How I Got Here – The tale of Robert Kelly Ball

I am Robert Ball, I write for both 181Gaming.com and Polyspice.

I’m Robert, @RobertKellyBall on Twitter, and I’m new here. 

Any time I talk about this era of my life, I start it off with my Divorce. A profoundly unhappy time for anyone. It began a seemingly endless cycle of recovery and false starts, of progression and relapse. The character of my world seemed to change. Becoming hostile and inhospitable overnight. I witnessed warm hearts turn cold, and some hearts even turning cruel. 

Before long my psychiatrist ordered me to distance myself from world events, to bury my head in the sand to avoid another breakdown. I describe it as waking up one morning in a nightmare world where nothing made sense. And to this day there isn’t much left that does, for instance my father passed away last month. We’ve split custody of my daughter under a rather unpleasant shared parenting plan. It’s been hard, and I’m glad to say I’ve come a long way since then.

My life changed forever

Since my life changed, I had to change with it towards creating a new direction and restarting my career path. Writing had always been my one marketable skill. And so I began writing about Videogames on my own with a Tumblr I called Parent Relations and by getting active on Twitter about my writing. An Indie Developer threw me a bone and let me write about their fantastic game asking in return only that I never lose my enthusiasm. I try to live up to that promise with everything I do now. It was such a small gesture that touched me deeply.

Before long I was given another chance. This time to write for a publication larger than my little blog, a small but growing source of Gaming News completely devoid of discussions about Global Events and Politics. A site tailor made for anxious folk like myself. I write for them in exchange for a generous cut of the Ad Revenue from my articles. I look forward to my continuing working with them as they grow larger and especially as Traffic starts to pick up. Very good people there. 

And then I was approached by Mr. Tabu, or rather Thorbjorne, the head of another small gaming organization called Polyspice. I decided to sit on it, and I took far longer than planned to write my first piece for them. A rather fluffy article about a decidedly fluffy game called Piffle. Delay after delay, Tabu waited patiently for me to get my act together. As my life felt more hectic than ever, it was very necessary. To this day I have no idea how he still thought of me as serious about writing for them when I finally had something to show.

Polyspice

That was my first introduction to Polyspice. And soon after I was invited to contribute input on Polyspice’s own internally developed Game “Planit Rabbit”. A game I have enjoyed in both concept and execution despite it very much being in the developmental stages even now. This was when I started taking notice when I started taking them more seriously. This was when I realized that Tabu/Thorbjorne has a passionate love for what he is doing here.

He’s generous, and in a way that baffles a capitalist bastard like myself. It’s why I’ve come to place a lot of faith in him, and why I think the rest of Polyspice has a similar measure of faith in him. He invited me to join in on a Podcast, and that was a lot of fun as well as being very educational. It showed me that Polyspice was rapidly expanding in scope. Frankly I never even listen to Podcasts of my own free will. But there I was contributing to one. Then he went and bought Recording Equipment for the Writing Staff and I was really thrown for a loop.

Polyspice is growing

It’s growing. Polyspice is growing. The staff is in good spirits, work is getting done, and progress is being made. 

I’m reminded of my favorite novel, Moby Dick. It is the quintessential American Novel by whom I consider the quintessential American Author. Moby Dick speaks to the dangers of poorly judged ambition. It speaks of an unhappy man finding comradery among others on a joint venture for fortune and of the quest for that one big Whale that will make everybody aboard rich. 

Polyspice is founded not on Vengeance, as was the Pequod’s voyage under Captain Ahab, but rather on Joy. On childlike wonder and fancy. And upon the sincere hope of one day living the way we all wish within this wondrous Industry. 

A less cursed journey there never was, and we’re out to catch some Whales.

I’ve been Robert Ball, I write for both 181Gaming.com and Polyspice, and I’m thankful to this day to 11Bit for giving me that first review key that got me started writing about games in a semi-organized manner.