… and good riddance?

I thought of sticking that in the headline, but I’m not so sure. For one glaringly obvious reason, 2008 won’t go down as a banner year for me; but then, I did a lot of good stuff too. Let’s look back. Cue the wavey flashback lines…

The bad

Well, obviously: getting laid off / downsized / made redundant from NCsoft Europe. Easily the biggest thing to happen to me this year, and survivor camaraderie aside, it was an entirely negative experience.

I made it through relatively unscathed, thanks to a reasonable severance package and some timely freelance work. Things are still tight even now, but money is coming in. However, I know plenty of ex-NCsoft people who are still seeking work in this nightmarish economic climate. While NCsoft’s redundancies weren’t a direct result of the ‘economic downturn’ (at least, not that I know of), you couldn’t have really picked a worse time to put a bunch of talented people out of work.

Leaving behind NCsoft led to a few more ‘bad’ things in my eyes: namely, missing out on stuff I was really looking forward to, like organising the NCsoft stand at Memorabilia and executing another great Christmas party for the company. Sadly, I’ve heard both events were damp squibs, and I regret I couldn’t make my mark on each of them.

The closure of Tabula Rasa might not officially be happening until next year, but it was still announced this year and the shockwaves were felt strongly. It’s never good for my industry when a game closes, and it’s not good for those left at NCsoft that another revenue generating title has bit the dust. There are a lot of fingers rossed for Aion’s appearance. Let’s just hope it makes 2009.

The good

This blog will do for starters. There were more than a few people inside NCsoft who were not so happy when I started it – but frankly, I don’t regret it for a second. As far as I’m concerned, I should have started it when I joined the company in 2004. Rest assured it’ll live on, although posting might still be a bit erratic for a few more months.

The Omega Sektor Player Meet, AKA the Heroic Weekend, was a glorious high-note in my event-organising experience for NCsoft. In six weeks flat we created a four-day event on a shoestring budget, and if I do say so myself, it was darn good fun. Unfortunately it’ll never happen again, and not just because I won’t be involved; Omega Sektor has closed its doors.

The Games Convention in Leipzig was a high-point, even though looking back, I feel somewhat slighted about the amount of work many of us put in when the executive team must have known that sweeping redundancies were just weeks away. Regardless, I’m proud of what we achieved, especially the community elements – and the debut of our two best-ever real life characters (not that I’m playing favourites!).

Of course, part of getting to Leipzig was the Quest for GC, which led to me spending every day in August in the office (not even a slight exaggeration) editing video footage. I don’t regret it for one minute. And I will get to releasing that blooper reel eventually.

I also feel enormously proud of helping Draw the World Together scale new heights in fund-raising, particularly as part of the Heroic Weekend. I couldn’t have done any of it without you of course, you generous people you. I’m just glad we could put you in front of talented buggers like Andrew Wildman, David Nakayama, Andie Tong, Mike Collins, Neil Edwards, Jason Cardy, Kat Nicholson and Karl Kopinski. Hope you liked your sketches. I know I do….

Last but not least, the one enormous, dazzling silver lining for me in 2008… I can’t even really talk about yet. It’s a new job. It’ll involve me moving to the USA. It could prove to be my biggest adventure yet, aaannd… it’s all still hush-hush.

Sorry. But hey, at least we’ve both got something to look forward to in 2009.

Goodbye to 2008, then; let’s hope we all learn the lessons of this year and apply them in 2009 and beyond.