This is what Joe Strummer Trained Me For.
It is now time to go.
Where It All Starts
All great ideas start when your buddy says, “We should start a _____!” Many moons ago, my close friend Sunny and I began a small-time podcast called Late Night Layover, a cultural podcast that was born during the isolation of the pandemic. LNL didn’t achieve liftoff as we had hoped due to many factors, from major changes in our lives to logistical problems. Late Night Layover was grounded, and eventually, the podcast was abandoned.
It was during that time that I began my career in radio broadcasting after being hired by Vista Radio out of the prestigious Western Academy Broadcasting College*, and sent out to Vanderhoof, British Columbia. After three months I moved up to Prince George, BC and as of this first substack post, this is where I still am. I like my job in radio, I get to sit around and talk about music and culture and whatever comes to my head, like the podcasts that I used to do pre-pandemic.
While times are good for me, it’s been a different story for the video game industry that I have grown up watching and playing.
* WABC is a diploma farm that’s run out of a run-down office building in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I guess it was fine in the end cause I got a job while going there, still, it was shady as hell. #dublife
May 1st, 2025
The day when things changed for the worse in the games media industry. Polygon was sold by Vox Media to Valnet and immediately had major layoffs to the staff, a situation that has been plaguing the industry as a whole. Countless development staffers and the journalists covering their games have seen their jobs go up in smoke, yet the CEOs always seem to get by just fine. The same day, Fandom stopped all streams for Giant Bomb and Gamespot because of “brand safety” concerns, leading to the departures of Dan Ryckert, Jeff Grubb, and Mike Minotti from Giant Bomb, the likely death knell for the website.
This triggered something within me, while I did feel anger, sadness, and despair for the people who were now out of jobs and the death of good gaming-related websites, there was another feeling that was bubbling deep inside… motivation.
Over the years I have watched the decline of internet journalism, you can’t scroll for 2 minutes on something like Facebook or Twitter and see some garbage, AI-generated article. It doesn’t stop with Polygon and Giant Bomb, more bad news is on the way, with more corporate mergers leading to more shutdowns of real websites, putting real workers out of a job. Something has to be done, somebody has to do something. So why not do something about it?
From the Ashes
I had just woken up when I read the news on Polygon and Giant Bomb’s fate, it bummed me out seeing that some of the websites I grew up reading and watching were becoming empty husks of what they once were, but life goes on and I got to go to work. As I’m taking a shower, a thought pops up, “Other Worlds. Other Worlds… huh, that’s a good name for a website. Other Worlds… I like it.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about this potential idea for a new website, a new generation of gaming journalism and media. There was about to be a major void in the industry, so why not fill it myself? I have had very minor success in podcasting and streaming, and I know a ton of people who have the potential to be great, they just need the vehicle to express themselves.
The first person I told this wild idea was Sunny, the guy I have been rocking with since we met in the Two Best Friends Play streams on Tumblr. We have been friends for a decade plus and in that time we have watched our idols fade away and the channels and companies they built get dismantled. Sunny and I both desired something better. The both of us shared this passion for games, and lament the loss of community since social media platforms became the go-to.
We believe that Other Worlds can be something that can fill that void. A place where people can come together and build a community because that is the way forward. Organization is the foundation for combating the corporate AI nightmare we find ourselves in, independent journalism, and the creation of media surrounding video games made by REAL people. As Henry Rollins once said, “This is punk rock time, this is what Joe Strummer trained you for. It is now time to go. You’re a good person- that means more than ever now.”
That is the vision Sunny and I have for Other Worlds, independent, honest journalism by creatives who give a damn about what they are talking about, providing a space for a community to bloom, and making fun, creative media in an age where that has never been more important. These C-suite-occupying jerks can try and muscle us out and have machines write game guides, but I believe that people who enjoy video games deserve better than AI-generated “content”.
Where do we go from here?
We are only in our infancy, and there is a long road between now and the launch of our website. We are going to need to build our portfolio and presence in the coming months. Eventually, we want to bring in a solid crew to build this thing together. Brick by brick, hour by hour, day by day, we will build this site, we will plant our flag in the ground and stand proudly by it, and we will have done it ourselves, with our hands and our voice united as one. Together, we will reach Other Worlds.
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