The End of an Era

Here is a little blurb I wrote about the end of scwatch.net:

It was fun, it was cool, it was amazing, it led me to a new career.

I loved Star Chamber from the moment I played it. I knew I had found Something Special. I knew that not only had I found that, it was a small and relatively obscure game. It was a game that was ripe with potential, both in the world of games and the small tight-knit community that it had fostered. I wanted to be a part of that community. I knew I had the time, skills, and resources to do it.

I purchased the domain name scfans.net and began working on a phpnuke install along with osCommerce to combine the best of both worlds: The idea of a fansite, and a store created by the fans and for the fans.

There were certain resellers back then whom I felt were taking advantage of players. They had a corner on the small market, and I didn't like that. I didn't like the obvious bias or the obvious pricing. I wanted something reasonable. I loved SC so much that I didn't care if I lost money on it. So losing money is what I planned on doing.

I then saw that shrouded has responded to a post on the old Doom Marine forums about creating a fansite. We spoke long and hard about creating a fansite and a store, and how one could power the other. The store could fund the fansite, and vice versa. With deals in place, ie, I would run the store and he would run the fansite, we started off modding and thinking and doing.

Now while the partnership didn't last (due to what I really see looking back as stupid drama that should've never been given the respect it was at the time), it certainly showed to the world and the playerbase that this was a viable venture. That players needed these things to exist.

It took many (many) months of work to get SCfans dot Net into the shape you see it now. I tweaked it almost daily, adding and removing modules and stats and modifying code. I wanted it to do everything it could for the average player. I wanted to be proud of it. I wanted it to be something that I could call my own. My own business. My own opportunity.

SCWatch on the other hand represented my creative side. I have a knack for producing decent content, so that's what I did. Slowly, over the course of months, I began to work on content from myself and that which was donated from other players. I was immensely proud not only of the work, but also of the relationship that had developed between myself and Paul "Merakon" Dennen. It meant a lot to me, and to my fanboy and childish dreams, that I had an insiders look on my favorite game. I knew about certain cards, changes, and updates before they happened. I was immensely intrigued and humbled.

So when I finally asked him about an official position, to coincide with the new website that I got a sneak peek into, my heart was in my throat. My nervousness was only masked by an internet connection. Had it been face to face, I might've lost some color in my cheeks, some spring in my step.

But he said that he would like for me to come on board. That Incursions would be released soon and that it would be great to have someone on hand for content creation and the ubiquitous title of 'Community Manager', something that I picked out for myself aftering seeing it on another video game forum. I thought I filled out that role very well: I knew almost all of the players, I spent a lot of time in the game, I tried my best with my efforts from SCFans dot Net to do each player right, to treat them how I wanted to be treated, and to hold the most amazing tournaments around. I didn't care if I lost money, I was in it to have fun.

Now I have a very small career in the video game industry. Yes, it's damn near miniscule, but it is a start. It is concrete. It is something to show and to speak of to my friends and be immensely proud of. Who gets paid to be a fanboy? I mean, this was the job I wanted my whole life. And while I do still have the 'day job', it is this job that brings the most satisfaction, and this job which brings the most joy. There are few jobs in life that you can say you truly can't wait to start work on. This is one of them.

So with that I sold my business to Codo, the excellent person who has treated it just as well as I could've hoped for, and I am now quite comfortable with my Nayantara routine. I have a great group that I can work with, even if only by email, instant messaging, and the game in question, and it feels great to be able to speak of my good fortune to the aforementioned friends and family. There is nothing like the wonderment I experience when I explain my responsibilities and the joy I get in keeping them.

I'm a lucky guy. I'm a certified geek. I got my start with a dude from Arizona who, just like me, wanted to make a kick ass Star Chamber fansite.

And we have succeeded. In more ways than one.

I won't bother linking to the exact post, because it might be gone. But nevertheless, I felt that as a final post on the forums, it was significant.