WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS TO THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS [Author: Lum the Mad]

Because I said so.

More to the point, because I’m working in the industry now, and not only that, on a game about to release next month. There will always be the perception that it’s either being handled with kid gloves here, or that it’s being slammed to create the appearance of not being handled with kid gloves, or even more infinitely recursive fits of paranoia. (My favorite: that Sanya and I were hired by Mythic solely to hoodwink the French. Because, you know, I am so popular in France. Especially among role-playing elves.)

So blame me for selling out. Or blame the French. Or blame me for selling out to the French. But the real reason is that I probably need the seperation from the site more than the current owners did. It’s been over 2 years of spewing drool into a web page, after all. Habits die hard.

Uh, no. In fact I’m sort of worried that, since everyone at Mythic is such utter LtM fanbois that I’m going to get in trouble. “Oh yeah, that’s the EX-founder of Lum the Mad. We have him cleaning the toilets now.” If Mythic really were engaged in a conspiracy to subvert the pure ranters of the Internet, they’d have me write for the site again, telling everyone how wonderful Camelot is. Right after I put one over on the French, of course.

I think all massively multiplayer games are kind and handsome and gosh darn it, people like them. Even if they are all getting bought by the French.

I was abused by a mime as a child.

Because I don’t know what to say. Because this is a site about games, sort of. Because it had nothing to do with Shadowbane. Because the world frightens me now. Because I can no longer see my stepson because we don’t want to risk putting him on an airplane. Because people are broken in ways I don’t want to think about any more.

Damn if I know. Can you?

Are you people on CRACK? What, do you expect me to go off on a tear about how I hate the game or something? It is a GAME. It isn’t a religion, it isn’t a way of life, no one is asking you to forsake your parents, it’s just a GAME.

And for the record, I like it. I liked Everquest. I liked Ultima Online. I like MMORPGs in general. That would explain the whole putting two years of my life into writing about them thing.

Well, yes. And no. And yes. No. Yes. Um, it differs.

I would have stuck with mmognews.com. The past few months were just a rotten, lousy thing to do to my friends. “Here, here’s my baby. You take care of it now. Be sure not to screw it up, and I’ll be watching right over here. Oh, and it keeps the name I gave it, just in case anyone thought it was YOUR baby.”

Hey, YOU were the people who insisted I make the final post.

Well, there’s a question.

The Internet is in flux. It can’t be free any more. Advertising doesn’t work. Yet community sites – like this one – are probably as ‘tar baby’ as you can get on the net – wildly loyal readers who don’t contribute a damn thing to the upkeep of the place. Except, well, you guys did, and that alone shocked the hell out of me. I mean, NO sites of this scale run off of donations. Except, well, this one. There’s something to be said for just throwing everything in a corner and trusting that God-As-You-Understand-Him-Or-Her Will Provide.

And now it’s being handed off to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Except, as far as I know, Eldin’s not bald, and I have no plans of appearing in a movie with him where I run around in a funny uniform and emote in fine rollplayah style while fighting Malcom McDowell. But the experiment in voice isn’t over yet – and if anything can be predicted, it’s that the future will be wildly unpredictable.

I’ll be reading, anyway.