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Oct 27, 2017
1,997
So I was goofing around on the internet, like you do, when I saw someone on Reddit mention that there's an amusement park for kids that's really blowing up.

It's a business called Kidzania and evidently they're kid-sized towns where kids pretend to be adults by working, driving, learning to hate themselves and everyone around them, the normal adult stuff. They even earn fake money that can be used in the gift shop or on activities. Here's a link for more on this fascinating subject; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KidZania

So I'm looking at it and then, like a bolt out of the blue, it strikes me. A name I haven't seen in quite some time. A name that truly did take me back on a rocket train to yesteryear.

Cammie Dunaway. A name that harkens back to the glory days that were Nintendo's 2008 e3 conference. She's the marketing director of Kidzania.

I really don't have much else to say, but it's such a weird historical footnote I needed you folks to know.

I'm just glad she found the strength to carry on somehow. Have a great day.

Edit: I never thought I'd need to say this here of all places, but Cammie Dunaway was the executive VP of sales & marketing at NoA from 2007 though 2010. You may remember her from Wii Music and as the woman who watched Shaun White dreaming of being anywhere else on Earth on stage.
 
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Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,281
Seattle, WA
Huh. Not surprising that she transitioned into another kid-focused entertainment business. Still, that's definetely a name I haven't heard in a real long time.
 

bunkitz

Brave Little Spark
Moderator
Oct 28, 2017
13,527
I have no idea who she is but there's a KidZania across our office. Cool to know there's some weird video game connection.
 

MrSaturn99

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,484
I live in a giant bucket.
Took me a moment to remember who that was.

I remember an interview talking about how bummed out she was at the internet's response to her. She was a real bad fit for Nintendo (presentation-wise, anyway), but I still felt a little bad.
 

siteseer

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,048

Richietto

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,010
North Carolina
I thought this was gonna be some gross, Dark child slavery kinda thing in the world and you simply posted on the gaming side lmao.
 

Mr. President

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,843
For a split second I thought this was about her being in charge of the internment camps. That would have given me whiplash.
 

iksenpets

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,502
Dallas, TX
I'm sorry, but I feel like we're burying the lede that there is a chain of tiny child-sized cities around the world where children do wage labor in service of Brands??
 
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
So its a kids theme park where you learn to work blue collar jobs for actual corporations? And not like...riding rides or some shit?

Somehow I feel like this is a terrible idea but apparently it is successful.
 
OP
OP
Dad_and_Videogames
Oct 27, 2017
1,997
Honestly, when I came up with the title I was picturing more "Willy Wonka" and less the awful things actually happening in the world. I was really just happy to have an update on how she was doing, and that it was still ridiculous.
 

iksenpets

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,502
Dallas, TX
So its a kids theme park where you learn to work blue collar jobs for actual corporations? And not like...riding rides or some shit?

Somehow I feel like this is a terrible idea but apparently it is successful.

It's even weirder when you look at the location list, and see that it's 90% in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. So it's a bunch of developing world children play-acting work for American megacorps.
 

onpoint

Neon Deity Games
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
14,983
716
Isn't that the lady who died on the first goomba in NSMB Wii on stage at E3?
 

Biske

Member
Nov 11, 2017
8,277
Watching videos about KidZania, actually seems pretty cool. I can see how it would be fun as a kid.
 

goldenpp73

Banned
Dec 5, 2017
2,144
Just the worst E3 presentation ever.



Somewhere in this 20 minute video, I believe she specifies people didn't like her presentation because she was a woman, might be the wrong video but I couldn't find the quote, just know that I saw it. Cracked me up, couldn't be because you were a cheesy lame soccer mom representing a horrible lineup.
 

Stopdoor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,779
Toronto
I'm sorry, but I feel like we're burying the lede that there is a chain of tiny child-sized cities around the world where children do wage labor in service of Brands??

I'm struggling to imagine how this even works, like I can imagine I would've loved the idea of a tiny city as a kid, but how do they keep kids "on-task" with such structured activities? The Wikipedia article talks about the city having a child government? Like what? What does that even mean?
 

Quad Lasers

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,542
Huh, I'm actually pretty sure I went to something conceptually similar to this around 2000/2001 for a school field trip. I don't see a Houston version on the wikipedia page, so it was probably a different branded thing, but I definitely remember it being some indoor place where you work a "job" and receive "money".

I don't remember being able to spend that shit at an actual gift shop, tho. Just shitty, kid-made bead necklaces and junk like that.
 

tata toothy

Member
Dec 24, 2017
887
she's no Perrin Kaplan, that's for sure
k1fomiX.gif



What a legend.
 
OP
OP
Dad_and_Videogames
Oct 27, 2017
1,997


Somewhere in this 20 minute video, I believe she specifies people didn't like her presentation because she was a woman, might be the wrong video but I couldn't find the quote, just know that I saw it. Cracked me up, couldn't be because you were a cheesy lame soccer mom representing a horrible lineup.

I saw that she'd done a Ted (Tedx?) And honestly fully intend to watch it tonight.

I'm sure someone who's accomplished all she has in business has a lot to say and if people legit didn't like her because she's a woman that's awful. She does "Business fake" really well, and I honestly think she did about the best she could given what she had to work with.

I mean, think about how hard it has to be for ANYONE to be that freaking excited about e3 2008 on stage. Soccer mom or anyone. When you're up there playing fake instruments with a bunch of other fake business people and acting like you're having the time of your lives in front of millions, baby you're a star.
 

iksenpets

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,502
Dallas, TX
I'm struggling to imagine how this even works, like I can imagine I would've loved the idea of a tiny city as a kid, but how do they keep kids "on-task" with such structured activities? The Wikipedia article talks about the city having a child government? Like what? What does that even mean?

They have child court, complete with portrait of child judge over to the right? Does he put other children in jail?

800px-Mock_Court_at_Kidzania_Bangkok.jpg



lol what's the context for this?

Perrin Kaplan and Matt Casamassina had a, uh, rapport, back in the early aughts when he was covering Nintendo for IGN.
 

DaciaJC

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,685
Damn, was hoping against hope this had something to do with one of my favorite books of my childhood, The Girl Who Owned a City.

All the same, this KidZania business sounds pretty neat. Too bad there aren't any located in the US yet.
 

LuigiMario

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,940
Tbh all the cammie hate always felt really misguided and sexist when in reality we don't know the full story of the press conference or how responsible a hardworking person simply doing their job really was. I mean you don't see people suddenly hating reggie for expaining how throwing a frisbee works and miyamoto for playing a Wii mote saxophone...
 

AztecComplex

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,371


Somewhere in this 20 minute video, I believe she specifies people didn't like her presentation because she was a woman, might be the wrong video but I couldn't find the quote, just know that I saw it. Cracked me up, couldn't be because you were a cheesy lame soccer mom representing a horrible lineup.

I'm not here to mansplain how she's wrong at feeling she'd been victim of sexism during her career but what i will say is that the 2008 Nintendo E3 press conference was a fucking disaster. Easily the absolute worst press conference from any of the three big console manufacturers in history of the event. And she had the unfortunate pleasure of being the face of that mess. If she got hate from it I'm sure that unfortunately some of it was sexist shit but her performance and the whole company's was worse than bad. The biggest core game announcement we got there was an Animal Crossing game and a mention of a GTA game for DS. Wii Music, a vitality sensor that went nowhere and a mediocre Shawn White game were the worse.
 

Black_Red

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,929
Kidzania is capitalism heaven.
Big brands pay to have their name in the child brains. Kid "play" as Mcdonalds workers, or reporters from but TV stations/newspapers.
 

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,956
I've heard crazy positive things about Kidzania, they've been around Japan and Asia for so long that it's always surprised me that they're only now starting to come to the US. It seems like something I would have loved going to as a kid. The impression I always got of Cammie was that she was really good at her job, but not a good choice for an E3 presentation just due to the hardcore crowd who watches the presentations, so it's not a surprise that she's been doing well after Nintendo. I have to imagine Cammie was a killer spokesperson for daytime tv at the height of the Wii craze, as awkward as her showing at E3 2008 was, it would fit perfectly on Good Morning America or Ellen
 

Hero2Zero

Member
Mar 10, 2018
101
Tbh all the cammie hate always felt really misguided and sexist when in reality we don't know the full story of the press conference or how responsible a hardworking person simply doing their job really was. I mean you don't see people suddenly hating reggie for expaining how throwing a frisbee works and miyamoto for playing a Wii mote saxophone...

the presatation is what really killed her out there, if she came out and said "HEY LOOK PIKMIN 3" she would be photo shop on Xena's head and fighting sonybots with super reggie.

but she also came off as a sccocer mom which people where at the boiling point of "nintendo have ABBANDON TRUE GAMERS FOR TEH CASRALS" but i always felt the hate people did to stuff like wii sports and wii fit was very close to "THEM GRILLS ARE STEELING OUR GAMES"

still 2008 was hot garbage, but it wasn't all her.

You can accurately tell how crazy young ERA's median poster is, just from looking at how everyone reacted to Nintendo's 2018 E3 conference.

No one who was around for the E3 2008 conference would even fathom comparing the two shows.

someone at giant bomb said 2018 was the worst nintendo e3 in the last 15 years, i hope he was joking.
 

perfectchaos007

It's Happening
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,250
Texas


Somewhere in this 20 minute video, I believe she specifies people didn't like her presentation because she was a woman, might be the wrong video but I couldn't find the quote, just know that I saw it. Cracked me up, couldn't be because you were a cheesy lame soccer mom representing a horrible lineup.


Yeah she mentioned in that video how after the E3 presser she received sexist comments, which is horrible. But like someone else mentioned, given what she had to work with, its almost like Nintendo set her up for failure that year. She seems like a great role model though.


Perrin Kaplan and Matt Casamassina had a, uh, rapport, back in the early aughts when he was covering Nintendo for IGN.

Those names bring back memories of the 2000's. I wonder what they are up to these days

edit: Don't google edtropolis at work :|

Vlcsnap-2017-03-06-16h48m35s835.png

This was my favorite Ed Edd Eddy episode growing up. It really worked my imagination.
 

Sebastopa

Member
Apr 27, 2018
1,782
You can accurately tell how crazy young ERA's median poster is, just from looking at how everyone reacted to Nintendo's 2018 E3 conference.

No one who was around for the E3 2008 conference would even fathom comparing the two shows.
Some crazy folks here actually said it was worse than the 2008 and 2015 ones...
 
Oct 25, 2017
8,494
There was some CBS reality show like this. A bunch of like 8-15 year olds living in an old west town. It was hysterical. They'd win a challenge and the prize would be something like "go karts for 24 hours! Or toothbrushes and soap!" They'd always pick the go karts
 
Oct 28, 2017
862


Somewhere in this 20 minute video, I believe she specifies people didn't like her presentation because she was a woman, might be the wrong video but I couldn't find the quote, just know that I saw it. Cracked me up, couldn't be because you were a cheesy lame soccer mom representing a horrible lineup.


lol if you don't think her being a woman had nothing to do with it.