As a lot of you know, Irrational Passions Podcast recently celebrated its 100th episode, marking just over two years of doing the podcast every week. It is quite the feat, and something that I am very proud to be a part of. After sitting on the greatness that was the very fun after-party for a couple of weeks, I’ve decided I wanted to talk about these past two years and look back fondly. You all can come along with me in the form of the faux-blog post I guess, and see how IP really has changed my life.
For those of you who don’t know, the idea of Irrational Passions was engendered during a very difficult part of my life. July of 2010 I was in the process of acclimating the something known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which if you don’t know what that is feel free to listen back to our ExtraLife Podcasts, or just Google it. It was basically a part of my life where going outside and doing anything very physical was extremely difficult and often out of the question for me. I was adjusting though, getting healthier, able to go out for longer sessions, and during all that time I spent inside, I had been sitting on this idea for a gaming website. That’s when Scott and Evan came along.
They were two very good friends who both had a passion for videogames and were both going into their senior year of high school, like myself, looking for a future in the gaming industry. We put the idea together, thought of a name, and in a month, had gathered on Skype for our first recording. It went great, and before long we had a small following of people on a recent community I had jumped onto in VGEvo. VGEvo, now Retroids, is a great place with a great community and is run by two awesome people, Ken and Terry. Everything just fell into place really well.
Before too long we had my now very good friend Joseph Fait join the show and things were changing. I, at this point, already knew I wanted to be a videogames critic and had already been putting reviews on the site and developing a crazy-complicated review format. When Joe jumped onboard, I set my aspirations higher. We started contacting developers, getting review codes, and I felt official. That’s when I knew Irrational Passions was more than just a few friends talking games. It was my start, and no matter where I went in the future, I would never forget where my roots were: talking games with my friends and writing and just living the dream as a kid in high school.
After that there was of course our big interview with Dennis Dyack and our time spent with the awesome Dan Amrich, Mr. OneofSwords himself. I was doing things as a 17-year-old kid I never thought I’d be able to do in my life.
We never lost momentum though, we picked up Tony Horvath as our 5th host, hit the one year mark, to which we were added to the Retroids family of podcasts, and kept powering through.
It was a funny thing, I went to Retroids in April 2010, and thought, Wow, what a great community with awesome podcasts. At the time, seeing hosts like Geoff and Chris from Interactive Distractions in the Retroids shoutbox was like a chance to talk to a celebrity for me. I thought with IP I may be able to be counted among them one day, and now I am. Not only that, I got to meet them, and spend time with them as friends. That moment being added to the Retroids family is still a truly shining moment for me.
On top of that, I become the head of writing news for Retroids, which I still do, and which is still tons of fun. I’ve never really been much of a news guy, but being able to talk openly to the community and be their source of news will always be a proud part of my portfolio.
To get back on track in this long timeline though, the next big step would of course be the plans for the Irrational Podtacular (a title of Joe’s choosing) which unfortunately fell through. It was a situation where we couldn’t get enough time, and we didn’t have the proper planning going on. I still very much want to make Irrational Podtacular happen, and maybe it will, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
PAX East. PAX was a shining moment for me. I get that it’s not a press show, its not really for press, but I will tell anyone who is looking to be press out there reading this: go to PAX as your first show. Not only was PAX East the best weekend of my life, it is also up there as one of my shining moments, which I seem to have a lot of all of the sudden. Sure, to those who’ve been writing about games and been in the industry for years, it’s no big deal, but for me, walking around with a big golden media badge around my neck and skipping lines and feeling in general like a total badass made me appreciate truly how much I love to do what I do. I did not waste my time in Boston either, I got to meet and get to know a lot of good people, a lot of very nice PR people, and actually see and talk to some developers. I got to interview two of the Summer of Arcade 2012 developers, and I got to play their games. It was just a really special experience.
On top of that for me, I got to shake hands with Arthur Gies, someone in the games industry I personally really admire. I got to spit the shit with Drew, Patrick and Ryan of Giantbomb, and I got to meet one of my heroes: Jeff Gerstmann. I know that all sounds dumb and hokey, but seeing them, talking to them, and realizing they are just normal dudes who love exactly what I love: videogames, made all the difference. It was a truly special weekend, and has me unbelievably excited for PAX Prime, which is just the bigger and more badass version of PAX East from what I understand.
After PAX Prime it was a straight shot to episode 100, and picking up Nabeshin as our 6th host along the way, which was another absolutely amazing time. After the cameras went off, there was of course very interesting memories made, but maybe I’ll talk about them another time, or on my other show Roommates, where I can bend the rules a little bit.
Looking back on the past two years, I can say that Irrational Passions is easily the best thing I have ever done with my life. I have done a lot of things, but none of them have given me as much satisfaction, as much pride, as many good friends, and as many amazing memories as Irrational Passions. From getting bear-hugged by a guy named Fluffy-Nutz in Atlanta, Georgia to sleeping for a mere four hours in a bed with Evan in Boston, Irrational Passions has given me truly unforgettable great moments.
I love videogames, and I am going to be writing about video games for the rest of my life because they just make sense to me. In a world where not a lot of things make sense, being able to say that about something you love really means a lot.
I hope you enjoyed this little foray into my mind, here’s hoping for another two years of great times and awesome memories. Until then, play your games and stay Irrational.
Alex
