Today is my last day as the Weekend Editor at Kotaku. That’s right: your Cities: Skylines-loving, Rollercoaster Tycoon-playing, isometric RPG-enjoying buddy is moving on. What can I say? It’s the adventurer’s way.
I’ve really enjoyed my time as Weekend Editor. It is a fast-paced job with a lot of responsibility, and I am eternally grateful for those here at Kotaku who read my application and thought that I could be the kind of writer who would keep up with that pace and fulfil that responsibility. And, you know, I had a lot more fun doing it than I thought I would!
After all, I’ve spent almost a year of weekends finding stories that I thought were interesting and sharing them with a reading community that is, overall, pretty damn excellent. I got to show off lots of neat things made with Cities: Skylines, guffaw at a log flume of death, and just kind of babble about my summer fascination with extreme sports games that released more than a decade ago.
Beyond that, though, you all followed me down the rabbit hole of my own bizarre video game interests, and for that I am eternally grateful. Some of the pieces I’m most proud of from this past year include:
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An essay where I argue that Kingdom Hearts and Twin Peaks have a lot in common.
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A short article where I extol the virtues of World of Warcraft’s Valley of Trials.
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A strange report that I did about how players of Battlefield 1 were arguing about a mountain.
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An interview with a YouTube creator who uses Cities: Skylines to work through the history of American cities.
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An essay I wrote about the nightmare of trying to combine two Origin accounts.
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And, of course, pieces that were just about my preferences: I like memorable encounters; I don’t care for magic; I enjoy weird, punishing mechanics; I don’t enjoy same-y enemies in games; I like mimics; I like naming myself Sonny Jim in a video game.
In the process of making these posts, and the hundreds of others than I wrote over this year, I learned a whole lot about research, how to ask the right questions, and how to gather information quickly and efficiently so that you can write something that is maximally beneficial to a reader. While I’ve been writing about games as a freelancer for quite a few years, the sheer amount of methodological knowledge that I’ve gained working with the excellent writers and editors here at Kotaku has been profoundly valuable for me both as a person and as an editor.
But I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering where you can find me after this weekend. Well, you can always follow me on Twitter to keep up with what I’m playing (and what I am writing about playing). You can also watch my show Mages & Murderdads, which is about isometric RPGs.
You can also subscribed to the Ranged Touch YouTube channel for lots of more wide-ranging video stuff. If you’re interested in academic game studies, I also do a podcast called Game Studies Study Buddies that is about making those books accessible for a public audience.
Again, thanks to everyone who has been a regular reader, commenter, or participant in the weekly ‘Shop Contest (there isn’t one today, obviously). You all make the job as rewarding as it can be.
I’ll still be around in a freelance capacity for Kotaku occasionally, so this isn’t goodbye forever, but it is goodbye for now. Anyway, as the band Erasure always say:
Comments
9 responses to “Updated My Journal: Goodbye!”
Is that like three quiting? Is this some super secret scaling down going on?
Doubt quitting probably due to the merger between Nine and FairFax, a la redundancies.
The author is Kotaku US writer. Not Aus.
Stop ruining my conspiracy theory.
https://stayhipp.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Charlie-DAY.jpg
Who else has quit? I’ve not been around due to the holidays
Not gonna lie, didn’t immediately recognise the name, but from the link list it turns out you wrote a bunch of articles this year that I really enjoyed.
Best of luck for the future!
See this is why I’m a lurker now. Friends & patrons come & go & It’s all emotionally too much to invest-in anymore. Just like my Destructoid days all over again.
Farewell mate, I’m glad I barely knew you. All the best with it all.
Just a bit more context for this: Cameron is focusing on his PHD this year, and as a result something had to give so he could fully concentrate on that. It wasn’t mentioned in the article, although he’s talked about it publicly and I figured people might appreciate knowing a bit more about the circumstances.