Another One Bites the Dust
About three years ago, I wrote a very similar post to this one. Titled “Ride off into the sunset” it was an account of bloggers leaving or retiring from the community. Especially those who are established and part of the proverbial furniture. I referenced Zubon from Kill Ten Rats as an example and naturally invoked the mantra that nothing remains the same forever. Many of us go through periods of our life where a specific activity or pastime galvanises us into action. We focus on that activity for sometime and it becomes an integral part of our life and even identity. However, eventually we move on usually because such a hobby isn’t sustainable. Modern life makes too many demands upon our time. Plus we all change as individuals. What delights us today may well depress us in a year’s time. This was the thrust of that post and I now find myself in the sad but inevitable situation of writing it again.
To cut a long story short, two stalwarts of the podcasting community have decided to call it a day. Beej and Void released the final episode of the Geek to Geek Podcast on June 7th. Then Braxwolf stated in a recent blog post that he was effectively taking an indefinite break from podcasting, which means that Beyond Bossfights is coming to an end. Both were excellent shows that presented the intelligent and enthusiastic face of fandom. And for the record I appeared a few times on Beyond Bossfights so it does hit home a little more than just being a casual listener. What I think this situation highlights is the high quality of many of the podcasts that we enjoy on a regular basis. Fan based content is often well researched, written and present. Because it is not a corporate product, it frequently has a sense of sincerity and earnestness that is missing from more commercially driven products. I think as listeners, we are at times spoiled and take these sorts of shows for granted.
On occasions such as this, there is often a propensity to pause and reflect upon the state of whatever community you cleave to. Because overtime there is a natural attrition of content creators, we tend to lapse into a morose mindset and the erroneous conclusion that our community is declining. But that is not really the case. Fandom is thriving and the only thing that is changing is the platform of choice to create content. I currently follow over 60 gaming blogs and continuously discover new fan based YouTube channels. As for Twitch it is a veritable cornucopia of fan driven material. So I don’t think that everything is going to hell in a handbasket. Fandom is simply evolving as all social phenomena do. I am a little sad on a personal level about the end of two very good podcasts but “them’s the breaks” as the saying goes.
