The Team At iGame Radio Bids You Adieu
iGame Radio Editor Omaha Sternberg explains why the site has been quiet for a while, and what changes are going to happen because of it.
You know how you play a game where you are part of a team, and everyone but you is run by the AI? Your virtual team knows where to go, who to shoot, and what to do. Rarely are there games where you have to find some way to manage that virtual team as well as yourself. Well, that virtual team in game is all cool and such, but in the real world when you get sick, your virtual team doesn’t do shit.
Case in point: I’ve been sick, up and down, for the past 2 and a half weeks. I have a stellar immune system…the kind of thing a bear dreams of having. I just don’t really get sick. And the few times that I do in a year, we’re talking a couple of days at most. The kind of thing you drink tea, wrap yourself up in bed, and read the news and do game reviews in bed for.
But starting in the latter part of August, I have not been at 100%. And I can’t say that I am now quite there…more like 85%. But just like the day after my Required Day Of Rest (TM) from kidney stone surgery and I was in the trees chopping down branches, I don’t let that stop me from jumping back in the saddle.
I won’t get all TMI on you about how sick I’ve been…suffice to say that when you let a bacterial infection float around your body for too long it can get pretty nasty. And when you have doctors that refuse to listen to you and diagnose you incorrectly, it doesn’t help. Worse was when I thought I had kicked the thing shortly before PAX Prime (blessed be) and spent the three days at the convention. Boy, did I pay the price for that!
The real reason for posting about this, however, isn’t to whine about how sick I’ve been. For years I’ve promoted iGame Radio as though I’ve got a team here…when I really don’t. I’ve had great folks like Corey Tamas, Peter Cohen, and Rob Benson co-host with me on podcasts and even in some cases podcast some reviews and post some news. But for the most part it’s just been me.
Why I promote the idea of a team here when there isn’t I won’t get into now. Let’s just say that there are several different reasons and you’ll probably hear about them later. But doing that leaves an expectation that, when I’m not around, a member of the “team” will take over.
Well, there’s no one here to take care of the site while I’m hauled up in bed in the fetal position. No one to post about the latest news regarding EA, or what I managed to do at PAX (before I keeled over), or which Mac company will get purchased next and then gutted. When it’s just you and your site and you can’t tend it for a while for whatever reason (like you’re sick), you begin to think how long it will be before your fans just say, “fuck this shit, I’ll go somewhere where they actually post stuff.”
I don’t know how to solve that problem. I can’t duplicate myself and tell my clone to go work the site. But I do believe that promoting the idea that more people than just me are working the site is ultimately destructive. I’d like to think that fans of iGame Radio will be a bit more sympathetic towards brief interruptions when they understand that it’s just one person managing everything.
So, from this point on, all blog posts will be from the perspective of the person who is posting it. That will be, of course, me for now. Just like many small sites I actively encourage others who want to participate to contact me if they want to post on iGame Radio too…whether that be just an occasional posting or regular, daily posts. Whether it be news or podcast reviews. But everyone will know that it’s you who’s posting.
This won’t stop me from getting sick again. It won’t make posts magickally appear on the site when I can’t make them myself. But at least you will know that there will be times when iGame Radio will be quiet for a day or two (and hopefully no more than that again without prior warning). And hopefully you’ll understand.
