WoW Insider is logging off
WoW Insider began operations on November 23, 2005. On Tuesday, February 3, 2015, WoW Insider operations will cease. I'm finding it difficult to say much more than that; eloquence fails at a time like this. We certainly weren't expecting it.
Barb Dybwad personally launched the site that evolved into the one we know and love. Elizabeth Harper later took the helm as Editor-in-Chief, ushering the site from infancy to adolescence, and from there the helm passed from Liz, to Dan O'Halloran, then eventually to me in October of 2011. It's a tough job steering this ship. The winds are fierce and the waters choppy. It's a bit dramatic to say something like heavy lies the crown, but I suppose I need to take the opportunity while I have it. Though, I don't think sea captains wear crowns.
What a terrible metaphor.
I meant to segue all of that into a discussion of our merry crew, our beautiful band of staffers, the WoW Insider personalities we've all come to love in the years, but I suppose you already know them. How couldn't you? Just imagine Matthew Rossi singing a sea shanty. We wrote by shanty, you know. Audio conference call on the high seas all day, every day. Honest truth. Cross my heart.
In our final hours, however, I want this to be about us. Not just us, the staff. You, too. Our readers. We did what we did, and what we do, for all of you and with all of you. We've always done our very best to embrace the World of Warcraft community. We worked to ensure all were welcome. It didn't matter who you were or how you played, how casual or hardcore, we wanted you to know you had a place. It wasn't about being first to the news -- it was about ensuring everyone had the context and information necessary to understand it. Through features like The Queue, and through you, we tried to pinpoint exactly what the players needed and how to deliver it. It was about giving praise where it was due -- and criticism, too. We pushed to make the game better, and a better place, whenever we could and wherever we could. We couldn't have done any of it without you.
In the end, we were friends. I can think of no other way to put it. Staff, audience, community. We were friends.
This is the end of WoW Insider, but it isn't the end of us. Friendship lives on. What comes next for our intrepid crew? You'll find out soon, but not here. Follow us on Twitter and keep that date, February 3, close in mind. You don't know what our Twitter handles are, you say? Let me help:
Give me a shanty, lads and ladies. Onward until dawn!
