Any number of individuals have made use of our house ghost writer’s nom de plume to date. I am but the latest, having merely the sole distinction of being the only Englishman to use it.
In what feels like yesterday, a friend from ‘round the turn of the millennium approached me on the forums of Penny Arcade about what I thought of “the project” (as he called it). That project, as it happened, was GamePartisan, one of the most distinct online magazines ever devoted to the console gaming industry.
During its seven-year run (2002-2009), in addition to reviews of video games released on home video game consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and, as it exited the industry, Sega, one Jonathan DeViney relentlessly recruited and steered a truly incredible cadre of individual talent. Repeatedly. As tends to happen to underdogs in any industry, GamePartisan fell prey to endless poaching of its talent. Sometimes, as was the case with a Bennett White, Mr. DeViney informed them of their having two choices: the first being to resign and accept the far superior opportunity (in terms of finances) they had elsewhere or, the second option, he would dismiss them from the staff and force their hand.
Putting it mildly, this was not your run-of-the-mill entrepreneurial aspirant. Mr. DeViney was half a year from turning eighteen years of age when the network launched, the mastermind behind it hunkered down in snow-smothered cabin in Lake Tahoe, California. Cunning, determined and incapable of being deterred, this young man endlessly hunted down and recruited top talent, a statement easily backed up by how in-demand GamePartisan editorial staff members were with other companies.
I was dumbstruck when he, after our having reconnected late last year, shared a “Where Are They Now?” Word document with me, detailing the answer to the question in the file’s very title. The career paths that many of the members that passed through the proverbial doors of GamePartisan is staggering. I’m not kidding. Several have gone on to Microsoft, NBC Universal, Apple, Nintendo, IGN, GameStop, and on and on the list goes.
And that was when he used the phrase “the project” once more, only it was not in standing as some opaque reference to GamePartisan. Once that was cleared up, my next question was eagerly answered, and before he could inquire if I was interested in being involved, I asked, “How do I get in?”
ModState (or, “ModState Magazine,” as is fast becoming the more apt nomenclature), has a wide swathe of editorial quality in that half of the house. The young man I knew had more than grown up since I’d met him nearly two decades ago. Nevermind the Navy and his time in DC and then with the infantry in that wretched Hellhole, Twentynine Palms. A lot has gone on between then and now, and as pertains to “the project”?
A singular moment stands out as he relays a synopsis of his quarter-hour death on the 28th of February, 2015, his prolonged recovery from traumatic brain injury, compartment syndrome (and nine surgeries on the affected arm), Staph infection in his lungs to go along with pneumonia, on and on the staggeringly sentinel medical event went. The records he shared snippets of don’t lie. The personal toll, the emotional price paid, well after his five-year stint in America’s Navy came to a close? I cannot begin to describe the despair this man experienced until about September 2018 or so, thus I won’t insult him by trying.
Back to that singular moment. No, I’ve not told it yet. That moment came when he approached a longtime friend and colleague of his. Not enlisted, the man we speak of, that colleague? A medical officer in the American Army whom Mr. DeViney’d served with in DC for two years, and they’d stayed in touch. Yes, yes, yes, said friend and colleague was Mr. Wellein, whom DeViney related to me he saw as a “Blue Chip” talent, a massive portion of what he felt “the project” was missing. I asked how this was so, and he said that “Nate’s got it all: character, talent, drive and he’s one of the finest men I’ve ever made friends with and he’s one of the few people on the planet I trust with my life and, more importantly, ‘the project.’”
By the close of June, 2017, the two men were poolside at the apartment Mr. DeViney and his wife called home in Metairie, Louisiana. I listened a bit more for the “Ah-hah!” moment, and it came as he told me of, as their discussion on Nate’s eventual investment and active involvement seemed to be coming to a logical close, Mr. Wellein asked a very direct question many people would’ve found discomfiting. Ever the aptly-branded “swashbuckler,” DeViney was, apparently, not taken aback or off-guard.
“This is an incredible opportunity obviously,” Wellein began, a moment DeViney says is forever seared into his memory, “but aside from all the obvious potential, do you think this will work?” The answer should be apparent. Conversely, without hesitation, DeViney delivered an emphatic “yes.”
ModState formally became two houses, likened to the separate-but-equal setup of Parliament and Congress: the original, editorial side and the multimedia side, which had long played a role (given the podcasts conducted by Gabe Coker, a member of the staff upon the 30th April, 2016 launch) but not to the degree deemed sufficient by DeViney in order to “move the ball downfield,” as the man himself termed it in our discussion.
The next move DeViney made was to the chagrin of virtually everyone on the inside. Perhaps, I surmise, even to include Wellein himself. Notwithstanding, DeViney politely took on his comrades and pushed his case and, as it turns out, got his way. “If we’re gonna ask someone to do a job, to run something, to build and nurture it? Then we get the Hell out of the way and let them do their job.”
He was speaking, of course, about his determination to hand the keys to the multimedia side of the house to his “blue chip” addition (and exponential stakeholder paralleled only by himself in holdings), one Nate S. Wellein. The former Army officer took it and ran with it, learning on the fly and copping what was smart to cop while taking DeViney’s input seriously. DeViney was, as is typical, reticent to say too much or speak up too often for fear of damaging the process.
“I view it as akin to tampering with a butterfly attempting to spread its wings and take off for the first time in that I feared causing a crisis in confidence on his part and, again, as I’d gone to bat so forcefully to put him in that role, look like I was doubting himself and, by my own tacit admission, undermining my own decision.”
As with the editorial side, DeViney by and large ran the networking in terms of, well, let us see: landing the podcast on the inaugural launch lineups of iHeartRadio and Spotify (heard of them, have you?) as well as correcting links and augmenting their presence on Player.FM, getting them on Soundcloud, etc., after their dilemma of thirteen days getting on iTunes. But with the content, with the direction and “overall framework,” as he terms it? That he entrusted to the man he met nearly eight years ago at “The President’s Hospital” in Greater Washington D.C.
As a longtime observer of DeViney and his victories, his defeats, his ups and downs, now learned on his death and comeback, the virtual collapse of his personal life starting summer 2017 even as ModState was just really beginning its true ascent, that decision? The decision? To trust the man he’d believed in ever since their days of seminal political banter in the locker room at the hospital and various taverns and locales in and around DC?
Looking back in through the out door, while they’ve yet a ways to go, that decision may prove the finest stroke of genius of the 18+ years I’ve seen DeViney pull off yet. Strong statement, but I for one am disinclined to dispute the continued validation Wellein provides DeViney’s faith with every time a new episode is posted.
Nixon’s tenure also saw the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, which mandated that all federal agencies consider the environmental impact of their actions and projects. This law introduced the requirement for Environmental Impact Statements, ensuring that environmental considerations became a central part of government decision-making.
