The Fall of a Giant

http://kotaku.com/5047632/shane-kim-delivers-death-blow-to-ensemble

A very depressing day for me. Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires franchise, will be shut down once Halo Wars is shipped. In a climate of PC piracy and ever-increasing console sales, awesome PC studios like Ensemble closing down is understandable, but very low on Microsoft's part.

The main reason why this is so important to me is that my first real gaming experience was through Age of Empires I. Every week, I would go to my friend's house (while my sister went to Girl Scouts, I think) and play it. We were never good at it, but it was so much fun. It led me to buy Civilization II, the first game I really owned, and Age of Empires II, such a classic that was. It was the game that propelled me to all others. And for a while, when I was younger (like 13 or 14), I really wanted to be a programmer there. I don't know why, but the idea of working there seemed brilliant and it was a source of earlier inspiration for me. I probably won't be a designer now (probably is the key word), but the thought of working at a place as cool as Ensemble kept me in the right mindset school-wise.

I guess this might be a sign for me. A sign to move on, to have new experiences. I suppose that is appropriate, but I will never forget my past. But if I can't handle something that shouldn't affect most people, like a video game developer closing, what about bigger hurdles?