Ah, where to begin?
It’s been a long time, peeps. A long time since what? Since a truly decent Shining (FORCE!) game hit the shelves, or since I first started running my various Shining sites…? Both, actually… and thus the reasoning for this message unfolds.
I must admit, I never thought I’d be making this post – I thought that I’d spend my whole life doing what I’ve been doing for the last 9 years. Reality has kicked in however, and I am beginning to realise that my real life requires a lot more attention than I’ve been giving it.
I’ve always said I’ll stick around for at least 10 years, and I fully intend to hold myself to that promise – I owe it to everyone out there who’s ever supported or enjoyed SFC and its sister sites.
However, as my 10th year working on these sites begins, I feel it is time to prepare for calling it a day. The new games (thus far at least) don’t hold the same attraction for me as the old, I can’t afford to keep up anymore and I find myself feeling more and more stressed each day as I struggle to keep on top of the news about games which quite frankly barely interest me. What kind of a life is that?
As you might have noticed over the years, I’m a dedicated person and I try to give my best at all times – but although I can multi task, I can’t fully dedicate myself to more than one thing, meaning anything else of importance to me will suffer. When I’ve spent more time with Lee, SFC has suffered. When I’ve spent more time on SFC, my relationship has suffered. There can be no balance, my life needs to change.
Things IRL could be much better, and I really need to work on those things now before it’s too late. We only live once; we only get one body; and though love may not be such a once-in-a-lifetime thing, it is nonetheless a thing to be nurtured and treasured… and the feeling will never completely die.
I feel quite at ease about the decision I’ve made, though admittedly it has been an upsetting one to make, I feel less stressed and indeed almost eager to act on it. But, 10 years spake Moogie, and thus shall it be 😉 The decision has not been made lightly, and unless I’ve got some condition I’m not aware of, I’m pretty certain I know what I’m doing 😉
So, over the next year I will be prepping the site as best as time allows, for a new owner. I’ve not yet fully considered who to pass this massive task on to, or whether to make the site more community based and allow users to post news etc. I’ll figure it out somehow… but come May 5th 2006 (and assuming that Lee and I are still together) I will no longer be running this place. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be around from time to time – I’ll contribute comics, desktops, scans etc when I feel like being creative… but I can’t keep doing this.
For anyone thinking of suggesting that I delegate some tasks to mods/admins to ease my workload – thank you for the thought, but I can’t do that. It’s hard to explain quite why, but please accept that it’s just not something I can do.
To be honest, I rather feel like just stopping now – getting into my new lifestyle and just moving on – but there’s preparation to be done and loose ends to tie up. I hope you can forgive me for not seeing this place through until my deathbed as I’d always imagined – and I also hope that SFC will continue to thrive for many years to come 🙂
Now, to the part that might get a few of you excited: the Shining Sale of the Century! With all these changes in my life, it’s time to let go of some of my stuff. I plan to keep my games & books, at least for the meanwhile to help over the next year, but pretty well everything else deserves to go to a new home, to someone who’ll treasure this stuff as much as I have over the years. I don’t want to have to put this stuff on Ebay and sell it to strangers, so I’ll offer it all at SFC first and see if anyone around here wants any of it.
As always, thank you all for your support over the years. SFC wouldn’t be what it is today without all of you… and I believe that SFC will continue to be a great place to be, with or without me!
364 days to go now 😉