See that desk right there? That’s where I spent my last two and a half years with Nintendo of America. That picture shows it on my very last day, after I’d already packed it up and was headed out the door, so that’s probably the cleanest that desk has been since it was empty.
I found myself feeling nostalgic about my job there yesterday – something I wouldn’t have expected for at least another few weeks. The feelings were triggered by a conversation I was having with some old co-workers at lunch. When the conversation invariably turned to matters of Nintendo, I found myself referring to the place as “we” and “our”, and forcibly corrected to say “them” and “theirs”.
This didn’t come as a surprise. I know that it will probably take months – if not years – for me to stop referring to Nintendo in the first person. What surprised me is how much that moment made me miss my job and my former co-workers. The job itself was pretty standard corporate fare, except that I was working with indie developers on a day-to-day basis which I really enjoyed. Working for Nintendo is really no different than working for any other large corporation, with one major exception: The people.
Most of the people I worked with were geeks, just like me, even (and maybe especially) my boss. That’s what made the job unique, was that I actually had something in common with the people there, which I know I wouldn’t if I worked at any other random corporation. I could talk to my co-workers about comic books or board games or sci-fi, and man could we talk about video games. I spent every day surrounded by people with whom I have now developed (hopefully) lasting friendships because we had so much in common, rather than just a conglomeration of random people with whom I had nothing to talk about.
I might be able to replace the day to day duties with creative projects, and I might not miss my specific job (or what it was morphing into), but damn I’m going to miss the people there. Bye, Nintendo.
