Where have I gone? Where have I been?

Hi, everyone.

With this being the last week of City of Heroes, I wanted to post this here (and, yeah, this is a cross post from the Victory Forum because that was my home for 8+ years). I was hoping to be spending some time in the sunset of the game, but I haven't been able to. I've been very busy, and I'll get to that in a moment. (Bear with me, here.)

When they made the announcement that CoH was closing its doors, like everybody else I was stunned, shocked, sad, hurt, angry, etc. The whole gamut of emotions and feelings. I still feel the same way -- that this game didn't deserve the fate its masters at NCSoft chose for it. Part of me really wanted to log in, because I'm going to miss this. I'm going to miss Victory. I'm going to miss you. There were so many people who made Victory a great place to play, and the list is far too long to go into.

But then there was this other part of me. I have two main philosophies that I apply to business. The first one is:

A company that is not loyal to its customers is not deserving of loyalty from its customers.

Go back and read that again for a moment.

We live in a world where there are so many companies and corporations that seem to enjoy employing a scorched earth policy to their business practices. They do everything they can to maximize their profits NOW (and only now) so they look good on the quarterly profit margins so their stock prices don't take a hit. Of course, when you think only of the short term, you may very well be damaging yourself in the long term. If you went around, 50 years ago, and polled the CEOs of major corporations and asked them, "Who is the most important person in your organization?" then I would guarantee 80%+ would have said, "It's the customers." If you asked the CEOs of today's corporations that same question, their answers would likely be 80%+ answering, "Our shareholders." That's really a key difference in the way we do business, and many companies suffer for it. Does this sound familiar? NCSoft has suffered a pretty embarrassing black eye for how they've decided to handle this game by thinking in only the short term.

Since this game came out, a lot has happened in my life. I've moved from a small house to a larger house that I built, and in turn (unwillingly) became a landlord. I've had relationships with some terrific (and not-so-terrific) women that have come and gone from my life. I've had two wonderful nieces enter the family and I've been able to watch them grow up from mostly afar.

And I very nearly lost my job. Not in the sense of "You suck at work so you're fired," but in the sense of "We're letting half the department go so we can outsource everyone to India." In the end, I got to stay, but this marks the 3rd time I've basically had to interview for my current job. Let me bring up my 2nd philosophy when it comes to business:

A company that is not loyal to its employees is not deserving of loyalty from its employees.

See how that works? Employment is a two way street. If you demonstrate to your people that they are nothing but replaceable drones, they probably won't be very loyal to you as an employer. Of course, in this economy I had very little choice in doing everything I could to make sure I stayed employed, and it dawned on me that I really didn't have too much of a back up plan other than "Win the lottery" or "Fake death for tax reasons." I work in the textbook industry, and whether I want to admit it or not, my industry is changing dramatically. I've figured that my current job is probably not going to exist 10 years from now. I'm a middle-aged guy and finding a new career 10 years from now doesn't sound too appealing to me. Is this what they call a midlife crisis? I don't know. I didn't rush out and buy a red sports car of have a desire to find a 20-ish trophy wife. Isn't that what's supposed to happen in a midlife crisis?

But I did have the desire to make sure my future would have more options. I wanted to make sure that the next time my company tells my department, "We're downsizing again and sending more jobs to India. It's time for all of you to beg to stay here," that I could turn around and walk out.

So, I've taken the time and energy I would have spent in game (and then lots of extra time and energy on top of that) and over the past couple of years of near starts and roadblocks, I'm opening a combination comic book and gaming shop.

Yes, I'm going to be an entrepreneur.

I'm excited, nervous, terrified, frenzied and all of that that goes along with an endeavor like this. I'm keeping my day job, so I've found a good person to manage things during the day. Things are all finally falling into place.

So, in many ways, this is a goodbye to the Victory server and to City of Heroes. I leave with a great hope for the future. In City of Heroes, I saved the world more times than I can count. I've been to alternate dimensions, and fought a battle on the moon. None of that was as terrifying or exciting as where I'm headed.

And in some ways, this won't be a goodbye. I'll have my company's Facebook page and website active by mid-December. The store is opening on 3/1/13.

The store name will be Nostalgia Ink and we'll be in Mason, Ohio. (Please don't confuse us for the Nostalgia Ink in Jackson, MI.) I've named the place after a store that I worked at in Bangor, ME and frequented during my college years (they didn't survive the 90s implosion). Please feel free to like us on Facebook (in a few weeks) and stay in touch. If you're in the Mason, OH area, feel free to stop in and say hi. (I should be there in the evening and on weekends.)

Good bye, and good luck in whatever you decide to do.

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Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!

Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.