Time magazine has decided once again to include Shigeru Miyamoto in its list where the 100 Most Influential Person for 2008 will be picked. While the renowned video game designer has a fair chance of winning, Time is considering the adverse affects of games to kids. Know more after the jump!

Time magazine interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto, the video game designer who created the Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Nintendogs, and Pikmin series of video games.

And he said some interesting stuff that got us thinking...

Violence in video games. Miyamoto is one smart cookie:

The obvious objective of video games is to entertain people by surprising them with new experiences. Violence is one means of doing that, [though] I look to make people laugh or smile. But the more we have parents playing video games themselves, the more they will understand the interactive world and how to deal with games that have a tremendous amount of violence.

Did you hear that, oh ye lawmakers and anti-gaming lawyers? Video games - like all kinds of art - seek to create an experience. Violence is one way - not necessarily the best way - but it's still one relevant way because adults play video games too.

Miyamoto prefers to entertain us through storytelling, artistic craftsmanship, and humor instead of through gore and gratuitous violence. But even this gentle person is intelligent enough to understand that violence is always part of art.

[If only our lawmakers read Macbeth or A Tale of Two Cities. Heck. If only they learned how to read instead of just relying on the "summaries" that anti-gaming lobbyists send to them!]

Will Legend of Zelda ever be a movie? Miyamoto's answer is a bit disappointing:

I struggle with the Hollywood process.

But it's not all bad news! Miyamoto did say that making a Nintendo game into a movie is an idea that holds a lot of potential. And in the past, Miyamoto has often said that he admires the work of Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Howl's Moving Castle).

Who knows, maybe the creative drive will eventually force him to make a movie. We take it as a self-evident fact: Legend of Zelda has *great* Hollywood potential.

Other questions. Time magazine is a mainstream publication, so you can expect the rest of the questions to go over old stuff that you all know by now - how the Wii and DS are trying to change gaming culture, the old "casual gamer" versus "hardcore gamer" debate, and Nintendo's use (and re-use) of old franchises like Mario.

But, as always, if you want to check out the source of our news, just look for the Via or Read link below.

Also, those you may also want to check out Miyamoto's thoughts on retirement and his ideas about the next Legend of Zelda game.

Nintendo's pride and glory, Shigeru Miyamoto, was nominated more than a week ago by the people behind TIME Magazine to be one of the Most Influential People of the Year in The TIME 100. After an introductory write up by Quake's own Johnathan Wendel, a.k.a. Fatal1ty, the man behind the phenomenal Mario and Donkey Kong is now pegged at the 92nd spot of the Top 100 list.

Now we do know that the spot isn't as impressive as PC World's placing of Blizzard's Mike Morhaime in the recent Top 50 Most Influential People on the Web, but seeing as he went up against the likes of Paris Hilton and titans from other industries other than the video game, we say 92 is definitely a big slice of the pie. In fact, bagging the 100th spot at the Top 100 list of TIME is already way too good to pass up.

In other news (or just FYI), top spot was filled by philanthropist and Hollywood hottie Angelina Jolie, honored for her major influence on the needy. But top on the readers' lists is Korean pop sensation Rain, with (surprise!) American Idol's Sanjaya Malakar on third place. According to all you gaming readers out there, Shigeru Miyamoto is number nine in your book.

Photo courtesy of Makoto Ishida for TIME Magazine.

Included in the 200 candidates for Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the Year" is one of gaming's very own icons, Shigeru Miyamoto. His page in their poll for the list describes him as such:

AGE: 54
OCCUPATION: Game Designer for Nintendo game systems
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: Most successful game designer, creator of Super Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda, whose new platform, the Wii, is currently the top-selling game console.

CON: His perfectionist tendencies often result in games being significantly delayed and, despite the Wii's gameplay innovation, its graphics are far behind the competition.

Console preferences aside, if you're a gamer, you'll definitely agree that it's time that this guy gets recognized by Time. Sure we could all name a whole other game designers that have made games that rival his, and we all have our personal favorites but we can all agree that this guy has something iconic about him.

Given his influence, and the inspiration he's given to the gaming industry and to gamers in general, we here at QJ really wish that that "Number of Time Covers", and that "Previous Appearances on the Time 100" figure be more than zero. We feel that he deserves the inclusion.

It may look like the antithesis of what a Video game of the Year recipient should be. The graphics, as Time Magazine describes it, looks like Colecovision, and yet Wii Sports bagged the title.

Yep, that's right. Time Magazine has awarded the top Video Game award of 2006 to Nintendo's Wii Sports for the Wii. According to Time, what's so good about this mini-sports anthology is that it does bring you right into the game, making it more fun. The power of the motion-sensing Wiimote makes it all the more enticing.

And it ain't so hard to imagine why. After all, the game does bring sports fun right in your own living room. Well, it does look like Nintendo's innovative marketing strategy did work after all. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that you don't have to pay a cent for the game as well, since it comes free with the console.

Gears of War for the Xbox 360 comes in at second place, while the New Super Mario Bros. checks in at third. To find out the rest of the top 10 winners, head on over to their site by clicking on the Read link below. See if any of your bets made it.

In the whole history of gaming, we've come across a whole plethora of characters and video game icons. From loyal sidekicks to evil lords, item shop vendors to sky pirates, talking flowers to gun-wielding femme fatales; the range of all these characters great and small have an impact on our game, and essentially, even our lives.

Starting from his first work on Donkey Kong and down the road through Super Marios Bros. and The Legend of Zelda among others, Shigeru Miyamoto was just named as one of Asia's heroes in the recent "TIME" magazine 60 Years of Asian Heroes issue. He hasn't just created a whole cast of lovable and memorable characters, but in fact, infected the whole world with his gaming philosophy.

Miyamoto's body of work is remarkable because he has always remained focused on what actually matters in a game: the player's experience. Other designers may obsess about testing the limits of the hardware; Miyamoto specializes in testing the limits of imagination. His insistence upon simplicity and his appeal to our inner child recognize that play is an important part of being human.

While the industry is continuously expanding, Miyamoto tries to break barriers by changing the rules. Also called the Walt Disney of the video gaming arena, he's pushed the envelope of creativity being the Director and General Manager of Nintendo EAD. From the touchpad of the NDS and the Wiimote of the Wii, he's revolutionized our concept of gaming and took risks with unconventional interaction.

Now, he might be Asia's hero. But is he also yours as well? As much as the Zelda and Mario games are all revered by most Nintendo (and non-Nintendo) fans, Miyamoto could be considered everyone's hero, whether you're an Italian plumber in suspenders or a perpetually kidnapped princess.

Oops! Looks like Nintendo's little gaming console is about to do it again! The DS is already hailed as the powerhouse behind the sales surge in the U.S. video game industry this year. DS sales elsewhere isn't bad either. In fact, the company's global shipment forecast for the DS is about 20 million units by the end of the financial year.

And now the DS has been chosen by reviewer Wilson Rothman as one of the eight finalists for Time Magazine's annual list of outstanding gizmos for 2006. Rothman describes the DS as:

This handheld game platform has two screens (including a PDA-like touchscreen) plus built-in microphone and wireless connectivity with a stylus. Nintendo wants to lure non-gamers, so a new series of games is geared towards older folks, dubbed Touch Generations including math-and-reading games, plus addicting sudoku and crossword puzzles.

The DS, the only gaming console that made the cut, is up against some toughies in the gizmo world including:

• Logitech VX Revolution PC mouse
• Sanyo HD1 Digital Media Camera
• Apple MacBook Pro
• Logitech Wireless DJ Music System
• Nike + iPod Sport Kit
• Garmin StreetPilot c550
• Palm Treo 700w

The Gadget of the Year will be chosen by the magazine's the readers via on-line voting. Question is, will DS fans around the world put down their consoles long enough to vote?