A Good Man

   There are not enough good men in this world, and yesterday the world lost another one. While he may not have stopped a war or changed the world in some way, he was still a good man, and that at least counts for something. Satoru Iwata was that man. Nintendo has been thought of as being behind the times for quite awhile, but Iwata helped lead the company to get caught up, even if they weren't leading the charge like Sony is. Despite being the CEO of a company and overseeing many projects at Nintendo, he still found the time to make appearances at conventions and do interviews and videos for Nintendo fans.

    It's those videos that are why I'm writing this. I know of the CEOs of other game companies, but Iwata was different. Iwata made sure to put himself where the fans could see him. Everyone knew he was the CEO, but in the interviews and Nintendo Directs he made he seemed more like he was like the rest of us. He was humble and kind to everyone, even when heavily criticized by detractors.

    It was because of those videos that Iwata seemed less like a corporate man in a suit and more like a personal friend. I know it sounds silly, but it felt like his videos weren't aimed at everyone, it felt like they were aimed at me. I don't mean that like I thought he was speaking only to me, I mean that as in the videos felt personal, like he was speaking to a group of friends instead of an online audience. He made sure to be involved in many of them, and even though Reggie Fils-Amie could have done them due to being a native English speaker, Iwata insisted on doing the videos himself. He even added in a little humor now and then, especially if he, Reggie, and Miyamoto were in the same room together.

    Iwata had the customers and fans on his mind every time he held a meeting or published a video. Even if it was obvious he was just spewing out the usual corporate PR, he still did so in a way that made it seem like he had the fans in mind. Sure, not lowering the prices of digital games is a bit of an annoyance, but he believed in the value of those games being worth more than just money, and that's a sentiment I have to agree with. He firmly believed that video games should be entertaining and fun for everyone.

    Iwata made sure to remain in the spotlight at Nintendo, which only makes the news ever so harder to take in. The industry will not be the same without Iwata, and neither will Nintendo. Gamers around the world will always have Iwata in our hearts, just like he had ours in his. We understand, Iwata.