So if you follow me on Twitter, or listen to the podcast or even follow me on my personal blog, you know this past week has been a time for reflection. I speak for myself, as well as Scott and Evan, who started Irrational Passions with me, as well as Joseph, who joined us three months after we started, Tony who joined a few months later, and Nabeshin who joined even a year after that. Even Greg, who has his own show hosted here (MUPX), has become a part of the Irrational Passions family. I also speak for Jacob, Zack, Aneudys, Jarrett and Nick who all joined on as writers for this site for over a year and did more than I could have asked for.
When it started on July 3rd 2010, IrrationalPassions.com was once ippodcast.net, until Februrary of 2011 when we fully formed IrrationalPassions.com. For a few months in there we were actually hosted by our friend David Gallant, at the URL davidsgallant.com/ippodcast. Weird to even think back all the way to then, but over years we’ve changed and evolved from what was just a site that I wrote for and a weekly podcast, to several podcast and a site that I, as well as many others, write for.
We’ve had incredible strings of listeners that have contributed essentially entire segments to our show, the flagship of this site. Mister Nep, now host of Malicious Underground Podcast X, would send in a voicemail on an almost-weekly basis. Fluffynuts would regale us with his Australian journeys of madness. Even David Gallant and our resident friends over at VGEvo, turned Retroids, now VGEvo.com again, would send in bits across the first few years of our show.
Our basically-the-format-of-GiantBomb has morphed from that, into its own thing. People may not remember, and our new listeners certainly won’t, segments on the podcast like “Hot Minute,” “Free for All Versus,” and “New Releases,” all of which have their own staple and (mostly) insane intro-music. The show’s format has changed maybe a half-dozen times and remained the same for the past two years, but in five years a lot can change.
Five years… Man, it’s crazy to even think that. I was 17 when this podcast first started, still in high school, and I knew nothing (Jon Snow). You can’t even imagine how little I knew. I feel like I can authoritatively talk about games (in some regard) now, years later, where I’ve put in the work and really made a difference with some of the people I’ve met and interacted with. I know Scott and Evan feel the same, and Scott has even told me he knows so much more about video games and their industry now that he’s been doing this for years.
I’ve thought about IP’s future a lot, especially since we did Episode 200 back in October of last year. Even with as much of a technical fiasco as that live-show was, the audio came out fine, and at the end we just kind of thought about where we want to see ourselves in the future. In my heart of hearts, I’d love to pass along the podcast and website to a “new guard” of sorts, and leave the hosting gig to someone new and younger even. That may seem like an old-man thing for a 22-year-old to say, but I’d love Irrational Passions to carry on as a niche legacy for years to come. I’ve had people tell me that our show has inspired them to start their own podcasts and pursue their own dreams. If someone can continue to do that whenever I step down from IP, I’d love it.
But that’s a ways away. I understand that I am gonna keep doing IP until I get hired on to a full time position in the video games industry, and still for awhile from then, I think. I still believe that to be quite far away, and I love doing this podcast and writing here too much to stop. Until then, play your games, stay irrational and I’ll talk to you all, next podcast.
~Much love, Alex
