| Age of the Empire: Gamers "Needs Food Badly" |
September 14th, 2008 |
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Gamers organize a food drive for the hungry and supports the Star Light Foundation.
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Nintendo Power get's ready to Party
It has been 20 years in the making since the first issue of Nintendo Power was printed. Since then Nintendo Power has been the official source of gaming news and information relating to all Nintendo games across all of Nintendo’s most memorable consoles, handhelds and even arcades. Boasting subscriptions of millions of magazines printed and read throughout its 20 years, Nintendo Power decides to celebrate its 20th anniversary with the first 400 gamers across the Nation that were able to line up in front of the Nintendo World Store.
Families of gamers traveled from other states to be the first 400 in line to celebrate with Nintendo Power. To enter the party the first 400 gamers in line brought a copy of their favorite Nintendo Power magazines as an entry fee. It was pretty unique and cool to see some of the oldest gaming magazines still in good and readable condition. Each of the covers displayed some of the most historical founding gaming characters of the last 25 years. Nintendo gamers came out showing the staple characters in style to fit the theme of the party. |
Nintendo World Celebrates 20 Years of Nintendo Power! |
From Mario to Sonic, Link to Samus many Nintendo gamers showed there love for Nintendo by remaining loyal subscribers for over 20 years, and Nintendo paid that loyalty back by having the Nintendo Power Editor staff at the party to autograph everyone’s magazine. |
Valkyrie Zero worked hard to look this good for Nintendo World Cosplay contest. |
The Art of Nintendo
The public Nintendo Power party was not just about the magazine as Nintendo World hosted a cosplay contest. Gamers came artfully dressed as their favorite video game character. The top 10 of the 60 plus contestants were judge by some of Disney’s stars like Kyle Massey from “Cory in the House”. TriForce and Valkyrie Zero made the top 10 but were ultimately beaten by Captain Falcon from F-Zero. The costumes that the gamers made were better than expected as some of the best cosplayer’s attend anime conventions. For what its worth, some of the gamers simply became innovative and used virtually any material they could to put together their best rendition of their favorite Nintendo character.
Nintendo however had their official mascots on hand and if anything, Nintendo has stepped their game up when it comes to the look of the costumes that they have. Mario, Luigi, Link and Pickachu all looked convincingly much like the actual video game character counter parts. They took pictures with the gamers and Disney stars at the party. They even went outside of the party to greet the hundreds of gamers that were wrapped around the Rockefeller Center block. |
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Nintendo does more than just makes games
Nintendo has worked with the community throughout its years to do what they can do help people. Once again Nintendo took it another step in a positive direction to represent gamers and their company. They too held a charity event over the weekend by hosting a silent charity auction for the StarLight StarBright Children’s Foundation. Both media and special guest were invited to the VIP party for the Nintendo Power 20th anniversary. Attendees witness the presentation of mobile Wii gaming centers to be used to by patients in New York City hospitals. TriForce who was one of the few celebrity gamers to attend the VIP party witness two other celebrity gamers, Fragdoll Psyche and Fragdoll Valkyrie give a special guest speech for the StarLight Children’s Foundation.
Nintendo looks to distribute these Fun Centers with Wii Consoles to Hospitals Nationwide. “Nintendo of America is manufacturing 1,250 new Fun Centers in their first run, and Starlight expects to have about 500 of them placed in hospitals this year. In a continuation of the organizations’ 16-year partnership, the portable Fun Centers with |
Nintendo Partners with Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation.
Brings Fun Centers with Wii Consoles to Hospitals Nationwide. |
the new Wii technology will be enjoyed by thousands of hospitalized kids.” – From official press release. (Read full press release).
The Industry working with Professional Gamers
Little by little the developing bridge between the video game industry and the gamers in the community are starting to connect. Gamers are growing up and a lot of them are finding alternative gaming professions outside the gaming industry such as Tournament Directors, Gaming League owners, Online Community Directors, Professional Gamers and more. Both the industry and community for gaming is becoming more literate to each other languages. Special interest groups who speak the language of both the gamers and the industry are translating each others needs and want directly and clearly.
It will be a while before all the kinks are ironed out, however significant progress has been made with in recent years. One example of this emerging network between the industry and gamers are the endorsement deals between a high profile gamer and a video game company product. This was most notably recognized when Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel worked with several companies ranging from technology to media to promote their products and or services. The Fragdolls are another example as they help to promote the release of Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
These endorsement deals at one time were exclusive to PC companies but are now being duplicated for console gaming. It’s only a matter of time before 3rd party peripheral companies look for console gaming champions to promote fighting game sticks, head phones, wireless controllers, cases and more; refreshing a new market style for the console industry. Anyway you look at it, this is a great development for the gaming community and industry as new opportunities for both factions will benefit their society at large. We at Empire Arcadia look forward to this time.
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