Messages to IGA

I hope one of the higher-ups see this, as I didn't know where else to put it...or maybe it will be inspiring to others around here. I have an emotional attachment to Iga-san's legacy. That series of games is my favorite and I've been enjoying them for 25 years, but I'll skip ahead to the parts I wanted to touch on. I was hit by a car as a pedestrian (I'm legally blind and walk to work), which resulted in a compound fracture of my leg. I was unable to walk for over two months, but Iga-san's last DS title had just came out recently and that helped more than anything, to just melt the hours away and not think about what I was dealing with. Time moved on and I recovered, but that franchise went in a direction I didn't like. I figured somehow, at least maybe on portables or digitally, Igavania would live on, but nothing seemed to be coming. Over this past year...I lost my job, my mother, an aunt and an uncle, in that order. My brother who brought me up on games and got me into all of this was sent to Afghanistan with the military. During all this and even beforehand, I would think about the future of gaming and how grim it looked. The free to play trends, mobile gaming, the seemingly thoughtless decisions of large companies...it was like everything I had came to enjoy, to allow me to "get away" would be no longer, and the reality of death and depression were almost just too close to bear. So, needless to say...when I saw the news of this, or well, even when I saw the swordorwhip teaser, I felt just as much relieved as I was excited. It's not over. Games aren't dead. I'm not dead. I have a new job now, and I'm getting back on my feet with respects to that as well, and otherwise I would probably give a bit more. It just means a lot to me. Thank you, Ben Judd, for helping to get this going. God bless you, sir.