Update: Not wanting to let you down on your daily fix of essential Nintendo news, we are happy to confirm that the chair has now arrived. Phew!
Original Article: Last month, as ex-Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé shared last minute photos and memories from his office, fans began to notice something which was described by some as being "way out of hand": his chair was believed to be a 16-year-old, out of date model deemed not good enough for a man of his status.
Why does this even matter in the slightest, you ask? Why should we be concerned with Reggie or Nintendo's chair of choice? Well, because this is the internet and this is what people do now apparently.
Anyway, seemingly upset that Reggie was "forced to sit in a value-priced" chair during his time at the company, fans began to sign a petition which said that "Nintendo of America Inc. must honour retiring legend Reggie with a fully loaded Aeron chair". Nintendo itself seems unsurprisingly unmoved by the petition, but it would seem that Herman Miller - the company behind the super fancy Aeron chair - has listened to fans' wishes.
The lesson to learn from this? You can achieve anything if you really put your mind to it. Even if your dream is to see an ex-president of your favourite company be rewarded with a fancy seat.
[source twitter.com, via change.org]
Comments 83
aww
That's just awesome
After years of kicking ass, he's finally getting his a rest its deserves.
Happy Rear-tirement
Umm, this is beyond ridiculous. I think Reggie made more than enough money at Nintendo to afford his OWN fancy chair. How about a petition for Reggie to buy all of his fans chairs instead?
Pfft, I have to stand for eight hours a day in my job
Um, I am pretty sure if Reggie wanted a new chair he could have bought an new chair with just a few days salary. Chances are he was happy with his old chair. I'm guessing he's only doing this to please the fans, what a guy.
People are strange.
I still find this ridiculous. I mean sure, Reggie deserves all kinds of good stuff, but seriously. I have been sitting in an office chair that I'm guessing costs a fraction of Reggie's old chair, and I've had exactly zero problems with it. Now why companies spend (no, waste) such incredible amounts of money on overly expensive chairs or why does anyone care if an ex company president gets one is way beyond me.
@Krisi Once you know the difference, you’ll never want to go back to a regular old chair. It’s like a pillow for your ass.
Credit for this particular craze is Nick Robinson's video about it.
https://youtu.be/k7l_pQ2DUKM
That's a nice little gift from the fans.
@Krisi
TBF, its a very nice chair and I was thinking about grabbing one of Amazon last year.
I've been using this early 80s wooden chair since 2003 and I think its time for an upgrade. That chair has been through 30000 hours of game time!
Ignore the anime crap, I did that to annoy someone on another forum https://i.imgur.com/2mmK7Zv.jpg
#Priorities
(That's all I want to say NintendoLife, just let me post that — good greif)
Wow, people are getting upset over curse words in another article and this crap is getting applauded. No wonder society has been allowed to decay like it has.
Okay. The owner of a chair company gets a tax write off and good will with possible consumers, and fans can feel like they did something for someone. Whatevs, not my $400.
I'm happy with the chair I got just by submitting a requisition form to my supervisor. It was very difficult. There was the typing, then the sending. Very complicated things.
@SetupDisk I still haven't seen this cursing article. Which is it? I do like a good laugh.
@nessisonett But who was lazy boy?
Ridiculous, stupid, sad, pathetic. So many people in actual need and this is what passes for charity... this is where time and energy is spent. Kinda sickening. Reggie is sitting on a throne of cash after floating down on a 'golden umbrella'. How about a donation in his name to one of the many groups who use video games to fundraise for great causes?
@MoonKnight7 I know! I hate how NL force us to add more to our comment
Reggie has what, $40 million?
Why people care about a millionare businessman who's job was to sell them things is beyond me.
@Mykillvee @Krisi Because People like to treat him like a king/god
Wish people would petition for me to get a new chair 🤑
I love stuff like this 😀
@AlohaPizzaJack
You didn't have to fight tooth and nail to get something functional for your workplace? What's that like?
@Krisi
It's not just chairs that people waste money on, companies renovate entire floors and have all the old (but still perfectly usable) furniture sent to the tip. I scored some nice racking, lights and carpet tiles because I had a boss that knew a guy who was doing the removal and renovation for an insurance company. Anything we didn't take would have been dumped.
It's flattering so many think so highly of Reggie as I do. Even the chair companies know this dude kicks ass.
But really if he wanted a comfier chair in his office I'm sure he would have got one if the chair in question is even uncomfortable at all.
This is dumb, but absolutely amazing. To be hoenst, reggie deserves it.
@shaneoh The trick is I'm the Medical Billing department But I eliminated lots of redundancy and paper waste when I took my position, so I have a bit of a cushion to leverage, haha.
I'm right there with ya on 'salvaging' old discarded goodies from businesses. I've got some nice things from the local college whenever they renovate computer labs and such.
What about poor Bowser?
23000 people with nothing to do lol
Figures people would get salty over something that isn't really that serious....
No cause in history has ever been more worthy. Truly a miracle.
This is my sheep
Well, that’s the internet for you.
Nonetheless, here everybody won, right? Those petitioning for a change, got their wish fulfilled, Reggie got himself a new chair, and the chair company got positive attention.
@Timsworld2 I don’t think Herman Miller could do anything about the region lock on the Wii U and 3DS.
I mean they could use the money to feed starving children or send medical aid to a war torn country, but I guess it's best spend making a millionaire's bum comfy....
I like Reggie, but he should donate to a charity whatever that chair`s worth...
That had to be a weird phone call...
Reggie: hey pizza hut delivery?
HM: um no we need to confirm your address for an office chair.
Reggie: ...um, I didn’t order a chair-
HM: we know, tell him what he’s won!
Reggie: listens and then looks at his eames chair well I guess visitors can sit in the one you are bringing....
What a pathetic misuse of Change.org. It really should only be used for things that actually matter.
So this month, Nick’s goofy videos have gotten Reggie a chair and drastically helped that Super Monkey Ball homage yesterday get funded.
Heck yeah, Nick! Making a difference in the world in really random ways, haha.
I am a chair please be angry at me instead.
@MrGawain On the other hand, the success of the chair company provides, no doubt, many jobs for people to feed themselves rather than hoping someone delivers stale scrap food to them to survive, and the marketing potential of this stunt helps them to sell more chairs so the company can keep those employees able to feed themselves. If we instead donate all economic money to "feeding the starving children" we just end up with a world full of starving adults who then have more starving children to feed, and nobody feeding themselves.
I get the gist of what you were saying, but I'm just getting tired of all the sing-song feel good solutions that not only don't solve problems but worsen them, and I'm channeling my inner @rjejr and crabbily lashing out at everyone that's irritating me with that today.
Fans wanted to give him a personal gift, they did, and the chair company got some publicity. It's a sweet little simple story.
It really doesn't matter if Reggie liked his chair or not. Chances are, at worst, it got a little uncomfortable after a full day if he had to sit the whole time. If it was more than that, he'd have gotten a replacement. I imagine they have modest margins at NoA, overall, though. It's not the home company and Japanese sensibilities about serving the company and executives seem quite different to American sensibilities from all I've read and seen.
I do think that NoA should now upgrade Bowser's chair, though. Just make it a fun thing and let the fans feel empowered to help people they related to.
I do get why people aren't big fans of Reggie sometimes (his PR role was an almost impossible spot), but many related and found a personal connection with him. I see no problem in letting them express that in ways other than buying games which feels so indirect.
Seems okay to just let people be decent to each other. This is a fun, light story about people. (Bringing up charity and all of this, fine if Reggie wants to, but I have no idea. For all I know, he is giving half his wages to charity already).
is reggie suddenly not allowed to receive gifts now? if people want to give him a chair just let them give it
@AlohaPizzaJack
The one about detective pikachu where some R rated dialogue was recorded.
@RainbowGazelle "What a pathetic misuse of Change.org. It really should only be used for things that actually matter."
I know, right. There are some really terrible things happening in the world, yet tens if thousands of people seem to think that a millionaire needing a better chair is a cause worth fighting for.
For the love of Why do people care about a chair a chair.... that someone sits.. let me guess were all going to complain are chairs now and I hope not or thats just stupid so stop its a just a chair end of story..
@BensonUii So your saying is sue ryan for stupid questions and comments?
@NEStalgia Thanks - I was going to basically say the same thing as your first paragraph, so thanks for saving me from the typing =) So I can go on a different rant instead! I think it's worth mentioning that a company as large as Herman Miller no doubt already funds humanitarian efforts. The increased revenue/publicity from this stunt will likely help fund those efforts - which are also a form of marketing/publicity which fund future efforts, and the cycle continues.
The other thing that irks me, is that people that criticize stunts like this as a waste of money, and it instead should have gone to charity, are rarely willing to do anything of the sort themselves.
Now, if we want to debate whether or not this is a good use of change.org, that's a different topic altogether. I do think it was a poor use of the platform, but after the story already went viral, I really couldn't care any less that Herman Miller took advantage of it. The real travesty is that they gave him an Aeron, rather than an Embody. For shame Herman Miller!
So people petitioned to get a man who made a ton of money a free chair?
Seems pointless to be honest.
@JayJ I kinda agree It was a chair plus ain't he gone...
@JayJ That’s petitions for ya.
The best part is the people getting mad at people who are upset at the thought of people making a petition to get a person a chair; and all the steps between.
@AlohaPizzaJack You got a point there a big one..
Haha I love the internet sometimes. Well done to the 23,000 of you! Oh and the chair company for giving it to him!
https://www.hermanmiller.com/our-values/community-service/
They do impressive community/charitable work...
"Why does this even matter in the slightest, you ask? Why should we be concerned with Reggie or Nintendo's chair of choice?"
My thoughts exactly.
"Well, because this is the internet and this is what people do now apparently."
...I suppose that's as good of an answer as we'll ever get. Well, whatevs. You win this one, interwebs.
It's fun to get people gifts. It's fun to team up around something silly. It's Nintendo. Seems very on topic.
That's nice of the guy... doesn't sound like petitions were needed to bring this to fruition but hey... 2019.
Still over a chair for real..
I had never even heard of these chairs before this article. Had to google them and see what the commotion was about, and realized these are the chairs we have at work. They are good chairs, didn’t realize they are that pricey. Defiantly don’t think they are worth the price.
@nessisonett there's a reason he had that chair still. I'm pretty sure he would have replaced it of it wasn't comfortable.
This is a pretty awesome community sometimes.
@Skunkfish "They do impressive community/charitable work..."
Yes they do. But that's not the point I and others are trying to make. Reggie is not a charitable cause.
Another reason for wanting to be a NOA President 😂
Well this made me laughed.
Oh snap, a Change.Org petition worked?! Now maybe I'll find sexy singles in my area!
He’s not just getting any Aeron, he’s getting the newly redesigned 2016 model.
They looked at all of the Steelcase overhype on the interwebs and were all like, “hold my beer”.
Worth it for the improved tilt tension adjustment alone.
@NEStalgia Inner me is now just a sieve, trying to figure out what I posted on here to have garnered a reply.
I knew when I named you my successor all those years ago this day would come.
And while I was taking a break from here and filling up my free time on twittr now I'm being called a Chad, don't ask, and being told not to post on there anymore. There's no such thing as civil discourse anymore. Or debate. Or discussion. IIt's all agreement or attack.
Not you obvs, always nice to see your name in my inbox. Give'em heck kid.
@robr It's 2019, where is that model?
@MortalKombat2007
Cheeky, you.
And if by chance there’s sincerity involved, I suppose redesign or revamp should have been the words I used. The chair was redesigned after 22 years in 2016. Something they generally don’t do with their offerings.
@roadrunner343
Trust me, the internet dweebs that started this fuss don’t even know what an Embody is. 😄 They’re not going through Mirka sandpaper, restoring vintage Harold and Ray Eames pieces in a shop somewhere. They’re Googling “super awesome Doritos retardant gam8ng chairz” and finding obligatory Aeron mentions from Silicon Valley interns.
@robr Heh, I wouldn't have known any better 5-10 years ago either. But, having back issues, and now working full time from my home office means I spend anywhere from 10-16 hours in an office chair per day. My back hated me until I finally took the plunge on an Embody, and I couldn't be happier... unless they knocked a couple hundred off the price.
@NEStalgia Allows for jobs to give to the peasants that are worth minimum wage, barely enough to survive on in what is considered to be the poorest time for the general populace since the great depression. Let's all be thankful for the corporations who care so much about us and are owned by super rich people that really only care about planetary preservation rather than humanity.
@rjejr Ha! I've never even set foot into the cesspool of Twitter or Facebook.....or Reddit. Or any of that nonsense.....but it's amusing experiencing the suffering vicariously through you! Agreed though, no debate, no discourse....you join camp A, camp B, and everyone is armed with facts, statistics, and studies, performed by others...no need to think through a problem yourself, experts already did the work and the results are always indisputable!
We now have the notion that memorizing data, stats, and studies now counts as brilliance, and that citing appeals to authority now counts as a display of intellect and superior knowledge, and that mentality displaced and replaced working through any given thought process organically. Thinking through, common sense, are now shouted down as instant fallacy...one should only recite reports from "experts." Except studies are never conclusive, data can be read to prove any point, and everyone has a different expert to cite to prove their point right, and they can't express their own evaluation of anything, without falling back on what supposedly superior people determined.
Where data and research were once tools to use to help evaluate a given line of thinking, they've instead become gospels - divine messages carved in stone from on high and are not to be disputed, lest one be cast down. And no one even questions the "experts" who provide them with quotable "facts." And as no self-appointed emperor wants to be revealed to be wearing no clothes, no one can show they don't understand the issue enough to follow their own thoughts and conclusions, they just double down on repeating the same "facts" and gathering with the like-minded to do so!
@Jayofmaya I don't disagree with you. If we're going to get down to the raw cynicism, given a choice between "feed the starving children", "give minimum wage jobs so the peasants can keep existing in misery" and "Poke China, get WWIII finally started, and start purging 1/3-1/2 of the human population from the planet to reset things back to a sustainable level for whoever survives" I pick option 3 of the least cruel one. Right now with a 8B population that doubles every 10-20 years, the only possible outcome is most of humanity existing on survival rations, packed in like rats in filthy cages. Planetary scale mass murder sounds like a blessing compared to that existence. At least it gives the peasants something to do while they're being purged rather than waiting to be slowly purged via starvation and obsolescence. And actually solves the problem more realistically.
It sounds ugly, but right now we have two options, mass reduction of surplus human population, or pile in until nature does it with infinite population growth. Either way a purge will happen. The war is probably the more pleasant choice than the mass plague/famine alternative. "World peace" was the most destructive idea ever. I'm starting to wonder if the 20th century tyrants actually had it right all along. Maybe we were too idealistic to appreciate their cold pragmatism, because in the end, the actual nature of nature is too gruesome to want to accept.
In the mean-time, yes, let's give Reggie a chair to sell more chairs to create more miserable minimum wage jobs, because given the choice of that or keeping more "starving children" alive long enough to breed 10 more starving children each, the latter option is purely savage cruelty beyond the worst of what the 12th century torture experts could have come up with.
It's kinda sad how some people waste there time over a chair..
@NEStalgia Keep staying away from social media, your intellect would be wasted there. And it's not the disregard for science that bothers me, people don't want to believe something fine, don't want to do research, fine, want to pick 1 side or the other, fine, but everyone needs to stop being 2 year olds having meltdowns in Toys R Us b/c their parent wouldn't buy them the toy they wanted.
And I know it seems like it's been like this forever on social media, but seriously just 5 years ago I could disagree w/ people and talk about it. I think Thanos and I have a gentleman's agreement to never agree on anything, but that's fine b/c it gives us more stuff to talk about. There's no longer any talking about, just talking at.
@rjejr I can't melt down in Toys R Us anymore because Bain murdered them for a debt sink to amplify their quarterly.....
Thanos has an agreement never to agree with anyone on anything though Though he would no doubt disagree and say it's I who has that agreement
I don't know, I never touched social media. It always seemed like a dive bar in the wrong part of town, just like it's AOL chatboards predecessor. The cool kids were on IRC and ICQ....which regrettably became AIM and was flushed down the toilet. Of course IRC became a mix of 4Chan hacker trolls, parasites, and holier-than-though technophiles at some point.
@NEStalgia People who still use AOL email addresses should be banned from sending or receiving email.
That's not really relevant but I'm in the middle of my after dinner digesting nap so ... so ... yeah.
Thanos doesn't agree w/ anyone, but only we agreed on not agreeing.
I think that worked.
@roadrunner343
I know that the back support is flexible; but how is it in actual supporting of the back? Is it firm in all of the right places?
That's my one pet peeve about the aeron.
@NEStalgia Fine, let's go all the way and destroy the entire planet so that no life can rebirth and no suffering can ever be ever again. I'd just rather it be equal, whatever the outcome, but in your scenario, it's still those who are often born into a family with great capital that prevail. Also, you need to look into the statistics of cancer in the last few years only. It's much more a factor on population now than it was say 10-20 years ago, so whilst I think rates will grow, I doubt they will double now. I'm not clear on the change on cancer, perhaps it is a measure conceived based on Malthusian studies or perhaps something "natural" like you state.
@Jayofmaya So here comes the philosophy textwall. Feel free to ignore it, if so inclined. @rjejr may find it interesting though.
Not that the end result of "equal" isn't desirable. The problem is it's such a twisted fantasy it's not worth wasting breath on. "Equal" does not exist, can't exist, will never exist. It's been a bizarre fetish of false hope for at least a century and a half. There is no such thing. Nature is a competitive survival of the fittest system. Not just human nature, nature itself. Plants, insects, microbes, everything, competes to kill it's competitors, or consume all resources before it's competitors can. Humans of course all seek the advantage and superior position over others using their "birthright" advantages. Choosing to be born to the wrong parents is a crime punishable by death. But it's not just humans. Even plants. Look at vines, look at trees. Some nut trees such as walnuts spread poison through the soil to prevent other competing trees from growing. Wherever walnuts are established, most other trees can not approach, grow or thrive. Nature itself, revolves around cycles of destruction, entrenchment, and competition to the death.
Of course humans can reason...I'm not a competitive person at all, unfortunately. That's self-destructive behavior. Perhaps you are too. Perhaps given unlimited wealth we would not abuse it. Or perhaps we would. It's easy to say we wouldn't without being in the position to be tempted. But even if that makes both of us, most humans are not so self destructive. Given an advantage they will use it and maximize it and ensure a superior position for themselves and their progeny. Nature.
So a quest for "equality", is not going to naturally occur, or occur through reason, begging, making a case for it, or anything else. That leaves the only options to achieve "equality" with those who do not wish it, is to manipulate/entrap/control, or use force directly. The former will always lead to the latter anyway. Once we're to the point of achieving "equality" through force....we're back to my war scenario anyway. (See also, Germany, Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Venezuela, North Korea, Romania, Poland, Italy, etc.) It never ends well, and worse, usually those leading the charge for "equality through force" realize they're now in a position to replace those they deposed as the advantaged ones and take that opportunity.
Wishing and hoping won't end that cycle. Sheer force and destruction has a chance to end that cycle, but usually just feeds another loop around it.
But, then, nature itself, humans aside, seems to operate in similar cycles of destruction and restarts. Maybe that's just the natural life cycle of all things on this particular planet.
I don't really disagree with your viewpoint of wishing for one ideal rather than the status quo, but my point is that that always has been and always will be a fool's ideal, or worse, a tool against the naive to fuel a replacement of who the families with great prevailing capital are, effectively hoping to fight nature itself. That's always a losing battle.
Moreover, as Lenin rightly said that the object of Socialism is Communism, I believe he missed a truth that wasn't apparent in his day: The object of Capitalism, is also Communism. It just gets there more slowly. Ultimately they are all systems that concentrate power and wealth among a few who rule over the existence of all others.
Thus my cynical approach. I've realized more and more that not only can the reality be fixed, but it gets worse and worse as population grows, and better and better as population shrinks. Supply & demand works even for Communists. The fewer the people the more valuable the labor of each becomes. The more people the more expendable any individual is, with little value to their existence, overall. Which goes back to the pragmatism of the 20th century dictators. They had a point. We've all seen the imagery of the horrors they created, but were never taught to consider why they created such horrors. We're just told they're evil and only evil people do such things. We all believe it - it seems self evident. But nobody gets out of bed and decides to become a mass murdering menace simply for a love of the sight of death. Every one of the tyrants was trying to save the world from their own perspective. In reality, they probably saw the current direction of things and in their own way tried to prevent it. Maybe they had the right idea with the wrong implementation. Maybe their implementation really was the only way to do it and we just refuse to admit it and instead we build a worse scenario, hoping to kick the can to the "next" generation to deal with the horrors it will unleash.
If we were to define a true golden age, post-war 1950's 1960's US, UK, and Europe were the ideal way of life, the ideal prosperity, pretty much the best case scenario. But we never hear why it was a prosperous time at all. It was prosperous and peaceful because, ultimately, when you look deep, it was Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini who brought that serenity after all. The vastly reduced population, the tremendous destruction requiring tremendous labor from a limited population to rebuild, provided opportunity and stability to all who survived. There's the ugly truth. The tyrant's plans actually worked. They were right. Their actions brought a golden age of peace and prosperity. The best that ever had been. Which leads one to question many things about perceived notions. We all wish for a return to that golden age life..but we want to cheat and get there without the atrocities that created it. And is it truly golden if it can be forged only through cataclysm, or is it merely a facade? Effectively making everyone who isn't dead one of the "families with great capital that prevail"....for a brief time. Until the population grows, and the cycle either must repeat, or must be endlessly deferred until it no longer can be?
I'm not sure there are any pleasant answers to those questions, nor to the idea of what the future is going to turn into over the next decades-to century. Of course, when it gets really bad, nature will intervene anyway. It always does.
Now, as for cancer rates, that's a whole other conversation... Of course it could be more of an issue simply because people are less likely to die of other issues that used to kill them off sooner. Or the fact that all our food is loaded with pesticides and other chemicals. Or the abundance of radio signals that keeps escalating without truly knowing the effect (5G coming to a phone pole near you soon!). Or airborne toxins, or increased exposure to viruses, or increased use of pharmaceuticals (toxins) for everything from headaches to infections, to birth control, to just not feeling happy enough in the cheery world I described above.
@NEStalgia Yep, that's a wall. I'm going to try and read it, but it's so long I'm expecting to forget the beginning by the time I get to the end.
@NEStalgia Ok got about halfway and had to stop, my mind is elsewhere, gotta get ready for my kids chorus concert tonight, but I'll keep the email and who knows. There are usually about 2 hours early morning and early afternoon I can get through it.
@NEStalgia @rjejr I understand your point entirely and respect that you have put a sufficient amount of time into your views. I also have come to the conclusion that Earth is somewhat trapped in a dualistic nature of destruction followed by creation.
Have you ever entertained the metaphysical side of things? Particularly Jungian theory and the ideas of an inter-connected subconscious that date back thousands of years? It's an entirely personal journey if you ever take it but sometimes you find that it is possible that there is a way out of such an endless paradigm. It sort of helps overcome the self orientated id.
As for my reply to your key points, studies also show that whilst nature can be entirely self serving, it can also be benevolent and random, just like us. We, however have full sentience and can improve our chaotic patterns, through self evaluation or even observations. Studies show that altruism and a strong sense of community (giving, helping) actually make us happier than serving our selves and chasing our own gains. You could argue it's the human condition still and that we are only feeling nore positive about ourselves from doing so, but even then, that goes a long way to creating a more equal society without entertaining the idea of spirituality. Also, the problem with any power position, is that it separates ones self (or a group) from the majority and that's when it is proven that greed becomes almost a guarantee due to a disconnect from the community they may even be designed to nurture (governments). You may believe it's better to have a population reduced through war or such, but is it really okay to let it be manufactured by those with no empathy? Studies also show that in a capitalist system it is easier for a sociopath or psychopath to rise to top financial positions due to their lack of humanity. Proving that our system really is as they say; "dog eat dog".
Do I propose a better way? Not yet, I have thought of improvements to our educational system that could be made but every time I entertain the idea of anither system, it does indeed usually end in a scenario where the "bad" guys win which is why I opened with such a drastic change of pace at the begining of this comment. Hope you are doing well, none the less, sirs.
I wish we were all so fortunate to be able to sit in chairs of this quality while working (be it in an office or at home).
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