@deathly_hallows Yeah, he seemed to treat everyone pretty much as equals, almost as if he was one step away from ditching the traditional honorifics altogether. The Iwata Asks features alone seem to be a pretty drastic departure from Japanese corporate tradition, with the CEO not only wanting to know about his employees' work in detail, but actually sitting down with them himself to find out and then sharing the result with the world. On top of that we have the Directs, with him speaking 'directly' to the fans. I hope these changes in attitude will live on, not just in Nintendo but in general.
This is like, my personal philosophy right here....
"You demonstrated this through your belief that people could eventually come to understand one another, and your strong conviction that the best way for us to grow is through patient communication, even if it took several times, a dozen times or even seemingly endless discussion."
Really amazed and impressed to hear that said about a man I already admired.
I was reminded earlier about how when my friends and I used to play Halo Reach there was a spot on the map with a water tank. When you play with a group in Halo you begin to use callouts and shorthand to indicate enemy positions, objectives, etc. For whatever reason we began to refer to that spot as Iwata tank. This led to many jokes like people saying enemies are coming 'directly' there or that they dropped rockets there and asking the group to 'Please understand'. It also brought about a long line of Nintendo related callouts like Hammer bro for an enemy with the gravity hammer or calling a specific team jump the Mario jump.
Not only was Iwata a great leader for Nintendo he was a great personality for them to have present their message. I didn't always agree with the direction he took but he was always a joy to watch present Nintendo's next big thing.
@Stephen There was a point where I felt that Iwata's stilted English was getting in the way of the marketing side of those Nintendo Directs. So I do think it was good to have Bill Trinen or whoever do the bulk of them. But even from that point of view, I think we lost something when Iwata's genial personality wasn't so heavily in the mix.
I had just heard about this the other day, it was pretty surprising. I know that he's missed some events over the past year due to "health issues," but I don't think anyone ever said what he had. I certainly don't recall anyone saying he had a kind of cancer. Plus it also seemed like he was doing better. I guess we won't be getting the full story on this one...
I didn't always agree with his decisions, but overall he was definitely good for Nintendo, and looking at his lists of accomplishments that have been popping up further confirms it. This isn't just a mournful loss for the people of Nintendo, but for Nintendo as a company as well. This may be tough to recover from, I hope they can pull it off.
@Mop it up When he underwent surgery the first time I believe they mentioned removing 'a growth', and that they had caught it at an early stage, basically implying that it was cancer, but I'm not sure if they ever used that particular word to describe it. After that I was under the impression that he was slowly recovering, so hearing about his death was a shock to me.
He was a man of virtue. Where a normal person would get annoyed or angry, he would never show such emotions and would instead analyze, organize, and offer ideas. He was someone who could bow his head and apologize for things that weren’t his fault. I often worried about his stress levels, but he always talked with a smile.
He had a brilliant mind. Even when people would talk at length or without focus he was able to quickly say, “so, what you’re trying to say is...” and quickly summarize their point. He was able to see to the heart of people and things and was a master of simplifying them so that anyone could understand their point. He could immediately make a call on changes to improve. I have no doubt that many people were saved by this quality.
He was a man of effort. Even though he didn’t start out in the managing field, he read numerous management books, he would ask for advice from the necessary people that he would take to heart, and managed to become the president of Nintendo. What he gained from his years as a programmer allowed him to take many long-term projects to successful fruition.
He was open and generous. Things like his Iwata Asks, and Nintendo Direct weren’t things that necessarily required the president of Nintendo to stand at the front and do. There was always the risk of frivolous criticism. And yet, by being the spokesperson, I believe he showed the importance of properly conveying a message to his audience.
He was empathetic. After he became the president of Nintendo, he would write emails to all employees to communicate and as hard as it was, took a stance to try to treat everyone as equals. He would often ask third parties to see how people were doing. As an individual, he had no self-righteous qualities.
That's really sad that even one of his very close friends was under the impression he was on the road to recovery :(
Very interesting, I wasn't fully aware of that dynamic in their relationship. I didn't know Iwata hired him (?).
Also very sad to hear that he's considering his future with Nintendo. It really sounds like Iwata was like the only thing keeping him there. It's not every day you hear a developer say stuff like that.
I've yet to see some of the dedications to Iwata even though I've heard some are very good, like GameSpot's and Kyle Bosmon? I'll watch them sometime soon.
Also very sad to hear that he's considering his future with Nintendo. It really sounds like Iwata was like the only thing keeping him there. It's not every day you hear a developer say stuff like that.
Yea I didn't think this thread was the right place to discuss that part of the story, but it is concerning for sure.
