They Write Now?!
They write now.
Yes, I did just start this all off with a Star Wars meme. A little taste of what you’ll get on here, perhaps?
If you don’t know who I am, I’ll give you that quick two sentence summary — hi, I’m Ben! I’m trans, non-binary and my pronouns are they/them. I like video games, comics and queer shit (and especially when all of them intersect). However, if you’re reading this and you do know who I am (which is far more likely), it’s probably because of Back Pocket, ETTO or from somewhere else within the Australian video game-adjacent industries. To many of you, I’ve been a person who appears on podcasts and does the odd Twitch stream. I’ve been that community manager who pops up every now and then on a Back Pocket stream, but more often tan not the one that is mostly behind the keyboard of those annoying Discord [@]everyone pings you get a few times a week, and those big long Patreon posts.
Well, what many of you probably don’t know is that before all that, before anything on camera, I fancied myself a writer. Whilst gaming itself came to me later in my childhood than most, writing has been something I’ve been doing since… well, since I could. Except in recent years, that is. In moving to making a lot more video and audio content, I kind of lost touch with that part of myself for the better part of five or six years.
So, with all of us taking a step back from ETTO, as well as me taking a step back from my own personal streaming endeavours, I thought it was well and truly time to rectify all of that. And here we are!
That’s the ‘why’ of it all, but how about the ‘what’? Well, I’m seeing this platform for me as somewhat of my own soapbox, so I suspect content may vary dramatically from piece to piece. You all know me — I play a lot of video games. So naturally, I suspect that’ll be the bulk of what you’ll come to expect. Comics, movies, TV? Of course, if I feel the push. But I also want to explore writing about queerness, including my own personal journey with it. Potentially, I even might use this space for more creative, and even fictional pieces, as well as other forms of writing outside of just blogs.
Ultimately, I want this space to be for my own personal enjoyment, and to re-establish a hobby of mine that I’ve neglected to nurture. I don’t aim to get anything material out of this, nor is this my tilt at becoming a ‘games journalist’ (whatever exactly that means). If something external does eventuate because of these, then great! But this is ultimately a place for me to write about whatever the hell I want to, without the shackles of obligation or expectation. I’ve had a habit in the past of commodifying my own spare time, and this my first attempt at getting better at that. So no schedules, or ways for you to support this (beyond reading the damn things), at least until I’m comfortable otherwise.
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That just about covers it all! I’ve been itching to write some ‘game of the year’ content for a little while now, because there were so many amazing projects I experienced over the past year, so expect to see some of that over the coming weeks. Yes, I know that reaches into 2024 but we literally just talked about removing the shackles of obligation! There are no rules here!
Oh, and I think the blog could do with a fun little name. But I don’t have that ready yet, and I just wanted to start writing. So hit me up with suggestions! Maybe even in my Discord? I’m repurposing that into a broader thing than just being for my Twitch channel. You’ll be able to keep up with all future posts in there too, and make friends with some awesome people.
Ok byeeeeeeeeeeee ❤
