpretation they get from your games?

Yoko: It's the latter. I would want our players to freely interpret what I've created just on their own, to grasp something for their own. I feel that's one of the interesting aspects of video games is that you are able to freely interpret what's being shown to you. I also feel like the players make the game whole by playing it. The action of playing the game I feel has meaning in itself and because of that I want the players to find something from the game, feel something from the game, for themselves.

Nier: Automata won a number of awards, Okabe-san you won best music at The Game Awards, Automata won the audience award at GDC. Is there any pressure to appeal a more mainstream audience with your next game?

Okabe: For a popular title that will be played by many, it doesn't really matter what kind of genre you put out musically. I will still be interested to compose music for those if possible. I would have to take a different approaches to those kind of mainline titles, whereas for Nier, I felt that the music can be more geared toward a core audience where only those who would understand the music would play it. But at the same time, once you understand, I want you to be deeply affected by it. That's what I aim for with Nier. If I am to work on a way more mainstream title next time, I will have to change that mindset I have as a composer, but that would be something I'd like to challenge myself more. To answer your question, yes, I'd like to try that, but I'd also do whatever kind of jobs I'm assigned to.

Yoko: For me, my games I actually think are really niche. How Nier: Automata was so successful was actually just a coincidence. To make a successful game is something that I can't really aim to do, so I think that I'll probably return to my small and dark corner, my niche corner, with my successive titles.

Who would you both consider your inspirations for writing and composing?

Okabe: For me, it's obviously more of a composer than a writer, but I don't really focus on one person. I tend to just try to get music here and there and have a wide net. I am greatly affected by people who I've listened to in my youth, like Japanese composer Ryuchi Sakamoto, Ennio Morricone who creates film music, and also pop music like Michael Jackson and Madonna. I am affected by those as well.

Yoko: I have received inspiration from a lot of things, but I think personally expressions in film or any like visual production is something I'm deeply affected by. For example, Neon Genesis Evangelion by Hideaki Anno, that was really a strong influence on me. Also, the drama series 24, the way that they incorporate speedy and complicated constructions of storylines was something that was very new at the time. Just throughout the timeline of visual production, I think there's a sudden burst of evolution, and I think that "that" moment in a title that does that just greatly affects me and becomes an inspiration for me. But I feel that can be said for the rest of the world.

Lately, anything that Christopher Nolan creates I think is very intriguing where he tries to include deep knowledge and thoughtfulness into what he creates. I'm very interested in this new wave of evolution.

Last year, with the release of Animal Crossing on mobile, you talked on social media about how it was your favorite game of the year because you created a narrative where the characters were all unwillingly imprisoned in the camp. Do you often create your own narratives for games?

Yoko: I do that for some games and I don't for others. Off and on, I guess. It's a lot easier to create my own storyline per se for a more primitive game. For example, in Zelda: Wind Waker, you start off with a grandma and your sister living on an island and it's really happy and joyful and there's really no reason for Link to get out of there and fight Ganondorf because you're already living happily. You don't need to get out of that happiness. As a gamer, I felt the kind of sadness to have to leave that happy island life.

In Dragon Quest [V], you have to choose who you want to wed, and I felt that I couldn't really get into liking either of the characters. I also couldn't find the point of having to decide who I want to marry, so I just at that instant I turned off the game and said "My journey ends here!" My mind narrated "The three of them went on the journey and lived happily ever after, the end." That was my ending for Dragon Quest V.

Around the release of Drakengard 3, you spoke about how it's not possible in this industry to make a six-minute game and sell it for $60, no matter how good those six minutes are. Is this something you still think?

Yoko: That analogy was given to explain that, no matter how much you try to make a game really good, there's a limit to what you can do. If you are to create a six-minute game, because you can't go through a lot of different stages, you would have to create one stage. Which means that you could really refine the quality of that one stage without having to put in a lot of money into it and a lot of manpower into it. Also, because it's only six minutes, you can't really have too many characters in it, so you could focus on one or two characters at max. By doing that, you could refine the quality of those two characters. But because you're time-limited, no matter how much you refine the quality of the world around you or the characters, if you're limited to six minutes there's just so much you could do that the game won't become good at all. That was an example for me to say that there's a limit to what you can do in video games.

Okabe-san, in the music for a lot of Yoko-san's game, you use constructed or uncommon languages, is there a specific reason for that?

Okabe: [laughs] Yeah, for one, because it is Nier: Automata, Replicant, and Gestalt, they all take place in a unique world, even though they're in the timeline of our current world, it's so much in the future that it should feel kind of foreign. That's one of the reasons why I went for language we can't understand, but another is that, in games in the past, game directors actually got mad at many occasions for including vocals into the soundtrack. They were saying that it would become too distracting from the gameplay and would distract the player. It was considered more of a taboo, so for Nier, I included vocals in there without a language you could understand more for the sound that you get from the words. It wasn't to convey any meaning of what was being said, but more for a sound impact.

Yoko-san, you tend to have very sad endings in your games, with the exception of Nier: Automata which is as happy an ending as you can get with most characters dying. Why do you tend to write toward more sad endings and do you feel like Automata's happy ending fit the game better?

Yoko: The reason why I created endings that end on a death is because, until now I was creating games where you would kill a lot of enemies, but I've always felt that it doesn't feel right when the protagonist has a happy after they've killed so many enemies during the course of their journey. That's why in Replicant and Gestalt, or my previous titles, the protagonist pretty much ended up dying because I didn't feel like it was right for them to have a happy ending. But for Nier: Automata, 2B and 9S, from the time that they were given life, they've been killing a lot of enemies, but they've also been killed by them many, many times, and regenerated many times. They've actually been killing each other, which you find out at the very end, many, many times as well. So I felt that kind of cleansed them of their sins for killing so many enemies, which made me feel that a happy ending was more fitting for those two.

Do you feel like that cycle of violence and death and the consequences of that are human nature?

Yoko: I think the reasons why we kill in video games do kind of shine light on what's kind of broken within humanity or humans in general. We want peace in the world, but we also enjoy killing others in video games, like shooting guns in video games. I think that's karma in a sense for humans, the way that video games grasp the true essence of humanity, whether or not that's what they were aiming to do.

Is there a series that you know, like Persona or Yakuza or anything like that, that either of you would want to work on?

Yoko: A series or anything?

It can be anything.

Yoko: Personally, it's not a Japanese title. I'd actually love to see how western titles are developed, because I have no insight into how they're made. There was a moment in time where I felt that it might be fun join a western development to see how things run. Of course there's the language barrier that would make it difficult for me to do that, but generally speaking I feel that western storytelling follows kind of a similar route for all the stories that western mediums create. I would feel it fascinating to find out why western games use certain flows and storyline arcs.

Okabe: I'm kind of a fanboy myself, so there is a part of me that wants to work on major titles like Dragon Quest. I feel that if I do work on those titles, the pressure of working such a known title would be just too big and because there is a part of me that really loves that series, I feel like I would try to skew my music in a way that would fit into that series instead of trying to create music that I think is good. I don't feel like I would be able to bring out the best quality in my music if I worked on those big titles, because of that pressure and because of the image I have of those titles in my mind. Currently, my want to work on those major titles and the part of me that's telling me I shouldn't do it are about equal.

Were either of you surprised by Nier: Automata's success?

Yoko: [in English] Oh yes.

Okabe: For me, I live in Tokyo and developer PlatinumGames live in Osaka, so we did have quite a distance in-between, like literal physical distance between us. From the moment that I created the music to when I was able to see it next, there was a big gap in time, so when I was able to my music in the game for the first time, the game was pretty close to finished, they were almost done with development. At that moment, I thought "Maybe this one might sell?" But at the same time, I didn't think it would become this big of a success, I always thought it might do better than the previous titles, but it was like a hunch that I didn't feel until this time in Yoko-san's titles. I did have some kind of a gut feeling that it might do well.

The last song of Automata, Weight of the World, had a chorus with the entire game's development staff at PlatinumGames and Square Enix singing along to encourage the player. Why did you decide on that for the final song of the game?

Okabe: I didn't remember this, I actually forgot about it for a while, but Yoko-san actually came to me telling me that he wanted a chorus at the end of the game pretty early on in the development process. I apparently made disgruntled face at him and did not remember why I even made that face or even that I made that face. After a while, I actually remember why I had such a reaction with the disgruntled face, because there's a couple of different types of choirs, but Yoko-san likes the more classical choir, so when he requested that he wanted a choir, I thought he wanted that classical type of choir at the last part of the game. At that moment, I thought "Well, that doesn't really fit in with the game plan, I don't really want to do that," which is why I had that expression on my face. After we talked about it, Yoko-san mentioned that wasn't really what he was going for, he said that because that last scene is all about all these different people helping you, he wanted everyone to sing, he wanted it to feel like everyone is singing there with you as you play.

When I thought about doing that, and I actually agreed that might be a good idea, because in Nier: Automata all the choir vocals that you hear in the game, it's actually recorded by a small group of singers, I just overlapped their voice so it sounds like a big choir. Because that last part of the game is more about you playing amongst a lot of people, I felt that taking that approach again of overlapping voices again would not really work. So I reached out to the dev teams because they were working on that part and I thought it would be a good idea to have them put themselves in the game as well. I also thought that they don't need to have a good voice, it's just to give that feeling that you're playing with all these developers.

Development teams from Square Enix, PlatinumGames, and also some composers from my company who didn't work on Nier: Automata are singing in it as well. There's also children of PlatinumGames developers and their family actually singing in it as well. That was the reasoning behind why we decided to do that at the end.

Has there ever been, in all your games you've made, an idea you had that you had to be talked out of?

Yoko: For the first Drakengard, I had an idea of [Japanese pop-star] Ayumi Hamasaki, like her character model, wearing all-silver spandex, like a giant version of her descending from the sky and you would fight against her by music. Everyone else on the staff shut it down. It does still leave that kind of music game essence kind of in there, but the part Ayumi Hamasaki comes out in silver spandex has been taken out.

Isn't that kind of similar to Drakengard 3's actual ending?

Yoko: Similar, but I actually wanted to go for something funny, or shockingly stupid. But no one would let me.

Source：
https://www.gameinformer.com/…/talking-to-yoko-taro-platinu…