AC

After three years here with the Involved Fans staff, the time has come for me to step back as the Community Manager here at XBLA Fans. The reason for my departure is not negative nor are any relationships here the cause of my stepping down. Sometimes life just happens and you need to take a step back. I simply don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with any day-to-day tasks anymore, and the site is better off if I take that step back and give another staff member a chance to take over the community side of things. Who knows, I may be back at some point in the future at some capacity but for now I’m simply a guy who watches from a distance while others continue to make the site thrive and grow every day. The staff here is excellent. Everything is in good hands.

I’ve been through a lot here in my three years with the site. From a News Reporter to Game Reviewer, to Podcast Host and to Community Manager, I’ve tried a fair share of things that were all new for me at the time. I had a blast with all of them, but I really found my purpose with the Community Lead position. All I really ever wanted to do was make people aware that there was this great offering on their Xbox 360 known as XBLA where incredibly unique games were being released every Wednesday. I wanted to let you know that the console was much more than just a Call of Duty or Netflix machine. I wanted to spotlight where I felt innovation was peaking on the Xbox 360 and share the wonder of XBLA with anyone who was willing to listen to me compliment or even rant about the platform. You all accepted me with open arms and we had some great times and discussions over the years. I really appreciate everyone who ever sent me a tweet, commented on an article, posted on Facebook or even sent me an email. The Involved Fans community is a wonderful community and I will miss our day-to-day interactions dearly.

I’d like to thank those who made this such a special ride for me starting first with the staff here at XBLA Fans. John L, Ben, Steve M, Tyler, Ross, Perry, Todd, Shawn, Kyle, Christine, Nick S, Brandin, Nick D, Scott, John C, Steve H, John D, Matthew, Chris, Ryan, Justin, Nathan, Vlad and the rest of the staff across all the sites. It was a pleasure getting to grow with you and building something together that we all felt very passionate about. Keep doing what you all do. You make this a great place to be.

For the community, I will likely forget to mention some people but I wanted to give a shout out to a few of our most active members over the past three years. Thanks to Lunchbox, Keklar, YourShames, Pcedfeldt, BizarroPete, Leelo, JError, PriusGuy, RyanDJGN, MrNerveDamage, RogXue, Leviajones, Fyerball, Kiesey, ilRadd, Polerand, Hellspawn, SidiousStrange, LoganDX, VirtuousLumox, GeekLantern, 5tubborn, CurratedGaming, NikiBaby, OnyxPrimal, Robomination, YammaYammaYamma, Lifelower, Kitlerc, AgentLoki, WildMN, CaptBenLWillard, Laneit, JudgeBergan, MaryKateClark, BroncoBurns, Garrett, AKAScratch, DownSouthTigger, babaBooey, MasterBlud, SpikyMetal, James176, MsRepoGamer, JohnnoshArk, NBAKirkland, Rann78, GameWatcher, GeekySwede, MetalStorm, Waxx, CherryRasulka, Davicams, Jaypx, MAINEac, & AdamUpNow. Thank you all for always commenting or tweeting me your thoughts and keeping me honest.

I’d also like to thank my personal XBLA family that dates all the way back to 2006 when I was a competitive XBLA gamer and really just getting started in all of this. Karnage, Lucas, Mystic, SnapDragon, Krissy, Mook, Schrek, Drunk, Rocky, Johnny Sinister, Smallywood, & Zebrasqual. Without all of you, my brain would have never morphed into this odd ball of random XBLA knowledge that it is today. You all planted the seed. I’ll never forget the golden days of XBLA competitive gamerscore.

That’s a lot of names and it just goes to show how powerful this community really is. All of you made this a great three years and I wouldn’t change a thing about the journey we all took together. Sorry if I forgot a few key people or spelled a name or two wrong but I actually wrote most of that based off memory. When you spend 50+ hours on Twitter each week, you remember a lot of names but I’m sure I still managed to miss a few. Nobody is perfect, not even Anderson Silva ;)

KA

With that said, I want to take a minute to introduce the man that will be filling my spot here on the community side of things, Kyle Aufderheide (@MRX93). Kyle started off as an excited XBLA Fan and we gave him a shot at running the Facebook account about a year ago. He has done a great job over there so I’m sure he will keep up the great work here on the site and on all of our various Twitter accounts. Give him a follow and tell him congrats. He’s a cool guy even if he doesn’t think that Battlefield: 1943 is the best FPS on the Xbox 360. ***FACT: Battlefield: 1943 is indeed the best FPS on the Xbox 360***

As for me, I’m not crawling under a rock to forever hide from the internet. I’ll still be on Twitter (@twixprintmatic). I may not be tweeting much at the moment but I will return someday soon hopefully. So always feel free to ask me anything over there and I will always be 110% honest with ya about anything. I also still have all the login credentials for this site and all our social media platforms. So I might stop by to talk to the community from time to time to say hello. I’ll still be around, I’m just not going to be here every day. But it’s time for Kyle to run the show and time for me to try to relax. I had a blast though. Thanks again to everyone who made this special for me. I’m honored to have represented this community for the past three years.