Nov 15
Massive Bow
It’s been almost exactly six months since I began doing the Massive Update feature for 1up, and it’s been a hell of a lot of fun. Digging my arms elbow-deep into MMOG news every week has really kept me ‘in the loop’, and I think helped with writing here at MMOG Nation on more than one occasion. It also made for the occasional interesting discussion, and whatnot.
I hope you understand that it pains me to say that last week I told my 1up overlords that I’d be stepping back from the column, starting this week.
To give you a sense of the amount of time I put into this column, I’d regularly spend two hours a day -for four and sometimes five days of the week – working on it. The early columns were all done in one go, sometimes requiring me to (literally, not hyperbolically) type for six or seven hours straight to get all the news onto the page. Even up until last week the last push to finish the column usually required a three or four hour chunk of my life.
The problem is one of duplication and context. The asset that people seemed to value in Massive Update is that I know where each piece of news fits into the larger whole. I attempted to convey that through short, witty sentences. I tried to focus on the most important elements for every game out there, with extra ‘fun’ stuff, patches, videos, blog entries, and podcasts on top as a nummy candy coating.
In order to track all of this, though, I have many, many, many RSS feeds to cull through. Unlike on Slashdot, where I only pick the very best angle on a very few stories, to get it right Massive Update basically required that I read every site’s coverage of every patch, interview, preview, review, video about a given game over the course of a week. Now multiply that by all the Massive games out there. Yeah, for something like MapleStory there’d only be one or two stories worth posting in a week. For WoW, though, it was a struggle to make sure that it only showed up three or four times over the course of the Update.
Don’t get me wrong – I loved doing it. I want to thank (again) Scott Sharkey, Jeremy Parish, and Patrick Klepek for their support and assistance with the column. Patrick especially, as he had to deal with my awful formatting every week. :)
Over the course of the last few months, though, I’ve come to the conclusion that I *can* work too much. It got to the point, just after I got back from my whirlwind cross-country jamboree late in the summer, where the amount of writing I was doing was affecting my health and peace of mind. I’d also like to think I’ve done a good job with all the articles I’ve done this year, but I know that some pieces were not up to the level of quality I would have liked. So the new goal is to refocus. Do less, do it better, and most of all – don’t kill myself.
I hope you’ve enjoyed Massive Update, and my gratitude (again) to the many people who have complimented me on the column since May.
12 comments12 Comments so far
Now now, come on, spit it out. The real culprit is Mass Effect! Now that it’s out you can’t fathom spending less then a few hours away from it! ;-)
Seriously though, I can only image the sheer amount of work that went into your column. And though I’ll be sad at seeing it go, I’m glad you’re doing it for you own sanity – good call. It was a great column that gave me a quick overview of the whole MMO scene on a first pass, and would let me dig further upon a reread.
Some great work there Michael.
Now stand-up, be proud and salute!
Cheers,
David “CrazyKinux” Perry
Me and my 380 RSS feeds feel your pain.
That was an insane effort you were pouring out and more than once your extensive column reminded me that there was an important topic missing from my podcast show notes.
See, now where will Brent get his material.
Everyone knows Brent just makes up all his news anyway ;)
We’ll all miss the Massive Update – but you did a damn good job on it and it was obvious how much work you put into it. Take a break ;)
As Darth Vader once said, “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Thanks for putting so much into the Massive Update. It has been one of those wonderful things in the MMO world that I’ve looked forward to every single week. Now, it’s gone. :(
At least I have the 40 posts an hour at Massively to look forward to.
Great job, and enjoy the break from that column.
Thanks folks. Your kindness is appreciated.
Thanks for all your effort Michael. The Massive Update was appreciated by the community and was a huge undertaking on your part…and you did it well.
Someone remind me to gut punch Kendricke if he ever shows up at the MMO gatherings.
Damn, I was really enjoying these updates as well as opposed to sifting through my own feeds to catch any information that I missed for the week. ) I was very impressed with the amount of work you put into those posts. I can relate to how much time consuming these link-wrap posts are after doing a couple on Massively that pale in comparison to your weekly 1up massive update. I really thought you were hitting your stride in the last month, I felt your writing and humor improved too. It is a shame to see you stop, but I have a feeling you’ll be writing more for Massively and your own blog, so it isn’t a total loss! Maybe, you’ll have more time for the IM bs. Riggggght. haha.
I’ll come to the gatherings now just because you said that! :P
I’m really sad to see it go Michael but I thank you for the effort you’ve put in. I can honestly say I’ve read almost every Massive Update you did and always found a few interesting news nuggets.
I’m glad you’ll at least be continuing to work with MMOG Nation
Yeah I know this comment is like a month late….
Was a huge fan of the column. Sad to see it go but glad I was able to find your website.