200X’s – A New Outlook.

It was not really a random remark, but a question so simple that I had somehow never asked it of myself. My friend (and podcast co-host) Darren was visiting me in Japan and we were considering my return to the UK when he asked, ‘Well, what do you really want to do?’

Whenever I had considered my options up until that point I always though about my proven talents and what would make me money while at the same time not driving me mad. I had considered opening a bar, teaching, maybe even trying to earn a PhD. But in all my deliberation one clause had been missing, and Darren asked it, ‘…really want…’

In the third grade of middle school Darren and I had actually tried to write a gaming magazine for our school. I remember that I had no understanding of the bracketed comments from Ed. I knew it referred to the editor, but my idea of what that meant was hazy at best. Believing them to be humorous I inserted random ‘funny’ comments throughout my childish prose. We never finished a single issue of our ‘magazine’ but my passion for gaming never diminished.

My answer came to me faster than I had ever imagined, ‘I want to write about games’. Yes, not the most eloquent of responses, but my point was clear enough. My doubts about any ability I had to actually to achieve this were secondary to the question posed to me, because what I really wanted was to talk about games as a profession.

It was only after moving to Japan that I began to realise there was a new audience for games. While the foreign populous of gamers would be hard to define as ‘average’ their numbers were liberating. I began having adult, and often drunken, conversations about all facets of gaming. Design, story and cultural implications were reoccurring topics in which I found myself consistently and vehemently defending games as more than mindless entertainment.

Edge is top of the line, but GamesTM seemed to take more joy in their writing.

My isolation from English gaming magazines at this time turned me to new sources for my information. Suddenly rather than GameTM and Edge I was reading numerous websites and discovering that while much of their content was reminiscent of magazines I read when I was younger, yet every site hid an undercurrent of mature discussion in some of their posts.

As my western friends slowly returned to their home countries my debates on the merits of gaming abated. I turned to websites for information and dialogues. I found the best of the online receptacles of information could flit within single articles between the serious considered opinions I held, and a jovial humour that ensured the writing never became stale.

I was at this time that I turned to podcasts. I found them an invaluable source of information that didn’t require the same engagement as reading an article. Shows that could last for hours gave voices to writers, and shows like GFW Radio gave me a broader view of current topics in the media and insight into the construction of articles while never ceasing to entertain.

The podcast I aspire to.

All this brings me to the birth of DoFuss.net. Not as a career, but as a learning tool and portfolio. In creating the site, I changed the way I think. Everyday sees the genesis of a new topic for discussion that I may or may never realise in text. I now can’t imagine attending events or following the game industry without the critical eye and focus my writing has given me. It is a change I adore.

I confess my reflections of the decade have been somewhat personal. But I don’t think I am alone in my experience of the last ten years. Blogging has exploded, offering more outlets for opinion and information. It is a trend I am sure will only continue to grow and while I embrace it I do bemoan the fact that the noise sometimes makes it harder to separate the ‘Okami’ from the ‘Imagine Horses’.

Thank you Darren, for inspiring this obsession of mine and letting me discover what I really wanted to do. Also thank you to any and all who read this or my other articles on DoFuss (or the other sites I contribute to) I appreciate your time and input (especially Feitclub and Blokey for their continuing contributions).

Next post will be back to gaming proper, I promise.