The Liquid Architecture blog

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of seeing Malcom Gladwell on his book tour for Outliers. In my opinion, the most important takeaway from his discussion and the book was the 10,000 hour rule.  In essence, he says that a key to becoming extraordinarily successful in any discipline requires 10,000 hours of practice.

It’s not difficult for any hardcore gamer to log 10,000 hours of time spent playing.  I tend to think all the time I spent talking, thinking and writing about games in a critical fashion actually put me in a better position to work with games as part of my day job, more than the time I spent playing.  But when I think back on the countless hours I’ve played, there’s one noticeable constant that has stuck with me from practically the first time I held a controller: Super Mario.

What’s not to love about Mario?  He and I are both products of 1981.  Not unlike Mickey Mouse, he’s got juuust enough design detail and backstory to make him interesting, but still remain a relatively blank slate for any scenario Nintendo wants to put him in.

I love the the entire Super Mario oeuvre, and will always have fond memories of playing those games with the people I love the most.  I was nearly late for the second grade talent show because my sister, mother and I were all playing the original Super Mario Brothers.  Almost 20 years later, I downloaded it on the Wii’s Virtual Console to play with my wife in our apartment. Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. were staples in college.  And I hardly ever travel without some Mario game in my DS these days.

Of course, I was very excited to see footage from New Super Mario Brothers Wii and the followup to Super Mario Galaxy at this week’s E3.  I’m very much looking forward to playing  them with my new son or daughter, after I meet him/her this November.

As a few astute readers have pointed out to me, things have been a bit… light on the blog lately.  With E3 officially kicking off this week, we’ll have no shortage of game news coming down the pipe.  Stay tuned!