Allan Milligan's farewell message

I knew that the GIA was going to be something special when I was sent my first death threat:

"How DARE you ignorant f***ing morons ignore the importance of FIRE EMBLEM in the hiatory of SRPGs and indeed in the flow of GAMING IN GENERAL? You people make me sick, just another bunch of fanboys with their HEADS UP SQUARE'S ASS. You're no better than the rest of them, just covering what's popular, instead of what's RIGHT AND TRUE. I hope you get shot or stabbed or BEATEN by someone who actually understans the HISTORY of gaming here and ABROAD. YOU need to die, so better gamers can live!"

I started at the front lines, doing the first six months of Double Agent. Gagging for readers, I went to whatever lengths necessary to pull in new readers. Picking fights, plugging other sites, picking fights, having intelligent debate, picking fights, trying to be funny - whatever it took. Back then, hits were the goal. We wanted readers. We were the underdogs, and if getting on the map meant that I took potshots at every sacred cow I could find, that's how it would go.

Some people are still holding grudges, to this day. I've got the emails to prove it.

Even after I quit, I kept up with the site. I've tried to keep in touch with my friends from the staff, though I've been hilariously bad at that. And I've had the luxury of watching from the sidelines as other people took the little site I helped found, and turned it into the best genre gaming website going. The underdogs who picked fights became a primary news source.

I'm glad I had a chance to help make GIA. I'm a little amazed to realize that, a month from now, it can no longer be the home page on my browser. But I'll let you in on a secret. I knew GIA was going to make its mark, right from when I got that first flame. Because you, as readers, cared enough about what we were saying, and what we were doing, to give us hell about it. Right from the very beginning.

So long, kids and kittens.

- Allan Milligan