RIP Satoru Iwata

Please understand, this is a sad day for fans of video games. Nintendo has announced that its president, Satoru Iwata, died of a bile duct growth on July 12, 2015. He was 55 years old.

Iwata had a hand in over a hundred beloved Nintendo titles from the NES era to the present, including Balloon Fight, EarthBound, Pokémon Gold & Silver, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He stated at the Game Developers' Conference in 2005, in a quote that is already making the rounds: "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." Many attributed his keen business acumen to his firsthand experience with programming and development, something evidently in short supply among CEOs. 

Iwata was also a paragon of executive integrity, taking significant pay cuts as penance for the botched launches of the 3DS and Wii U. He was set to take another one to help Nintendo compete in the mobile arena. Good luck finding an American CEO who would do such a thing.

Gamers regularly got their dose of Iwata through his "Iwata Asks" and Nintendo Direct video segments. In these videos, Iwata remained ever the consummate businessman, but he was also self-effacing, whimsical, wacky, bright, cheery, and believed wholeheartedly in every game, console, and feature he was selling. The world of video games suffers in the absence of his ebullient personality. One can only hope Nintendo will appoint a successor capable of carrying on his spirit of creativity and wonder.

RIP Leonard Nimoy

I learned it on the way home, stuck in traffic, because of the snow. Leonard Nimoy, actor and balladeer of Middle-Earth, died this morning of end-stage COPD at the age of 83. This one's a real bummer for me.

I started getting into Star Trek when I was about 10, partially because of the show being on in syndication on KTXA-21 after school but mostly thanks to the Pocket Books trade paperbacks and the two point-and-click adventure games released for MS-DOS, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Star Trek: Judgment Rites. The latter game especially rests securely among my top five video games of all time, and the way in which it favored logical, diplomatic solutions over volatile emotion and brute force influences the way I attempt to resolve relationship conflicts in my own life to this day.

At the middle of that calm, cool, collected logic is Spock, the logical yin to Kirk and McCoy's brash yang. He was always the most fascinating (to use his word—it is, I think, a word that somehow "belongs" to him) character of the original series to me and my way of thinking, and he actually was as smart as I thought I was. I'm not sure if the picture I used above is a goof or if it's a part of an actual episode, but it fills me with joy, just like Nimoy did any time Spock brought his even keel to a tense situation. I like to think of myself as a laid-back person, but I can easily show an explosive temper, and although Spock definitely has more control of himself than I do, I still found his struggles relatable.

It's looking increasingly like I'm going to be stuck at home tomorrow on account of inclement weather. I still own one of the old Pocket Books novels—number 50, Doctor's Orders, by Diane Duane. It's not primarily about Spock, but something tells me I'll be paying the most attention to his parts.

Because it's semi-relevant, here's the trailer for Judgment Rites. I think I might have to play that again too. It's a 10/10 game if ever there was one.

He was, and always will be, our friend. I'm going to miss him.

RIP Harris Wittels

Harris Wittels, comedian and executive producer/writer for Parks and Recreation, died on February 19 of a drug overdose. He was only 30.

Wittels is credited with coining the term humblebrag, in which the braggart downplays an awesome experience, achievement, or aspect of their life by couching it in ostentatious modesty. He also ran a podcast called Analyze Phish, in which he, a devoted phan, and sometimes also a guest tried to convert neophyte Scott Aukerman (of Comedy Bang! Bang!) to phandom.

Wittels spoke of his struggles with drug abuse with great candor on Pete Holmes's You Made It Weird podcast back in November. Sadly, it seems he never received the relief or succor he so desperately needed and wanted. If you struggle with the same issues, do not hesitate to seek help.

Pertinent to the topic at hand: