Sargeras says sayonara

Hi, it's Brian speaking. This is the end of the blog.

It was a very difficult decision for me, and I didn't make it lightly. For those who care, read on and I'll explain my reasons. Warning: I will be rambling on at some length.

This all started back in March, with the original Scourge Chat Log. I wrote it on a whim for a Blizzard contest that a co-worker told me about, and it sort of went viral in a small way - about a hundred thousand people read it, and the feedback was very positive. And I figured, while I had everyone's attention, I should take advantage of the opportunity and get a little blog going, to see where it went.

I'd had a blog once before, also humor, but it had very few readers so I finally gave it up. (It was a fake political campaign for one of my friends - the link is Burns For America if anyone's curious.) Having tried blogging once before already, I was wary, knowing the demands it makes on one's time - and I always tend to take on more projects than I can handle.

But this time, I decided to go for it again. I knew it would be different, having hundreds of readers rather than a few dozen, having a fun character to write. It would also give me a chance to practice writing, which I always welcome.

And it was fun. A lot of fun. Sargeras is just a blast to write, because you can say all these ridiculous things and it's just part of the character. I loved the e-mails and the comments - in other words, I loved interacting with you guys. I loved that I could write anything I wanted and know it was being read, and enjoyed. And all the other cool things - the Sargeras banner graphic, the theme song, the radio adaptation, the sonnet contest, the Facebook page - it was all awesome. I loved it. I really did.

To be honest, that's the hardest thing about quitting: looking at the huge amount of work that's gone into this, both from myself and from others, and deciding to leave it all behind. It was a unique opportunity, one that will never come back again.

So what's made me quit?

The answer is simple: I just don't enjoy it anymore.

It's no secret that I neither play, nor have much interest in, World of Warcraft. That's nothing against those who do - it's just a personal preference. But the posts reflect that lack of interest; few of them had much to do with WoW. Now, you don't have to talk about WoW to write in character as Sargeras; you can just ramble on about destruction and planets and peeps, and write sonnets, and so on. And I did.

But even within that relatively broad framework, I found more and more that I was having to shoehorn the topics that actually interested me into something that was nominally related to the Sargeras character. I wasn't having all that much fun anymore; it was just something I was doing because I had committed to doing it. I was doing it because I was "supposed" to, not because I really wanted to.

That isn't great for me, and it's not all that great for you guys, either. Lack of passion is reflected in the quality of writing; if the writer doesn't care about his subject, well, it shows. And at that point - if I'm not having fun and you're not getting great writing - well, what's the point?

If I had an infinite amount of time to do everything I wanted to do, I might keep with it, for a while at least. But as I've mentioned before, that's not the case. There are so many things I want to do with my life, all competing for my time, that I have to be very selective - just as all of you do, too. And ultimately, this blog just couldn't make the cut anymore.

Well, I've talked long enough, I suppose. You get the idea. I hope no one's too terribly disappointed. There are lots of entertaining things to read on the Internet.

Thanks so much, all of you, for sticking with me through this little experiment. I won't forget it. It's been a lot of fun.

Carpe fucking diem.