A portion of a Popular Mechanics interview with Shigeru Miyamoto...

PM: When was it decided that he was a plumber?

SM: When we first created Donkey Kong, I kind of looked at him as your average, everyday foolish guy. The setting of that game was a construction site, so I kind of matched him with the setting of the game, and decided in that game that he was a carpenter. And then when we made the original Mario Bros. game, that was the first game that had pipes in it, and the enemies would come out of the pipes into this dark area and Mario would try to hit them and knock them out. Looking at the setting of that game, it had the feeling of an underground New York sewer system. And so with the pipes and the idea of it being an underground New York sewer system, I thought what kind of guy would be there working on the pipes? A plumber! So rather than saying Mario was a plumber, really it was a matter of what's his role in the game and what's the setting of the game and kind of occupation would put him in the setting to be doing what he's doing.

PM: This is a broad question, but where do you see the future of video games?

SM: I think originally video-game systems were viewed as a toy, and they were something you played with. Whereas now I think we're starting to see a blurring of the lines, where, obviously, the internal guts of a video-game system is essentially a computer, and we're gradually seeing video games moving beyond simply entertainment into other aspects of everyday life. And I think what video games benefit from is an intuitive interface that's easy to understand, where the controller is a little bit more familiar and easier to use than the interface of a typical computer. As time goes on, I think we're going to see how the system of the video-game console and this interactive interface is going to gradually bleed in to other elements of, say, home electronics and daily life. For example, in Japan the Wii itself has a TV guide channel that Wii owners can download to their Wii. And for a lot of people in Japan who own a Wii, that TV guide channel is a lot more convenient and easier to use than a typical TV guide service.

PM: The Wii uses a motion-sensing controller. Going forward, as Nintendo releases future consoles, do you view the motion-sensing controller as an integral part of the experience that's going to stay with Nintendo indefinitely?

SM: With both the Wii remote itself and Wii Motion Plus, what we've been able to do is introduce an interface that is both I think appealing and at the right price for a broad audience. And while we don't have any concrete plans for what we'll be doing with hardware in the future, what I can say is that, my guess is that because we found this interface to be so interesting, I think it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient.

PM: What's your dream type of game that takes advantage of the Wii-mote?

SM: Right now I'm focusing on creating the next Zelda game.