Hey Sparky ole' buddy,

Just happened to see this in my , weekly-ish look at the site?

I'm basically 1.5 feet out the door myself, been edging that way for years as I grew more impatient waiting for the community aspect I cared about to get engineering focus. But it never did and I understand why and don't begrudge them doing what they felt they had to. While I'll always believe this didn't have to happen, I recognize that it did and they still maintained the community when they didn't have to. I'm grateful for that. Giant Bomb was an incredibly beautiful thing in its glory once upon a time and maybe it will be again in a different way.

But the staff exodus in May was basically the final straw for me. Not because I was angry, just that I couldn't kid myself anymore. It was kind of a relief in a way, to finally know no cavalry was ever going to come.

I actually think the current plan of contractors and whatnot could be really smart as a business move, it's just one that doesn't interest me personally at all. I never came here for the personalities, though I quickly grew to like them. I looked a bit at Nextlander, but the magic isn't there for me either. Which makes sense, Nextlander is basically 100% personality focused as you would expect. I wish all current and former GB people well and hope they all find big success.

I'm mainly still infrequently here to just figure out how to backup my lists locally somehow, which I've been procrastinating on doing for months. Once I do that, I'll probably log out for good. For now I' m migrating my list making habits over to backloggd. It's about as good of a substitute as I've found, but it's not the same. Nothing is and probably nothing ever will be. I've been looking for years, GB is/was one of a kind in many ways.

Anyway I hope you are finding joy and ways to connect with people in other ways outside of games since games are losing their luster for you, whether that's through writing/literature (which I know you are into) or your family or what inspires you. I still am pretty into games but I'm definitely choosier about what I play. Granted social media is a super toxic net negative, but withdrawing from everything totally and replacing them with nothing isn't really a viable option in life.

You've always been one of my favorite people to converse with on here, feel free to hit me up on Steam or Discord if you ever want to say hello/chat.

@slag: Oh shit, can't believe I forgot your name on the people I wanted to shout out. There's going to be a dozen more of those before I leave.

The staff exodus was a hard one, to be sure. I've been hit or miss on content for a long time, not really out of any fault of theirs, but just because life happens. I cancaled my premium sub a week or two ago and it felt... okay. I don't mind the new content and I'll probably always dip in now and then to listen to the Bombcast, but my enthusiasm for all of it isn't what it was. I have a sub for Nextlander and I intend on watching more of their content, but honestly, I think I'll let that go too. It's time to put away the childish things, so to speak.

And I'm with you there on lists. I had so many plans and great ideas for those. Letting ten years of them go should feel like more of a drain than it is, but besides everyone's GOTY lists, I'm rarely reading others' and I know mine are next to pointless too. I don't know that I'll save mine, but by my figuring, rereading my blogs is going to take months, so I'm not ruling out doing something with my lists too.

Anyways, yeah, stay in touch. High five, cool person.

Cam, you have always undeniably had a way with words. For years your blogs have been one of my favourite things about this site, and even as community spirit has waned in recent times I'd still be super psyched on the occasions I'd see your icon accompanying a new blog notification whenever I hovered over that little orange bell in the top-right corner. Knowing that this might be one of, if not the last time I get that feeling is a bitter pill to swallow.

And I get it. Boy, do I ever get it. Especially that sense of perpetual exhaustion and exasperation, waking up tired and going to bed grumpy every damn day. I stepped away from Facebook last year and haven't looked back, but I know I still engage too much with rolling news online via websites and YouTube. It's hard to unplug, especially when trying to do so makes you feel like you're (as you say) burying your head in the sand and ignoring the world's problems. But I'm increasingly recognising just how necessary it is to make an effort to disengage from the relentlessness of hyper-connectivity and be present for what's going on in my life right now. I have a manuscript I desperately need to pull out of the literary proving drawer and put the finishing touches to. I have a wedding to look forward to and prepare for. I have a potential job promotion in the pipeline, which is pretty significant for me after almost a decade of working in the same role. That's the kind of stuff I need to be focusing on these days. Not the bi-partisan vitriol that passes for discussion in all nine circles of this hellhole we colloquially dub the internet.

Giant Bomb is... Well, it is what it is. I let my sub expire a couple of months back and haven't engaged with any new content since, and I'm fine with that. Much like Slag said above, I've always had more interest in the community that congregated around the site's personalities than the personalities themselves. More recently my taste in games criticism has swung towards long-form content, retrospectives and analyses that seek to examine video games as experiences to be cherished rather than products to be consumed. These days I visit the site maybe once a week, check out what's new from the folks I care about under the aforementioned orange bell, update my recently played list if I've beaten anything, and move on. Very occasionally I'll stop a little longer to write a blog (I was actually considering throwing something together today concerning Primal, which I played a couple of months ago). I suspect that once a week will drop to once a fortnight, then once a month, and eventually I'll just stop coming here altogether. Again, I'm fine with that.

The main downside of stepping away from social media is that it's harder to stay in touch with the incredible people I've been lucky enough to get to know on this website. Especially as one by one we drift away from the very thing that brought us all together in the first place. I'm pretty sure I remain subbed to the Rankin Flats Observer newsletter to keep up with your professional goings-on, and I'm also on Steam chat, albeit infrequently. WhatsApp is about the only social media app I continue to use, purely for practical reasons in terms of organising shit with friends, colleagues and team mates, so if you're a part of that ecosystem, let me know and I'd be happy to PM you my number. You're easily one of the nicest, most genuine individuals I've had the pleasure of encountering either online or in person, so please don't be a stranger. And hey, if by chance you ever find somewhere out there that contains even a trace of the magical spark this place used to have back in its heyday, save me a space and send me an invite. I'll be sure to do the same for you.

It's been a pleasure reading your stuff and chatting over the years, but yeah, I totally get the desire to step away.

With how much of our lives are spent online these days, it's never a bad idea to be reassessing how we're spending that time (and how much). Ditching FB and decreasing my time on Twitter (occasionally forgoing it entirely for a stretch) has really been good for me. I could probably stand to decrease that time even more, but it's tough to leave it all behind.

As for GB, there's no denying that things have changed drastically over the past couple of years, in terms of both the content and community. The future of Giant Bomb is still very unclear, and the ride GB is on and the final destination aren't going to satisfy everyone. Now is a perfect time to take a step back and take stock of how (or if) you want to continue engaging with things here.

@danielkempster: I definitely do miss the easy way Facebook made connectivity easier. Twitter, on the other hand, always felt like shouting into a void until you say just the right (or wrong) thing, and I'm not chasing that particular dragon. Strangely enough, despite not having had a social life for the last two years (gee, I wonder why), I feel far less lonely having ditched Facebook and Twitter than I did on them. I think being able to connect to my characters and words has helped a ton in that regard, and just the general peace helps too.

And yes, we'll keep in touch... er... somehow. I have an idea that rather than deleting this account altogether, I'll just change the password to something incomprehensible, leave email notifications on, and then if someone does need to get in touch, I can pop back in that way. And I don't want to truly shut the door on this place in case I can get in a better mindset years down the line. I really do love the community and the site and maybe, hopefully, I feel less argumentative and can function again online without that pervasive sense of stress.

Best of luck with the wedding and the potential promotion. I'm sure you'll kick ass. Er... with the promotion. Not at your wedding... although, come to think of it, that does sound like fun. Inflatable punching buddies at every table at the reception. Hmmm. Think about it, Dan.

@chaser324: Hey, you too. And yeah, I don't begrudge GB the changes it's making, and I like a lot of the content creators they're bringing in. The things I want out of a gaming site these days might not even be possible any longer, given the shift in audiences' tastes and what not. Like I say, my criticisms of Giant Bomb aren't a matter of what the site is, but rather a realization that maybe the kinds of interactions I want aren't here - if they're anywhere. The world changes, and old man shake their fist at the sky, right?

Anyways, keep up the great mod work. It was a privilege getting to do that with all of you and a lot of fun. Sorry for constantly being so hot-headed and such. And someday we really are buying that moderator airplane and retiring to South America. Or vacationing there? I forget. Anyways, mod party plane, for certain.

I have always enjoyed reading your blogs. I am not one who posts a whole lot or even blogs, but as someone who has had Giant Bomb as their home page for so many years now I am always here and poking around.

I totally know how you feel about stepping away. As someone who has spent many, many hours working on the wiki on this site I am ALWAYS frustrated by the lack of support or seemingly care that goes in to it. I get that it doesn't make them money, but I have always loved it.

I will look forward to still seeing you pop in occasionally and hope for nothing but happiness for you.

I've mainly lurked on this site but I've always enjoyed reading your blog postings throughout the years. I only rarely come on here anymore but it has always been nice to see a notification that you had posted something.

I know what you mean about stepping away and completely understand. Good luck with everything.

Gonna miss your write ups on here, obviously, but I can understand the sentiment. I'm not quite there yet, but obviously my posting habits here have basically fallen off drastically as I've retreated to Discord for more of that community aspect. For whatever it's worth, I still keep posting my nonsense here, mostly because I'm not entirely sure people would follow me if I made my own website or blog or something. Still have pretty much everything from the last couple years saved on Google Docs should I need to back up anything, but at this point I acknowledge that my dumb writing exercises for GB are *for me* and if anyone else wants to follow along that's just icing. Unlike my burgeoning streaming and podcasting career, which will doubtless rake in up to tens of dollars.

always feel free to contact me on Steam or Discord or during aforementioned high profile dubious streams. You're good people, Sparky. Let me know what you think of Phoenix Point.

@bobafettjm: Hey, thanks, Boba. In some ideal world game historians like you would be getting paid some crazy bucks to do all that work, but know it's appreciated as someone who still tries to use the wiki. We'll have to touch base now and then on Steam.

@cyrus_saren: Thanks very much, Cyrus. And that's a username I haven't seen in a while. Good to see you, even if it's just in brief.

@arbitrarywater: Oh, definitely going to pop in and annoy you on stream, for sure (and if anyone else sees this who has a Twitch, Youtube, or other creative endeavor, shameleslly plug your stuff here because I really do want to know). Your writing has always been top notch and hopefully your creativity parlays into a career, either Twitching or writing or wherever it takes you. Keep in touch.

I'll miss you Sparky. Despite all my lurking I always enjoy seeing you pop up on my feed and like everyone has said you have such a great talent. I can only offer all my best wishes for the future and every happiness in wherever things take you. *hug*

@sparky_buzzsaw:

Haha no stress dude, Nobody can remember every name when doing something like this.

yeah tbh, I started falling off the content when the east/west split happened. I was able to do 2 podcasts for like a 1.5 years but it just too much to keep up with at the time and if I didn't do both I felt out of the loop. I was and am too busy to listen to 6-8 hours of podcasts. So weirdly going to listening to zero made more sense for me than just picking one. I always liked the free GB stuff a lot more than the premium stuff, so I've been free only for eons.

Eventually I was off the podcasts altogether, but I kept up with the Quick Looks until the exodus. But now I'm basically down to nothing. But that isn't what did it for me, I have confidence content will recover and some of the new batch of personalities strike me as having a ton of potential (#teamVoidburger) It's just the knowledge that site is finally undergoing the well overdue needed massive transformation and the community stuff I care about has about 0% chance of ever being a focus again.

y'know my mentality/goals for lists is probably different than yours. I mainly made/make mine for myself cuz I like doing it. You should see my spreadsheet I keep locally, it's effing massive haha

Helps me sort my thoughts y'know? Any discussion they generate is a super enjoyable bonus that I'm always grateful for, but I don't go in expecting any. I always made/make a point of commenting on others because I know how much work it is to make a good one (and I enjoy hearing different opinions).

So to me, my lists have a point well beyond Giant Bomb and I think yours do too. You've made some good ones dude, definitely some of the best I've seen in my time here and it's why I started following you years ago, don't knock yourself.

But yeah man, It's not goodbye, you know where to find me :)

@moonlightmoth: Aw, thanks so much, Moonlight. Always enjoyed your reviews. Keep in touch on Steam!

Hey bud.. I just wanted to come in and say you will be missed, but I get it. For the first time I have let my sub slide on the site, and it isn't some big protest on content or missing personalities, but rather I don't have time in my life to watch all the premium content anymore.

For my sanity I got completely off FB and don't engage in discord or in obvious attempts at trolling that happen just in general for the video game community. I have learned in my personal life that there is nothing I can say on an internet forum or chat that is going to make people see the light. Maybe talks in person when they have to see who they are talking to, but as a society that is becoming more polarizing Im not even sure about that anymore.

Regardless, I wish you well in your endeavors, and while I have my suspicions that in the next 5 years this site is either void of a forum, or its really pushed in the background, I did appreciate seeing your stuff or reading your comments on my writings.

Be well

@imunbeatable80: I wanted to make a point somewhere in that blog of letting folks know I'd still be reading blogs on the site, and yours is definitely one I'm going to keep looking forward to seeing. So thanks for the kind words, and keep carrying the torch for those of us old-school bloggers. You are an exceptionally good writer and if you decide to move on from the site at some point, stay in touch. I'd like to see where your writing takes you.

@sparky_buzzsaw: I appreciate that buddy.. those words mean a lot. I'll do ya proud, any particular game you want to see ranked? I can let you pick my next game. You name your top 3 and I'll let you know which ones I have.

I assume you're talking about the unofficial giant bomb discord and, pal, let me tell ya effusively; fuck that.

I refuse to acknowledge this goodbye. It's a website? It doesn't have to be as binary as being here or not here. No drama.

x