This blog is now officially dead.
It’s always difficult to put to sleep something that one has invested time and effort into. This applies to Barts News as well, since I have put quite a bit of my time and soul into it. Nevertheless, everything must come to an end and so does this little blog (that could). Barts News started as my little pet project in late 2006 as a result of my review being rejected from a gaming site (for the record, it was Dungeon Siege : Throne of Agony for PSP, you can read more here). I wanted to write about games, I wanted to share my little review with the world and I also wanted to have something to occupy my mind with, since I was badly ill and on a verge of depression.
Blogging turned out to be quite fun and not only did it work out quite well as a therapy of sort, but it also broadened my gaming knowledge (indie games, background information, development process etc.), connected me to many interesting folks in the industry and even took me to Tokyo Game Show. 2007 was definitely the best year at Barts News, what with TGS, many cool games, meeting Jessica Chobot and so on. 2008 was way more calm, but some of the posts that I am most proud of date back to that year. 2009 was much more hectic, with a lot of interesting posts from different fields. In 2010 I was already shifting gears, but I got quite a bit of pocket money out of the blog, thanks to a certain sponsored article on poker games (there’s only one on this site, so it’s rather easy to find). 2011 saw me give up on regular posting in favour of occasional updates, which then stopped. Unfortunately, I don’t have neither time not motivation to blog in English anymore. Why?
First of all, I am writing for two major Polish gaming websites owned by two different publishers and to what I consider to be the best independent gaming blog in Polish. I also get my reviews and articles in print every now and then, which is probably the most rewarding thing when writing about games (right next to being paid for it, which is now happening on a regular basis, too). Secondly, my writing in Polish is much better than my writing in English. I am not a native speaker and I will never be as good as folks from RPS or Eurogamer in English – but I can be quite good when writing in my mother tongue, which makes it very fulfilling. I simply like what I am writing in Polish much more than what I could produce on this blog. Thirdly, there’s money – there isn’t any in blogging, but there is quite a bit in selling my articles and posts. Fourthly, I have changed my job last year and this year – which resulted in having much less time for anything, including gaming and writing about games. If you can’t beat the system, join it – and in the times of crisis having well-paying job is a must.
As a result, I have made the decision to put Barts News to sleep. It was fun while it lasted, but I don’t have time or the motivation to continue. Actually, October 2011 marks full five years of this blog, so it's actually not too bad. So what happens next with Barts News? Well, not much. The address will change at some point, because I won’t be paying for domain name if I am not using it. New address will probably be its standard Blogspot one: bartsnews.blogspot.com. I believe you can remove Barts News from your RSS readers, since I do not plan to be writing anything soon. Those of you who are actually still following this blog all know me, so if you want to stay in touch, you know where to find me. Those that don’t, well, I’m surprised you are still reading this post...
So, thank you for all the comments, tips and whatnot. It’s been a pleasure.
Barts signing out.
