It hasn’t been a great year for most, so it seems odd to make a post about my writing accomplishments at the end here. This has become a bit of a tradition, however, and maybe there is someone out there that missed one of my pieces that may get something out of seeing them. Plus, this helps remind me of all of the good that has happened and inspire me for next year. These past twelve months have certainly had their ups and downs for me personally, but I am thankful to have Aimee and a lot of great friends by my side that helped make this all happen, to have these opportunities.
I began the year by leaving my longtime job of teaching English to Korean students and going into freelance writing full-time. That was a big step and with many of the sites having to cut budgets due to events happening around the world, it proved to be a challenging one. I’m glad I took the leap though, and it looks like I made the right choice. I won’t be able to cover every article I did, but with my starting at Looper I was able to write about a lot more stuff I liked, so I’m going to highlight my favorites.
January saw two big pieces set loose, one for LADbible, as we discussed the history of accessibility in gaming. The other was one I had been working on for a long time, gathering interviews and thorough rounds of editing, that ended up in one of my favorite pieces I’ve done about Twitch streaming. It was sadly, also, my last article for EGM.
– https://egmnow.com/meet-the-twitch-streamers-risking-bans-to-broadcast-classic-tv/
In February, we got ready for Sonic, and I did that by talking about the missing Mobius Magic for Fandom.
– https://www.fandom.com/articles/terraforming-mobius-sonic
Two awesome Looper pieces let me remind readers about Ghostwriter and a bunch of ‘90s cartoons that deserved more than one season.
– https://www.looper.com/193473/things-we-forgot-about-ghostwriter/
– https://www.looper.com/197052/90s-cartoons-that-deserved-more-than-one-season/
For March we did the same thing with some ‘80s cartoons and then I got to dive deep into one of my favorite subjects ever, Mortal Kombat. This time I took a look at what the franchise did on television.
– https://scwilds.wordpress.com/2020/04/07/80s-cartoons-that-deserved-more-than-one-season/
– https://www.looper.com/204334/the-real-reason-mortal-kombat-tv-shows-never-succeeded/
May saw us checking out another cartoon with things only adults notice in Doug. Then we moved onto the accessibility of a solid new FPS title, DOOM Eternal, for Unwinnable.
– https://www.looper.com/209510/things-only-adults-noticed-in-doug/
– https://unwinnable.com/2020/05/20/doom-eternally-better/
June was the month of Mighty Max!
– https://www.looper.com/215754/the-untold-truth-of-mighty-max/
We were on Polygon once again in July to discuss how The Last of Us Part 2 went beyond the call when it came to accessibility. Then I went back to Mortal Kombat to talk about the new Aftermath expansion and how it treated the villains right.
– https://unwinnable.com/2020/07/24/a-villainous-aftermath/
August saw the release of an article I had been working on for so long and thought might never come out. Over a year’s worth of work that should have been smooth, but what happened to EGM was so unfortunate. I was grateful that Uppercut Crit picked this up.
– https://uppercutcrit.com/identifying-as-a-woman-and-or-non-binary-person-in-cosplay-in-2020/
Had a big month in September that kicked off with me getting to view The Boys season 2 early and write about it. Then Marvel’s Avengers came out and I had to talk about how that let people down when it came to accessibility. I did one of my wildest interviews yet though, speaking to BugDr about insects in films, which did not turn out as expected.
– https://www.looper.com/243113/small-details-you-missed-in-the-boys-season-2/
– https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/17/21439739/marvels-avengers-accessibility-settings-content-updates
– https://unwinnable.com/2020/09/25/talking-splats-an-interview-about-insect-in-films/
We ranked all of the Highlander properties in October. I introduced so many people to the cartoon and anime they didn’t know about.
– https://www.looper.com/262099/highlander-movies-and-tv-shows-ranked-worst-to-best/
November was big for me personally, seeing as I got to write a long piece about my beloved X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon and then cover the follow-up to 2018’s Spider-man starring Miles Morales on Cultured Vultures.
– https://www.looper.com/273236/things-only-adults-notice-in-x-men-the-animated-series/
– https://culturedvultures.com/marvels-spider-man-miles-morales-ps4-review/
And finally, we rounded everything out by talking about Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers and ranking the vehicles of M.A.S.K.
– https://www.looper.com/289472/things-only-adults-notice-in-chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers/
– https://www.looper.com/301455/ranking-the-vehicles-of-m-a-s-k/
Not a bad way to go out on the year, but I’m hoping to do more and make it on several new sites. Thank you to everyone who read, retweeted, shared, or supported my work in any way. I couldn’t do it without you guys. I can’t wait to see what next year brings.
Stephen Wilds 