Camp Hyrule, an online virtual camp held by Nintendo every year, is under full swing. Every year, Nintendo invites people to take questions from the campers. We had featured here at QJ transcripts of the chat with the Nintendo Senior Online Producer, Senior Vice President of Operations for Digipen, George Harrison, and the NOA Localization Staff. Now, we continue our Camp Hyrule updates with an interview with the NP Krew aka the talented (but not as talented as moi) writers of Nintendo Power Magazine.

For those overseas, Nintendo Power is the official magazine of Nintendo. Although there are a lot of responders again, it's a bit more organized than the Treehouse interview. They were a bit slower so not as much got asked, unlike that crazy George Harrison review in which Harrison used his Jedi PR abilities...

Click "Full Story" for the transcript. Please excuse gramattical errors as well as typos. It is a live chat.

I think Nintendo, with the Wii console, is going to be right back up in the thick of it. It's quite interesting that they've decided not to go head-to-head with Microsoft and Sony, with the high quality interactive cinematic action adventure games; they've gone for gameplay over graphics instead. I think that's quite an interesting move and it could be very successful for them." Ian Livingstone

Just who is Ian and why is he important enough to be quoted? Ian Livingstone founded Games Workshop and distributed Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games, he's also written quite a lot of successful Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Videogaming-wise, he used to be the major investor and board member of Eidos Interactive, the company that gave us Tomb Raider.

Now he's back as SCi's (the company that bought Eidos Interactive) Product Acquisition Director. He was just awarded the Order of the British Empire's "Services to the Computer Games Industry." So we guess he knows his games pretty much don't you think?

As far as we know he supports all three major game consoles, but (as was quoted above) he sees Nintendo coming back up from the edge of near-extinction and becoming a major player. Ian sees his company's games in the same way as Wii does with its console: gameplay and innovation.

Cinematic graphics is important but the heart and soul of the game depends on how well it plays and its uniqueness from other games. Without them, the game just becomes simply a copycat of a successful formula. As game companies see this as the eventual evolution of gaming, expect to see more creative games in the future from ALL consoles (and the lamb will sit beside the lion...) Amen.

Plato's Republic puts into analogy the human body with his ideal, utopic city-state. The head represents the philosopher-kings, tasked with governance. The chest symbolizes the warriors or the military, specifically for the protection of the Republic. The stomach personifies the merchants who are accountable for the flow of resources into the city.

While there is a blatant display of hierarchy, it does not go to say that one is necessarily more important than the others. For while they may be different in levels, they are the same in their goal, that is to ensure the survival of the Republic. Thus, all component parts, while maintaining their individuality, are expected to work together for that one same goal. Much premium is placed upon this goal to the extent that to attempt to multitask on these roles is to put the goal at high risk of falling into utter chaos. Therefore, it is forbidden.

The underlying principle behind this system is that titles aren't there just for the convenience of identification. Categories are not there merely to be able to sort out things from each other. Titles and categories exist not just to portray some semblance of order, but more importantly, to define roles and responsibilities. Now, this is, more often than not, usually overlooked. But the thing is, names and roles ALWAYS come in a tight package.

Applying that same principle to our everyday existence, we often find it constricting to confine ourselves merely to just one area. Artists need not be just artists, they can be politicians. Professors need not only be able to teach, they can be athletes. Women need not be mere trophies and housewives for their husbands, they may be high-powered corporate executives.

And gaming need not be only frivolous and trivial, they can actually have a higher sense of aesthetic, even pragmatic, value in our existence. That is the battlecry of columnist Ernest Adams, at least insofar as gaming is concerned.

He posits that in the light of the growing clamor for censorship in video games, it brings to mind the fact that although gaming has already niched itself tightly into popular culture, it still remains to struggle for the respect it deserves as an art form. The most apparent excuse would be that video games or gaming has always been stereotyped into the category of entertainment for kids. And kids are almost always never taken seriously. By this mere affiliation, the gaming industry has been deprived by the highbrow end of society  of the proper value it should have.

Don't we just hate stereotypes?

The full article awaits after the jump!

Now, this may just be a coincidence, but I'm starting to believe all these Wii rumors going around as we get more of them. This newest rumor comes in the form of a picture that I saw over at Nintendo's Wii site. After navigating through the Wii site to see if anything would relate to an October 2nd (10/2/06) release date, I stumbled upon this picture that is shown to the left. Now, some of you have probably already noticed it when reading the article title and looking straight at the picture.

However, for those who need some explaining - The woman pictured in the middle of the group is wearing a shirt that displays - US 101. Now, we are unsure if the entire shirt just says this or if the jacket is covering up something else. This US 101 translates into US October 1st (10 1). Now, after seeing this picture (under WarioWare of Wii Software), I just couldn't forget about the October 2nd release date rumor that was supported by a decrypted version of Nintendo's Press Release and a Wii game's release date from Walmart.

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[Update]

Well, I have all over the Wii news again, saying to myself that there must be more to it, there must be more information out there! So, I returned and went through all of our Wii articles, and then it hit me! I wasn't a fan of the way we originally portrayed the "decryption" of the Nintendo Press Release, so I went back and reviewed it myself.

After looking over it several times, I found that Final Fantasy V was oddly capitalized (all letters in it), so I knew that had to be part of the hint. So, I went over it again, looking at the press release and other GBA titles mentioned. I found nothing. So, I just started to work with the name (Final Fantasy V) and Wii. Then, it hit me - a W is made by forming two "U"s or two "V"s. So, I formed Wii using two "V"s and came with this - V V ii. Then, I realized the original reasoning and how it turned out to be 10/2 (October 2nd). In roman numerals, a V represents 5 and an I represents 1. So - V + V = 10, and i + i = 2 (result = 10/2)!. Now, this is very, very creepy. Take this as you will, but I was very proud of myself for finding this!