I take a bit of sick joy in watching this industry crumble. To see all those assholes who censored us, outcast us, diminished our contributions towards projects, pointed fingers, leveed accusations, quietly smothered our career because we didn't share political talking points, doxxed, dug up inconsequential nothings, embellished, ostricized and canceled.

We're all the same, I hold the same tribal mindsets in my mind, I identify others along political lines any more. How couldn't I? This world has gotten absolutely batshit crazy, we must view others through this lens simply to survive, simply to avoid the voilent others who will seek to destroy us, so we can manuever this complex gambit where others have knives drawn, subversions sharpened.

The current empire that is falling into the sand got to enjoy years of finger painting, got to enjoy years of back scratching, and lowered standards.Years of unearned career advancements and easy paychecks as they passed the buck day after day, milestone to milestone. No one had to suffer but the customer, no one had to suffer but the industry itself. These cliques enjoyed a long stint of Kumbay fuckin’ ya.

But there is more to life than singing Kumbaya, and believe it or not, I do feel sympathy, after all this bullshit after all that’s been done and all the decay and the transgressions I feel terrible for everyone in this indsusty because it is none of their fault, they don’t know any better. No one ever held these people to account, no one ever demanded quality work from them, standards, gave them a reason to aspire for more, a reason to grow up, a reason to push themselves and push others around them. Only the fleeting niceties, only the yummy yummy tum tum feelings of affirmation.

And this hasn’t just diminished the quality of the projects we work on, it has broader, far reaching implications for the world we live in. Petty politics, petty judgments, all stemming from innate weakness, from never having built any character.

The worst thing you can do for a child is to spoil them, to gie them everything they desire, to never give them the stern supervision to get their chores done.

People need to build character darn it! Or we spoil, we grow coddeled and lazy and entitled. And then we’re never happy, not only are we not happy, we make everyone around us miserable as we make our childish demands, as we kick and scream for our endless privileges.

Probably a little pretentious, I don’t care. Just calling it like I see, I could say much worse, I am choosing not to.

I had a better way of framing this, but it’s escaping me right now. But what I wanted to try to say with this blog, is that I never want this industry to be as petty and vindictive and self destructive as it is now.

And though there is that petty and vindictive part of my mind that wants to see others suffer as I have done. I have experienced enough hardship, enough unfairness, and I’d like to think I have grown enough as a person because of all this, that I do not wish this on others because in the end, WE ALL SUFFER. The cycle of violence has to stop somewhere.

So while others may think us a villain, a monster, the opposing faction that must be destroyed knowing how terribly we have been treated, knowing how we will exact the same terrible damage in kind as we must surely be as evil or worse than they, that will never be my goal. That was never my goal.

I want SeaCrit to be as god a game as possible, I want this industry to be as vibrant and wondrous as possible. Simple as.

And pulling the knife out of our back and stabbing in the other and twisting it endlessly as has been done to so many of us does not lead to a better industry, does not lead to a better future.

They say the best revenge is to live well. But I think there might be an even better one in this instance. To show to everyone that there was a better way. There was ALWAYS a better way, you assholes.

So I’m going to get back to work in SeaCrit, maybe a bit more today, maybe tomorrow, maybe a few days from now. It doesn’t really matter, we’ve been working ourselves to the bone of late and need a break.

Lighter, more uplifting blogs in the future. Not feeling as hopeless any more, not feeling under the boot, not feeling as though we have to fight for our lives and get the secret out that this industry had on fire and no one is doing anything to save it as those who would put out the fires were being uprooted one by one.

It’s so fucking sad. But enough harping on it.

Not going to be fun or easy, but this industry will grow again, it can become strong again, it has to, we don’t have a choice but to rebuild because it’s too damned important. But it’s going to take some nurturing and it’s going to take seeding, watering, and time. And LOTS of sunlight! It’s going to take the light of day. 

But most of all it’s going to take character. It’s going to take people growing the fuck up and finding it in themselves to admit they were wrong, and that the path ahead will not always be easy, but that it will be worth it. For the good of gaming, for the good of one another, and the good of our very selves.

Really glad I finally found it in myself to write a positive blog, been too long. We’ll see how long we can keep it going! Our longest streak so far was what, 4 blog posts XD

That’s a low bar! Just like this industry has set for itself these days. Come on mother fuckers we can do this shit!