Thoughts On My Colony Wars Article Reception

These guys are cool, you should check them out. Tell them I sent ya.

[Update: 10-3-11 11:34pm. Mike Anthony of Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops and Lead Programmer of Colony Wars & Colony Wars: Vengeance is now up on Gamasutra. This is probably the last of what I'll write about one of my favorite franchises. Enjoy]

There are times where I wish this was my full-time job. This, whatever this is I'm doing.

To the people who know me personally, you should know that for almost two years I've been in talks with game developers from California and the U.K. I'd been doing research on how the game franchise Colony Wars was produced.

There were trials and tribulations. I went through a series of depression while working on it, because of a lot of factors. Mainly, who the f**k is going to read an in-depth piece on a game that came out over ten years ago? In a genre that is pushing up daisies? On a console that is currently collecting dust in my closet?

Something magical happened this past week. Christian Nutt [the editor of my piece on Gamasutra] e-mailed me Tuesday telling me the piece would go up Wednesday. When I read it, it was like the biggest weight lifted off of my shoulders. I stopped myself from pursuing any other interviews until this was finished.

However, there was another factor I didn't take into account. People actually reading it! 

Andy Satterthwaite was the first to comment and extend an invitation to further extend the story told in the piece. I immediately jumped on it. Christian e-mailed me to make sure I saw it. I was enthused.

Maybe too enthused. I figured since Colony Wars may be fresh in the minds of the average AD/HD gaming blog reader, I should hurry and put out the thoughts of Mr. Satterthwaite. Unfortunately I assumed the thoughts he shared with me were for the world to see and I assumed wrong.

Lesson learned. Always make sure you're "on the record." Satterthwaite was not pleased that I spelled his name wrong [last name != Satterthwhaite] and even less pleased that I essentially took all he shared with me via e-mail and put it in a blog post.

I stressed over the original piece for a year because I wanted to make sure all parties involved were given their due, only for a rookie mistake like content confirmation to trip me up. It'll never happen again.

These guys are cool too. Enjoy their words.

I feel like I'm painting a picture that's incredibly morose, this experience has been one of learning and genuine delight. After the original piece went up, I spread it around to gaming historians and people I respect in the press and the response has been incredible. Even one of my favorite writers, Justin McElroy picked it up for Joystiq. 

Even after the Satterwhaite mishap, there are still developers contacting me with their feelings on the piece and their contributions. All of which will be posted on my blog on Gamasutra in the future. I'll be sure to update ya here.

I've done interviews before. Amatuer stuff that's been, moreso, for my blog and friends who are into what I'm into. I've never really put myself out there as a guy who wants to make 'oodles of cash' off of this. I write about this because I'm genuinely dedicated. However, if you do want to throw oodles of said cash at me, I'm not absolutely opposed to that. It's just not my immediate goal.

What I've learned is that not everyone you write about is going to agree with your words or your methods. And sometimes, you gotta eat that poo-poo burger.

But I'm proud of how things turned out. I'm glad that you guys/gals have supported me and this strange little endeavor thus far. And ultimately, more of my strange little personality is out there for the world to see [geez, really?].

This is my first full weekend off to myself and it probably didn't help that my day job had me doing some crazy hours these past couple weeks. Answering e-mails at night then going to work the next day to move around 70-pound boxes wasn't what I thought I'd be doing when the Colony Wars article was posted.

But I'm happy. And that's enough for me.