A Hero's Goodbye

Dan Hsu

A piece of me has died today as - much to the regret of myself and fellow EGMers, gaming fans and journalists everywhere - as Dan "Shoe" Hsu has declared his resignation from 1Up and Electronic Gaming Monthly. His entire post about this sad moment is below. It is also on his 1UP page titled as "Goodbye."

He will be missed.

Goodbye posted: 04/11/2008

Dear readers, industry friends, and colleagues, It's with a heavy (and relieved) heart that I write this: I've  tendered my resignation here at Ziff Davis Media and the 1UP  Network. My last day here will be Friday, April 25. This is my own decision; I'm not being forced out or laid off  or anything like that. And this is not related to the recent news  about Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (and I hope  I'm not stealing any thunder away from those guys -- that's  not my intention here). It's just time for me to move on. I've been  here, mostly with EGM, since April of 1996. That's 11 years (taking  off one year when I did a brief stint at Gamers.com)...quite a long  time! I've been through the good: Street Fighter III and IV world reveals;  Halo 2 and 3 first-look covers; getting Yoshitaka Amano to create exclusive art for us for two Final Fantasy covers (really, current  Editor-in-Chief James Mielke gets the most credit for making the  Amano stuff happen).... I've been through the bad: leaving the EGM staff once before  (the Gamers.com thing, which turned out to be a bust);  moving EGM from Illinois to San Francisco and losing half  the staff in the hellish transition; beating my half of the  bracket and getting to the final championship match in  an E3 Soul Calibur tournament, only to lose in the end.... And I've been through the unforgettable, which funny enough,  is usually not directly business related. Many times in our  Oakbrook, Illinois offices, power would go out (even when  the weather's perfectly nice and stable). And for some reason,  our inability to get any work done led us to throw high-speed  flying discs at each other in dark, emergency-lighting-lit  hallways (a game we called Decapitato for obvious and  not-so-obvious reasons). I remember organizing (and winning,  thank you) office NFL Blitz tournaments with the arcade  units we had in-house. I remember the first day walking  around the EGM offices for my interview -- it was amazing  to see a professional work environment where desk materials  consisted of televisions, Super Nintendos and Sega Genesis  consoles! And I'll never forget about the extra sleep I  could've had if only we didn't screw around so much during  deadlines (no thanks to Halo LAN parties, Soul Calibur,  Tetris Attack, etc. etc.). I think I'd be five years younger  now if it weren't for those games.... I know this sounds horribly clichéd, but I will miss my  buddies most of all. There are some awesome, awesome  people here at the 1UP Network...guys and girls I'll consider  my friends for the rest of my life (I don't want to list any  names here, because there are way, way too many to list).  These are the people that make the content so awesome --  not me. If I ever get remarried, I'm sure my wedding  will look like an EGM/GFW/1UP/GameVideos reunion. As for me, I plan on taking some much-needed time  off...maybe two to four weeks before I get too antsy about  seeing my savings account go down instead of up. It's been  literally 10 years since I've last taken a proper vacation  that's lasted more than 3-4 days, so I'm gonna use this  time to sleep, rest, sleep, play videogames, and sleep  and play videogames. In that order. The time off will give  me a chance to work on my bucket list: Get all Achievements in Burnout Paradise Get all Achievements in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Finish veteran Mile High Club in Call of Duty 4  (for an Achievement) Get all Achievements in Grand Theft Auto 4 Finish Patapon Finish Pixel Junk Monsters Finish the 100-coin purple comet level on 2D  Luigi stage in Mario Galaxy Play Company of Heroes Finish Sins of a Solar Empire Maybe try World of WarCraft? That may be a bad idea...then my daily to-do list might only consist of one item.... As for here, long-time 1UP.com Editor-in-Chief and  current 1UP Network site director Sam Kennedy will  be taking over my role as Editorial Director. The group's  in excellent hands with this guy. I've been working with  Sam for years. He's smart, enthusiastic...and not addicted  to Achievements, so he should be able to get a lot more  done here than I was able to. For better or for worse, you'll hear from me again in the  near future. I love the videogame business too much to  stay away (plus, I'm too old to become a professional  snowboarder). Besides, I will miss you guys too much.  You all have been fantastic. I sincerely appreciate all the  support you've thrown my way over the years -- and  that, I'll never forget, either. Thanks and good bye...for now. -Dan "Shoe" Hsu Former Associate Editor, EGM Former Previews Editor, EGM Former Editor-in-Chief, Videogame Buyers Guide Former Executive Editor, Gamers.com Former Editor-in-Chief, Gamers.com Former Editor-in-Chief, EGM Soon to be former Editorial Director, 1UP Network