TSSZ 17th Anniversary Special Statement: On The Verge

In some places as I publish this, TSSZ’s “birthday” is actually over. That’s because I’ve spent the day relaxing, chowing down on some food, downing some cocktails, and munching on some ice cream. In fact, as I write this, I’m chipping away at 3 scoops with a brownie doused in chocolate.

I normally put more effort and thought into these anniversary statements, as if what I have to say has some meaning and weight in this community. But it really doesn’t anymore. (Did it ever?) And that’s what makes this anniversary particularly important. I know what we’ve built here can continue without my constant opining.

When I turned over daily news duties to Donnie in 2014 to coincide with a job change, I’ll be honest: it felt like a parent seeing his kid off to college or boarding school. You don’t know what will happen. It’ll either be a rousing success and testament to all the effort you’ve poured in to growing something that started so little, or it could fall apart at the seams. But with Ryan, Lou, Donnie, Andrea, and now Matt and Noah, I know together with you we have built something that can withstand anything that comes in our way.

The last year was arguably our toughest. There was no main Sonic title. There was little hope ahead of the 25th anniversary. Sonic Boom, as a marketing initiative, appeared a failure with two-thirds of it down for the count. Now, I think we’ve turned the corner. Sega appears to have something special set for this year. We don’t know what it is, but the company’s willingness to accept its past mistakes paired with Takashi Iizuka’s return to the United States indicates a push toward something significant. We have no idea what it is. But given how well the 20th anniversary title Sonic Generations was received, all of us wait with baited breath to see how Sonic’s silver anniversary pans out.

About that term–all of us. I see it a lot these days. In our context, it’s quite refreshing isn’t it? For the first time that I can remember, our community feels whole again. There hasn’t been any major rifts that I can remember in recent months. We’ve certainly been on the forefront of several conflicts in our tenure. Now, that we can even have a coordinated #DonnieDay where several community sites can come together to pay tribute to one of their own is something special. We have matured, as have many of you I’m sure. I can only hope that camaraderie can continue through SAGE, the 25th anniversary event in San Diego, and the eventual Summer of Sonic in the UK.

So all of us are in it together–anticipating, hoping, and waiting. I know that a 25th anniversary is much more significant than a 17th one. But together, we can see and do great things, and I assure you I will continue to support the team in place here so that TSSZ can continue to tell you about it all for many more years to come.