We're stepping away from Remedy news today as we have a bit news of our own with today marking the eighth anniversary of The Sudden Stop!
I began working on the site back in 2011 when development on the Alan Wake DLC packs had just wrapped up and Alan Wake's American Nightmare was secretly underway at the studio. I was introduced to the series by a Let's Player called 666theheartless666, who unfortunately left his channel a few years ago. Originally a Max Payne fan, he had been excited for Alan Wake's launch for years and it clearly showed. The enthusiasm he had for the title was catching, that even after almost a decade, that playthrough is there in my mind, and I still remember clips of it as I replay the game. Soon after I saw his playthrough, I bought an XBOX360 and the game, and soon after that began work on The Sudden Stop.
Stepping into a new community was daunting, especially when you've worked on a project for so long and have no idea how it's going to be received. A few months ago, I wrote an article about the Remedy Community Forums and how my introduction to that place instantly dissolved any concerns or fears I had. The studio and the members there were so supportive and helped share it beyond that little corner of the internet. In the first month alone, the site somehow managed to get 22,000 visitors on the site from the number of retweets and shares there were. It was really surreal!
Running The Sudden Stop has meant a lot to me, and over the years has introduced me to wonderful new people and situations that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. It's always been a lot of work, especially writing long articles or trying to set up something particularly to commemorate an event; it's a lot of writing, and editing, and talking to people, and plans falling through, and new plans being introduced. It's definitely a hobby that is both enjoyable and also requires constant putting out of fires. But it has seriously been worth it to write about some of my favourite games and to be part of a this community.
The Remedy community has seriously been amazing. It's always bizarre to me that some of the first people who started following are still here and, well, tolerating me. I love that I've made friends that are on my Christmas card list, or that every year I make it a point to write their birthday in the new diary, or that I can talk about personal everyday life stuff with. It's also one of the very few online communities I've found where the thing in the centre brings likeminded people together rather than being the only connection, and that's been amazing with finding new friends. (Turns out that a lot of people in the fandom are also enjoying Star Trek: Picard, and I'm okay with that!)
A huge thank you to everyone who has followed and supported the site all these years, especially those who have stuck with it since the very early days. And, of course, thank you to the developers who made the brilliant games in the first place that brought us all together.
