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| The original 2000 Armchair Empire banner. |
The year was 2000, the month August, two 23-year old guys thought it would be cool to have a website devoted to writing about video games and action figures. Google wasn't a thing and Steam was associated with trains. Happy Puppy loomed large on the video game reviews landscape. Jeff Green wasn't the Editor-in-Chief of Computer Gaming World. Nintendo Power not only existed, it was going strong, running alongside the likes of (the original) EGM and GamePro. Argon fluorohydride was just discovered by Finnish scientists. Amazon was still "new fangled." The Playstation 2 had recently launched.
It was a more innocent, less cynical time. At least in the eyes of a 23-year old guy with a wife and a newborn.
I'm not sure I'd recognize that guy from 13 years ago. More hair, none of them gray, a wide-eyed awe that video games were being delivered to his door so he could play them then write about them.
Video games, never mind the rest of the world, have changed so much over the last 13 years that I do sometimes wonder what that guy from 2000 would think if he were given a glimpse of where the industry has gone, what technology is available -- an iPad would have rocked him but he probably would have been disappointed that tech of Neuromancer hadn't been realized -- and what he would accomplish in those 13 years.
Anyway, I'll be the first to admit that I've had a love/hate relationship with the site.
At one point a few years ago I labeled The Armchair Empire as a "momument to my failure" to break into paid games journalism. It was a definite low point but getting it out in the open helped me realize that the site has actually offered me a lot of opportunity to do interesting things and interact with some really cool people, aside from giving me an outlet to develop my writing and amass a collection of action figures and games.
In a strange way The Armchair Empire has become this mute Thing that pins down many corners of my balloony existence. Without it, some parts of me would float away.
Or maybe it's the other way. I'm holding the string because I like holding onto that balloon. It's my balloon! If I want to let it go, I'll do just that. I wrought the balloon -- manufacturing the latex, mining the helium, weaving the string -- so I should be in control rather than the other way around.
And as much ownership as I take for the site and where it's gone over the last 13 years, I really couldn't have done any of it without the contribution and assistance of Jeff Nash, co-founder of The Armchair Empire. I'd also like to thank publicy (again) all the past and current writers that have contributed one way or another, over the years. There are many of you and my memory is actually foggy on some of the names but I'd like to thank Mike, Lee, Sidd, Jason, Syd, Axel, DD, Kurt, Danny, Jorge, Scott, Peter, Stefan, Matthew, and a long list of other people. My communication has sometime been fragmented and sporadic sometimes, and I'm sure they all, at one point or another, have looked at a game I sent them to review and said, "Why did he send me this dreck?" but they still write. Thanks guys!
So, as The Armchair Empire lurches toward a second decade -- a cool 20 years would be a nice goal to hit, plus I could hand off some of this stuff to my kids -- I look forward to whatever the future brings!
- Aaron Simmer
