Dear Readers,
It’s been three years, now.
To put it a different way, it’s been 26 staff members, now. It’s been 37 issues, now. It’s been 161 megabytes, now. It’s been 202 reviews, 254 subscribers, and 83,725 hits, now.
What was meant only as a video game compliment to my brother’s movie mailing list has grown more than I ever imagined, and it keeps growing with each new month. Witness our new feature and three new staff members this issue.
Not to sound cliché or corny, but I couldn’t have done it without you guys. Without Christina Dickson, screenshots and article banners would be non-existent. Without Allec Johnson, our website would look like this. Without Kevin Leacock, our forums would be hosted by some free server and plagued with pop-up ads. Without Neal Iannone, Jenna Ogilvie, and Matt Gardner, we never would’ve have developed a sense of humor, and without Julie Kozarsky, Eric Regan, and Zack Huffman, this humor would’ve died out.
Without everyone who’s contributed to GameCola over the past three years, each newsletter would consist just of one Paul Franzen review, and without you readers, I would’ve given up on the newsletter after only a few months.
Also, without my dad, the web hosting fees would be too much and we’d be stuck back on Geocities.
So hey guys, thanks. My brusque e-mails and whiney articles might not show this too well, but I really appreciate it. GameCola has helped me to develop my writing skills, given me an excuse to play video games and make it more than a “waste of time”, and secured me a slot in an actual publication. (Plus, if it weren’t for GameCola, I’d probably still be stalking around the Chrono Trigger boards at GameFAQs, teasing without just cause.) I’ve learned more about writing, editing, designing, and publishing from putting this newsletter together than I have from my formalized education thus far, and all of you deserve credit for that.
So hey, thanks.
Love,
Paul Franzen
Editor-in-Chief
e-mail: pfranzen@gamecola.net
