Introduction

Welcome!

Welcome the Unofficial Nintendo Middle East blog.

What is this blog exactly? Well, for starters, this blog is primarily a hobby of mine - a side-project of sorts. My personal expertise does not lie in journalism, video game analysis, economics, business, or any of these fancy-shmancy positions which usually gives anyone credibility when posting any bits of information like this sort. I am not doing this for money, nor had anyone set me up with it. My goal with this blog is merely to share any information of what I know, and raise awareness for those who need some explanations. I do not claim to be an expert, but I had been doing more extensive observations than others. Consider this blog as a third-party viewer on things, but one that gives a lot of answers to obscure questions, especially in the regards of Nintendo's products in a place where marketing them is very vague. Of course, the video game market in the Middle East overall is very vague anyway, but it is nice to start somewhere.

Who am I? Well, who I am in detail is not really of great importance, but I can tell you a few things about myself. I am just some ordinary Joe who is currently having a tough time in life, but it is not a big deal. What's important to know is that I'm a Lebanese video game enthusiast, and I had been a fan of Nintendo's products and franchises since early childhood. I never even owned any video game consoles from other companies either (with exception of an Atari 2600 Jr. unit, bought for me when I was still an infant, which I still have in my disposal). I may be legally a Lebanese person, but I was born in Dubai in 1985, and I lived most of my life in the United Arab Emirates. Currently, I am still that same Lebanese expatriate in the U.A.E., working in a low-profile position in some random company just to stay alive, but I am nowhere near my vocation at the moment. I am not very sociable, on account I have autistic-like tendencies, which probably is a good thing for it placed me far away from getting involved in politics, and thus I became a lot more philosophical. It is suspected I may have Asperger's syndrome, but I yet to have a proper diagnosis. Regardless, I guess this most likely what caused me to get interested in sharing information on something very obscure, which I happened to have compiled on my own accord for quite a while. All that is left now is organise it all, and writing bits of text here and there. I am thinking of opening an Arabic version of this blog too to assist merely as a convenience of breaking some linguistic barriers, and thus proper comprehension of the information.

Why am I writing this blog? Well, I am an oddball who likes to observe people and their reactions in public places, especially in regards when they are trying to purchase some cool electronic item which they had found in the shop's display and are somewhat ignorant about it, if not completely ignorant. I guess this what happens when there is little effort in marketing something that has little journalistic reviews on, but then again many people avoid reading any reviews about anything altogether! In any case, nobody ever seems to be enthusiastic when they are trying to choose really good games. Only thing that is important that if the cover is pretty, it must be a 'worthy purchase.' Video games are like books, you know? Never judge them by their covers! Sometimes, certain games are only good as they are described by word-of-mouth, which is controversially an effective kind of marketing strategy. I keep witnessing this a lot, apparently: Some preteen kids just run into the store and shout at the clerk, 'Where is the new Call of Duty for PS3!?' They could in the least say 'please,' am I right? I mean, you do not have to even trouble the clerk sitting by the cashier's box if the game is right there on the shelf! I love to look at games regardless if I want to buy them or not, but if there was a particular game I was looking for, I simply walk into the store, go to the appropriate section, pick up the copy of the game from its shelf (if available) and just pass it by the cashier so I could pay for it, and then leave. What does this part have to do with the blog? Well, pretty much every time I buy a Wii game, the clerk asks me if I am sure that I have either a U.S. or a PAL version of my system, and I really find this habit to be annoying because I am more than sure when I specifically picked up that particular copy of the game from its shelf. I do not blame the clerk though, as he most probably had went through so much trouble with other customers when they buy a random game oblivious of their own system version. However, this is not the only reasons I have for this blog. Sometimes even more experienced gaming enthusiasts seem to have some confusion about how the systems work in different regions. Therefore, whilst shedding some light on Nintendo gaming, I might help shed some light on general aspects of gaming overall too. Whenever I tried to find certain answers for some less asked questions, I stumble on certain Internet forum threads which have its users asking the most embarrassing 'newbie' questions. Okay, I am not claiming this blog is the most appropriate mass media approach to send out my messages, but like I said earlier: One has to start somewhere, or else blogs like this never exist!

How does this blog work? In the coming weeks, I shall slowly start a build-up of information compilation about personal experiences, revelations, useful newbie info, and many other things which may or may not be an interesting read for a lot of people. Regardless, such information must be placed out there somewhere in a collective form like I am doing so right now, written in a very comprehensive manner. This going to be quite an enormous task, probably even a great responsibility, but I am confident that if one is diligent enough, even in his most busiest of times, he or she could accomplish things like information sharing. I probably hang out on Wikipedia too much, but I sure love their philosophy about having free access to a great wealth of human knowledge. In any case, I am also hoping to improve the layout access for this blog so that people can have easier navigation, so don't be surprised if past entries are continuously updated! Entries will work more like sections of a book, and this blog will not be dependent on dates, as I will have an entry which will compile a list of links to all the useful info in these entries. Keep in mind the information I compile here is limited to only my own knowledge and research on things, so do not expect to be able to come up with all kinds of answers, but what I am hoping is that if enough people had their awareness raised, I might even attract more kinds of information, probably even insider stuff, which is probably the most valuable! No, I am not expecting to have secrets about Nintendo's next game, but I am only referring to information in regards of distribution of existing commercial games here in the Middle East. The circulation of product distribution is crazy, and someone ought to make sense of it all! I am hoping I could complete as many entries as possible before the end of 2011, and especially before Nintendo releases their newly-announced console, the Wii U. I am having a feeling there will be a lot of focused commotion by then, especially in this region, as there are subtle indications that the Nintendo 3DS is being on 'official' grounds in the Middle East, which not only directs towards Nintendo coming to the Middle East first-hand, but also a continued support of selling U.S. systems, despite the fact nowadays many shops have converted to being selling only PAL systems.

All of that and more will soon be fully explained the more I post about them, so bookmark this blog if you are interested, and come back soon for more future updates!