[EDITORIAL] You, Me, and Endless History

Okay, guys. This is going to get a little personal first, but trust me. It’ll explain a lot.

I just want to start and have a candid post, but it requires that I state what’s on my mind since it will explain why I’m I’m doing before I actually state what I’m doing. This might sound a little different in tone than most other posts.

If you have followed my personal twitter, over the past year, I’ve had a lot of issues. Not so much started with the real life situation, but other things that began before I was laid off from my job… and god, I hate doing this, because it feels like only kids who want attention to do this, and I promise this isn’t. It’s part of the explanation.

I’ll just start with saying that a certain “ethics-based” controversy opened my eyes on a lot of stuff. I’m not taking sides on it, because everything I’ve seen- regardless of the side you’re on- has been craptacular. It has all made me angry. And most of all, it has made me see the game industry, and especially game journalism, in a completely new- and horrifying- light.

Do I hate games now? God, no. I love gaming- more than ever, I believe. And my love for Falcom is still as strong as it’s ever been. However, as I know I’ve said on my own twitter, I’ve come to realize that- while I don’t mind working short stints for people, like the help I’ve done for XSEED Games. The people I’ve worked with and know there are amazing, and that will never change. Of course I will do what I can to help if I’m called on it in the future! However, I don’t want a job, specifically, in the game industry anymore. I’ve found my ‘calling’ as you want, but elsewhere.

Then we look at the journalists. The attitude from people who write on the internet has been disgusting since that, that I stopped calling myself a journalist and started calling myself a blogger. And the drive to keep things up to date in terms of news has been waning more and more. That I feel stressed to stay on top of everything, and that’s not what this site was supposed to be to me.

Endless History began as a side project back in 2009.

I was in the middle of school. My classes were (mostly) online, and I worked 50 hours on 3rd shift or graveyard. Which put me in a good position to report on things as Falcom announced them. A few years after that, I felt like I wanted to do this permanently. Then stuff happened and broke many poor illusions I had towards certain aspects of things, and now… Seven years later, it’s harder to justify the drive to put myself on top of things all the time. As an added (maybe?) bonus, my schedule has me working different hours, and that won’t change once I’m back in a full time, permanent position somewhere again. Which makes following a Japanese company entirely a lot more difficult, due to the 13 hour time difference.

Basically, real life strikes.

But don’t worry, this isn’t a message to say I’m closing down Endless History.

I mean, that did cross my mind a lot during all of this. I wanted to do that quite a few times during this year of introspection and frustration, but that was mostly due to how thankless things have felt- though not from the fandom. I’ve constantly said that I feel like Falcom has one of the best fandoms ever, so don’t worry about that. However, I want you to take a moment to look at the header at the top of the site.

I don’t know if anyone noticed a small change that I made, but the header that I’ve had for the past couple of years has always had “A Falcom Fan News Site” as its subtitle.

Endless History is changing.

Over the past few months with doing Translation Tuesday, I’ve come to find a renewed love for what I’ve been doing, but not the stress of keeping up with news and release info and so forth. Not only that, I’ve started to see an uptick in traffic to the Translation Tuesday articles.

I want to put more effort into this kind of work, and maybe give shoutouts to other aspects of the fandom that few people really get to see and experience, due to the language barrier. I want to translate event info, and so forth, and not have to worry about the upcoming Dengeki issues and how much I’m behind on the information in Ys VIII, or whatever current game is being released- especially since there is at least another sites that usually gets that just as well. (See below.)

Translation Tuesday will continue- every other Tuesday, there won’t be a change in frequency. I will keep up with Weekly Specials, and possibly call attention to interesting Daily Specials, as well. Event Reports, like the one for 3rd Evo that I’m working on currently, will also be done. Interesting interviews with staff or cast members? Absolutely on the list. And I will also keep with my tradition of translating anything regarding Falcom’s financial data.

So there won’t be much change, beyond a few other things that I intend to do. In fact, I’ve not been posting too much about news lately, anyway. So it shouldn’t be too big of a chance from recent events, though I hope to be able to

Maybe I feel like translating something small for people? What if I felt like translating a random character profile from Crossbell Archives? Little, small things that I don’t feel like deserve a full Translation Tuesday- that sort of thing. Oh, what if I’m inspired to tag in Sniff the Raven for another ‘sniffslation’ on a day that isn’t April Fool’s?

Changes to the Site’s Appearance and Structure

Of course, a change of this sort will also probably mean a change in the site’s structure. I have been scouting around for a new theme for the site. I feel that if the site is changing direction, so should the look.

I also believe the category structure will need to change to accommodate the new setup. I plan to keep the old category tree, but I might drop it under a ‘nested’ ‘original’ or ‘old’ structure, while I start to use a new one entirely.

But… but who do I go to for my Falcom news now?

Goodness, you know my choice? I love Gematsu and their coverage. They’re very good, and they’re definitely on top of things. Not only that, but they’re good to respond if anything’s off with their posts. I’ve not seen them blatantly double-down on terrible translations, or even go as far as insult people who are offering correct information to mistranslations. They are good at staying neutral in political shenanigans. They just report on games, and that’s what I like.

How do I feel about this?

I don’t know. It’s a weird thing and it’s definitely bittersweet. But it’s something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. I talked to some people, to see what they thought, and I was surprised at the number of people who seemed to approve of this decision. I’ve made my place in the Falcom fandom, and while I’m not a news specialist, or a journalist… nor can I keep up with being the first to scoop the info, I want to be able to keep a place in the fandom’s pulse. Maybe instead of focusing on news, I can make a concentrated effort to keep up with information for Falcom, either official, or fan based, and relay it to the community.

The biggest thing in all of this, however, is that sometimes, I think you have to make a big change to make sure something keeps going. I desperately want Endless History to keep going, without the horrible depression over the industry’s state of affairs, or the burnout that I’ve been facing caused by the realization that I can’t keep up with the current events fast enough. I just don’t have the time or energy to do so.

Random Spoiler: did you know that I wrote this post on my phone, in a parking lot, since I had just dropped off a passenger while driving for Lyft when the announcement got made? Thus its brevity. That’s the kind of multitasking that I have to do with this site these days.

…the biggest thing for all of this, however, is maybe I can at least help bridge two different languages of this one fandom. That would be pretty great, wouldn’t it?