Back in March, there were lots of rumors floating around that there was trouble in Redmond as employees had been leaving Microsoft owned FASA Studios just a few months prior to Shadowrun’s gold status. Corporate minions were quickly dispatched to put out the fires as best they could, but today the hammer finally dropped on the studio as Studio Manager Mitch Gitelman announced that today was all remaining production staff’s final day:

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So, Luke Smith is leaving Ziff-Davis/1UP for reasons as yet unknown. Already there’s been a lot of hand-wringing and bitching on forums around the ‘net, with some posters going so far as to claim that Smith’s exit will signal a mass exodus of readers of 1UP and listeners of 1UP Yours, claiming that Smith is the “heart and soul” of 1UP. I have to disagree, as I followed 1UP prior to March of last year when Smith took over the News editor reins at the site, but I will miss his contributions, as I feel that he’s done a lot more for gaming than just being a sarcastic prick (which makes me gay for him, as Chuf will attest to). However, for me to really explain what I mean about his contribution, I need to go off on a sort of tear about gaming as a subculture and the importance of journalism to subcultures. So I warn you now, there’s a LOT of text up ahead. But a lot of what I have to say here also has to do with why I was interested in starting this site with Chuf in the first place (especially when it comes to the idea of criticism helping to make subcultures more societally relevant), so if you’ve ever thought that my opinions have been marginally interesting, read on.

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