Strange Phenomenon

Over the past few weeks, my go-to web portal for game information, 1UP.com, has lost two of their editors. Jeff Green, the Editorial Director for PC, and Shawn Elliott, also a PC editor (forgive me if I don't have their exact titles here) left within two weeks of each other. This was devastating to me, and many other faithful readers and podcast listeners, if I'm not mistaken. Jeff had been at Ziff Davis (the parent company for 1UP, EGM magazine and formerly CGW/Games for Windows magazine) for 17 years, serving most recently as the Editor-in-Chief of CGW, which in turn became Games for Windows magazine. It was in no small part to his writing style and presence on the microphone that I was drawn to the site, print magazines and the podcasts they produced. Shawn, working with Jeff on the magazine website and podcast, possesses a quick mind and amazing wit, could be both raunchy and crude, while thought-provoking and insightful, often in the same sentence. Those two gentlemen, along with other PC editors, put out one of the most entertaining podcasts I've listened to in GFW Radio. They will be missed greatly in the gaming journalism space, as they have moved on to careers with EA and 2K Boston respectively. (Jeff now has a personal blog, which coincidentally has a post on Shawn's departure that easily sums up why I loved listening to and reading his work).

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, good reader, the reason I'm telling you this is because I wanted to use it as a backdrop for a phenomenon I experienced when I found out they were leaving. I felt sad. Not the, "Aw shucks, they're leaving. Oh well, on to another game of Halo!" kind of sad. I'm talking about the, "Man, a great friend who I spend a lot of time with and who I look forward to talking to every day, is moving away and I'm never going to see him again!" kind of sad. It was clear to me that I enjoyed listening to them during their podcasts, and derived great pleasure from reading their work for the magazine and website, not to mention their editor's blogs they updated, but I didn't realize that I had formed a bond with them. And that's the strange part. These are people that I don't know, who don't know me, but I still feel a loss when they won't be a regular part of my life anymore.

It seems clear that EA and 2K Boston will be better for their presence, and it will be fascinating to see what impact they have on their respective projects (neither of which are public knowledge at this time). From reading Jeff's editoral blog about leaving (here) and listening to Shawn discuss his future on the final GFW Radio podcast (here), their reasons for leaving are very sound and show great judgement. With all of that said, I still feel a tinge of sadness and minor personal loss.

I'm not sure if there was a real point to this rambling post, other than that I wanted the opportunity to voice these observations and feelings, to see if anyone else felt the same way. For some reason, I'm having a hard time rationalizing why the fact two people (who live on the opposite coast and who I've never met in person) leaving their jobs for better ones would affect me in this way. I guess I'll stop here for now, and wish them the best in their future endeavors. As was displayed on the screen at the end of Jeff's going away video, "Best of luck. Make great games."