I worked at Blizzard from 2006 to 2008. After a year of working overnights as Belfaire the talbuk on the WoW customer service forum, the stress and screwed-up sleep schedule and lack of support got the better of me. I got let go right before Christmas 2008, just after Wrath of the Lich King launched. As I sat in my apartment and wondered what I would do to support myself and my then-girlfriend, who also got let go from Blizzard just a few months before, a lightbulb went off. If all I know right now is WoW, why not try to leverage that?

I emailed WoW Insider through the tips line and asked about writing opportunities. "I'm sure you get these emails all the time," I said, and I'm sure they did. But I guess they saw a special opportunity in me. Within half an hour, then-Managing Editor Dan O'Halloran emailed me back and asked if he could call me. Within two hours, he had sent me the AOL contract information. Within a week, I was part of the team.

It's been six years. That's a long time to have one job! I went from a periodic contributor to editor to senior editor in that time. I worked several BlizzCons on the home team and two on the away team. I wrote a goofy fiction series people seemed to dig. I hosted hundreds of episodes of the WoW Insider Show with coworkers.

In that time, I also worked a series of "day jobs." WoW Insider provided me with supplemental income when I did have a day job, and helped me get through those tough times when I didn't have one. When I lost my job last year, I would've been out on the street without WoW Insider. I've been very lucky.

But I've finally gotten to the point where my career and my family need the time I've been devoting to WI. I'm incredibly grateful to the rest of the staff, to our readers, and to our podcast listeners for making the site a great place to work for the last six years. I'm especially grateful to the cadre of editors-in-chief I've had over the years. I'll miss you dearly. But you can still find me on Twitter if you want to say hi.

See you all on Draenor. This is your favorite talbuk, signing off.

---