An Ending to Things


The hard­est part of writ­ing impor­tant pieces is that the author is basi­cal­ly for­bid­den from com­ing out with her point in the open­ing para­graph. This is a con­ceit meant to invite the read­er to come along on a jour­ney with the writer into the realms of Critical Thought and Inquiry, and it’s some­what a breach of pro­to­col to do oth­er­wise. The first para­graph isn’t for build­ing a case or dri­ving home a mes­sage. No, the start of most any good piece of writ­ing is to make the read­er say to the writer, “O where are you going?”

And then, in the sec­ond para­graph, you show your hand. I’m resign­ing from my posi­tion as Editor-in-Chief of The Ontological Geek, effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly.

I sup­pose it’s a tra­di­tion for Editors-in-Chief of this esteemed pub­li­ca­tion to leave for high­er edu­ca­tion. Nine months ago, my dear friend Bill Coberly1 left the cap­tain’s chair to go to Law School. By all accounts he’s well on his way to becom­ing the Best Lawyer. And soon I shall also be going back to school, this time to get an MFA in Game Design from NYU. I am always a lit­tle uncom­fort­able say­ing that, as I don’t want to come across as boast­ing and in love with the smell of my own farts; I’m given to under­stand that get­ting into this pro­gram, or NYU in gen­er­al, is kinda sorta a big fuck­ing deal, but I don’t like to make too much of it2, and I don’t real­ly know how to say I want to seem hum­ble with­out seem­ing un-humble3. So let me say that I would absolute­ly not be going to NYU to study games and the design there­of with­out The Ontological Geek.

Writing for the Geek has been a series of incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties, and in my three years on staff I feel priv­i­leged to have been a part of Games Criticism as it’s start­ed to become a Thing. At NYU they offer class­es on Games Crit, but I like to think that I know a thing, maybe two, about that already. For one thing, I’ve got­ten to work with some of the best thinkers in this up-and-coming field, and I’m proud of the fact that I con­sid­er some of them to be my friends. It’s a strange and dis­parate bunch of folks who like to think deeply about games, and we are Up To Something in a big way.

The Ontological Geek is, and has always been, a place where Great Things hap­pen. It’s come quite a long way from some guy’s after-college project, and it’s poised to go even far­ther under the lead­er­ship of Oscar Strik, long-time con­trib­u­tor to the Geek, podcast-mancer extra­or­di­naire, one of the finest writ­ers whose prose I’ve had the priv­i­lege to edit, and some­thing of a badass at run­ning a web­site (a trait I lack, in case it’s not obvi­ous). Oscar is on fire with pas­sion and vision for this lit­tle blog that could and still can, and I could­n’t leave the Geek in hands more capa­ble than his.

I’d like to thank Oscar for dar­ing to take up the Onto Banner. I know he’s going to take the Geek many places and do great things with it. I also want to thank Bill Coberly for giv­ing me this sweet buff to my résumé and let­ting me try my hand at run­ning his brain­child for a bit. Thanks also are due to the rest of the OntoStaff: Tom Dawson, Owen Vince, Aaron Gotzon, and Jim Ralph are each intel­lec­tu­al and crit­i­cal pow­er­hous­es, and I can’t wait to see the great work they’re going to do. I am truly hon­ored to have worked with them. Further thanks are due to any­one who has sub­mit­ted arti­cles to the Geek for hav­ing patience with my edi­to­r­i­al prac­tices (which can best be described as “sloven­ly”)! This site is noth­ing if not a place for pas­sion­ate fans of things, and to you, pas­sion­ate fans of The Ontological Geek, I say a final word of thanks.

I’m not real­ly plan­ning on doing much more as part of The Ontological Geek, but I will always remem­ber my time here. If noth­ing else (and there is so much else), it taught me how to engage with things I love intel­li­gent­ly and with like-minded peo­ple. Rather than being a Lonesome Road4, gam­ing can be a beau­ti­ful pas­sion that unites us all in beau­ti­ful ways. As a game design­er, I hope to con­tin­ue that trend, to make things that the fine folks at the Geek and all the rest of you find mean­ing­ful and impact­ful.

I’ll see you around, friends. It’s been fun.

  1. Of whom you may have heard. []
  2. In part, I sup­pose, because I keep expect­ing some­one to tell me “LOL JK!” or for it all to not pan out in some way. []
  3. Un-ble? []
  4. You real­ly did­n’t think I would­n’t bring up Fallout: New Vegas one last time, did you? []

Chelsea L. Shephard

About Chelsea L. Shephard

Chelsea L. Shepard (formerly Hannah DuVoix) doesn't write for the Ontological Geek anymore, but she used to be our Editor-in-Chief! She is currently earning her MFA in Game Design from NYU and is probably also thinking about Fallout: New Vegas.