I learned yesterday that Kombo.com, the place that originally got me into writing about video games, has gone offline permanently. Instead, it’s an automatic redirect to GameZone.com, and nothing, absolutely nothing from the archives has made it into the GZ archives.
On the one hand, I think, “Good riddance.” On the other, I realize that five years of my life has been wiped off record completely. I can’t use anything I wrote there for portfolio pieces. The only proof I have that I even worked there or that the site existed now are my check stubs and my E3 Media Badge. It’s a very disconcerting feeling.
While the last few months at Kombo were filled with stress and a lot of unhappiness for me, I still look back on the whole experience very fondly. I found Kombo back when it was called Advanced Media Network in 2005 while randomly surfing the internet at work. The day I happened to find them was also the day they put up an ad for new writers. I write! I like video games! I can do this! I had my initial “interview” with the EIC at the time, and based on my educational background, he asked that I come on as a copy editor instead, since I really have no experience in gaming journalism. At first I was a little put off by that, but it didn’t take me long to see that he was right. I knew absolutely NOTHING about the video gaming industry.
I sat back in the copy editing shadows for years. I gained courage to ask to write something once as part of the Christmas roundup, but I was asked to stay as an editor. It wasn’t until the third EIC changeover for me that I became a little more important to the organization as a whole. Suddenly I wasn’t in the shadows. Things weren’t published without my proofreads. I actually scored a paying gig with the team as a Content Manager. And that courage to ask to write bubbled to the surface once more with a rebuttal to an article my good friend Joey Davidson wrote about the role of females in video games. The Editorial Director at that time encouraged me to write more. And I did, sporadically.
Gradually I moved into reviewing smaller games, such as DSiWare and PSP Minis, and then the Reviews Director surprised me with asking me to review Final Fantasy XIII. At that moment, it was like I went from lowly copy editor to gaming writer. It was one of the most stressful things I have ever done, but I loved every minute of it.
Around that same time, the EIC position changed hands to Joey, and it seemed like Kombo was finally going to go somewhere. My loyalty to staying with the place and learning so much about the industry would finally pay off. I got to my first E3, meet a ton of gamers I’ve only talked to on Twitter, and solidify Kombo friendships I had already started.
But then, well, the big boom happened. Three months after E3, Kombo imploded. All of the upper management quit within hours, and then most of the senior staff decided to follow suit. The owner then decided to close shop, and he sold the domain to GameZone. A bunch of us who were very close at Kombo formed our own site with TheBigPixels.com, but we didn’t stay with it together for too long. We were all ready to move on to different things. I had already latched on to a former Kombro, Blake Grundman, and moved over to his site at Games are Evil and I was really wanting to work on strategyguidereviews.com and see what I could accomplish there. I wasn’t alone. We’re all spread out now, writing for different places, working in gaming PR for others, and some I am so proud to say have paying games journalism jobs.
I hated the last few months of Kombo, but I wouldn’t trade those 5 years for anything. I’ve made some incredible friends, learned more about the gaming industry than I ever would have thought possible, and improved my writing style over the years. It was a great place for me, and I’m very honored to have worked there and made the friends I have.
I’m just sad that all of my work has been erased like it was on a giant Magnadoodle. In my fury over the mass exodus, I ripped a few of my articles onto my portfolio here, but there are so many I didn’t go back and get. And they’re gone, save their memories of writing them, laughing over the hateful comments, and arguing my points with Joey, Brad, Eric, and Ryan.
Here’s to Kombo, guys. Thanks for everything.
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