I’m pretty sure I’m not bipolar….

What happens to a dream deferred?

 

Does it dry up 

like a raisin in the sun? 

Or fester like a sore– 

And then run? 

Does it stink like rotten meat? 

Or crust and sugar over– 

like a syrupy sweet?

 

Maybe it just sags 

like a heavy load.

 

Or does it explode?

-Langston Hughes, A Dream Deferred

I pick exploding.  

Most reasonable people would tell me that the course of my life is by far for the best given the current economic conditions.  I have a pretty steady job with a smidge of job security given how I am quite literally the only one in my office qualified to do what I do.  Keep the computers running.  Nevertheless, I still would’ve picked that path.

I should step back a little bit.  A good 2 or 3 years ago, I came into 1UP.com’s offices for a job interview.  The fact that I got that far amazed the living hell out of me.  You remember right?  I blogged about it.  I so wanted to work there.  It was kinda like my mecca.  Just a bunch of people dedicated to running a website about the culture of video games.  Not about video games mind you.  The culture of video games.  I can’t think of an office job I’ve had where I didn’t visit the website everyday.  Just another smidge of video gaming news to keep my day going.  Just 5 more minutes.  No wait, just another 5 minutes.  I’m almost done with this article!  That wonderful website.  The one that got me through so many hours of my workday.  The place I fantasize about working in.  Spending hours into the night finishing a review or writting up a feature piece.  All the stuff that most people in that industry probably wouldn’t even dream of glorifying.  Fact is, I’d be proud of it.  If only I could have that chance.  Guess I’ll never know now.

1UP.com didn’t close their proverbial doors or anything, but if you ask me, it would probably be a better way to go.  They were sold along with the rest of the 1UP network.  Given the nature of any business, changes were made.  Change, in this case, is just a euphemism.  If you ask me, the soul have just been sucked out.  Thrown aside like yesterday’s newspaper.  A good 30 people was laid off immediately today.  Many of which made the site what it is today.  The website I dreamed of working for is gone.  They’ll say that it’s still 1UP.com, but that’s just a name.  It was the people behind it that made it a name to be revered.  I went to the website that bought them.  I’ve seen what exactly it is they think is a “video game website”.  It’s not pretty.

I do have one hope for 1UP.com.  The people left standing from this dreadful event are still good people.  My hope is that they carry whatever flame left burning from the soul of the defunct 1UP.com and use it to ignite a new soul.  One that’s worthy of bearing the 1UP.com name.  Don’t let history say that 1UP.com was sold to UGO.  I want it to say that 1UP.com fused itself with UGO to form an entirely new being.  One that remind people that 1UP.com didn’t get sold out.  1UP.com simply transformed itself into something greater than UGO ever was.  I want the name UGO to be entirely forgotten.  Brushed aside by the enormity of the 1UP.com label.  I want UGO to be nothing more than a footnote in the anals of 1UP.com history!

It isn’t going to happen.  I already know it.  But one can dream can’t he.  And I hope this one doesn’t explode on me like the last one did.

Tags: 1up closing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 1:51 am and is filed under Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.