The summer is a time of year which, often, has a strong link to the happiest moments of your life. With the sun shining and big, booming, epic records blasting from the radio, it's as vivid a time as you are likely to experience. It's the time of year which heralds in the summer holidays, eight weeks of blissful nothingness before the work of the next school year, and the family holidays to summer houses and hotels by the sea which we all long for in the bleak midwinter.

It can also be a time of great sadness too, however, as the time comes to say goodbye to some aspects of your life and move, reluctantly, onto different things. Unfortunately, it seems that at Gamer's Guide to Life, not one summer can pass without us losing a member of our team to the all-consuming monster which we call 'life'.

Let me explain. Around the summer months, we usually start a push for new writers and new talent, ousting those writers who have disappeared or trailed off in their work and pushing for new, original and lovely content. It keeps our team fresh and motivated; ensures that GGTL keeps up its constant evolution and development and makes good on our promise of the best, most passionate independent writing you can find on the web.

The time surrounding this push is a form of hiatus on GGTL, in which we gear ourselves up for the long summer ahead, and some members of our team feel it the natural point at which to leave our ranks for pastures new. We've had two such departures this summer, and I'm sad to have to announce them to you.

The first of our team to break ranks and leave us this summer is Mr. Tyson Breen. Tyson's been with us a year, since July 2009, and has been a valuable member of our staff throughout the duration of his time here. We're sad to see him go but we all wish him luck in everything he does in the future. All his work can still be viewed using his archive page.

The second of the departures is Nintendo Section Editor, Mr. Sean Engemann. He has, unfortunately, had to re-examine his budget of time due to changes in his personal situation: chiefly supervision of his young daughter and a new job. Sean has been a constantly reliable and supremely dedicated member of our team since late last year, and we're reluctant to see him go but sympathise with his current situation. We wish him all the best. His previous work can be viewed on his archive page.

Lastly, Matthew Meadows - original founder of GGTL, Lead Editor between 2008-2009 and Managing editor during the second half of '09 and first half of 2010 - has officially left our team. Though much of our current team have hardly ever dealt with Matt, when I first joined GGTL in June '08 he taught me much of what I know about games journalism now, and I thank him for inviting me to join GGTL more than two years ago. We wish him all the very best in his current efforts at university, and all the best in the future. Everything Matt wrote during his lengthy time at GGTL since December 2007 can be viewed on his archive page.

Goodbye is never easy, but our next - even bigger task - is moving on and continuing to develop Gamer's Guide to Life during the summer months. We've got some big things planned and we hope you like them when they finally leave the shadowy darkness of the GGTL development laboratories.

Labels: Departures, GGTL, Writer's note

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