The Hanafuda Card Maker

It all started with a card.

The deck consisted of 12 suits, each a month, each a flower. There were no numbers, no kings or jokers, simply nature bearing witness to time.

And time passed.

The solitary Hanafuda card maker suddenly found himself with followers and apprentices and the cards piled and piled until he was no longer able to recognize his own workshop. It had become something else,something bigger. The Hanafuda cards became an entity with a consciousness of its own.

~*~

It is difficult to imagine that a corporation as widely known as Nintendo began as a card maker. They grew to a massive scale very quickly and, in the eighties, became a household name.

It seems however that Nintendo’s recent success is limited to the company itself. Goichi Suda, director of Killer 7 and the upcoming No More Heroes lamented the reality of the Wii’s demographic, consisting of mostly of ‘non-gamers’.

More than any other console, the Wii gives one the impression of being a toy and perhaps reminds more than a few ‘hardcore’ gamers that their favorite hobby is exactly that; a game. Recently a web cam confession gracefully referred to as “World’s most f***ed Nintendo fan’ has caused a stir, not, I feel, because it was so outrageous but because it was so likely. Even if it was indeed, a comical act, it struck a chord. The generation that grew up with Nintendo, is now feeling left out and Super Smash Brawl, to some, is a last attempt to rekindle what they once had.

Nintendo’s change of focus, however, may not be a bad thing.

JC Barnett’s recent article in Gamasutra, refers to that:

“The Wii’s audience is vastly different from the other consoles’ and previous generations, that much should be obvious by now. The undisputed major titles are Wii Sports and Wii Fit, aimed squarely at, what we mistakenly and slightly patronizingly call “non-gamers”.

I guess the term should be “previously non-gamers” or “differently interested gamers” but ideally the real terminologies should be “gamers”, people who enjoy games of any shape and size, and “hardcore gamers” those of us who spend too much money on games, own more than one console and have vastly inflated opinions and feelings of entitlement when it comes to our favourite titles.

Just because the new main target market is less interested in killing generic alien invaders or level grinding doesn’t mean they are “non-gamers”, if you ask me.”

It is a pity to see Goichi Suda disappointed with the sales number of No More Heroes, but then again, Killer 7 is a cult game and there are allot of people out there who have never heard of him or his game and own a Wii.

Or maybe it is just a fluke, maybe the Hanafuda card maker will suddenly be inundated with games that are creative and original (like the ones seen on the Nintendo Ds) and we will all be blown away. Maybe we will look back at the Wii and remember it as the console that finally brought down the barrier between gamers and non-gamers, hardcore and casual and made the world of interactive media consumers a better place.

Mission Statement

“The ‘Net’ is a waste of time, and that’s exactly what’s right about it.” - William Gibson

It is generally agreed upon that the internet is overpopulated with individuality. At first the self-absorbed parade was limited to the digital diaries and personal news outlets known as blogs, but unlike fishnet stockings and shoulder pads, the fad of blogging never disappeared. In fact, it morphed, becoming so large and varied one cannot go a day without stumbling into someone’s picture of their pet who omg happens to look exactly like Hitler rofl!! and what their favorite band is.

To share oneself with the rest of the world has become more than a form of advertising or a search for validation; it has become a worldwide necessity. We abandon the feelings of impotency that surround modern culture by offering our own insight into whatever subject we encounter. Disliked a movie? Write a bad review on Imdb. Disheartened with the state of world politics? Post on the Cnn community forums. Was dumped by your boyfriend? Expose him on his myspace page. The internet has allowed us to be vocal, for better or for worse.

So why create another blog?
 

The Interactive Quill is an intellectual experiment (and yes, I am well aware that using the word intellectual in an article automatically makes it sound pompous in the worst college term paper sort of way, but the same could be said for semi-colons and spellchecker.) . Its objective is to discuss video games and its surrounding culture in a new way and hopefully offer some new point of view. In practice it is not all that different from other blogs out there, it will have reviews, semi-personal statements and whimsical adventures, but only time will tell whether the experiment will work or not.

And who is behind the curtain?

Currently, there is only one person pulling the strings, though I am hoping to add more in the future. To learn more about me and the story behind the Interactive Quill, check the About section.