Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By Quintin Smith on July 4th, 2011 at 5:54 pm.

Hello, ladies! Men.

I joined the RPS team this time last year. Following almost twelve months of PC gaming news, reviews, thrills and spills, some of which the RPS server was actually up for, I’m announcing that today, the fourth of July, or Quindependance day, will be my last day on the site. I’m going back to ordinary freelancing. But before I go, I’d quickly like to say thanks.

The RPS readership is, as you lot must know deep down in your aluminium, fan-cooled hearts, the finest of any gaming site around. I’d like to thank you for making me laugh every single day with what you write in the comments, as well as generally being a pleasure to write for. I’d especially like to thank everybody who ever wrote in with a tip for me, because you contributed to my humble dream of being able to start drinking at 1pm.

I’d like to thank the RPS founders for not just giving me the freedom to write god knows how many words about Norrland, but to go on to pay me for it.

Most of all, though, I’d like to thank Jim for meticulously replacing every single piece of my cursed PC over several trips to London and then continuing to puzzle over it when it still didn’t work. He fixed it, in the end. Of course he did. He’s a PC gamer, same as you.

While I’ll be around and freelancing for RPS in the future (as well as attending any future London RPS social clubs, for sure), I’d like to close with a list of all the work I’ve done for RPS that I’m proud of, because it’s simply so much longer than it would be for any other site or magazine in existence.

So!

Butchering Pathologic. My love letter to the single strangest, strongest game I’ve ever played, and the only game I’ve loved enough to get a tattoo of.

Planetside: The 1%. Telling stories from within games is pretty much my thing, and this is the single best story I have to tell. There’s some stuff I’d change about the writing, but who cares? It happened to me, I went onto RPS and screamed about it, and people wrote to me saying they really enjoyed it. That’s as crystalline as this job gets.

AHL: The 5am. The above story might be the most cinematic, but I like this one of an expedition into a labyrinthine, evil map secret more. More spooky games journalism! That’s what I say.

Pitchfork Media: A Portrait of Wurm Online. Speaking of spooky journalism, this account of being robbed by hicks in hardcore indie MMORPG Wurm Online is about as intimidating as new games journalism gets.

Gameboys From Hell. Solium Infernum is a play-by-email strategy game by Vic Davis that casts players as arch-demons warring over who will rule Hell. Gameboys From Hell was our epic diary of a two-month long game that came close to ruining friendships. You think Song of Ice & Fire features venemous characters? You ain’t seen nothing yet. I read this again every single year, and it just gets better.

Neptune’s Pride and Falls. This fucking game.

Galactic Bartender. Space Station 13 is a free-form online game where players fill all the roles of a huge space station, making it a bit like Babylon 5 with everybody adlibbing their lines. As a trained real-life bartender, I figured I’d ply my trade in outer space. It went well, considering.

The Song of Onionbog. Seeing as RPS hadn’t yet had the inevitable Dwarf Fortress diary, I figured I’d have a go. Yeah, I didn’t finish it, but I like the format it took- one part new games journalism with one part friendly tutorial, the idea being it could simultaneously show the appeal of Dwarf Fortress while teaching you the basics. The fact that I didn’t play the game for two days and then couldn’t bring myself to return to it and re-learn all those hotkeys speaks volumes. I’m sorry, Dwarf Fortress. I love you.

Captain Smith. How shit can somebody be at Mount & Blade? I found the answer.

Wot I Think: Winter Voices. My single favourite part of working for RPS is nudging unlikely games into the limelight. I couldn’t bring myself to write a positive review of that early version of Winter Voices, but the discussion is the thing.

The Space Funeral Advent Calendar entry. There was a similar thrill in getting Space Funeral on the advent calendar. RPS contributor Brendan Caldwell reckons it’s a funnier game than Portal 2. Minute for minute, I reckon I agree with him.

Wot I Think: SpaceChem. The process of reviewing SpaceChem had me glowing for days. The game was a diamond, I feel like the review captured its brilliance and then you guys commented by the dozen saying you’d bought it and how much you loved it. At best, games journalism is like that- you’re just some tiny mediator standing between the gamer and true love.

This Deus Ex 3 preview. I was always happy at how balanced this one turned out to be, but hearing that the devs felt it captured the game was the real thrill. Sometimes it’s all too easy to feel you’re just bellowing into the dark.

The King of Space interview. A six thousand word tour of everything that makes Eve Online special that I’m not sure any interview I do will ever surpass.

Mine the Gap. Never mind writing about Minecraft first. I like that I wrote about that special Minecraft experience of getting lost in a cave first. If somebody had gotten there before me, I’d have spent years kicking myself.

Snake To Death: The Majesty of Spelunky. The tightest game that I wrote about while at the peak of my “tight” phase. The result is the kind of enthusiasm that at once makes me wince and feel proud. On the subject, you have all played Spelunky, yes? YES?

YES?

OK, that’s it from me. I’m off. You guys take care of yourselves, and thanks again for making me laugh so very much.

xox

~ Quinns

EDIT: Quinns informed us he’d like the following edited into the end of his post: