I try and keep real life out of this video game blog as much as possible because if real life was so great, I wouldn't spend so much time playing video games.
But sometimes real life is great. Even better than video games.
I know. Stick with me on this!
Recently, I've discovered this first hand. As you can imagine, this was pretty shocking for someone who just three months ago thought her life had reached its apex with the release of Daryl Banner's chiptune cover of From the Choirgirl Hotel.
As I sneakily mentioned in my last post, where it will have gone unread by anyone not interested in Final Fantasy VII, I recently got engaged. This made me incredibly happy because I really like the person I got engaged to and if our Super Smash TV exploits are anything to go by, we make an excellent team. At the very least, we will never be short of brand new toasters.
I mention this partly because there is a definite hole in the market for video games journalism with a bridal focus, and partly because my decision to get married as opposed to devoting myself to a life of video game nunnery took no small amount of thought.
Sorry to get all heavy, but if you get married without wholly committing to the other person and the work it may sometimes take to keep you both together (in every sense), you're potentially leaving everyone involved open to a lot of pain and sadness.
It was with this in mind that, a few weeks ago, I began to look seriously at all the other projects and adventures I'd embarked on over the last few years. Although it's true that none have been lifetime commitments, I wouldn't have started any of them if they weren't worth doing. And as the old adage goes, if something's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
Which is why it is with great sadness that I have made the decision to leave GodisaGeek. After two and a half years, eleven editions of Character Select, countless JPRG reviews and one Duke Nukem launch party (another time, readers), I've come to the point where I can no longer devote the time to the site that I would need to in order to produce work of a sufficient quality.
Tempting though it might be to write passable articles and reviews for a site that continues to grow in reach and influence just for the sake of keeping my name there, I want to write things that I'm proud of and that inspire me, and I just can't do that any more without making sacrifices in areas where I really don't want to make sacrifices.
My final piece for the site is a Character Select article about Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, one of my favourite games of all time. The article doesn't express my love for the game or the character so much as lament their flaws, but as any writer will know, it's very difficult to compose an engaging piece about how great something is.
Maybe it's too sombre a note on which to end such an important period of my life and writing. It's certainly not my favourite Character Select (that would be the one on Uncharted 3's Katerine Marlowe), because it's so detached, expressing next to nothing about my love for a game that I played and replayed, almost non-stop, throughout a very dark year of my life.
Still, it's honest, well-reasoned and fair, and if my time with GodisaGeek has to end, better that it end with Jade than with Rubi, whom I'm glad I never got round to writing about.
My departure from the site means that I'll have more time for the Final Fantasy VII playthrough, which I now realise was a slightly foolish undertaking, albeit one I'm determined to see through to the bitter end. It also means that besides Well-Rendered, I now have no official extra-curricular projects on the go, a first for me since I left university.
Besides planning my Tomb Raider-themed wedding, of course.
I'm joking! Mum, I promise I'm joking. Though you'd make a very fetching Natla.
So it's with a little trepidation that I face the future without GodisaGeek (though the guys assure me we'll stay friends. Frankly, I think they're just worried I'll tell people what happened at the Duke Nukem launch party). Left to my own devices, unfettered by the chains of editorial reason, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do.
Whatever it is, I hope it's fun for you guys to watch.
But sometimes real life is great. Even better than video games.
 |
| Jade is all like "WTF?" |
I know. Stick with me on this!
Recently, I've discovered this first hand. As you can imagine, this was pretty shocking for someone who just three months ago thought her life had reached its apex with the release of Daryl Banner's chiptune cover of From the Choirgirl Hotel.
 |
| Everyone agreed: that 16 bit version of Raspberry Swirl was bitchin'. |
As I sneakily mentioned in my last post, where it will have gone unread by anyone not interested in Final Fantasy VII, I recently got engaged. This made me incredibly happy because I really like the person I got engaged to and if our Super Smash TV exploits are anything to go by, we make an excellent team. At the very least, we will never be short of brand new toasters.
I mention this partly because there is a definite hole in the market for video games journalism with a bridal focus, and partly because my decision to get married as opposed to devoting myself to a life of video game nunnery took no small amount of thought.
 |
| Women. Give them a big rock and they're yours. |
Sorry to get all heavy, but if you get married without wholly committing to the other person and the work it may sometimes take to keep you both together (in every sense), you're potentially leaving everyone involved open to a lot of pain and sadness.
It was with this in mind that, a few weeks ago, I began to look seriously at all the other projects and adventures I'd embarked on over the last few years. Although it's true that none have been lifetime commitments, I wouldn't have started any of them if they weren't worth doing. And as the old adage goes, if something's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
 |
| Jade and the family ponder their responsibilities. |
Which is why it is with great sadness that I have made the decision to leave GodisaGeek. After two and a half years, eleven editions of Character Select, countless JPRG reviews and one Duke Nukem launch party (another time, readers), I've come to the point where I can no longer devote the time to the site that I would need to in order to produce work of a sufficient quality.
Tempting though it might be to write passable articles and reviews for a site that continues to grow in reach and influence just for the sake of keeping my name there, I want to write things that I'm proud of and that inspire me, and I just can't do that any more without making sacrifices in areas where I really don't want to make sacrifices.
 |
| Reality can be scary up close. |
Maybe it's too sombre a note on which to end such an important period of my life and writing. It's certainly not my favourite Character Select (that would be the one on Uncharted 3's Katerine Marlowe), because it's so detached, expressing next to nothing about my love for a game that I played and replayed, almost non-stop, throughout a very dark year of my life.
 |
| Jade watches the fireflies. |
Still, it's honest, well-reasoned and fair, and if my time with GodisaGeek has to end, better that it end with Jade than with Rubi, whom I'm glad I never got round to writing about.
My departure from the site means that I'll have more time for the Final Fantasy VII playthrough, which I now realise was a slightly foolish undertaking, albeit one I'm determined to see through to the bitter end. It also means that besides Well-Rendered, I now have no official extra-curricular projects on the go, a first for me since I left university.
Besides planning my Tomb Raider-themed wedding, of course.
I'm joking! Mum, I promise I'm joking. Though you'd make a very fetching Natla.
 |
| Fehn and Jade greet the new day. |
So it's with a little trepidation that I face the future without GodisaGeek (though the guys assure me we'll stay friends. Frankly, I think they're just worried I'll tell people what happened at the Duke Nukem launch party). Left to my own devices, unfettered by the chains of editorial reason, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do.
Whatever it is, I hope it's fun for you guys to watch.