Shawn Elliot Leaves 1up and Joins 2K Boston

Shawn Elliot [left]takes a bow...errr...not really.

Yup...this pretty much sums up my week.  Sunday I had a tiff with my girlfriend...the same day Hurricane Ike's evil winds were over Columbus. This resulted in over a third of Ohioans being out of power [and in most cases, work]. Most of the AEP workers [from the midwest] were sent to Texas to remedy their power outtage. Unfortunately, the lovely higher-ups at AEP didn't really count on Ike's 70+ mile per hour winds to; as I like to say, "Eff-Up" Ohio and most of the midwest electrical power gird. They say it will be until Saturday or Sunday until all of Ohio is 'fully-operational', which if you've been to the main cities in Ohio...you know how funny that is.

Days later, I find out I'm going to be losing a lot of money in the next couple months thanks to my passion...that is...throwing money away into the lovely art of photography. That very day I worked 12 hours only to come home to no gas.  My internet was turned off by the lovely Time Warner people because they wanted the electricians to be as safe as possible with each residence.

All I wanted to do was listen to my favorite podcast.

[I actually get to the point after the jump]

**Now I warn you...all that you see below are ramblings and general thoughts...I'm typing this minutes after reading and listening to the final GFW podcast. I apologize for the length and improper grammar.**

The next day, today, I'm floored? Hmm...shocked?...No...that's not it...how about reasonably surprised by hearing Shawn Elliot's departure from 1up?  Most notably, GFW and the podcast therein [which if you haven't connected the dots already...is my favorite podcast].

A little over a year ago I was down on my luck. I was being evicted, lost a good job, was considering moving back in with my mom in Cleveland [cue 1st season of the Wire theme song]. A great friend of mine took me in and I stayed in a house full of people, whom of which I'm still friends with today [which usually isn't the case once you stay with more than one other person]. I worked my ass off [multiple jobs], ended up meeting a great friend who...over time, became my girlfriend.

To bide my time, I started to get more into podcasts.  A friend of mine got me into them at my old job and it just never occurred to me, even though I had an iPod for almost a year already.  The very first podcast I began listening to was GFW radio.  I'd like to say it was because I was HEAVY into PC games or that I was super familiar with the writers [Jeff, Ryan, Sean and Shawn]. It was a weird blend of chance and history with EGM.

Last year, I figured I'd balance out my over worked life with a little machine called the PS2. I know...it's old or previous gen console and every podcast and blog I read up until this point would have commentators marveling at, as to why the PS2 was selling so well. I read reviews on 1up and i remembered my old, old subscription to EGM when i was in high school [sad]. So i guess you can say there was a sort of trust between me and the 'brand' of 1up/EGM. 

I downloaded every video podcast and every mp3 so i could 'catch up' to what was now hip, but every now and again, you'd hear a Dan Hsu or Garnett Lee allude to franchises on the PS2...pretty frequently [I used this to build my PS2 library].

GFW however, was the first podcast that would download out of the batch I'd get from 1up. My god it was hilarious.  A group of dudes talking about pranks, funny internet video clips and awful foreign candies.  But for some reason I hated this guy named Shawn Elliot. He'd always name drop some underground emcee that for some reason or another, I just really didn't like or was able to appreciate to a degree that he did.  I thought in some way that this was one of 'those college kids that DISCOVERED underground hiphop' and was now spreading the word to all within ear shot.  Oh boy...for a while there was almost an intense hatred for Shawn Elliot. He went so far as to rap prior to an eventually funny episode of GFW [which would later be dubbed...the Brodeo]. The rapping irked me to a point where I had to realize, "Hey...homie likes rap...so do you Isaiah...don't get so bent out of shape." But I couldn't help it...his raps [although witty] had the cadence of that of a Sage Francis or [insert any Anticon emcee here].

Hey, you're not gonna like everybody right? One day Shawn was talking about how he grew up and how he was a bully or how he could have seen why he would have been perceived to be a bully by others. This seems weird, but throughout that conversation, I realized that Shawn was sharing something he didn't have to.  We [listeners] are not entitled to this information; especially not on some podcast dedicated to Games For Windows.  I decided to go back into the GFW podcast folders on my hard drive and I realized that he did this a lot, probably to the detriment of getting actual game news on the show, but it was there for all to listen to. Dude has his moments. 

What I was really shocked by was his ability to write.  It almost dissapointed me to hear that he was going to 2K Boston instead of some larger media publication [NY Times, Newsweek, etc.].  If anything, this will probably mean that 2K Boston game scripts/writing/story lines should perhaps see an improvement [wishful thinking].

Sadly, what this also means is that I [probably] won't be visiting 1up as much as I use to.  EGM Live podcast is dead and 1up FM is a cool start up, but it really bores me at times. 1up Yours interest me...but not like it use to, its more so like I'm listening to a lot of noise with fewer and fewer things substantiative [lately with John Davison back its been bucking that trend]. 1up Show just hasn't been that good for me...i don't know why...there seemed to be a lot more humor and style when Kathleen & Jane was on it [and producing].

Feh...maybe I'm just having a bad week. These guys at 1up do a job I'm sure I'd screw up a thousand times over if given the chance.

Good Luck Shawn...I hope all your candies taste like farts.