I started at Fanbyte in 2019. I had been the managing editor at VRV’s blog, which we were in the process of transforming into a full-on outlet when the company was bought out and restructured, leaving me without a job. John Warren, the then-EIC and later Head of Media at Fanbyte offered me a job. I told him that I had more or less left the video games space — he told me he wanted me here anyway.

I took the offer, but quickly felt out of my depth. In the years prior I hadn’t kept up with modern games, so I decided to throw myself into a live service title to demonstrate my utility to the higher-ups. At the time, there were three seemingly equally viable ones to choose from: The Division 2, Anthem, and Destiny 2. Well, regardless of anything else, I think I made the right call there.

My time at Fanbyte has been one of the highlights of my career. I’ve worked with so many passionate, funny, caring, and clever people. I went to my first — and what turned out to be the last — E3 in 2019. I came to adore the Souls games, which I’d previously despised, with the help of my coworkers and our wonderful streaming audience. I got to publish some amazing writers, some of whom had never been paid for their writing before and have gone on to be incredibly prolific. I commissioned a puppet version of Fancy, the site mascot I designed. And I’ve built friendships that I fully expect to continue for the rest of my life.

I’m retiring at the top, as the winner of the first and only Fanbyte Cup.

Over the last nine months or so, the site’s priorities have shifted. We moved away from covering movies, TV, and other media and began to focus on a few major games, and I’ve been writing almost exclusively about Destiny 2 since then. I never meant to become a Destiny content creator, just like I never really meant to get into games media either. But it’s been a lot of fun to follow this community through the game’s ups and downs, to write guides that help people get into what can be kind of an overwhelming title, and to have my writing recognized by some of the game’s creators themselves.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I’m grateful for what I’ve learned here. Some of my colleagues have already gone on to other, amazing things — Nerium Strom is now at Digital Extremes, Collin MacGregor is at Bungie — and I couldn’t be happier for them. If you like my writing, you can keep up with me on Twitter. And if you don’t really know who I am and you’re just here for Destiny 2 content, then I leave you in the capable hands of Saniya Ahmed, who is brand new here, and Dillon Skiffington, who’s been with Fanbyte since the beginning.

At the end of the day, what matters is that whether we wanted it or not, we’ve stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So let’s get to taking out their command, one by one. Valus Ta’aurc. From what I can gather he commands the Siege Dancers from an Imperial Land Tank outside of Rubicon. He’s well protected, but with the right team, we can punch through those defenses, take this beast out, and break their grip on Freehold.

So Long, and Thanks For All the Games

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