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It's been a long process. I've been working on Vampire since 1998, and writing for it since before then. If you want to get specific, I've been developing Vampire in the form of Dark Ages since even before that.
That's a long time. Six years. A fifth of my life. I revised a world, blew it to hell, and then built a new one using the experience I gained in working on the old one.
Regular readers will remember how nervous I was as the relaunch approached. I couldn't get it out of my mind. Even after putting the first copy sold at the show in the hands of the first dude in line to receive it, I still couldn't shake the feeling that the culmination of everything I had learned and done was occuring in real time right before me.
I had talked about the situation somewhat with friends at GenCon and afterward. Universally, they asked, "What next?" That question lingered with me for a while. I didn't really have an answer for it. I mean, my professional life began and peaked with Vampire. Answering the question might yield a scary answer. It might have made me look beyond my comfortable niche. It might mean moving into something that would challenge me and force me to learn something new.
These aren't bad things, I realized.
I'm done with Vampire. It's time for me to move on. I'll be staying with White Wolf, but it'll be in a much less developmental capacity. In fact, I'll be managing the developers' department. My boss has made a few personal decisions of his own, and vacating his position was one of them, so that's where I'm going.
It's been a fun trip, strange at times, brutal at times, frequently drunk, frequently painful, but always something that I found to be very rewarding in the end. I share that with everyone who's been with me along the way: professional colleagues, the players who buy the game and enjoy it, and friends who aren't part of the game at all.
As my first sort of executive decision, I'm placing Vampire in some very able hands. After that, let's see what I can do with regard to giving some creative guidance to the company on a greater scale than I did before. It's scary. It's a challenge. It forces me out of my comfortable position. It kind of feels like leaving a relationship -- not a bad one, but one that just wasn't any longer where I was.
Good.
That's a long time. Six years. A fifth of my life. I revised a world, blew it to hell, and then built a new one using the experience I gained in working on the old one.
Regular readers will remember how nervous I was as the relaunch approached. I couldn't get it out of my mind. Even after putting the first copy sold at the show in the hands of the first dude in line to receive it, I still couldn't shake the feeling that the culmination of everything I had learned and done was occuring in real time right before me.
I had talked about the situation somewhat with friends at GenCon and afterward. Universally, they asked, "What next?" That question lingered with me for a while. I didn't really have an answer for it. I mean, my professional life began and peaked with Vampire. Answering the question might yield a scary answer. It might have made me look beyond my comfortable niche. It might mean moving into something that would challenge me and force me to learn something new.
These aren't bad things, I realized.
I'm done with Vampire. It's time for me to move on. I'll be staying with White Wolf, but it'll be in a much less developmental capacity. In fact, I'll be managing the developers' department. My boss has made a few personal decisions of his own, and vacating his position was one of them, so that's where I'm going.
It's been a fun trip, strange at times, brutal at times, frequently drunk, frequently painful, but always something that I found to be very rewarding in the end. I share that with everyone who's been with me along the way: professional colleagues, the players who buy the game and enjoy it, and friends who aren't part of the game at all.
As my first sort of executive decision, I'm placing Vampire in some very able hands. After that, let's see what I can do with regard to giving some creative guidance to the company on a greater scale than I did before. It's scary. It's a challenge. It forces me out of my comfortable position. It kind of feels like leaving a relationship -- not a bad one, but one that just wasn't any longer where I was.
Good.
Current Music: Underworld, "Born Slippy"
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Maybe this is more of an F-U to dudes who didn't like Vampire, but