It’s 12:27 AM on September 12th in BioWare Edmonton and I’m listening to Das Malefitz by Faunts. I know it’s late, but I’m sure I’m not the only one in the office. We’re shipping a video game. Non-conventional hours are understandable. I’m trying to find a picture of myself on a motorcycle as a toddler to prove a point to the Dragon Age art director, after an evening at the pub and answering emails to finalize details about Montreal Comiccon, Edmonton Expo, and Geek Girl Con.

Also, this will be my last day at BioWare.

I’m sitting here trying to think of what I can possibly write and my eyes wander to the floor. I smile and I’m immediately taken back to my first trip to BioWare Edmonton.

Upon my arrival, they were in the process of completely re-doing all the carpeting. The smell of glue overwhelmed the building and everyone profusely apologized to me throughout the week. I love this because the stereotype about the sympathetic Canadian is so true. I was enamored. Drunk on the creative energy from this video game studio that someone must have mistakenly let me into. Greg and Ray went out of their way to chat with me (I deny walking into a wall after that encounter) and I kept wondering when the magic would fade. Three years later, it never has.

BioWare, you changed me. I’ll never work anywhere as weird and wonderful again. And that’s ok. You are like family to me. Beyond just career development, I grew into a better and more actualized person working here. Before BioWare, I was an anthropologist who spent years digging in the dirt, trying to understand culture based on discarded objects. Today, I dive into websites and conventions as a means to understand culture through fans and developers. The shared thread has always been community. Dragon Age and Mass Effect truly awakened that in me. They fostered an environment for a practicing anthropologist to join their ranks and for that I am forever grateful.

I’ve done a significant amount of traveling for work. I did some calculations and my trips to Edmonton add up to about a year of my life that I stayed there. Someone should write a novel about my adventures “living” in the office. The hotel is attached to the BioWare office, so I was basically a twenty-something version of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Every trip has been extraordinary. I bet no one at BioWare even knew that I have fairly severe travel anxiety, but I wouldn’t trade those plane tickets for anything.

It seems like there’s never really a good time to say goodbye. Well, I’m sure there is, but I never know when, so I avoid goodbyes at all costs. Sometimes though, as all Revolutionary War reenactors know, “if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” BioWare will always be my home, but I have to step to the music I’m hearing now, “however measured or far away.”

Some people reading this might know that the past twelve months have surfaced significant change in my life, the most prominent of which has been that my mother was diagnosed with, and eventually Southern-style sassed, breast cancer into remission. I’ve decided to spend more time in Los Angeles with my family. I’m also pursuing new media opportunities closer to home such as signing a partnership with DefyMedia to create online content. This will include my own YouTube channel, JessicaMarzipan which is in pre-production. Deep within me, my greatest passion has always been to entertain and educate. Somehow I’ve stumbled into a means of making people laugh while critically examining the world around them. My appetite for community is certainly not dissipating and I’m excited to tell you more about my next adventures soon!

I look forward to cheering BioWare and the fandom on at conventions/online, making more costumes, and being first at the door for every midnight launch. Being accountable to hundreds of people in the studio and millions of fans has been a humbling and beyond rewarding experience. As I closed the doors to PAX Prime’s BioWare Base the other weekend, I couldn’t help but think that you never forget your first love.

It has been a pleasure serving you. Stay gold.