As the seven of you know, I’m a show tunes junkie. Love ‘em. One of my favorite soundtracks is a show called Chess. You pretty much have to have personal memories of the Cold War to even get the show, and it doesn’t hurt to have some appreciation for the musical stylings of ABBA, since those dudes wrote the show. Aaaaaanyway, there’s a line from the show that goes “Now I’m where I want to be and who I want to be and doing what I always said I would and yet I feel I haven’t won at all.” I felt like that a few years ago, sitting at basically the highest point a community weenie can go without switching to production or marketing. I was finally a real director with a great team, and I was doing important stuff and invited to important meetings. (Oh, god, the meetings.) Heck, I was even important enough to bribe with sample packages of swag.
It wasn’t as much fun as I had thought it would be. And it… ended.
The last couple years have been quite a ride. I enjoy consulting, and setting up communities, and I even like writing white papers. But thanks to the economy going tits up, the consulting pickings have grown slim, unless you’re willing to gladhand and live on the road in order to get those pickings.
That was even less fun than I thought it would be, and I already had that pegged as “less fun than sporking out my own eyes.”
Fortunately, I’ve really been having fun at Metaverse, which has given me a variety of things to do. But the absolute most fun I’ve had in… oh, more than five years, at least… has been a plain old forum gig.
I had one of those falling off the toilet moments, and realized I need the equivalent of plutonium in order to function. I need a few hundred crazed MMO fans to interact with, inform, organize, and mock with lolcats. I have always known that I recharge my energy for this job by attending cons, player gatherings, and tradeshows. I just didn’t know how miserable I really was without that player interaction.
I also realized that I want to stay with MMOs. Real ones. I’ve got a couple of “social media” games under my belt, and I did the sports thing for awhile, but while those players are great, there’s just nothing like an old school MMO for attracting, well, my kind of nerd. I make D&D jokes…from experience. I have Magic cards. I can quote ad nauseum from Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Spaceballs, and Princess Bride. There are more than two thousand books in my house, and I’ve worn out more library cards than I have credit cards. I have six alts in LOTRO, five of which were created so I wouldn’t have to “waste” craft materials and recipes. I wept over Challenger and Columbia. That’s who *I* am, and for better and usually for worse, I’m probably not capable of changing.
All seven of you, and the three lurkers, nodded in recognition at nearly every point. Maybe you don’t match me exactly, but I’ll bet you’ve still got painted miniatures in your closet and the lyrics to Code Monkey memorized.
Finally, I have come to realize that while my PVP skills get worse every year as my reflexes dull to the point that I can’t fend off attacks from elderly beagles, my favorite kind of communities are around games with a PVP element. I don’t know what it is, and it’s definitely not the calm reason and dulcet tones with which you people conduct your arguments, but I love the energy and passion and fun.
So, that’s the what. The where is more complicated, but all things being equal, I’m happier at a startup. I love the can-do spirit, the energy, the risk taking, and the excitement. I’m not a microspecialist, mainly, though goodness knows there are other issues. One of them, oddly, is that I’m not very good at coming up with ideas when I have a big budget. I’m actually more creative when I’ve got to make something work with nothing but rubber bands and Excel.
That’s where I want to be, and I think that’s where I’m going. I’m gonna have some news in a couple days. Knock wood for me.
One of the lurkers says this would be a good move, should put the bite back into the blog! Good luck.
Is one no longer a lurked when one posts?
Best of luck, and I’m excited to see you re-enter the fray!
Good luck! Yes, I also fit a lot of those points; particularly books and wearing out library cards… Personally, I don’t care for PvP or those communities, but that has to do with my starting in RuneScape, and the bad experience there with free-for-all pvp areas and (essentially) full corpse looting by the victor.
What about Weird Al’s ‘It’s all about the Pentiums’, does that count? Heh.
Whoa, Soon as you land(cause we all know your going to get it) let us know. I’d play any “true” MMO with you at the helm of Community.
(/LURK) Good luck with it then (LURK)
Good luck! I’m still trying to find that place for myself. It is a great feeling when you know what you’re working towards.
“my favorite kind of communities are around games with a PVP element. I don’t know what it is”
For some reason I’m picturing an angry badger gleefully performing a diving crossbody into a small box of hacked-off feral cats.
Good luck, wherever you land.
*still nodding at all the nerd references*
Good luck to you!
Good luck! May 1.21 gigawatts arc your way!
Also, you be careful. (People in masks cannot be trusted.)
Wood knocked. That final list is intriguing, I look forward to your news.
(And I’m glad I’m not the only one with five crafting alts in LOTRO.)
I don’t know what you’re talking about. That tackle box in the closet totally has fishing things in it. These accusations of a miniature army being halfway through a repaint for ten plus years are completely baseless.
I am glad that you exist. I hope there are more of you. I used to think that I was like you… online discussion forums were, like, my thing ever since I ran my first dial-up BBS when I was in high school. But two years of working in community relations on an MMO pretty much burned me out and my general tolerance for online communities has remained exceptionally low for the last six years. Now I work in production and I’m much happier. I still get to work with geeky people and make geeky jokes, but I don’t have to answer the same question two hundred times to people who are going to accuse me of lying no matter what answer I give them.
Community relations: Harder than it looks.
Looking forward to hearing more! Both because it’s nice to see people get back into what they want to do but also because I’m also interested in hearing more about PvP MMOs.
G’luck, Sanya! I know [of] you from the ol’ DAoC/Mythic days. Hope you get what you’re shooting for!
/epeen on
DAOC? Noob. I’ve been lurking since the f’king doohickey…. =)
/epeen off
w00t, can’t wait to hear what it is!
http://cheezburger.com/thipthapthoo/lolz/View/4707705856
- Sean
Lum promised us there would be show tunes. I look forward to them.
Good luck!
Thanks for putting One Night in Bangkok in my head from reading the first paragraph. I need Code Monkey to get rid of the ear worm.
I have no idea why I’m subscribed to your feed. lol
Hooray! Good luck with thing!
Welcome back
I’ll think positive thoughts for you Sanya. We need more of us who have decided that Community is it’s own “goddamndisciplinethankyouverymuch” and I’m so glad to see your voice stepping back into the MMO scene.
Every time I think of Chess, the only song I think of is Anthem, probably because I sang it at so many auditions.
Good luck!
Just remember when dealing with PvP forum warriors – however much they beg, however much they cry, never EVER feed them after midnight!
It’s ALWAYS after midnight! 11:59 pm? There was a midnight 11 hours and 59 minutes previously.
Best of luck, Sanya.
I know it sounds odd, but I get the whole “Working a part of an industry that isn’t always considered important by the rest, but dammit, this shit really is important!” thing.
This suggests that you actually know of a worthwhile PVP MMO on the horizon.
Great to see you posting again! Look forward to news of your new PvP MMO! (Required Shameless Fanboy Insert) You’re there, so it’ll have my attention.
Definately best of luck to you! (Also a longterm ‘lurker’ – who’s been reading from Camelot days)
…and only 5 crafting alts ;P ?
Good luck on this new endevor! I’m definately looking forward to hearing what it maybe since I have not had much luck finding a new PvP MMO that meets my expectations. DAOC is still the best in my mind though WAR was a lot of fun too.
/back to lurking mode
“I also realized that I want to stay with MMOs. Real ones. I’ve got a couple of “social media” games under my belt, and I did the sports thing for awhile, but while those players are great, there’s just nothing like an old school MMO for attracting, well, my kind of nerd. I make D&D jokes…from experience. I have Magic cards. I can quote ad nauseum from Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Spaceballs, and Princess Bride. There are more than two thousand books in my house, and I’ve worn out more library cards than I have credit cards. I have six alts in LOTRO, five of which were created so I wouldn’t have to “waste” craft materials and recipes. I wept over Challenger and Columbia. That’s who *I* am, and for better and usually for worse, I’m probably not capable of changing.”
This is a declaration that I can support and Love to see written on your blog!