That’s the saying, isn’t it? “A change is as good as a holiday?”
Well, personally, I’d rather have the holiday: Change is too hard on the nerves. Believe me, I know.
Today, I ended a 22 -year-long career in journalism, at the one employer. That’s a big change and not one that I’d like to repeat in a hurry. Oh, sure I’d done plenty of different jobs during that 22 years but, still, this is a huge monumental change in my life. I need to take stock of that. I need to take a breather and soak that in for a minute.
I didn’t think it would be, but it felt weird saying goodbye to all those people I’d worked alongside for so long, all those people who I’d seen every day. All those people I’d shared coffee with, chatted to, said “Gidday” when we passed. All those people who went through the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch with me.
And when you think about it, I probably spent more time with my work colleagues than I did my family, bar weekends, of course. But now that has all changed: I no longer do a blog on Fairfax’s Stuff website (long story short: Fairfax refused to pay me to do, given that I’m now, you know, unemployed, so I made the decision to end it. It was a tough call but I had to make it. Right?)
So, now that I’m a free agent, a freelance writer, this is where all my game writing will go for the foreseeable future: This is where all my inane ramblings, opinions and thoughts will go. I’d love you to join me. A colleague at my farewell said he reckoned I was the best games writer in New Zealand. I’d debate that, probably because I don’t like to toot my own horn and it would make me arrogant, but whether it’s true or not, I hope I’ve done a damn good job of getting video games into the mainstream media in a positive way. That’s what I’ve enjoyed most about the last few years: Letting mainstream people know that video games are something that normal, tax-paying, work-going people play.
I hope I succeeded.
I grew a wonderful community of followers over at my Game Junkie blog on Stuff and I hope most of them follow me to this blog and we can grow the community even further. We can, right?
But a community is all about its readers, about followers. I hope I can continue to bring a different spin to the traditional games writing which so often just seems to be regurgitated press releases. I’m sick of seeing that: The same story on numerous websites. I want to do things differently. I want to delve a little more. I want to give a different view-point on things. I want to create engaging, thought-provoking content that stands out from the flood of same old, same old video game coverage.
I know those are bold words but even if I fail, I want to give it a damn good crack. Will you join me on what I’m doing here? Shall we take that journey together? I hope so. Email me at: [email protected] and tell me what you think.
Let’s build something beautiful here.
Let’s get it on!
Bookmarked :>
To be honest I mainly read your content through twitter and on this blog. I did always have a look through the box to see if any of the reviews were relevant to me.
I hope you enjoy the next phase of your career!
I look forward to continuing to follow this blog and hear your gaming and various other experiences.
Added you to my newsify feed.
Stuffs loss
Bookmarked .. Always followed your blog on Stuff, now I will follow this. Keep up the good work :)
Have bookmarked you too. I haven’t read your blog for much of this year due to a change in job where Internet access can be difficult (the army is not a fan of employees eating up the day on Facebook) but I’ll check back here often.
Always followed your blog on Stuff…you are the best and most honest reviewer I’ve come across. Keep up the great work and good things will come. Have definitely bookmarked your new page.
I’ve read your stuff blog for year GJ, and will now read this one. Thanks for your time and effort
No worries, bud. Stick around and hopefully I’ll keep you happy.
No problem, Ben. Thanks for visiting.