I did not care to post something on this publicly, and no one event or series of events is responsible for me doing so now. It is simply the realization that I probably need to be transparent in regards to this one time and one time only. Hopefully it is not construed as negative, though given how comments of a similar nature often are, it likely will be spun that way somewhere. So be it. I have been quietly distancing myself from almost anything regarding Twin Galaxies and much of the community that surrounds it. This has actually been going on for the majority of this year, and numerous people have been told in private, including the founder of the organization. I also recently requested any and all mentions of the name be removed from a feature article about me, all as part of this desire and decision. My entry into TG in 2008 was not a typical one. I did not ask to join nor did I volunteer to do so. Then-head ref Blaine Locklair made a couple of casual offers to me to join the staff that I declined, as I was having fun just sending in scores as I went to cross some things off my bucket list. I nearly lost my life to diverticulitis in 2007, so I aimed to take care of some things I didnt do earlier in life. That was one of them. After Blaine resigned for personal reasons, he urged then-owner Pete Bouvier to come get me and that is exactly what he did. One one cool October morning in 2008 as I was headed to my arcade workshop to restore a Neo-Geo 4-slot, Bouvier called me on the phone and basically would not let me off of it until I accepted his offer. He told me of a great many things he had in the works and by the end of the call wed come to a business arrangement. Some signed paperwork and a few more hours and he was introducing me to the rest the staff via conference call. I wont go into the details of the arrangement, but the number of events and pressers that took place within my first eight months should paint the picture. All was going great until July 2009. One day there, Pete tried to talk me down on my cut of the payout for the E3 event with G4 where Steve Wiebe went for the Donkey Kong record on live TV. When I refused (I already wasnt getting near enough for the 200+ hours it took to prepare that broadcast, nor the last-second consulting producer tasks I took on for it during broadcast) he gave me my cut... with instructions to bring no further business to TG without pulling him in as part of the talks. This essentially neutered my position and at the time I considered leaving on the spot. Instead, I stuck around. In hindsight, I wish I hadnt. Pete pretty much killed any deals I tried to bring aboard all while he continually asked me to be his hatchet man. Among my fun roles was observing and reporting on the activities of a gamer suspended from TG at the time and instructing the rest of the staff how matters regarding him were to be handled. Of course, few know of how it went downhill later, both internally and externally. They dont know of how a supposed star of the 80s and present of TG tried to strongarm me into doing a huge press blitz for two world records hed set before there was any information on the TG site about them or any due diligence given to them. They dont know how in the days and months to follow that how Pete shorted me and my wife thousands of dollars and book credits. They dont know how a legend who thinks game controllers are business wear treated me like trash both then and up until recently. Few would, as I never broadcast these things nor do those who assume to know all ever bothered to ask me. Long story short, in early 2011... I quit Twin Galaxies. All Ive received since that day is heartache, annoyance and BS. Pete went back on all the promises of my exit, quickly beginning to treat me and my continued support of the players as some kind of competition and throwing me under the bus with the very gamer he asked me to keep tabs on while on staff. Meanwhile, I was pigeonholed by much of the very community I supported as much as possible as nothing more than a guy who was somehow expected only to write articles about what they felt was worth celebration, never to get anything for myself... and never to get any support from most of those people for myself when I accomplished something. Sadly, this never changed. Ownerships have changed, but not the behavior. Ive been thrown under the bus and had promises broken toward me to some extent by the two successive owners while my past contributions and potential future contributions are dismissed. Meanwhile, much of that same community continues to ignore anything and everything Ive done for myself and my brand as they expect me to only produce written content to stroke their own egos. And, of course, in addition to it all I continue to be harassed and verbally assaulted by a person Ive attempted to leave behind with the rest of it for years, having to see my personal life lied about and trashed, including my family and friends, all over paranoid accusations fueled from me doing nothing more than what Pete had asked me to do. All too much of that very same community that expects me to be there to stroke their egos turns a blind eye to it, too. None of it is important nor needed for me to continue in the direction Ive been doing in for some time now, yet no matter how much I try to cut it out of my way it continues to creep in. No, folks... dont expect many, if any articles about world records from me going forward. It is not how I ever should have been defined in the first place. Dont expect me to get all glee-filled and excited about some trading card or contest or happening within a community that, for the most part, cares not for anything I have going on here, either. I should have done this in July 2009 but you know what they say about hindsight. The majority of things tied to Twin Galaxies since that time have only brought me heartache, harassment and disappointment and for the most part has not been a good investment of my time. It is also not needed for me to continue to grow my professional career nor wanted within my personal life. I simply wish for the overwhelming majority of anything associated with it... as well as most people associated with it... to leave me be and let me continue to blaze my own path without this albatross attempting to slow me down. Over the course of 2014, I have been making a strong effort to spend my time only where my contributions and goals within video gaming and entertainment are understood and valued. None of that seems to lie within the newest incarnation of Twin Galaxies nor the communities that continue to exist in orbit around it. This shall be the final public mention of the name within this space going forward, at least until such time where I feel I can be free of this. Clearly that time is nowhere near, and may never be again. I wish the past, current and any future incarnations of Twin Galaxies and related communities the best of luck in their future endeavors. I just cant bear to be weighed down and distracted by it anymore.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 19:45:35 +0000
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