The MMGN community has been a central part of my life for over five years now. I still remember the very first time I logged into MyWii.com.au; I was searching for a dedicated community where I could talk about my newest console, and a friend (JackAz) mentioned I should check out the site. I logged in from my work desk on morning and I was instantly hooked, not only did the site have hundreds of discussions surrounding the things I wanted to talk about myself, it simply had a charm and excitement that other online communities simply haven't offered me.
It was almost two years ago when I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to quit my boring desk job and do something I absolutely loved for a living. I was asked to join the MMGN Editorial staff, move to the big city and start a career as a games journalist. I grabbed that opportunity with both hands, working full-time in the MMGN office as the sites have expanded, gone through many changes and launched new initiatives.
It is with a heavy heart that I announce that I have resigned from my position as an editor at this great community we call home. As of today I will no longer be a full-time staff member of MMGN.com.
"Why would you give up your dream job?" is a question I have been asked by many friends as I have told them the news. While I absolutely love writing and talking about video games, sometimes I just wish I could be doing more for the great indie community we have in this country. That is why I have accepted a new job handling PR at local agency Surprise Attack.
I'll still be contributing to the MMGN dream - I'll be posting a few articles a week as a freelancer, I'll be helping out with the Rapidfire community on Facebook and I'm sure I'll even be pitching in with Wii U reviews around the time of launch. The MMGN community is an ever expanding beast, I could never just leave it completely, and I'm glad that I'll still be in a position where I can hopefully write some great articles that you will all enjoy.
I just wanted to share with you some of my favourite memories over the past couple of years, things that I will never forget as I move onto the next phase of my journey.
This is a snapshot of our trip to E3 in 2011. While the conference was pretty lacklustre when it came to announcements, I'll never forget the actual trip with Enboss and Tano. You guys saw our coverage of the Microsoft conference right? What you didn't see was the three of us arriving directly from a 14.5 hour flight, during which we did not sleep thanks to a baby screaming the entire flight, catching a taxi to downtown Hollywood, then the three of us cramming onto a small coffee table at Starbucks and live-blogging via the video feed because we were too late to get to the conference.
Afterwards we grabbed a few six packs of beer and instead of sleeping like responsible adults, we sat on the balcony and simply talked shit for hours. I remember it vividly; Google Music had just been announced by Google and I was frantically signing up and arguing with Endboss over its validity as a competitor to iTunes match.
Making these videos was always a lot of fun, even if you guys never actually liked watching them. Tano and I never really planned anything out - we just filmed whatever stupid idea would pop into our heads and run with it. Sometimes they worked, other times they didn't but ultimately they were just a bit if fun.
I also loved producing the podcast, even though we could never get it off the ground. There simply wasn't enough time or interest to spend the actual effort on producing a top-notch podcast. It was always a lot of fun.
I will never forget the awesome live-streaming series that Kiah, M4cr0bat, H3nley and I produced the week of the Dead Island launch. It was always on super late, and we had access to the game a week before its release here in Australia so we decided to run with it. We had a bunch of members joining us for games of "Would you rather?", along with strangers who helped us make fun of Fashion Zombie! Those were perhaps some of my favourite times playing a video game ever.
Enough about the memories, let's talk about the future. MyWiiU.com.au has launched and it feels fitting that I'm heading out just as the community has come around full circle. MMGN isn't slowing down - it's picking up pace at a frightening speed, and I'm proud to have been a part of the madness over the past two years.
Thank you to each and every one of you who read my articles, offered debate and made my time here an unforgettable experience. I'll still be posting the odd article here and there so this isn't goodbye, but it's a major step that I wanted to share with my online family.
By Stephen Heller