'If It Isn't Fun, It Goes'

"Typically, this truth - a perpetual frustration among gaming journalists and historians - surprises the casual video-game player. Perhaps, as I once did, you imagine that the latest Mario and Zelda games are being concocted in a Wonka-esque factory tucked cozily between Kyoto alleyways. That foreign travelers can take a guided tour of the video-game factory, one that, not unlike an American microbrewery, ends with a tasting menu of gaming delights."

"In reality, Nintendo's Japanese HQ is a bland office building that nonemployees rarely enter and few details find their way out. Keza MacDonald is one of the tiny number of English-speaking journalists to step inside. She reports seeing little to no signs of magic - just glass, white walls, and the occasional dash of intellectual property, like Mario's mushroom power-up, to reassure guests that, yes, they are in the right place."

"MacDonald is the author of Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play and the senior games editor at The Guardian, making her (as best I can tell) the only editor at a major newspaper covering the medium as their sole beat. Wielding that status and two decades of experience, she's the rare reporter to have spoken with many leaders of Nintendo's design team, often multiple times."

Nintendo maintains strict secrecy and presents a modest physical presence: a bland Japanese headquarters with limited public access and few outward details. Keza MacDonald, a senior games editor at The Guardian with extensive reporting experience, has entered that space and observed minimal outward spectacle beyond branded touches like Mario’s mushroom. MacDonald has interviewed many of Nintendo’s designers, producers, artists, and corporate leaders, documenting pivotal creative decisions such as combining handheld and console operations and the early inspiration for character-battle concepts predating modern multiplayer phenomena.

Read at Vulture