The State of VFH Address

Hey, just a little something not Fringe or Doctor Who related. We still exist. Well... I do at least. But when I'm not writing here on my free time, I'm very busy. I go to school, I work in a studio for a whole day each week on what should be my one day off, and when I'm not going to school or work I'm back home, drawing, animating, and doing research for my next film. Sure, sometimes the research involves reading comics, watching movies, and playing games as they apply to the subject matter, but generally its all older things, and I've always tried to keep our content based on new releases. Because of this, my writing time is very limited, and if it weren't for Zach writing the bulk of the Fringe reviews this season, I probably wouldn't do them at all.

I've gotten to see a bunch of movies in theaters that I still haven't reviewed, i.e. Season of the Witch, Unknown, and Rango; one of which I've really enjoyed enough to recommend it to a lot of people. And I've listened to a lot of new music that I haven't gotten to review either. I haven't had any game time though. I bought Mass Effect 2 on PS3, and some older titles, but I've had literally no time to play them, let alone review them. If I do any gaming, its... Angry Birds on my iPod, and right before I go to bed. But despite all this, I've got a 3DS pre-ordered (no games though), as does Zach, and I want promise a rush of 3DS content, but we'll see where the week takes us.

Why the gradual lack of content? Real life, to put it bluntly. Our seventh birthday is in just TWO days. Yes, SEVENTH; that's seven years of my own life that I've dedicated to writing reviews about the things I buy, just so that maybe a few hundred people could read it each day, despite never commenting back (yeah, I check my Google Analytics). Seven years ago I was just starting high school, I had friends from the Nintendo Nsider Forums, and I wanted to share my thoughts on games outside the confines of a message board, and allow them to do so as well.

Thankfully Derek (Reo) gave me that chance, with our own website, and VFH was born. Within those seven years though, things have changed. The world is different, money doesn't buy as much as it used to, and we've all grown up. It's one thing to be able to review what we want whenever we want because someone's parents were nice enough to buy them the latest game. But the real world doesn't work that way when the only money you get goes to food, supplies and rent. The other ... listed writers (I can't really call them active) haven't really been upfront with me about WHY they don't write... but I can get it.

This upcoming year and the following year will probably be the most important time of my life, as I get into production on my thesis year animated film and start looking for a job. At some point I have to realize that I have no priorities in VFH, it's just something that I've done in my free time for seven years. I don't regret any of the time I've spent doing this; I love the feeling of getting that 1 in 1000 comment, I feel more comfortable writing essays and letters because I've spent so much time with VFH. When I brought the site to Blogger, I did so because it made updating even easier, and it allowed me to invite more people and have them share their opinions easier as well. It does sadden me that despite constant efforts to get the other writers more involved with just sharing their opinions, this has always remained a place where I just basically praise the things I like, and Zach doing TV show reviews with me. But, I still got what I could out of it.

I get that we're 1 of a million website on the internet devoted to reviewing games and entertainment, and I completely understand why people would go to an IGN, Kotaku, or other site before here; I go there too. But I never intended to make VFH a competitor for that. I made VFH because it was a place where me and my friends could get together, online, and share with the world I thoughts and opinions. It's why I've always been against putting ads on the site, and shoving the fact that I run a website in people's faces. It's not for the glory, its just a love for what I do. I want to be able to write more about the things I watch, play, hear and read, but I just don't have the time like used to.

I think what I'm trying to say is, if there was an easier way to do this. I would do it. Formal writing takes time, and while it's payed off for me in the long run, it doesn't always make sharing my opinions easy. I could do video reviews, but who wants to be another floating head on YouTube? And then I'd have to worry about video editing. I could tweet reviews, but even as a sentence that sounds stupid. I want VFH to exist, even if I don't always have the time for it.

This is not the end, but it's at least a substantial notice. Thank you.